Hi, first deal post so go easy.
Garmin Venu 3 at Myer is down from RRP of $749 to $636.65
If you pair this with this gift card deal: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/808128 then you can bring the price down to $576.65 by purchasing two $200 gift cards.
First decent discount I have seen on this watch.
Garmin has their own watch OS, which would be their equivalent to WearOS and no specific integration AFAIK.
They do offer their own apps for Android (which appears to let you send SMS) and iOS (which I use and doesn't support SMS due to Apple restrictions).
I have the Venu 3. On Android phones, you can reply using pre-defined texts (can add your own to the list) and also using T9 keyboard to type a message. Its clunky but better than nothing.
Do you find the venu 3 worth it?
I've only had two smartwatches - first being Garmin Venu 1 and now upgraded to the Venu 3. The battery life and screen was a huge upgrade. Having said that I'm finding that I get 10 days battery life with 6hrs of GPS tracking during that period. Not quite the quoted 15 days.
The mic on the watch is definitely handy for phone calls when you can't get to the phone, but the volume is a bit low even on max.
@Carbon Door: You're welcome. To answer your original question, yeah I think it was worth it for me. The battery life was the main drawcard and Garmin's fitness/health tracking is supposed to be one of the best on the market. The Venu 3 also recently got ECG approval in the US if you care for that.
If you want lots of third party apps and deep integration with iOS or Android, then it probably won't be the right watch.
I have had a Venu2 Plus which has most of the features of the Venu3. Overall it is an excellent watch with a very long battery life compared to the Galaxy and Apple watch. The only significant negative for me is the lack of ECG, despite having the hardware to support it. I suffer from bouts of irregular heartbeat (AF) so it would be nice to monitor the problem. In the US the ECG feature has been available for 9 months, but it appears that Garmin is not interested in getting the regulatory approval in Australia. I suspect it will be the same for the Venu3.
If you need or want ECG, then you have Samsung Galaxy, Apple watch and Fitbit Sense as other options.
According to this post, there are ways to enable the ECG outside the US for Venu 3. https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/179w44m/comment/k59…
Yes, i got it to work initially using the same techniques described in the reddit and it worked well for 6 weeks. The watch reset itself after an update and for some damn reason i cant get it to activate the ECG again after repeating the same steps.
Great deal! But can't you buy 3 $200 Myer gift card and get another $30 off have like $54 left on one of the GCs?
Could do, but then you outlay $600 in the first place. I just wanted the lowest purchase price with no leftover vouchers to spend at Myer.
Fair enough, thought you might want to edit the heading so your first deal or so looks even better! Ie it'll be about 27% instead of around 23%! :) either way good find, Ive been waiting for a quick decent deal!
Wife picked one up from Rebel sport after they price matched Myer's deal. Total price came to $572.40 after buying a $636 Rebel gift card at 10% off via Reward Gateway. Rebel also launched a new rewards program so they gave her $30 credit ($5 credit per $100 spend).
Do Garmins have native WearOS integration, eg sending SMS ?
I had to return a Huawei watch as it needed Huawei apps to be useful whereas the Ticwatch I've had for 18mths since has been awesome.