Garmin has cemented its place as a pacesetter on the planet of GPS working watches and smartwatches. When selecting between the Forerunner 165 and Venu 3 collection, it’s important to have a side-by-side comparability. The Forerunner 165, launched in February 2024, gives a centered expertise for health fanatics. Conversely, the Venu 3 collection (launched in August 2023) delivers a broader vary of options for general wellness monitoring.
Important studying:Â Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
This in-depth comparability explores the variations and similarities between these Garmin choices. With out additional ado, let’s dive in!
Key takeaways
In case you’re a devoted runner centered on efficiency monitoring and battery life, the Garmin Forerunner 165 gives improbable worth. It delivers core working options in a budget-friendly bundle. Alternatively, if you’d like superior well being insights like ECG and pores and skin temperature monitoring, a wider collection of sport profiles, and smartwatch options like on-wrist calling, the Garmin Venu 3 collection is the extra complete selection.
View on Garmin; View on Amazon (Venu 3).
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Hardware
Technical specs
Features
Bottom line
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Venu 3: {Hardware}
Look & really feel
Each the Forerunner 165 and Venu 3 collection boast a spherical form. It is a design selection that mirrors conventional watches.
Nonetheless, the Forerunner 165 leans in the direction of sporty practicality with its light-weight fiber-reinforced polymer case and chemically strengthened glass lens. The Venu 3 gives a extra premium aesthetic with a chrome steel construct. Moreover, the Venu 3 is available in two dimension choices. There’s the bigger Venu 3 and the marginally smaller Venu 3S, catering to completely different wrist sizes and preferences. The 165 is simply accessible in a single dimension.
Bodily buttons are one other space of differentiation. The Forerunner 165 options 5 bodily buttons, a design selection that emphasizes ease of use and fast navigation. That is significantly helpful throughout intense bodily actions the place contact display performance could be hindered by sweat or motion. The Venu 3 collection, nonetheless, opts for a sleeker design with three bodily buttons, balancing performance with a minimalist aesthetic.
Show, color choices, water resistance
Each gadgets leap into the world of vibrant AMOLED shows, a big improve from the MIP show of Forerunner 165’s predecessor. The Venu 3 boasts a bigger 1.4-inch show, whereas the Venu 3s contains a 1.2-inch show – the identical dimension because the Forerunner 165. All three choices provide excessive resolutions, guaranteeing a probably extra immersive visible expertise no matter your dimension selection.
On the subject of sturdiness, each the Forerunner 165 and Venu 3 collection share a 5 ATM water resistance score. This implies they’ll deal with swimming, showering, and even stand up to stress from deeper water immersion.
Color choices provide one other layer of personalization. The Forerunner 165 gives a mixture of impartial and vivid colorways. The Venu 3 collection gives some understated decisions alongside extra eye-catching choices.
Sensor expertise
The Forerunner 165 and Venu 3 collection share an identical vary of core sensors. This contains an accelerometer, barometric altimeter, compass, ambient gentle sensor, and a Pulse Ox sensor for blood oxygen monitoring. Moreover, they each embrace Garmin’s Elevate optical coronary heart price sensors. Nonetheless, the Venu 3 collection boasts the newer Elevate V5 model for probably improved accuracy.
Past this, the Venu 3 collection takes sensor integration an additional by incorporating a gyroscope, ECG (electrocardiogram) capabilities, and a pores and skin temperature sensor to the combo. The inclusion of a gyroscope enhances movement monitoring accuracy. The ECG and pores and skin temperature sensors provide deeper insights into cardiovascular well being and physique temperature variations, respectively, offering customers with extra detailed wellness monitoring. These additions make the Venu 3 a extra complete health-tracking gadget.
On the subject of GPS and different connectivity choices, the Forerunner 165 and the Venu 3 collection assist multi-GNSS (World Navigation Satellite tv for pc System) capabilities. This contains GPS, GLONASS, and GALILEO, guaranteeing exact location monitoring throughout numerous environments. The characteristic is essential for precisely monitoring out of doors actions, from working routes to mountain climbing trails.
NFC (Close to Area Communication) can be current in each fashions. It facilitates contactless funds by means of Garmin Pay, including a layer of comfort for customers on the go.
Music storage is, nonetheless, an space the place the gadgets differ. The Forerunner 165 gives music storage as an non-obligatory characteristic, catering to customers preferring to have their playlists helpful throughout exercises with no need to hold their smartphones. Alternatively, the Venu 3 collection contains music storage as an ordinary characteristic. This emphasizes its function as a flexible smartwatch that not solely tracks health and well being metrics but additionally gives leisure and connectivity on the wrist.
Battery life
So far as batter ylife, the Forerunner 165 gives as much as 11 days in smartwatch mode. This ensures customers can monitor their each day actions, monitor well being metrics, and obtain good notifications with out the fixed want for recharging. When using GPS mode, the battery life falls as much as 19 hours, permitting for intensive use throughout out of doors actions and exercises. This makes the Forerunner 165 a dependable possibility for runners and athletes who require endurance from their gadgets to match their coaching schedules.
The Venu 3 collection additional emphasizes Garmin’s dedication to battery effectivity, with the Venu 3 offering as much as 14 days of battery life in smartwatch mode when the show is all the time on. This represents a big enchancment over earlier fashions, catering to customers who demand longevity and minimal downtime from their wearable tech. The Venu 3s, whereas barely smaller, doesn’t lag far behind by way of battery efficiency, providing as much as 10 days of battery life in smartwatch mode with the show all the time on. As proven within the desk beneath, in GPS mode these figures sharply decline.
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Venu 3: Technical specs
Right here’s an in depth tech specs comparability desk for the Garmin Forerunner 165, Garmin Venu 3, and Garmin Venu 3s:
Characteristic |
Garmin Forerunner 165 |
Garmin Venu 3 |
Garmin Venu 3s |
---|---|---|---|
Launch Date |
Feb-24 |
Aug-23 |
Aug-23 |
Case Materials |
Lens: Chemically strengthened glass. Bezel and case: Fiber-reinforced polymer |
Chrome steel |
Chrome steel |
Variety of Bodily Buttons |
5 |
3 |
3 |
Form |
Spherical |
Spherical |
Spherical |
Measurement |
43 x 43 x 11.6 mm |
45 x 45 x 12 mm |
41 x 41 x 12 mm |
Show Sort |
AMOLED |
AMOLED |
AMOLED |
Decision |
390 x 390 pixels |
454 x 454 pixels |
390 x 390 pixels |
Display screen Measurement |
1.2 inch |
1.4 inch |
1.2 inch |
Weight (with out strap) |
39 grams |
47 grams |
40 grams |
Sensors |
Accelerometer, optical coronary heart price (Elevate V4), barometric altimeter, compass, Pulse Ox, thermometer, ambient gentle sensor |
Accelerometer, optical coronary heart price (Elevate V5), barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope, Pulse Ox, thermometer, ECG, pores and skin temperature, ambient gentle sensor |
Accelerometer, optical coronary heart price (Elevate V5), barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope, Pulse Ox, thermometer, ECG, pores and skin temperature, ambient gentle sensor |
Water-Resistance |
5 ATM |
5 ATM |
5 ATM |
Positioning |
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
Constructed-in Speaker |
No |
Sure |
Sure |
Microphone |
No |
Sure |
Sure |
NFC |
Sure |
Sure |
Sure |
Music Storage |
Optionally available |
Sure |
Sure |
Connection |
Bluetooth, ANT+, WiFi for Music model |
WLAN 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 5.3 & BLE, ANT+ |
WLAN 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 5.3 & BLE, ANT+ |
Mobile Connectivity |
No |
No |
No |
Battery Sort |
Li-po |
Li-po |
Li-po |
Battery Life |
As much as 11 days (smartwatch mode), 19 hours (GPS), 17 hours (GNSS), 7 or 6.5 hours (music playback) |
As much as 14 days (Smartwatch mode, show always-on), 26 days (Battery Saver mode), 26 hours (GPS-Solely GNSS mode), 20 hours (All-Programs GNSS mode), 11 hours (All-Programs GNSS mode with music) |
As much as 10 days (Smartwatch mode, show always-on), 20 days (Battery Saver mode), 21 hours (GPS-Solely GNSS mode), 15 hours (All-Programs GNSS mode), 8 hours (All-Programs GNSS mode with music) |
Working System |
Proprietary |
Garmin OS |
Garmin OS |
Colours |
Non Music: Mist Gray/Whitestone, Black/Slate Gray. Music: Black/Slate Gray, Mist Gray/Whitestone, Berry/Lilac, Turquoise/Aqua |
Whitestone, Black |
French Gray, Pebble Gray, Sage Gray, Mud Rose, Ivory |
Typical RRP |
$250 and up |
$450 |
$450 |
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Venu 3: Options
The Forerunner 165 and Venu 3 collection present foundational well being monitoring with all-day coronary heart price monitoring, sleep evaluation, stress scores, and ladies’s well being monitoring. In addition they assist numerous different well being metrics throughout the Garmin Join ecosystem.
The Venu 3 units itself aside in two key areas. Firstly, it contains an ECG sensor. This may be essential for detecting indicators of atrial fibrillation, a standard coronary heart rhythm irregularity. Secondly, boasts pores and skin temperature monitoring. This provides one other layer of well being monitoring. It gives insights into the physique’s responses to varied stressors, exercises, and environments, which will be significantly helpful for monitoring wellness and restoration.
Each gadgets cater to energetic people with devoted working and biking profiles delivering important metrics like distance, tempo, and coronary heart price. In addition they assist numerous exercises, together with power coaching, HIIT, and cardio classes. The Forerunner 165 barely prioritizes critical runners. The Venu 3, alternatively, delivers a higher number of sport profiles, accommodating actions like mountain climbing, climbing, disc golf, and quite a few racket sports activities. It’s a greater match for many who get pleasure from a variety of actions.
Furthermore, the Venu 3 collection enhances the health expertise with on-screen exercise animations and muscle maps. This gives a visible information that may assist customers carry out workouts accurately and successfully.
Smartwatch-type options
By way of smartwatch capabilities, the Forerunner 165 covers the necessities. It shows notifications, calendar reminders, permits for controlling music playback in your telephone, and gives a music variant for offline listening. Plus, there’s NFC for contactless funds.
The Venu 3 collection expands on this. Due to a built-in microphone and speaker, it means that you can make and obtain calls straight out of your wrist (with a linked smartphone) and entry voice assistants. If you need a extra complete smartwatch expertise, the Venu 3 edges forward. It’s Garmin’s reply to the likes of the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch.
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Venu 3: Worth
The Garmin Forerunner 165 enters the market at a extra budget-friendly value level, beginning round $250. The Music model will set you again an additional 50 bucks. This makes the vary a powerful worth proposition for these centered on core working and health options. The Venu 3 and 3s, with their extra intensive sensor arrays, health-tracking capabilities, and premium construct, naturally come at the next value of round $450. If a higher breadth of options and a extra luxurious design are priorities, then the funding within the Venu 3 collection could be justified.
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Venu 3: Remaining ideas
In case you’re a devoted runner looking for a strong and long-lasting health tracker full of running-specific options, the Forerunner 165 gives glorious worth for its value. Its spectacular battery life and centered performance make it a great companion for athletes who prioritize efficiency monitoring above all else.
Alternatively, in the event you need a broader vary of well being insights, a extra intensive collection of sports activities profiles, and a wider array of smartwatch options, the Venu 3 collection delivers in spades. Its ECG sensor, pores and skin temperature monitoring, and on-wrist calling capabilities present a extra holistic strategy to well being and wellness monitoring. Whereas pricier, the Venu 3 collection justifies the price for these looking for a well-rounded and premium smartwatch expertise with highly effective health monitoring capabilities.
View on Garmin; View on Amazon (Venu 3).
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