We help you pick your perfect sports watch
Garmin Venu 3 aced our testing in our in-depth review, but it might not be the right pick for everyone.
It will naturally catch the eye of people looking for a sporty smartwatch because of the Garmin brand. But it’s important to realize that when it comes to sports tracking, Venu 3 is pretty basic.
For the same price, you can get a more sports-focused Forerunner 265 that sacrifices a few lifestyle features to give you advanced running, cycling, and recovery metrics.
For performance tracking-focused people, that makes Forerunner 265 the better choice.
| Feature | Garmin Forerunner 265 | Garmin Venu 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $349.99 | $349.99 |
| Display | AMOLED | AMOLED |
| Screen size | 1.3-inch, 416 x 416 | 1.4-inch, 454 x 454 |
| Smart features | Notifications, Garmin Pay, offline music | Built-in mic and speaker for calls, voice assistant |
| Training metrics | Training Readiness, Load, PacePro | Basic VO2 Max, Recovery Time |
| Health sensors | Elevate 4 heart rate sensor | Elevate 5 with ECG and skin temperature |
| Battery life | Up to 13 days | Up to 14 days |
| Official website | Visit Garmin | Visit Garmin |
Read on for the key differences you need to know.
Garmin Forerunner 265 review | Garmin Venu 3 review
Price
Garmin Venu 3 and Garmin Forerunner 265 both retail for $349.99. The difference lies in the fact that Venu 3 caters to users seeking a high-end smartwatch experience with advanced features, while Forerunner 265 offers more comprehensive workout data.
While neither is particularly budget-friendly, anyone looking at Forerunner’s advanced training analytics might be pleasantly surprised that it costs the same.
Design and screen
Venu 3 boasts a modern and stylish design. It offers a choice of 41mm and 45mm sizes and comes in various colors. The AMOLED screen is vibrant, colorful, and touchscreen-enabled, enhancing aesthetics and user interaction.
Forerunner 265 focuses on functionality and durability. While its design is more utilitarian, it has adopted an AMOLED screen, improving screen quality. The 46mm version has a 1.3-inch display with a 416 x 416 resolution. There’s also a 42mm Forerunner 265S.
Forerunner 265 is not quite as bright and slick as Venu 3. It has a smaller screen, in a bigger case, at a lower resolution.
The case material of Forerunner 265 is a polymer plastic, while Venu 3 gets stainless steel, making it look and feel superior. And there’s just a 1g difference in weight between them.
So Venu 3 is undeniably the more premium watch, but Forerunner 265 is a huge step up from the older Forerunner 255.
Fitness features
Venu 3 is something of a jack-of-all-trades smartwatch with a host of sports profiles. You’ll find everything from running, cycling, and swimming to HIIT.
However, except for swimming, none of the sports profiles are particularly advanced in the number of metrics they track.
Running, for example, just shows pace/distance/time/heart rate and zone during a run. Afterward, you will get a recovery timer (via a widget), and VO2 Max is tracked within Garmin Connect.
Conversely, Forerunner 265 is packed with fitness insights.
You get advanced data on recovery, Training Load and effect, and VO2 Max, and there’s the PacePro guidance of race pace, Training Readiness, and detailed running form, including running power. It’s ridiculously detailed, and that’s just for runners.
It has the same swimming powers, but tons more metrics for cycling and can hook up to sensors for things like cadence, FTP, and power. However, Forerunner 265 has no mode for golf.
It offers a much deeper dive into your running form, fitness, and recovery, and is packed with tools designed to make you a better runner.
Venu 3 boasts GPS, which was nicely accurate during our review.
But Forerunner 265 has multiband GNSS, a more accurate type of GPS, which is better when there are tall buildings and tree cover around.
In short, Forerunner 265 is a much more powerful fitness device that is still really versatile at the same price.
Health features
When it comes to health and wellness tracking, Venu 3 (above) does come into its own.
It boasts an ECG, so you can spot-check your heart rhythm, and it may notify you of patterns associated with AFib.
Venu 3 incorporates wellness-oriented features, such as sleep tracking, Sleep Coach, and Morning Report. It also includes heart rate variability (HRV) tracking and Body Battery for overall well-being insights.
Venu 3 also offers extra Body Battery insights and will take into account when you recharge your body by resting.
Forerunner 265 does most of the same and provides health metrics like resting heart rate, SpO2 readings, stress, Body Battery, and respiratory rate.
However, it lacks ECG functionality, which is present in Venu 3.
The two watches also detect naps, have improved sleep tracking, and a sleep coach, which advises you how many hours of rest you need, taking into account sleep debt and workouts.
Both are pretty much on par in terms of wellness and health, but with ECG, Venu 3 just edges it.
Smart features
Venu 3 is the smarter Garmin watch here—but only just.
It enables you to make and take calls from the wrist, and you can also speak to your phone’s voice assistant using the built-in speaker and mic.
There’s also Garmin Pay, phone notifications, Connect IQ apps, offline Spotify, Morning Report, weather widgets, and more.
Forerunner 265 also supports notifications, Garmin Pay, Connect IQ apps, offline Spotify, and all the rest—but it can’t offer calling/voice features.
This does feel like quite a small trade-off.
Battery life
Venu 3 offers a commendable battery life of up to 14 days, with the smaller 41mm model lasting around 10 days.
In active use with All Systems GPS tracking, it provides about 20 hours, making it suitable for long workouts.
Forerunner 265 delivers impressive battery life, even with its AMOLED screen. As standard, it will last 13 days as a smartwatch, and GPS tracking at the same accuracy as Venu 3 will yield 20 hours.
Using the most accurate multiband GNSS will give you 14 hours—so it boasts impressive longevity.
Which is right for you?
The choice between Garmin Venu 3 and Garmin Forerunner 265 depends on your priorities.
If you’re looking for a premium smartwatch with advanced health and wellness features, but running and fitness are casual pastimes for you, Venu 3 is the right choice.
If serious fitness and workout analysis are important to you, then it’s all about Forerunner 265. If you’re someone who thinks about their PBs and has ambitions to bring them down, then Venu 3 can’t offer the same tools.
Forerunner 265 still packs Garmin’s top screen tech, but it just isn’t quite as refined as Venu 3. But it more than makes up for its slightly inferior screen and case quality with an astounding array of top running and fitness features, and is an indispensable training partner.
