As far as smart wearables are concerned, Garmin makes some of the best gear out there, thanks to an excellent range of devices with hardware specially-designed to help users keep an eye on their fitness and health. With that in mind, Garmin recently unveiled two new additions to its Venu smart wearable line, the Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3 GPS.
The two wearable models support a ton of different exercise modes, as well as a robust feature set of fitness and health tracking hardware. Dan Bartel, Garmin Vice President of Global Consumer Sales states:
“No matter what your health and fitness journey looks like, Venu 3 is ready to support you every step of the way. Whether your focus is on meaningful rest and relaxation, getting a good workout in, chasing your next PR at an upcoming race, or anything in between, the exciting new features on the Venu 3 series provide even more personalized data, making it easier to understand your body like never before.”
As is the norm with Garmin wearables, folks will find a healthy selection of workout modes and software pre-loaded on the Venu 3 models. The devices include modes for walking, running, cycling, pool swimming, and activities for wheelchair users, to name a few. Likewise, there are also pre-installed workouts for strength, HIIT, Pilates and yoga, which users will be able to access on the wearables. The Venu 3 and Venu 3S GPS will also allow users to create personal workouts based on a selection of more than 1,600 exercises via the Garmin Connect app for smart devices.
In terms of design, the Venu and Venu 3S GPS come in two sizes, with tracking for heart rate, respiration, Pulse Ox, stress and Body Battery energy levels. The watches come built with a stainless steel bezel, a swappable silicone watch strap, as well as a battery that Garmin states can last for up to two weeks (depending on individual usage). Garmin has also included several features, consisting of the following:
- Sleep coach: Receive a sleep score and personalized coaching for how much sleep is recommended and keep track of different sleep stages, naps and other key metrics such as Pulse Ox and heart rate variability (HRV) status.
- Morning report: Receive an overview of sleep, recovery, HRV status and more upon waking up. Even customize the report to view more personalized details.
- Nap detection: Automatically track or log naps to see how they may benefit the body and the suggested time and duration they should be.
- Body Battery improvements: Monitor energy levels throughout the day to find the best times for activity and rest. And get even more details and personal insights on how sleep, naps, daily activities and high stress specifically impact energy levels.
- Wheelchair mode: Track daily pushes and receive weight shift alerts plus wheelchair-specific sports apps and workouts. In creating these new features, the algorithms of some existing features were modified to enhance the meaningfulness of key insights for wheelchair users.
- Workout benefit and recovery time: Better understand how each workout affects the body and how much time is needed to recover to take on any fitness challenge.
- Rate of perceived exertion: Record how difficult a workout was and how it felt.
- Interval creation: Build interval workouts for running and cycling activities right on the watch.
- Meditation activity: Follow guided meditation practices to help reduce stress, anxiety and more.
- Built-in speaker and microphone: Make and take calls right from the watch (when paired with a compatible smartphone) and use the smartphone’s voice assistant to respond to text messages and more. Those with an Android phone can also view photo messages and respond to texts using the on-watch keyboard.
- Two font sizes: Choose between a small or larger font size to view smart notifications, workout data and more with greater ease.
In terms of pricing, the new wearables start at around $449 – the Garmin Venu 3 is available in a whitestone/silver and a black/slate model, while the Venu 3S will come in pebble gray/slate, sage gray/silver, French gray/soft gold, dust rose/soft gold and ivory/soft gold variants.
