Garmin Enduro 3 evaluate: Large battery beast

Given my selection, I’m a small tech man. I’d quite sport on an Analogue Pocket or Lenovo Legion Go than on a PlayStation 5, and my most popular cellphone has a display screen no bigger than 6.3 inches. To me, it’s robust to beat the pliability of getting additional area in my backpack or my pockets. Often, that love of smaller units extends to the watch on my wrist, too, with the featherweight Coros Tempo 3 guiding me by means of my most up-to-date marathon. Proper now, although, the huge Garmin Enduro 3 is attempting its greatest to vary my thoughts — and it’s working.

Maybe the true purpose I’m a small tech man is as a result of I’m a small man. Watches which might be too giant are likely to seem like Captain America’s protect on my wrist, and I typically really feel barely ridiculous whereas sporting them. Nevertheless, I’ve spent my justifiable share of the previous few years with every part from the HUAWEI Watch GT Runner to the Garmin Enduro 2 on my wrist, and I’ve considerably accepted my destiny. Do I want that every part got here in a extra democratic set of sizes? Certain do. I feel everybody might take a web page from Google’s smaller Pixel 9 Professional and provide a smaller measurement with out hobbling it on the specs and options aspect. Nevertheless, I additionally know that a few of the greatest smartwatches are often as giant as they’re to maximise, effectively, every part.

The Garmin Enduro 3 is not any exception. It seems virtually like the biggest model of Garmin’s Fenix 8 or Epix Professional 2, just a bit thicker — for those who can consider it. This beast of a wrist pancake sits at a whopping 15.7mm thick, and it’s noticeable. It’s a full millimeter thicker than the Fenix 8 AMOLED that I simply completed utilizing, and I’ve felt the distinction greater than I believed I’d. Fortunately, it’s not a lot of a difficulty whereas operating or biking, however the climbing fitness center is a special story. I have a tendency to make use of Garmin’s bouldering exercise to trace my climbs (or falls), and I’ve run into a number of spots the place I’ve reached for a maintain, solely to smack my watch towards the plastic itself. To date, there’s just one noticeable scratch on the titanium bezel, however a thinner watch may need escaped unscathed.

Whenever you hear a few watch this thick, although, I can think about the very first thing that involves thoughts — it needs to be heavy. Often, I’d agree with you — it suits proper in with the concept that heavier issues are by some means extra premium or sturdy. This time, that intuition is totally unsuitable. I typically overlook that the Enduro 3 is on my wrist due to how shockingly gentle it’s. With the nylon UltraFit band hooked up, the behemoth of a smartwatch solely weighs 63g, which is almost 40g lighter than a chrome steel Fenix 8 with the identical 51mm case. By some means, Garmin additionally ditched about 7g from its earlier Enduro 2, which is very spectacular contemplating the battery life is marketed as two days longer, often indicating a bigger, barely heavier battery.

At first, I wasn’t certain how Garmin managed to shave that a lot weight, however I feel it’s a mixture of the default titanium bezel with the lighter all-over polymer case. The Enduro 3 places all of its toughness up entrance, pairing the titanium bezel and sapphire glass show with a predominantly plastic physique, whereas the Fenix 8 and Enduro 2 use a steel again cowl, including toughness and weight. I feel the plastic again makes a bit extra sense, as you’re in all probability not going to smack the guts price sensor towards something onerous in your day-to-day utilization. It’s not winter right here within the Mid-Atlantic simply but, however I’d think about I’ll be glad to have much less conductive plastic towards my wrist over an icy steel disk as soon as it will get chilly.

We’re not fairly to these days but, however once we attain them, I’m certain I’ll should cost my Enduro 3 for the primary (or perhaps second) time. Every part about this GPS watch appears designed with one factor in thoughts — additional battery life. The massive case permits for a bigger cell — although Garmin doesn’t specify capability — and the 1.4-inch watch face comes wrapped with a slim photo voltaic charging ring that would technically make the Enduro 3 final endlessly with the proper battery settings. I’ve largely stored mine in smartwatch mode, although, which tops out at 36 days of normal utilization or 90 days when maximizing your photo voltaic charging.

Additionally, whereas I can settle for that the Garmin Enduro 3 will at all times look huge on my wrist, I’m unsure I’m satisfied by Garmin’s UltraFit nylon watchband. Whereas I like that it’s simply adjustable due to panels of hook and loop material at every finish, I’ve the identical drawback I had with the Coros Tempo 3 — I’m a sweater. It’s not Garmin’s fault, however I’m usually fairly sweaty by about mile two of a run, and all that moisture has to go someplace. Sadly, the Enduro 3’s answer appears to be sopping it into the material watchband, which feels gross as soon as I end my exercise and cease for espresso. Damp, chilly sweat in your wrist isn’t the very best feeling if you already know what I imply. Fortunately, you possibly can swap it out for a greater watchband with out a lot effort, however Garmin doesn’t promote an Enduro 3 with an alternate proper out of the field.

With solely 5 weeks between the final two marathons I ran — one thing I don’t suggest doing — the Enduro 3 slotted in as my much-needed coaching companion. Whereas coaching for one marathon is difficult, discovering a strategy to keep that health for 5 additional weeks with out getting injured is much more difficult. So, whereas I’ve primarily been counting on the Enduro 3 as a road-running wearable, it’s additionally turn out to be useful for a number of journeys to the climbing fitness center, a motorbike journey or two, and the primary week of my rec league soccer group’s new season. To date, it’s dealt with every part I’ve requested of it as a health tracker and finished so with out ever asking for a cost.

And sure, you can say, “After all it hasn’t wanted a cost, you haven’t been sporting it for a full month,” and also you’d be right. Nevertheless, my Enduro 3 didn’t arrive with a full battery, it got here with about 55% cost remaining. Issue within the additional battery drain whereas setting the watch up and operating it by means of an replace or two, and we’ll say the watch was half full by the point I set out for my adventures. So, after I let you know that the Enduro 3 sits right here at a cool 19% cost after two weeks of exercise monitoring, it definitely seems like Garmin’s marketed 36 days is inside attain, even with restricted sunshine for the photo voltaic ring to reap the benefits of within the final week or so.

Thus far, the spotlight of my time with the Enduro 3 has been draining my Physique Battery with a 20-mile future whereas serving to a number of of my associates put together for the Philadelphia Marathon. Collectively, our objective is to tempo a number of marathon debutants to a end time of beneath 4 hours, which implies sustaining a tempo of round 9 minutes per mile. That’s barely lower than race tempo for me, so I popped into Garmin Connect with arrange a exercise with tempo reminders to maintain me on observe. When the morning of the long term got here, I used to be capable of hop into the exercise I’d created and preserve our little coaching pack of 4 runners hovering proper between the 8:45 and 9:00 marks for all the morning — a reasonably good signal for once we add six extra miles to the tip.

After all, constructing exercises and getting tempo reminders from Garmin is nothing new. I’ve been doing it for about so long as I’ve been sporting Garmin watches. Nevertheless, with the development in wrist-mounted well being monitoring, I used to be curious to see if the Enduro 3 had any new methods in retailer. And the reply is, effectively, probably not. It’s virtually precisely the identical because the Fenix 8 beneath the hood, which means that it pairs the fifth-generation optical Elevate coronary heart price sensor with a bevy of tracking-ready sensors. There’s one omission, although — the depth sensor that’s good all the way down to 40m — so for those who’re an avid diver and a distance runner, this may be one to skip.

Anyway, so far as the issues the Enduro 3 can observe, it nails them. All through our 20 miles, the watch stored an correct log of my coronary heart price and elevation — each of which have been surprisingly different as we lined the rolling hills across the Baltimore-Washington Worldwide Airport. They weren’t incorrect — Garmin’s evaluation of my general effort matched my very own — however I used to be stunned to see my coronary heart price tick above 160 beats per minute a few times till I remembered a few of the sneakier hills alongside our route. These hills don’t mirror effectively on the Enduro 3’s map, however that may be as a result of the geography round BWI isn’t precisely thrilling. I grabbed a snippet of the one space the place we crisscrossed the identical path a number of occasions to see if the watch might put me on the proper aspect every time, and it did so with out subject.

If you happen to’re going to brag a few machine’s battery life, it helps to know simply how a lot juice a future takes out of it. In my case, the reply was a mere 4% over the course of about three hours — not too shabby in any respect. That labored out to a price of about 1.3% per hour, which means I ought to handle round 75 hours of operating between costs, which is far more than I log in a mean month. Only for enjoyable, I believed I’d examine on the battery drain from an hourlong indoor bouldering session and located one other shock: The battery fell from 32% to, effectively, 32%. As a result of the Enduro 3 wasn’t monitoring my GPS location or providing emergency providers ought to I tumble off the wall, its battery drain barely shifted into first gear.

Granted, monitoring a bouldering exercise is about as light-weight as attainable with the Enduro 3. Every part from selecting your problem and beginning a climb to logging it as Accomplished or Tried is completed manually, and all of the watch has to do is monitor your coronary heart price. Even nonetheless, I’ll take the truth that with 19% of its battery remaining, the Enduro 3 says I might observe 55 extra hours of climbing earlier than I would like a cost.

Ultimately, although, I might want to cost my watch — realistically, I’ll achieve this earlier than the Philadelphia Marathon, simply in case — and it’ll remind me of my least favourite Garmin characteristic: The proprietary charging cable. I’m glad Garmin has graduated to a USB-C connector for newer variations of its cable, however the four-pin setup remains to be a ache when every part else I personal might be charged by way of the identical setup. Fortunately, I don’t want a Garmin charger for a weekend away (or perhaps a week away), however I’d nonetheless welcome the day I’ve a Qi2-enabled journey watch.

After all, for the Enduro 3 to have this a lot of an edge in battery life over the Fenix 8, some sacrifices needed to be made — most notably the dearth of an AMOLED face. Whereas most of Garmin’s latest journey watches include the intense new show as a normal characteristic (or at the least an elective additional), the Enduro 3 solely affords the traditional Reminiscence in Pixel (MiP) show of older watches. At first, I used to be barely disillusioned to drop again to the MiP days, however I can perceive why Garmin opted for its older tech. It’s not as brilliant, nor does it have the identical animations because the Fenix 8, thus permitting the Enduro 3 to financial institution just a little bit of additional battery life.

Additionally, utilizing an older, extra acquainted show expertise means the Enduro 3 has a large library of third-party watch faces. See, at any time when third-party builders create a Garmin watch face, they should optimize it for every new sort of show, which is usually simpler mentioned than finished. I’ve been utilizing first-party Garmin faces on the Epix Professional 2 and Fenix 8 whereas sporting them, just because there aren’t as many choices for the AMOLED panels. With the Enduro 3, although, I used to be capable of set up the “That is nice” face that options everybody’s favourite cartoon canine in a burning room. It’s the identical face I transformed a number of associates to utilizing whereas I wore the Enduro 2, and I’m glad to have it again, even when the animated fireplace may cost a little me a number of hours of general battery life.

Sadly, one of many Enduro 3’s different omissions is one which I’d simply gotten used to — there’s no microphone or speaker, which implies that is an journey watch, at the beginning. It misses out on the help for good assistants like Gemini and Siri, and you’ll’t use the Enduro 3 to take calls out of your wrist. Certain, you possibly can nonetheless press a button to simply accept a name, however you then rapidly should seize your cellphone out of your pocket. Nevertheless, for those who’re not coming to the Enduro 3 from one thing just like the Venu or Fenix 8 you received’t have had this stage of calling help on one other Garmin to start with. I miss it now that it’s gone, however I wouldn’t say that decision and voice help are important for those who’re taking the Enduro 3 to its most popular residence away from dependable cell protection.

Fortunately, these sacrifices didn’t embrace altering the Enduro’s built-in LED flashlight. I’ve gotten used to the characteristic all through my previous few Garmin evaluations, and it’s turn out to be one which I can’t dwell with out. I don’t assume I’d name the tiny gentle brilliant sufficient for a path run in pitch darkness, however it’s turn out to be useful in a number of non-life-threatening conditions, like studying the printed karaoke listing in a poorly lit bar or in search of a sweatshirt in my darkish closet after I can’t be bothered to activate the sunshine. Granted, the LED gentle would possibly get up barely higher for those who max out its brightness, however I are likely to preserve it midway brilliant to avoid wasting battery.

The required sacrifices didn’t come for Garmin Pay, both — not that I anticipated them to. I proceed to depend on Garmin’s NFC help on a weekly foundation — taking a look at you, Coros — particularly after I end a future with out my pockets at a farmers’ market and I’m virtually begging for espresso.

On the finish of the day, I feel the Garmin Enduro 3 will at all times be too large for me. It should at all times really feel like a little bit of a pancake on my wrist, and I’ll in all probability have to change to one thing smaller at any time when I’m residing a bit extra casually — however I don’t assume I thoughts. Nowhere does Garmin invoice this as something lower than an ultra-performance journey watch, nor do I feel it must be handled as one. In reality, I don’t assume it’s a GPS watch that it’s worthwhile to purchase until you’re particularly able to push it to its limits — limits that I haven’t run into simply but.

Are there adventurers who might massively profit from the Enduro 3’s unbelievable battery life and mapping options? After all. They’re the categories who’ve accepted that their multi-day adventures will include sleep-tracking outcomes that will fear a therapist, and their Photo voltaic Depth graphs seem like a wholesome heartbeat quite than the flatline with an occasional spike that mine tends to mirror. If Garmin’s Fenix 8 AMOLED is the very best ‘extremely’ GPS watch available on the market, the Enduro 3 is the very best of no matter lies past that time. It even manages to succeed in that time whereas trimming some weight from the earlier technology, including a day or two of battery life, and dropping its launch worth beneath the $1,000 threshold that Garmin’s very prime watches attain.

With these nice adventures, nonetheless, come the omissions I discussed above. This isn’t a watch that’s meant to compete with the Apple Watch Extremely or Galaxy Watch Extremely when it comes to good options. It’s not going to problem Garmin’s personal Fenix 8 AMOLED when it comes to creature comforts or animations. It should get you to the trailhead and final from the time you lace up your mountaineering boots (or path trainers) to the time you lastly bathe, presumably a number of days later. Avid divers will need to skip this one because of its lack of a depth sensor, and the sweatier amongst us will in all probability need to change the UltraFit watchband, on the very least.

And, for those who determine you could have the price range for an Enduro 3 however need just a little extra high quality of life, the excellent news is that every one three watches I discussed above are available. Any of the Apple Watch Extremely ($759.99 at eBay), Samsung Galaxy Watch Extremely ($472.98 at Amazon), or Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED ($999.99 at Amazon) will slot proper in to your adventures, however you’ll be capable to put on them for the remainder of the day, too. I’d nonetheless lean in direction of the Fenix 8 out of that trio, primarily as a result of I bounce from Android to iOS and again once more all year long, however you’ll in all probability discover higher integration from one of many first two for those who’re a devoted iPhone or Galaxy consumer. Simply know that the Enduro 3 could have weeks — sure, weeks — of battery life remaining after you’ve charged any of its opponents.