Garmin Venu 3

The Garmin Venu 3 is the 45 mm member of the Venu 3 series that Garmin announced on 30 August 2023, alongside the smaller Venu 3S. It is a round AMOLED smartwatch that puts health and sleep coaching first, adds a built-in speaker and microphone for phone calls and keeps Garmin's trademark multi-day battery life. This page is a spec-and-information-based review built from Garmin's launch press release and its published specification table, and it notes where a feature depends on a country or on a paired phone.

Where it sits in the lineup

Garmin sells the Venu line as its health-and-fitness smartwatch family for people who want a bright touchscreen and everyday style more than the rugged outdoor focus of the Fenix or Forerunner lines. At launch the suggested retail price was 449.99 US dollars for both sizes, and the watches were available immediately. The Venu 3 is the larger model with a 1.4-inch display; the Venu 3S has a 1.2-inch display and a smaller case for slimmer wrists, and the two share the same feature set. For a sports-first Garmin, look at the Garmin Forerunner 970, and the Venu 3 vs Forerunner 970 table shows what you gain and give up. A less expensive round alternative with a long battery life is the Amazfit Balance.

Design and display

The Venu 3 measures 45 x 45 x 12 mm and weighs 30 g, or 47 g with the included silicone band. Garmin lists a stainless steel bezel, a fibre-reinforced polymer case and a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 lens. The band is a 22 mm quick-release type, so standard third-party straps fit, and the watch fits wrists with a circumference of 135 to 200 mm. The screen is a 1.4-inch AMOLED touchscreen with 454 x 454 pixels and an optional always-on mode, plus a large font option for readability. Garmin offers whitestone with a silver bezel and black with a slate bezel for the Venu 3, while the Venu 3S comes in five colour combinations. Water resistance is 5 ATM, which covers swimming. There are physical buttons next to the touchscreen, which is useful during workouts when wet fingers make a touchscreen unreliable.

Health tracking and sleep coaching

The headline of the Venu 3 is sleep and recovery. Garmin states that it offers a sleep score, sleep coaching that recommends how much rest you need, nap detection and a Morning Report that summarises sleep, recovery and heart rate variability status. Heart rate variability is monitored during sleep, and the watch also uses it for a daily HRV status. The Body Battery energy monitor, which estimates your reserves across the day, is joined by stress tracking, respiration rate, a Pulse Ox sensor for blood oxygen saturation (not available in all countries), skin temperature and breathing variations (also not available in every country). A Garmin ECG app is listed on the specification table, with the company noting that it is only intended for adults aged 22 and over and that it depends on country availability, so check that it is offered where you live before buying for that reason. Women's health tracking, hydration logging, a health snapshot and a jet lag adviser round out the list.

Fitness and sports features

For training, Garmin says the watch has more than 30 built-in sports apps, including walking, running, cycling and pool swimming, and it records VO2 max during runs or rides. Workout benefit and recovery time estimates tell you how hard a session was and when to train again, and you can log your rate of perceived exertion afterwards. Preloaded animated workouts cover strength, HIIT, Pilates and yoga, and Garmin Connect offers custom workouts from more than 1,600 exercises. Free Garmin Coach adaptive plans and on-watch interval creation for running and cycling are included, and cycling power can be displayed if you connect a compatible power meter or an indoor bike. Satellite positioning supports GPS, GLONASS and Galileo, with a barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope and accelerometer for context. A meditation activity and a breathwork timer extend the focus on stress.

Wheelchair mode and accessibility

One detail that sets the Venu 3 apart is its wheelchair mode. It tracks daily pushes instead of steps, gives weight shift alerts to remind users to relieve pressure and offers wheelchair-specific workouts and sports apps. Garmin also includes wheelchair sports among the built-in activities, and notes that incident detection is unavailable while the watch is in wheelchair mode. A large font option and the always-on display add to accessibility. It is a thoughtful feature and rare among mainstream smartwatches.

Calls, smart features and music

The built-in speaker and microphone let you make and take phone calls from the wrist when the watch is paired with a compatible smartphone, and you can send text replies using voice. On Android, you can reply to messages with the on-watch keyboard and view images in notifications. Garmin Pay handles contactless payments, and the 8GB of memory stores music that can be loaded from Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer with a subscription, so you can leave the phone at home for a run. The Connect IQ store adds watch faces, data fields and apps, though that catalogue is smaller than on Wear OS or watchOS. Live location sharing with emergency contacts and incident detection are available with a paired phone. Connectivity includes Bluetooth, ANT+ and Wi-Fi.

Battery life

Garmin quotes up to 14 days in smartwatch mode on the Venu 3, or 5 days with the always-on display enabled, and up to 26 days in battery saver smartwatch mode. With GPS in use, the figures are up to 26 hours in GPS-only mode, up to 20 hours with all satellite systems and up to 11 hours with all systems plus music. Charging uses a proprietary plug charger with a USB-C cable in the box. These are manufacturer figures under defined conditions, so heavy use of calls, notifications and the always-on display will reduce them, but the numbers remain well above the one or two days typical of many full smartwatches.

Venu 3 or Venu 3S?

Choosing between the two sizes is mostly a question of wrist size, not features. The Venu 3 has the larger 1.4-inch display at 454 x 454 pixels, the bigger battery figures and a 22 mm band. The Venu 3S settles for 1.2 inches and 390 x 390 pixels, weighs only 27 g without its band and quotes up to 10 days in smartwatch mode. If you look at the screen often, for instance while running or reading messages, the larger surface helps; if you wear the watch overnight for sleep tracking and prefer a slim case, the smaller version is a good fit. Because both run the same software, trying them on is the best way to decide.

Compromises to consider

• Proprietary ecosystem. Apps and watch faces come from the Connect IQ store, which is not as deep as Wear OS or watchOS.
• Regional limits. Pulse Ox, breathing variations and the ECG app are not available in all countries.
• Price. At 449.99 US dollars at launch, it costs more than several round AMOLED rivals.
• Phone dependence. Calls, text replies and safety features need a compatible paired smartphone.
• Not a rugged tool. It lacks the topographic maps and extra-long GPS endurance of Garmin's outdoor models.

Who it is for

The Garmin Venu 3 suits people who care about sleep, recovery and daily health insight as much as workouts, who want a bright AMOLED screen and calls on the wrist and who prefer to charge only every week or two. Wheelchair users will find the dedicated mode useful, and the Venu 3S makes the same features available on smaller wrists. If you want a deeper app store or a tighter fit with one phone brand, compare it with the Apple Watch Series 10. Browse everything in the smartwatches category or check the rankings for a quick comparison.