New renders of the upcoming Garmin Venu 3 watch have leaked, showing some interesting features including a new heart rate monitor (the same one used by the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro) and a microphone for taking calls and accessing your phone's voice assistant.
The images come via Indian technology site MySmartPrice, and show the Venu 3 in two sizes: 45mm and 41mm. That means the smaller version, the Venu 3S, will be slightly larger than the Venu 2S, which measured 40mm in diameter.
Both watches will come in a range of colors, with coordinating metal bezels and silicone bands. It's not clear whether the leaked images show the full range, but it appears that the 45mm Venu 3 will come in white/silver and slate/graphite. The 42mm Venu 3S will be available in light sand/light gold, slate/graphite, dust rose/light gold, and cool mint/silver.
mysmartprice is the first to leak press renders of the Garmin Venu 3.#garmin #venu3 #venu3s #smartwatch #wearablehttps://t.co/NbrB5MpQkaAugust 25, 2023
One year after it launched the Venu 2, Garmin unveiled the Garmin Venu 2 Plus – a fitness watch with all the same features and the same high-res AMOLED display, but with the addition of a microphone that allows you to take calls and use your phone's voice assistant, provided you have a Bluetooth connection. It's an extremely handy feature, and when I tested the watch for Advnture's sister site TechRadar, I found myself using Google Assistant far more often than I would normally.
I'm therefore very pleased that the microphone seems to be back for the Venu 3, as indicated by the small grille on the left hand side of the case, and the additional button on the right.
Sleep, health and more
The rear view shows that the watch has Garmin's updated heart rate monitor, with LEDs and light sensors spread out over a larger area, which the company says should help provide more accurate readings. It's impossible to say from the renders, but it's also likely that the Venu 3 will support Garmin's ECG app. At the time of writing, the Venu 2 Plus is the only watch to do so, and it would be strange for the Venu 3 to miss out.
The Venu 3 also includes Garmin's new Sleep Coaching tool, which is designed to help you develop better sleep hygiene by encouraging you to develop better habits. There are new wheelchair activity tracking modes as well. Hopefully both of these will be added to all Garmin watches through a future firmware update.
Finally, it appears that the Venu 3 will let you preview images sent to you via SMS or apps, which I don't believe has been possible with any previous Garmin watches, but seems like a good use for the AMOLED screen.
We don't yet know when the watch will launch, but it seems a September release may be possible. I'll keep my ear to the ground and keep you updated as soon as I know more.
- The best Garmin watch: all the latest models tested and rated
