Garmin Venu 3 vs Enduro 3: Which Best Fits Your Lifestyle?
Naila Syifa
Updated October 2024
Garmin's popular smartwatch offerings, the Venu 3 and Enduro 3, cater to different lifestyles and fitness needs. One is designed for active urban dwellers, while the other is optimized for endurance athletes and outdoor adventurers. So which smartwatch is the better choice for your lifestyle and needs?
Key Takeaways
Garmin Venu 3 offers a more stylish design with wellness-focused and daily smart features like meditation and speaker/microphone, while the Enduro 3 is tailored for serious outdoor enthusiasts and endurance athletes with its military durability, comprehensive training features, advanced navigation capabilities, and exceptional battery.
Garmin Venu 3
Lifestyle & Health Smartwatch
✓ AMOLED Display
✓ 54 Built-In Sports Apps
✓ Built-in Speaker & Microphone
✓ Meditation & Wheelchair Mode
Garmin Enduro 3
The Ultraperformance GPS Smartwatch
✓ MIP Display
✓ Built-in TopoActive Maps
✓ Multi-Band GNSS with SatIQ
✓ 90 Days with Solar Charging
#1 Design & Display
Garmin Enduro 3
Garmin Venu 3 has a more stylish look with a premium 1.4" AMOLED touchscreen, which is brighter and more vibrant compared to the Enduro 3's 1.4" MIP display. However, the Enduro 3 boasts a Power Sapphire lens, which can convert solar energy into battery life, providing extended battery runtime.
Garmin Enduro 3 is also superior in terms of durability, being built to military-grade ruggedness standards and with a 10 ATM water rating – compared to 5 ATM in the Venu 3. The titanium bezel and scratch-resistant lens of the Enduro 3 further enhance its durability.
Another design difference between the two is the watch strap. Enduro 3 features a lightweight and elastic UltraFit Nylon band, which is optimized for high-intensity activities and long-wearing comfort. Meanwhile, the Venu 3 offers a more fashionable silicone band option.
#2 Health & Fitness Features
Garmin Venu 3
Garmin Venu 3 and Enduro 3 both offer a variety of health-tracking features, such as heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen saturation measurement, sleep tracking with nap detection, electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality, stress tracking, and more.
When it comes to stress management and wellness, the Venu 3 is better equipped with a Meditation feature, which guides users through mindfulness exercises to help reduce stress and improve focus.
Garmin Venu 3 also stands out with a Wheelchair Mode, which when enabled will track pushes instead of steps, provide weight shift alerts, and unlock wheelchair-specific workouts. This makes the Venu 3 a more inclusive option for users with mobility challenges.
Meanwhile, the Enduro 3 is better equipped for endurance athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, with features like Trail Run VO2 Max, Mountain Biking Dynamics, ClimbPro, PacePro, Advanced Strength Training, Visual Race Predictor, Altitude and Heat Acclimation, and so on.
The comprehensiveness of the Enduro 3 is also visible in the 95 built-in activity profiles available, compared to the Venu 3 with only 54. Some activities exclusive to the Enduro 3 include ultra running, triathlon, backcountry skiing, surfing, snorkeling, and so many others.
#3 Maps & Navigational Features
Garmin Enduro 3
Garmin Venu 3 has no maps, while the Enduro 3 comes preloaded with TopoActive maps, SkiView maps, and Golf Course maps. So the gap between the two in terms of mapping and navigation capabilities is significant, with the Enduro 3 being the clear winner in this regard.
Some navigational features that stand out in the Enduro 3 include NextFork Navigation, which lets you glance at the remaining distance to the next fork in the trail, Dynamic Round-Trip Routing, which offers route suggestion that gets you back to the starting point based on your target distance, and Trendline Popularity Routing, which uses data from other Garmin users to suggest the most popular routes.
Garmin Enduro 3 also features SatIQ, which automatically selects the best GPS mode and satellite system – GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, or Beidou – for optimal performance in any environment. Garmin Venu 3 features no SatIQ and only supports GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo.
#4 Smartwatch Features
Garmin Venu 3
Garmin Venu 3 and Enduro 3 are equipped with a range of smart features for daily use, including smartphone connectivity, smart notifications, messaging, music playback, and Garmin Pay contactless payments.
One difference is that the Venu 3 offers a built-in speaker and microphone, so it supports voice calls and voice assistant integration, which the Enduro 3 lacks.
However, the Enduro 3 offers an LED flashlight unavailable in the Venu 3, which can be useful for outdoor activities in low-light conditions.
#5 Battery Life
Garmin Enduro 3
Garmin Enduro 3 has one of the best battery life among Garmin smartwatches. With solar charging, it can last for up to 320 hours in GPS mode or 90 days in smartwatch mode. But even without solar, the battery is still impressive, lasting up to 120 hours in GPS mode and 36 days in smartwatch mode.
Meanwhile, Garmin Venu 3 is rated for up to 26 hours in GPS mode and 14 days in smartwatch mode. It also doesn't support solar charging, so it is losing remarkably to the Enduro 3 in terms of overall battery life.
Garmin Venu 3 vs Enduro 3
Final Thoughts
Garmin Venu 3
The choice between the Garmin Venu 3 and Enduro 3 ultimately comes down to the user's priorities and intended use. The Venu 3 offers a more stylish and premium design, with a vibrant AMOLED display, as well as features focused on wellness and inclusivity, such as the Meditation mode and Wheelchair Mode.
On the other hand, the Enduro 3 is the better option for endurance athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, with its superior durability, comprehensive activity tracking, advanced navigational capabilities, and unparalleled battery life, especially with the solar charging feature.
Depending on whether the user values fashion and daily smartwatch features or ruggedness and extreme sports performance, one of these Garmin watches will be the better fit.
If you like to read more on smartwatches, check out our other relevant guides here:
Garmin Venu 3 vs Fenix 8
Garmin Venu 3 vs Fenix E
Garmin Fenix 8 vs Fenix 7
Garmin Fenix 8 vs Fenix E
Garmin Fenix 8 vs Enduro 3
Garmin Fenix E vs Fenix 7
Author
Naila Syifa
Content Manager at Synced. She crafts insightful content on the latest trends in technology, consumer electronics, and smart home gadgets.
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