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Garmin’s newest smartwatch could replace your Apple Watch

Garmin announces the Venu 3 smartwatch series. Shows both smartwatches and two people using them
Garmin
IFA 2024
This story is part of our coverage of IFA Berlin 2024

Garmin has announced the launch of its latest smartwatches, the Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3S, featuring AMOLED touchscreen displays and long-lasting batteries. These watches are designed to offer real-time wellness information and fitness-tracking features, helping you better understand your overall health. Similar tools are available on many of the best smartwatches on the market today.

The Venu 3 series boasts many new features compared to its predecessor, the Garmin Venu 2. Particularly noteworthy is its compatibility with wheelchair users, as it provides push tracking, workouts tailored to wheelchair users, and other relevant features. The Venu 3 also has built-in microphones and speakers, enabling you to take phone calls and respond to text messages directly from the watch — features you won’t find on the Garmin Forerunner 265 released earlier this year.

One of the latest additions to the smartwatches is a sleep coach feature that monitors sleep patterns, including naps, various sleep stages, and essential metrics such as heart rate variability (HRV) and Pulse Ox-1. The watches also track energy levels throughout the day and suggest the optimal times for exercise and rest. Garmin has also upgraded its Body Battery measurement, offering more comprehensive information and personalized insights into energy levels and their correlation to sleep, naps, daily activities, and stress.

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“No matter what your health and fitness journey looks like, Venu 3 is ready to support you every step of the way,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales. “Whether your focus is on meaningful rest, getting a good workout in, chasing your next PR at an upcoming race, or anything in-between.”

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The Venu 3 series provides workout benefits and recovery time information, as well as tracks the rate of perceived exertion for each activity. It also lets you directly create interval workouts on the watch for running and cycling activities. The watch also offers guided meditation practices to reduce stress and anxiety.

Official product renders of the Garmin Venu 3 smartwatch.
Garmin

The Garmin Venu 3 series boasts a battery life of 14 days and is compatible with all the best smartphones, including from both Apple and Android. It comes with a stainless steel bezel and a silicone band and is available in two color combinations: whitestone/silver and black/slate. The Venu 3S is available in five color combinations: pebble gray/slate, sage gray/silver, French gray/soft gold, dust rose/soft gold, and ivory/soft gold.

The Venu 3 has many of the same features we’ve come to expect from other Garmin wearables over the years, though improvements like nap tracking, an upgraded Body Battery experience, and sleep coaching tools improve on things Garmin was already doing really well. Throw in more smartwatch-centric aspects such as the speaker and microphone, and the Garmin Venu 3 could be a real competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Apple Watch Series 8 if health/fitness tracking is your top priority.

Starting today, August 30, you can get your hands on the Garmin Venu 3 series at a suggested retail price of $450.

Bryan M. Wolfe
Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.
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