Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Which One Fits You Best?

Among the wide range of smartwatches available today, the Garmin Venu series stands out for its blend of stylish design and powerful health features. Unlike the rugged Instinct series built for outdoor adventures or the Forerunner series aimed at serious athletes, the Venu line caters to everyday users and fitness enthusiasts, offering a balanced experience of smart functionality and health monitoring.

The newly released Garmin Venu 3 continues this philosophy, delivering significant upgrades in both usability and performance. With new features like a sleep coach, open water swimming support, and thoughtful updates for wheelchair users, Garmin shows a clear commitment to inclusivity and user-focused innovation.

So when it comes to Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2, which one is right for you? This article will guide you through a detailed comparison of their similarities and differences in design, features, battery life, and health tracking. Whether you're just starting your fitness journey or looking to upgrade your smartwatch experience, this Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 comparison will help you make a smart, informed decision.

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Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Specifications

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Price and Availability

Released in 2023, the Garmin Venu 3 comes in 45mm and 41mm sizes, both priced at $449.99. In contrast, the older Venu 2 launched at $399.99 but has since dropped to around $299.99, offering significantly better value for budget-conscious buyers.

While the Venu 3 is more expensive, it adds meaningful upgrades like a sleep coach, open water swimming support, and wheelchair-accessible features, making it a more complete health and fitness companion.

Winner: Garmin Venu 3

Because it delivers a well-rounded upgrade in health tracking and smart features, making it a better long-term investment.

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Design

Similarities

Both Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 2 feature a classic round design with stainless steel bezels and fiber-reinforced polymer cases, paired with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for durability and scratch resistance. Both watches offer 5 ATM water resistance, suitable for swimming and daily use, and come with quick-release silicone straps in standard sizes, including 45mm and smaller options to fit different wrist sizes.

Differences

The Venu 3 introduces design refinements with more rounded, ergonomic lugs for a more comfortable and less bulky fit. It increases the number of physical buttons from two to three, adding a button that supports a built-in speaker for enhanced interaction. Additionally, it features an improved touch-sensitive bezel for smoother navigation and more responsive button feedback. The overall weight is slightly reduced, enhancing the wearing experience. You can also check Garmin Venu Watch straps including Garmin Venu 3 Watch straps to know more information about Garmin Venu Watch accessories.

Winner: Garmin Venu 3

With more user-friendly design improvements and enhanced usability, the Venu 3 stands out in both appearance and comfort.

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Display

Similarities

Both Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 2 feature round AMOLED displays protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, ensuring durability and scratch resistance. Both watches support touch controls and automatic brightness adjustment, adapting well to different lighting conditions for clear visibility. The screen bezels are made of stainless steel, and the cases use fiber-reinforced polymer, maintaining a consistent design style.

Differences

The Venu 3 has a slightly larger 1.4-inch screen compared to the Venu 2’s 1.3-inch display, providing a wider viewing area and more intuitive information display. It also boasts a higher resolution of 454×454 pixels versus Venu 2’s 416×416 pixels, resulting in sharper images and crisper text edges. The Venu 3 uses a subtly curved glass design, offering smoother edges and a more stylish, modern look along with improved touch experience. Additionally, its screen brightness is higher, maintaining excellent visibility even under strong sunlight. Although the overall body size and weight are similar, the narrower bezel makes the Venu 3 appear slimmer and more refined.

Winner: Garmin Venu 3

With a larger, clearer, and more elegant display, the Venu 3 significantly improves the viewing experience, offering greater comfort and usability.

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Health and Fitness Features

Similarities

Both the Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 2 offer a comprehensive suite of health and fitness tracking features. These include 24/7 heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, respiration tracking, sleep analysis, and Body Battery energy monitoring. They support a wide range of workout modes such as running, cycling, and swimming, with built-in GPS for accurate distance and pace tracking. Both models also generate post-workout reports and provide safety features like incident detection and emergency alerts.

Differences

Venu 3 takes health tracking a step further with several new features. The Sleep Coach provides personalized sleep duration recommendations based on your HRV (heart rate variability), daily activity levels, and sleep patterns - something Venu 2 lacks. A particularly notable addition is the Nap Tracking feature, which automatically detects and records short daytime naps, helping users better understand their recovery patterns. While automatic detection is available, manual logging is also supported for added accuracy.

Another significant upgrade is the Wheelchair Mode, designed specifically for wheelchair users. Instead of tracking steps, Venu 3 measures “pushes” as an equivalent metric, and includes wheelchair-specific activity profiles. This inclusive design makes fitness tracking more accessible and meaningful. Venu 2, in contrast, does not offer any of these adaptations.

Venu 3 also introduces more workout modes - such as tennis, squash, and handcycling - and supports muscle heat maps for strength training sessions, allowing users to better visualize which muscle groups they’re targeting.

Winner: Garmin Venu 3

With added features like nap tracking, a personalized sleep coach, and inclusive wheelchair activity tracking, the Venu 3 delivers a more complete and accessible health and fitness experience.

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Smartwatch Features

Similarities

Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 2 share a strong foundation in core smartwatch capabilities, including:

• Smart Notifications: Both can sync with your smartphone to receive calls, text messages, and social media alerts, allowing you to stay updated without reaching for your phone.
• Garmin Pay: NFC-based contactless payment is supported on both models, enabling secure transactions at compatible vendors—perfect for workouts or errands without a wallet.
• Voice Assistant Integration: By connecting to your phone, both watches can access assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, or Bixby to perform tasks like setting alarms, checking the weather, or controlling smart devices.

Differences

Venu 3 brings meaningful upgrades that enhance the smartwatch experience:

• Built-in Microphone and Speaker: Unlike the Venu 2, the Venu 3 comes equipped with a mic and speaker, enabling on-wrist calls, voice interaction, and message replies.
• Simplified Voice Assistant Access: Venu 3 allows quick activation of your voice assistant via a physical button, whereas Venu 2 requires navigating through menus.
• Offline Music Storage: Venu 3 supports direct downloads from platforms like Spotify or Amazon Music, letting you enjoy music without your phone. Venu 2 also offers music playback, but with a less streamlined interface.
• Android-Specific Enhancements: When paired with Android phones, Venu 3 enables keyboard-based message replies and even lets users view image previews—features unavailable on Venu 2.

Winner: Garmin Venu 3

With integrated call functionality and a smoother voice assistant experience, Venu 3 delivers a more complete and user-friendly smartwatch experience.

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 - Battery Life

Similarities

• Battery Type & Charging Method: Both watches feature built-in lithium batteries and support charging via proprietary USB cables, offering convenient and consistent charging experiences.
• Charging Efficiency: Under normal usage, both models charge within a few hours, supporting quick top-ups for daily use.

Differences

• Battery Life: Venu 3 offers up to 14 days in smartwatch mode, while Venu 2 provides up to 11 days. In GPS mode, Venu 3 lasts up to 26 hours, outperforming Venu 2’s 22 hours.
• Power-Saving Mode: With power-saving enabled, Venu 3 can last up to 26 days, while Venu 2 reaches only about 12 days.
• GNSS Support: Venu 3 includes All-Systems GNSS mode with up to 20 hours of runtime, a feature not available on Venu 2.
• GPS + Music Playback: Venu 3 provides approximately 11 hours of use, compared to around 8 hours for Venu 2.
• Smaller Versions: The smaller variants (Venu 3S and Venu 2S) have reduced battery capacities, resulting in slightly shorter runtimes.

Winner: Garmin Venu 3

Despite having more advanced features, Venu 3 still delivers longer battery life in all scenarios, making it the more dependable choice.

Which One Should You Choose? A Clear Recommendation Based on Your Needs

If you don’t already own the Garmin Venu 2, I recommend going straight for the Venu 3. It features a sleeker, more stylish design with a larger screen and narrower bezels, making it look slimmer overall. Functionally, it offers significant upgrades such as voice control, advanced navigation tracking, wheelchair mode, and heart rate variability monitoring—providing a much richer experience compared to the Venu 2.

However, if you don’t prioritize features like the built-in speaker and microphone and want to save some money, the Venu 2 is currently available at a more attractive price and remains a very solid choice. Both watches are very similar in size and design; the main differences lie in the richer functionality and longer battery life of the Venu 3.

In summary, if you want the latest tech and a more refined look, the Venu 3 is the better pick. But if you prefer great value and solid core health and fitness features, the Venu 2 is a reliable and budget-friendly option. Below, I’ll also include the latest prices and purchase links to help you decide quickly based on your needs.