Garmin Venu 3 Slate Stainless Steel Bezel 1.4-Inch AMOLED Touchscreen Display Smart Watch with 45mm Black Case and Silicone Band

I used to be an "All In" Apple fan until the last couple of years when they really started going downhill. My daughter had started doing research on Garmin and told me about all the wonderful selling points on it, and I just couldn't believe it! I went with the Venu 3 in the men's version instead of the women's version because it gave me a bigger watch face. I wear reading glasses and want to be able to see it without having to put my glasses on for the smaller selections that I would need to see. Let me tell you what I found as a new Garmin convert!First of all I wasn't sure if it was going to like the round face as opposed to the square face, but I actually love it more. It took a couple of days to get used to the different ways of doing things, but once I understood how it worked I find I really like it more. The bottom button is kind of like your "go to" button on the right side of your watch. This button is your "back" button that you hit to go back a screen and finally end up at your Home Screen. If you want to record an activity or access one of your apps then you would press the top button. If you want to do an activity, you press the one that you want on the screen, and then you would press the button on the top to start it. To pause the activity or restart it you would press the top button again. If you want to delete the activity for whatever reason then there is a trash can on the top of the screen that you tap, it will take you to the next screen and you can either confirm that you want to delete it with the top side button, or you can go back because that is not what you want to do with the bottom side button.If you want to change your watch face, record an alarm or stop watch, or go to settings then you would long press the bottom button. It will give you the choice of "Watch Face", "Clocks", or "Settings". if you go into one and that is not what you want then you simply press the bottom button again to go back to the previous screen. Garmin gives you some really neat watch faces to choose from, or you even get the option of customizing one of your own.One thing I have to mention is how long the battery lasts! I was used to my battery draining by the end of the day, or way before if I was recording any activity. However, with my watch I can record activity or not and I can still have a ton of battery power left by the end of the day. When I don't record anything I will normally have about 92% left from a full charge. I decided to do a test to see how long I could go before I really needed to recharge my watch. I didn't Not record activity for this little test of mine because I wanted to get a fair assessment of how well it would work for me. By the 5th day I was at like 45% when I finally decided to that the Garmin was going to win in this stand off. I came to the conclusion that if I went on a week's vacation that I wouldn't need to bring my charger with me.I went with the Venu 3 because I wanted the ability to answer calls and read emails, while also being able to record activities. I still need to figure out how to turn up the volume on my watch when I am talking on it so I can better hear when someone is talking to me. Other than the volume thing, it is pretty straightforward on how to answer it.I included a picture of how the watch looks on my wrist as a woman with a small to medium frame. I love it and highly recommend it.I really love this watch and I am super glad that I went with the Venu 3!

I can't point to many products that have changed my life like this watch. That doesn't mean that the competitors are not just as capable... or maybe better. In fact, I often question the raw accuracy of the step tracking and sleep tracking. But I treat all the information as relative on a day-to-day basis. I love having data to track and manage my fitness and health, and use everything from HRV and stress measurements to sleep tracking and hear rate. The battery last 6 days between charges... which is outstanding. Also, I also integrate this with my other Garmin products (Edge for cycling, heartrate monitor and smart scale)... and interface with external Apps like Strava, Intervals.icu and MyFittness Pal. I haven't taken this watch off for more than a few hours in over 18 months. Lastly, I highly recommend the 'S' (smaller face) for men... as most of my watch interaction is through the App.

I needed a new fitness tracker (my fitbit strap came loose and I lost it and was very sad), and so I decided to purchase the Garmin Venu 3S.I've had it for about 7 weeks, and I know I have barely scratched the surface of what this thing is capable of. I will continue to update as I go along.What I like so far:FaceIt - you can create your own watch face with any picture you like, and add features to it. I rotate between pics of each of my cats, and I add steps, date, temperature, and notifications.Notifications - I have it connected to my Android phone, and pretty much every notification that comes to the phone buzzes the watch. It's VERY easy to tell it "Block app" the first time a specific app buzzes. But keep in mind if you "dismiss" a notification on the watch, the notification on the phone is dismissed too.Customize shortcuts - You can swipe to one side and have whatever feature you like. I chose "flashlight" because it's nice to be able to see when I get up in the middle of the night.Texting - I get my texts through Google messages and Facebook messenger, and both come through on the watch. My fitbit made me choose a favorite, which is dumb. You can also respond from the watch.Connecting to other sensors - I have mine connected to a cadence sensor on my stationary exercise bike. When doing "spinning" videos, they like to tell you an RPM, but my Schwinn toggles through, and doesn't like to stay on RPM, but my watch will keep it on the screen when I'm doing a bike workout. You can also connect to a chest strap heart rate monitor, I currently have a Polar H10 connected.Sleep tracking - gives you a score and a rating every morning. Like "you slept long but were restless" and "your sleep was short and non-restorative" or "you had plenty of deep sleep"Battery life - Depends on a lot of factors, but with my usage, I can go several days without needing to recharge.Music controls - If I'm listening to something on my phone through my wireless headphones, I'm able to control it through the watch in the Music app. Apparently you can download music directly to the watch and connect headphones directly to the watch, but I haven't tried it, and I will generally have my phone nearby all the time, so not sure how useful.Pre-loaded workouts. I've only done this once, but I chose a yoga workout, and it has a little animation to show you yoga poses, and it will buzz the last three seconds before moving to the next pose, so you don't have to stare at your wrist the entire time. Pretty cool.Watch band choices - uses standard 18mm band, so very versatile in changing up the look as you please.Thanks for reading!