Google Pixel Watch 3 vs Garmin Venu 3: Main differences to expect – Ultra-Sim

Design & Sizes

Compact and classy

There will be two sizes of the Pixel Watch 3 this year: 41mm and 45mm. We think it’s great that Google’s offering its flagship wearable in two sizes, as it gives adopters more choice.

We have no specifics about the materials used on either of the watches, but we don’t think Google will rely on titanium or stainless steel. At best, we’d expect the case of the watch to be made of aluminum, which will ensure light weight. The Pixel Watch 3 will likely be IP68-rated, so standard water-resistance.

Meanwhile, the Venu 3 is also a classic-looking watch, and pretty lightweight at that, which is lovely. The reason for that could be the plastic body and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 that make up the design of the device. 

In terms of buttons, there will be a single button/digital crown on the Pixel Watch, and three buttons on the Garmin, which should come in handy during intensive workouts. 

Both watches feature OLED displays. However, the Pixel Watch 3 will have a much higher peak brightness of nearly 2,000 nits, which the Garmin wouldn’t be able to beat. 

Bands

According to leaked promotional materials, the Pixel Watch 3 will support with a multitude of watch bands in different styles––classic, modern, and sporty. By default, the phone will arrive with a stock Active Band, likely a standard silicone one. Google will seemingly offer both a small and a large band in the box so that you would be able to customize your fit. 

The Garmin Venu 3, on the other hand, relies on a classic lug and spring-bar mechanism that allows you to use any standard watch band with it if you don’t like the default sporty silicone one. Be advised, however, that the larger and the smaller versions of the watch use different-sized bands: the Garmin Venu 3 (45mm) uses 22mm spring bar bands, while the Garmin Venu 3S (41mm) uses 18mm spring bar bands.

Software & Features

AI is now on your wrist

The Pixel Watch 3 reportedly has some new features when it comes to health and activity related features. You will be able to create custom runs and race against your saved workouts to motivate yourself. A similar feature was also part of the Galaxy Watch Ultra/Galaxy Watch 7 roster, so a feature parity with the rest of the Wear OS 5 lineup could be achieved.  

A personal trainer on your wrist, of sorts, will give you haptic cues when to sprint, stop to cool down, or just keep going. The Pixel Watch 3 will provide you with insights about your cadence, stride, and vertical oscillations. 

Another new feature is called Readiness. It sounds very similar to Garmin’s Body Battery and Samsung’s Energy Score. Readiness will tell you if you’re ready to take up activities and will most probably utilize your most recent sleep data. Cardio Load, on the other hand, will tell you just how prepared you are for physical activity and will draw data from your heart rate and possibly blood oxygen saturation. 

The Pixel Watch 3 will come with Fitbit Premium, a health tracking app powered by AI, and advanced health data. You will be getting a summary of the most important health and fitness numbers in the Fitbit Morning brief every morning. 

And what about the Garmin Venu 3?

Well, for one, its interface is definitely a far cry from the sleek and intuitive one of most Wear OS devices, including the upcoming Pixel Watch. It’s clunky and difficult to grasp, with simple operations like changing your watchface requiring lots of taps and menu juggling. In fact, everything with the proprietary Garmin OS requires you to know your way around all the settings and menus.

In terms of features, however, the Garmin is well-equipped. It comes with the Garmin’s Elevate Gen5 sensor, which enables heart rate monitoring, HRV (which measures the shift in timing between heart beats and could be used to predict illness or not enough sleep), blood oxygen monitoring, ECG, and more.

The Garmin has pretty good sleep tracking, and aside from detecting the different stages of your sleep, it also has a Body Battery metric. This one, which seemingly everyone is trying to copy this year, uses various health metrics like your sleep quality and previous day’s activities to tell you how well rested and ready to train you are. 

Interestingly, the Pixel Watch 3 will score 20% faster charging, but only on the small model. The large one will certainly take longer to charge. You will be able to do that by utilizing the magnetic charging puck that will come in the box. 

Garmin’s Venu 3, on the other hand, has a charging cable with a proprietary port. It surely is a bit more inconvenient in comparison with the “place-and-charge” philosophy behind most smartwatches, but since you’d be charging so rarely, the nuisance is excusable!

Meanwhile, the Garmin Venu 3 is available i n two versions: a 41mm version dubbed the Venu 3S, and a 45mm one simply called the Venu 3. Prices start at $450 for this one, and it’s a bit steeper, but you get an unprecedented battery life, which is totally worth the investment.