Garmin is launching the Venu 3 and smaller Venu 3S smartwatches today with a greater focus on sleep-tracking and personalization. In particular, it's adding a proactive sleep coaching feature and nap detection. The latter is noteworthy, considering most modern smartwatches from companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google can track your sleep, but only at night. With the Venu 3 series, you'll be able to rest easy knowing your daytime slumber can also be tracked, if that's your kind of thing.
The company's new sleep coach considers factors such as a user's daily activity levels, sleep history, and heart rate variability (HRV) – which is a sleep metric new to the Venu series. The coach will provide recommendations on the amount of sleep you’ll need to make it through the next day. The naps that the Venu 3 detects will also go towards replenishing energy levels as tracked by the company’s “Body Battery” tool, which quantifies energy levels on a scale of 1-100 depending on activity expenditure.
Aside from sleep-tracking upgrades, the Venu 3 has a host of other improvements over its predecessor. Notably, it introduces a wheelchair mode that will track pushes rather than steps, as well as handcycle activities and pre-loaded workouts for wheelchair users, offering more inclusivity. The new watch also offers expanded insights on how workouts can affect a user and how much time is needed to recover after every gym session.
Additionally, Garmin is bringing a “rate of perceived exertion” feature, which enables users to report how challenging a workout felt. With this, the company is trying something new in the fitness arena. Instead of just crunching numbers, it’s dipping its toes into subjective data – the kind of information that's all about personal judgment and individual experiences. The Venu 3 also introduces “interval creation,” which gives a runner or biker the option to build interval workouts from the watch face.
Beyond expanding health and fitness tracking features, Garmin says this watch will have a built-in speaker and microphone that will allow a wearer to make calls from the watch. The Venu 3 can also display photo messages on its AMOLED touchscreen. You'll be able to make contactless payments using Garmin Pay and stream music from Spotify and Amazon Music, as well.
The Venu 3 will start at $449.99 and offers up to 14 days of battery life in smartwatch mode. It features a light stainless steel bezel and has silicone bands in either white or black, while five strap color options are available for the smaller 3S.
It’s still unclear if older Venu models will receive software updates that will bring these new features over. But for a mainstream smartwatch from a company that mostly caters to a fitness-focused audience, the Venu 3 appears to be a step forward.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/garmins-new-venu-3-smartwatch-knows-when-youve-been-napping-110009177.html?src=rss The fitness tracker isn’t dead, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the people keeping these little devices alive. Smartwatches like the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch have all but taken over the mainstream wearable space, but the humble fitness tracker remains an option for anyone that's really focused on one thing: accurate workout and daily activity monitoring. Despite the overwhelming popularity of smartwatches, there are still a number of solid fitness bands out there to choose from. We've tested a bunch of the most popular fitness trackers available today to name our top picks.
The answer seems simple: Fitness trackers are best at monitoring exercise, be it a 10-minute walk around the block or that half marathon you’ve been diligently training for. Obviously, smartwatches can help you reach your fitness goals too, but there are some areas where fitness bands have proven to be the best buy: focus, design, battery life and price.
When I say “focus,” I’m alluding to the fact that fitness trackers are made to track activity well; anything else is extra. They often don’t have the bells and whistles that smartwatches do, which could distract from their health tracking abilities. They also tend to have fewer sensors and internal components, which keeps them smaller and lighter. Fitness trackers are also a better option for those who just want a less conspicuous device on their wrists all day.
Battery life tends to be better on fitness trackers, too. While most smartwatches last one to two days on a single charge, fitness bands offer between five and seven days of battery life — and that’s with all-day and all-night use even with sleep tracking features enabled
When it comes to price point, there’s no competition. Most worthwhile smartwatches start at $175 to $200, but you can get a solid fitness tracker starting at $70. Yes, more expensive bands exist (and we recommend a few here), but you’ll find more options under $150 in the fitness tracker space than in the smartwatch space.
If you need a bit more from your wearable, a smartwatch may be the best buy for you. There are things like on-watch apps, alerts and even more robust fitness features that smartwatches have and the best fitness trackers don’t. You can use one to control smart home appliances, set timers and reminders, check weather reports and more. Some smartwatches let you choose which apps you want to receive alerts from, and the options go beyond just call and text notifications.
But the extra fitness features are arguably the most important thing to think about when deciding between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. The latter devices tend to be larger, giving them more space for things like GPS, barometers, onboard music storage and more. While you can find built-in GPS on select fitness trackers, it’s not common.
The Fitbit Inspire 3 strips out all the luxury features from the Charge 6 and keeps only the essential tracking features. You won’t get built-in GPS tracking or Fitbit Pay or Spotify control but you do get solid activity tracking, automatic workout detection, smartphone alerts and plenty more. The updated version has a sleeker design and includes a color touch display and connected GPS, the latter of which lets you track pace and distance while you run or bike outside while you have your phone with you. When compared to the Charge 6, the Inspire 3 is more fashionable, too. Its interchangeable bands let you switch up the look and feel of your tracker whenever you want, and it’s slim enough to blend in with other jewelry you might be wearing. We were also impressed by its multi-day battery life: Fitbit promises up to 10 days on a single charge, and that checked out for us. After four days of round-the-clock use, the Inspire 3 still had 66 percent battery left to go.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-fitness-trackers-133053484.html?src=rss 