Garmin recently announced its Venu 3 and Venu 3S GPS smartwatches, aimed at giving you a holistic overview of your health. In a welcome move for accessibility, there are new wheelchair-specific features to help even more people gain fitness insights.
Compatible with both Android and Apple devices, the Garmin Venu 3 series houses plenty of smarts regardless of your preferred ecosystem. More than just a fitness tracker, it compares to the likes of Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch devices, with an AMOLED touchscreen display plus a built-in speaker and microphone array for responding to calls and texts.
Battery life is often a big sticking point for smartwatches. Garmin claims its Venu 3 wearables last up to 14 days between charges in smartwatch mode. For comparison, the batteries of the Google Pixel Watch 2, Apple Watch Series 9, and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic don’t last for much longer than a day at a time.
Better 24/7 analytics is one of the main benefits this prolonged battery life yields according to Garmin. New to the Venu 3 series is a personalised sleep coach feature that rates your sleep quality and how much your body needs. Taking this further is an added that automatically records your naps. This data then recommends the best time to take naps, how long they should be, and what benefit they give you.
Tweaks to Body Battery, Garmin’s energy insights, also come with the Venu 3 smartwatches. It’s designed to provide an overview of your energy levels throughout the day, along with when you should be resting versus being active. Body Battery uses data from your sleep, activity, and stress levels to measure their impact on your energy.
Garmin Venu 3 adds more fitness features for more people
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 4.4 million Australians have a disability, 17.1% of whom use mobility aids. While not all use wheelchairs, it’s a decent indication there’s a significant population that does. That’s why Garmin’s addition of wheelchair exercises is important to point out. Not many smartwatches seamlessly track wheelchair activities, with Apple Watches a rare exception. Outside of smartwatches, Google did provide a tool for AFL Wheelchair players to work on skills.
- Designed with a bright, colorful display, get a more complete picture of your health, thanks to battery life of up to 14 days in smartwatch mode.
- Body Battery energy monitoring helps you understand when you’re charged up or need to rest with even more personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress levels, workouts and more.
- Get a sleep score and personalized sleep coaching for how much sleep you need — and get tips on how to improve plus key metrics such as HRV status to better understand your health.
With the Venu 3, you can track wheelchair pushes each day and wheelchair-specific workouts. This taps into tailored algorithms designed specifically for wheelchair users to provide more accurate data. Plus, you can also receive weight shift alerts to help prevent pressure sores.
Overall, there are over 30 workout types for all kinds of users, including runners, swimmers, cyclists, and more. Other than GPS tracking, the Garmin Venu 3 smartwatches measure heart rate, respiration, and a metric called Pulse Ox. It refers to a built-in pulse oximeter that measures how much oxygen is flowing through your bloodstream.
Available now, the Garmin Venu 3 costs $749 and comes in two sizes: the 3S model has a 41mm watch face, while the standard 3 is 45mm. Both come with a lightweight stainless steel bezel and a silicone band designed to be comfortable to wear all day. The Venu 3 has whitestone/silver and black/slate finishes to choose from, with the smaller 3S available in pebble gray/slate, sage gray/silver, French gray/soft gold, dust rose/soft gold and ivory/soft gold.
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