Garmin Venu 3/3S vs Venu 2/2S vs Venu 2 Plus | What's the Difference?

We Compare the Garmin Venu 3/3S vs the Venu 2/2S & 2 Plus Fitness GPS Watches

The Garmin Venu 3/3S is the ultimate health and wellness fitness GPS smartwatch that combines the benefits of the previous Venu 2/2S and Venu 2 Plus—along with so many more cool new features!

And, yes, this Venu smartwatch also has the built-in mic and speaker so you can make and take calls from the wrist, as well as use your phone’s smart features.

On top of all the upgrades, the Venu 3 is literally topped with an eye-catching AMOLED display available in two sizes and several fresh color schemes.

When they built this Garmin watch, they had the health and fitness goals of every user in mind, adding two font sizes, more recovery data, audio prompts, Nap Detection, Wheelchair mode, and more!

And perhaps the sweetest detail is that Garmin kept the price the same as the Venu 2 Plus—even with all the new features!

In this article, we’re comparing the Venu 3/3S with the Venu 2/2S and 2 Plus to show you everything this new Garmin watch can do!

What's New with the Garmin Venu 3/3S?

Smartphone function from the wrist—plus a whole lot of upgrades!

When it comes to health, wellness, fitness, smart features, and wearability, Garmin definitely put a lot more into the new Venu 3 smartwatch. Here’s a list of upgrades and new features you can look forward to:

• New Sleep Coach
• New Morning Report—An overview of your sleep, recovery, and more!
• New Nap Detection
• New Wheelchair Mode
• New Workout benefit and recovery
• New Rate of perceived exertion
• New Interval Creation
• New Meditation activity
• New Built-in speaker and mic to make and take calls from the wrist
• New Two font sizes—small and large
• New Smart trainer control
• New Gaming Activity and GameOn™
• New Audio prompts
• New Recovery Time & HRV Status
• New Built-in sports apps/activities: Tennis, Paddelboarding, Pickleball, eBiking, Handcycling, Indoor Handcycling, Snowshoeing, Workouts for Wheelchair Users, Open-Water Swim Metrics, Auto Rest (Pool Swim)
• New Activity tracking: Push Tracker, Weight Shift Alert
• New Slightly larger displays on both sizes (1.2” and 1.4”)
• New View photos sent to you on watch screen (Android only)
• New Jet Lag Advisor
• Improved Body Battery
• Improved Battery life
• 24/7 health monitoring for heart rate, Pulse Ox, respiration, and energy levels
• Loaded with a ton of Gym, Run, Bike, Swim, Golf, and Outdoor sport profiles and features.
• Available in two sizes
• Bright AMOLED display
• Smart notifications, Garmin Pay™ and on-wrist texting
• Download music from streaming services for phone-free listening

 Image of Garmin Venu 3 by PlayBetter

Garmin Venu 2 Series Features

Venu 2/2S AMOLED DISPLAY

An AMOLED display allows for more control over each pixel, resulting in richer blacks and power economy in darker watch faces. Viewing angles are better as well, which is especially desirable in a device that is being used all day for both its smartwatch and sport-specific features.

But let's be real: The gorgeous, ultrabright Venu series watches are just plain nice to look at. You'll upgrade your wrist in every way with a Garmin Venu 2/2S.

Health-Monitoring Features

You can count on a big batch of advanced health-tracking from the Venu 2/2S, including the Garmin Elevate sensor for Wrist-Based Heart Rate (constant, every second), Daily Resting Heart Rate, Abnormal Heart Rate Alerts, Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation (spot-check, and optional all-day acclimation and in sleep), Respiration Rate (24x7), Sleep Score and Insights, All-Day Stress, Relaxation Breathing Timer, Advanced Sleep, Hydration, and Women's Health.

Additionally, Fitness Age reinterprets your VO2 Max score in terms of age to make it more relatable by estimating the body’s age using chronological age, activity, resting heart rate, and either body fat % or BMI. The Body Battery™ energy monitor allows you to track your body’s energy levels so you can find the best times for activity. With Sleep Insights, you get recommendations on how to improve sleep based on your score.

Tracking Fitness with Venu 2/2S GPS Smartwatch

With multi-GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo) and ABC sensors, you get the best activity tracking beyond steps and calories counted, like floors climbed and GPS-based distance, time, and pace for running. Plus, this GPS watch is loaded with sport profiles from cycling to golf to snowboarding.

Easy-to-follow, animated cardio, strength, yoga, Pilates, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts come preloaded on the Venu 2/2S, and you can download more from the Garmin Connect app. This multisport GPS watch also has added sport modes and advanced strength training and workout profiles.

To view the full list of what's offered on this watch, visit our Garmin fitness watch spec page.

Image of Garmin Venu 3 GPS Smartwatches by PlayBetter

Daily Smart Features

Receive smart notifications on your Venu 2 series watch, store up to 650 songs on-watch and control and play the music from your phone, use the Connect IQ™ store to personalize your watch with free downloads of apps, widgets, watch faces, data fields, music streaming services, and more. Sync with Garmin Connect for tracking, analyzing, and sharing health and fitness activities recorded by your paired Garmin device. Plus, there has never been a better time to have Garmin Pay™ contactless payments on your wrist!

We recommend you check out this article to really dig into some of the surprising and cool things you can do with Garmin watches.

Venu 2 & 2S Battery Life

The Venu 2 gets up to 11 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, up to 12 days in battery saver smartwatch mode, up to 8 hours in GPS mode with music, and up to 22 hours GPS mode without music.

The Venu 2S has up to 10 days in smartwatch mode, up to 11 days in battery saver smartwatch mode, up to 7 hours in GPS mode with music, and up to 19 hours GPS mode without music.

Venu 2 Sizes & Color Schemes

The main difference between the Venu 2 and the Venu 2S is the size. The Venu 2 options offer a bright 1.3" AMOLED display — larger than the previous Venu. The Venu 2S is for those who prefer the smaller, classic 1.1" display.

The larger-screened Venu 2 offers 2 sleek color palettes: a silver bezel with granite blue case and silicone band or a slate bezel with a black case and silicone band.

The Venu 2S is a bit more adventurous with 4 fashionable color combos: a silver bezel with a mist gray case and silicone band, a slate bezel with a graphite case and silicone band, a light gold and tan case and silicone band, and a rose gold and white case and silicone band.

Not only are these smartwatches right for your wrist while you're switching up activities, but they look good in whatever mode you're in — work or play!

Garmin Venu 2 vs Venu 2 Plus GPS Smartwatch Comparison

Garmin Venu 2 Plus Benefits

Far and away, the greatest benefit to be gained by this new Garmin watch upgrade is the ability to use many of your smartphone functions without the added cost of a cellular plan on your watch.

When paired with your compatible smartphone, enjoy the convenience of making and taking phone calls from your wrist with your new Venu 2 Plus.

Additionally, use your compatible smartphone's voice assistant to respond to text messages, ask questions, control compatible smart home devices, and more!

Other Differences Between Venu 2 & Venu 2 Plus

The Venu 2 Plus has all the health, fitness, and smart features that the Venu 2/2S models have.

The Venu 2 Plus battery life is slightly less than the Venu 2: up to 9 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, up to 10 days in battery saver smartwatch mode, up to 8 hours in GPS mode with music, and 24 hours in GPS mode without music.

Aside from the major addition of on-watch phone calls and voice assistant functions, this new Venu 2 family member has just a few more distinctions.

Size

While the Garmin Venu 2 and 2S have 1.3" and 1.1" AMOLED displays, respectively, the Venu 2 Plus has a 1.3" display. It does, however, have a slightly smaller case size than the Venu 2.

Color

The Venu 2 Plus offers its own three color schemes, including black with slate bezel, powder gray with silver bezel, and ivory with cream gold bezel.

Price

The Venu Plus 2 will set you back $100 more than the Venu 2/2S models. However, it will move you forward in terms of allowing you to make calls and to use other smartphone functions through your watch.

For a full view of the lineup, jump to our Garmin Venu 2 Plus experience page.

Image of Garmin Venu 3 by PlayBetter

What’s the Difference Between Venu 3/3S and Venu 2/2S?

The Venu 3/3S Series offers improved battery life:

• Smartwatch Mode: 14 days/10 days; GPS Mode: 26 hours/21 hours. 

Compared to Venu 2/2S battery life: 

• Smartwatch Mode: 11 days/10 days; GPS Mode: 22 hours/19 hours.

The Garmin Venu 3 and 3S have slightly larger displays with a sleeker, lighter build:

• Venu 3: 45 x 45 x 12 mm / 1.4” display / 47 g
• Venu 2: 45.4 x 45.4 x 12.2 mm / 1.3” display / 49 g 
• Venu 3S: 41 x 41 x 12 mm  / 1.2” display / 42 g
• Venu 2S: 40.4 x 40.4 x 12.1 mm  / 1.1” display / 38.2 g

Plus, you’ll enjoy ALL these new features on the Garmin Venu 3 series:

• Sleep Coach and Nap Detection
• HRV Status
• Meditation
• Workout Benefit
• Recovery Time
• Wheelchair Mode
• Audio Prompts
• Interval Training
• Power meter compatible
• Phone calls (when connected to smartphone)
• Text response via voice (when connected to smartphone)
• Text response via keyboard (when connected to smartphone)
• Viewable text photos ((when connected to smartphone; Android only)
• The latest Gen 5 heart rate sensor
• Large font size option
• New Built-in sports apps/activities: Tennis, Paddelboarding, Pickleball, eBiking, Handcycling, Indoor Handcycling, Snowshoeing, Workouts for Wheelchair Users, Open-Water Swim Metrics, Auto Rest (Pool Swim), Gaming
• New Activity tracking: Push Tracker, Weight Shift Alert
• New Jet Lag Advisor

Garmin Venu 3 vs Venu 2 Plus GPS Watches

The Venu 3/3S Series offers improved battery life:

• Smartwatch Mode: 14 days/10 days; GPS Mode: 26 hours/21 hours

Compared to Venu 2 Plus battery life:

• Smartwatch Mode: 9 days; GPS Mode: 24 hours

There’s slight size difference between the Venu 3/3S and Venu 2 Plus:

• Venu 3: 45 x 45 x 12 mm / 1.4” display / 47 g
• Venu 3S: 41 x 41 x 12 mm  / 1.2” display / 42 g
• Venu 2 Plus: 43.6 x 43.6 x 12.6 mm / 1.3” display / 51 g 

 More new features on the Venu 3/3S GPS smartwatch:

• Sleep Coach and Nap Detection
• HRV Status
• Meditation
• Workout Benefit
• Recovery Time
• Wheelchair Mode
• Audio Prompts
• Interval Training
• Power meter compatible
• Viewable text photos ((when connected to smartphone; Android only)
• The latest Gen 5 heart rate sensor
• Large font size option
• New Built-in sports apps/activities: Tennis, Paddelboarding, Pickleball, eBiking, Handcycling, Indoor Handcycling, Snowshoeing, Workouts for Wheelchair Users, Open-Water Swim Metrics, Auto Rest (Pool Swim), Gaming
• New Activity tracking: Push Tracker, Weight Shift Alert
• New Jet Lag Advisor

Image of Garmin Venu 3 Fitness Watches by PlayBetter

About Venu 3’s New Health and Fitness Features

• Sleep Coach: Receive a sleep score and personalized coaching for how much sleep is recommended and keep track of different sleep stages, naps and other key metrics such as Pulse Ox and heart rate variability (HRV) status.
• Morning Report: Receive an overview of sleep, recovery, HRV status and more upon waking up. Even customize the report to view more personalized details.
• Nap Detection: Automatically track or log naps to see how they may benefit the body and the suggested time and duration they should be.
• Body Battery improvements: Monitor energy levels throughout the day to find the best times for activity and rest. And get even more details and personal insights on how sleep, naps, daily activities and high stress specifically impact energy levels.
• Jet Lag Advisor: Monitor your sleep while traveling with personalized tips to help reduce jet lag.
• Meditation: Help reduce stress, anxiety and more with guided meditation practices. 
• Wheelchair mode: Track daily pushes and receive weight shift alerts plus wheelchair-specific sports apps and workouts. In creating these new features, the algorithms of some existing features were modified to enhance the meaningfulness of key insights for wheelchair users.
• Workout benefit and recovery time: Better understand how each workout affects the body and how much time is needed to recover to take on any fitness challenge.
• Rate of perceived exertion: Record how difficult a workout was and how it felt.
• Interval creation: Build interval workouts for running and cycling activities right on the watch.
• Track cycling power in watts (when paired with a compatible power meter or indoor bike).

Venu 3/3S Size, Display, and Colors

• Venu 3: 45 x 45 x 12 mm / 1.4” display / 47 g
• Venu 3S: 41 x 41 x 12 mm  / 1.2” display / 42 g

The Garmin Venu 3/3S fitness GPS watch continues to feature a stunningly bright AMOLED touchscreen display. You can also use the traditional 5-button operation on the smartwatch when it is more optimal. 

As for style, these 2023 Garmin watches offer some striking new color palettes, including:

• Garmin Venu 3 Colors: 
• Silver Bezel/Whitestone Band
• Slate Bezel/Black Band
• Garmin Venu 3S Colors: 
• Soft Gold Bezel/French Gray Band
• Slate Bezel/Pebble Gray Band
• Silver Bezel/Sage Gray Band
• Soft Gold Bezel/Dust Rose Band
• Soft Gold Bezel/Ivory Band