Tag: Garmin

It’s an interesting watch, because almost everything I like about it could easily be implemented in Garmin Venu 3. How expensive is it to have 5 buttons instead of 3? But 5 buttons allow you to turn display on or off, and also scroll up and down without using the touch screen. In general, I feel like I could turn the touch screen off on Fenix 8 and be comfortable with it.
Then there are watch faces. It’s actually funny how hard it is to find a watch face for Venu that has steps, battery level, day of week and date all on the same screen.
Speaking of battery level, Fenix 8 promises 9 days with always on display. We finally reached Pebble levels of battery life, all it took us is 10 years in a 700GBP watch.
Multiple timers are another completely software feature that’s only present in Fenix. Can I have two timers on Venu, please?
Also, the fact that compass is just accessible from the menu.
Features that do require special hardware: flashlight built into the watch. Neat.
Smart alarm is another feature coming back 10 years from Pebble.
It’s nice that you can assign actions to long press for each button, and you can also unnasign the voice assistant.
Another very basic training feature: default rest time between sets. How hard can it be?
Voice commands works surprisingly well. Those processed by the watch, not sent to phone. I managed to set a timer and cancel it as well. Saves a few button presses.

I’ve been using Garmin Vivoactive 4 for quite some time. But a couple of months ago, I discovered that Vivoactive 5 was released, so I thought I’d give it a try. It turns out, though, that Vivoactive is now the budget solution that lacks some features like a step counter, and the Venu 3 is instead the upgrade path from Vivoactive 4 moving forward.
Externally, Venu 3 looks very similar to Vivoactive 4. You really need to squint to see the differences: three buttons instead of two, and the bezel is now ridged. The screen is different, though. The technology has moved forward at least there, and now it’s always-on AMOLED. Much brighter and nicer for sure. Sound is back as well.
Which is funny, I had a Casio 20 years ago that had an alarm, but then I moved to Pebble and Pebble Time, which were silent, and to Vivoactive 4, which was silent as well. So it’s the first time in 20 years I hear a watch beep on my hand.

Garmin disappointed me with the fact they can’t connect to two phones simultaneously.
For me it’s important, because I have messengers on one phone, and work emails and Slack on the other. And I asked for a work phone so I wouldn’t need to mess with an Android work profile, which I knew wouldn’t allow me to receive both simultaneously.
What Garmin means by saying that you can connect two devices, is that you can pair both, then disable Bluetooth in the one you don’t want to sync at that time 🤡