The Google Pixel Watch 3 and Garmin Venu 3 are two of the top smartwatches you can consider, boasting top tracking features, excellent designs, and solid battery life.
This ensures picking between them can present a significant challenge, which is where this detailed comparison guide comes in.
A lot of choosing between these smartwatches comes down to your smartphone. With the Pixel Watch 3 only able to pair with Android phones, iOS users have no option but to consider the Venu 3.
Yet there are other key differentiators, with Venu 3 offering far superior battery life and a more comprehensive activity tracking experience, and the Pixel Watch 3 excelling in top-end smart features like LTE and third-party apps.
To understand these smartwatches and find the best fit for your needs, continue below for our full comparison. We’ve tested both extensively for our reviews, which are also linked below.
- Google Pixel Watch 3 (45mm) review
- Garmin Venu 3 review
Price comparison
Google Pixel Watch 3
- The Pixel Watch 3 41mm is available for as low as $349/£349, with the LTE version adding $100/£100
- The Pixel Watch 3 45mm starts at a slightly pricier $399/£399, with that premium for LTE pushing the price to $499/£499
Garmin Venu 3
- The Garmin Venu 3 (and Venu 3S) is priced slightly higher, at $449/£449 for either the 45mm and 41mm versions
- There is no LTE option for the Venu 3, meaning that the price is loosely comparable to the Pixel Watch 45mm
Design, display, and versions
The Pixel Watch 3 continues Google’s minimalist and modern design language with a rounded, domed display. It features a slim profile and a premium-feeling case, which is now – mercifully – available in two sizes (41mm and 45mm) after previously only being a great fit for smaller wrists.
That’s matched by Garmin with the Venu 3, with identical case sizes (Venu 3S for the smaller, 41mm edition) ensuring there’s nothing to separate the watches in this regard. We would say that the Venu 3 is a slightly more durable but less premium material, though, with the exterior being polymer as opposed to Google’s decision to use aluminum.
Display durability is a separate issue, though. Neither of these smartwatch models comes with a sapphire glass covering, meaning they are more susceptible to scratches than premium offerings (such as the Garmin Fenix 8, Apple Watch Ultra 2, or Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra).
In the actual display quality, we think the upgrades Google has made to the Pixel Watch 3 – a more edge-to-edge screen, improved brightness (2,000 nits), and higher 60Hz refresh rate – means it’s a slight step on from what Garmin can offer. However, there’s not much in it; the Venu 3 is still more than bright and detailed enough thanks to its AMOLED panel.
The only other considerations here are navigation – both offer touchscreen feedback and control via buttons – and bands, though much of this is a personal preference. Our experience tells us that we prefer the navigation on Garmin (as it relies less on touch) but the band swap-outs and options are much easier and plentiful if you opt for the Pixel Watch 3.
Winner: Google Pixel Watch 3
Battery life
The Pixel Watch 3 offers a decent but relatively shorter battery life compared to Garmin’s Venu 3.
It’s also very variable depending on which Pixel Watch 3 version you pick up. The official estimate is up to 24 hours with moderate usage, including features like continuous heart rate monitoring, notifications, occasional GPS use, and the always-on display enabled.
This rings true for the 41mm version and means charging the smartwatch is something you’ll have to factor into your daily routine, but our testing has shown you can effectively double that estimate with the 45mm Pixel Watch 3. This takes the pressure off daily charging – and it can go even longer if you employ a less power-intensive setup (or the battery-saving mode more often).
It’s an entirely different proposition from the Venu 3, with even the smaller version able to last up to 10 days (around a week from our testing if you enable the AOD). The standard model – like the Pixel Watch 3 – is capable of much longer, up to 14 days (or around 10 days of AOD time).
There’s also battery life in power-intensive conditions, like GPS tracking. In our experience, all models except the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 can make it through something like a 4-hour marathon with Spotify playback, though Garmin will have plenty to spare in this regard.
Winner: Garmin Venu 3
Activity tracking
The Pixel Watch 3, leveraging Fitbit integration, offers robust activity tracking capabilities. It can log a range of sports, including running, cycling, swimming (with 5 ATM water resistance), yoga, and strength sessions.
This latest model also offers improved insights for runners – such as ground contact time, vertical oscillation, and cadence – and, on paper, better heart rate accuracy for the activity type. In testing, though, we found it comparable to previous models: still excellent and close in performance to a chest strap, but with no hugely discernable difference.
It’s similar to the Venu 3, which features Garmin’s latest optical HR sensor – Elevate V5. Along with Apple, this is probably the wrist-based sensor we’ve found to have the best latency and performance, so you’re catered for here if you require tip-top accuracy.
It’s also better if you need top GPS performance, as it features Garmin’s industry-leading dual-frequency (Multi-Band) GNSS. Again, along with Apple’s interpretation, this is as good as it gets when tracking distance in city landscapes, sheltered terrain like forests, and everything in between.
Google’s latest smartwatch still only offers standard GPS tracking, which, while good enough for most people and terrains, is a step behind in accuracy.
The raw activity and sports tracking data, at least, is comparable between these two smartwatch series. Google’s addition of more ‘serious’ training insights like Cardio Load (and bringing Daily Readiness Score from behind the Fitbit Premium paywall) and more advanced run tracking mean it can now do much more than track calorie burn, steps, and heart rate.
For our money, though, the Venu 3 has the edge in other sports (like cycling) and overall presentation for data nerds, though.
Winner: Garmin Venu 3
Health, stress, and sleep tracking
Despite some major differences, the tracking experience outside of activity – in health, stress, and sleep insights – is very similar between these watches.
You have the odd proprietary metric – Garmin’s Body Battery, for example – that you won’t get on the other, but, loosely, you can expect all the same features.
So, both can offer more serious health features like ECG (although only in select regions if you use Garmin’s ECG app) to help identify potential irregular heart rhythms, blood oxygen data to help spot signs of breathing abnormalities during sleep, and menstrual health tracking.
There are also plenty of recovery-related metrics. Both offer daily updates on the rolling trend of biometric markers like heart rate variability, skin temperature, and resting heart rate, while sleep tracking includes stage estimates and scores.
We don’t particularly have a favorite with any of the above. Accuracy and presentation of health and sleep are solid in both, and no features are offered on one and not the other.
It could be argued that stress tracking is the big differentiator, yet we’re not huge fans of either method. Google’s, which uses an electrodermal activity sensor to try and map body responses throughout the day, is novel and may work for some. However, we’ve found its interpretations far too scattergun to gain meaningful insights from.
Meanwhile, Garmin’s 0-100 stress scale, while more true to feel and consistent, could do with a presentation makeover to help it become as integral to the experience as we’ve seen from Whoop’s Stress Monitor or Oura’s Resilience.
Winner: Draw
Smarts and safety features
Though the Venu 3 is among Garmin’s smartest watches, it lacks some crucial features found on the Pixel Watch 3.
However, it still has plenty of neat tricks, including Spotify support for offline playback, tons of watch faces, a speaker/microphone for calls, Garmin Pay (limited though it is in some regions), solid notification mirroring, and voice assistant functionality.
There are also many integrations to explore in the Garmin Connect IQ store.
The problem is that the Pixel Watch 3 matches all of the above and goes a step beyond, thanks largely to its strong integration with the rest of the Google/Android ecosystem.
The Google Assistant is superb, Google Maps support is now offline, Google Wallet is more widely accepted, and the Play Store has many more third-party apps to explore.
With the option of LTE, the Pixel Watch 3 can also function fully even when separated from the smartphone, still pulling in calls/notifications and being able to access data from apps.
It’s a huge boon if you prefer to leave your phone behind during activity, or like having a backup to your phone in case its battery dies.
Google has also done an impressive job of fleshing out its safety features over the last few years, with Safety Check, Safety Signal, Emergency Contact Dialing, Fall Detection, Car Crash Detection, and, the latest, Loss of Pulse Detection, all in tow.
Garmin can’t hold a candle to that array of smart or safety features.
Winner: Google Pixel Watch 3
Verdict: Which is best
After thoroughly testing the Google Pixel Watch 3 and Garmin Venu 3 watches, we can establish some clear recommendations for each.
If you prioritize battery life that goes beyond just a couple of days, need the best possible activity-tracking experience, and want a solid array of health, stress, and sleep features thrown in – and don’t need major smarts or safety features – the Venu 3 is the ideal watch for you.
On the other hand, if you require a smart experience that boasts LTE and excellent integrations, a more smartwatch-feeling design, and very passable accuracy in everything from health monitoring to sports tracking – and you have an Android phone – the Pixel Watch 3 is a better fit.
The post Google Pixel Watch 3 vs. Garmin Venu 3: How to choose between the smartwatches appeared first on Wareable.
