Garmin Enduro 3 assessment: Huge battery beast

Given my alternative, I’m a small tech man. I’d reasonably recreation on an Analogue Pocket or Lenovo Legion Go than on a PlayStation 5, and my most well-liked cellphone has a display screen no bigger than 6.3 inches. To me, it’s powerful to beat the pliability of getting further area in my backpack or my pockets. Normally, 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 finest to alter my thoughts — and it’s working.

Maybe the true motive I’m a small tech man is as a result of I’m a small man. Watches which can be too massive are inclined to appear to be Captain America’s defend on my wrist, and I typically really feel barely ridiculous whereas sporting them. Nevertheless, I’ve spent my fair proportion of the previous couple of years with every little thing 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 little thing got here in a extra democratic set of sizes? Certain do. I believe everybody may 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 facet. Nevertheless, I additionally know that a few of the finest smartwatches are often as massive as they’re to maximise, properly, every little thing.

The Garmin Enduro 3 isn’t any exception. It seems to be nearly like the biggest model of Garmin’s Fenix 8 or Epix Professional 2, just a bit thicker — should you 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 assumed I might. Fortunately, it’s not a lot of a problem whereas working or biking, however the climbing health club is a unique 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 couple of spots the place I’ve reached for a maintain, solely to smack my watch towards the plastic itself. Thus far, there’s just one noticeable scratch on the titanium bezel, however a thinner watch may need escaped unscathed.

Once you hear a couple of watch this thick, although, I can think about the very first thing that involves thoughts — it must be heavy. Normally, I might agree with you — it matches proper in with the concept that heavier issues are someway extra premium or sturdy. This time, that intuition is totally fallacious. I usually overlook that the Enduro 3 is on my wrist due to how shockingly mild it’s. With the nylon UltraFit band hooked up, the behemoth of a smartwatch solely weighs 63g, which is sort of 40g lighter than a stainless-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 believe 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 metallic again cowl, including toughness and weight. I believe the plastic again makes a bit extra sense, as you’re most likely not going to smack the center 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 metallic disk as soon as it will get chilly.

We’re not fairly to these days but, however after we attain them, I’m certain I’ll need to cost my Enduro 3 for the primary (or possibly second) time. Every thing about this GPS watch appears designed with one factor in thoughts — further 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 ceaselessly with the proper battery settings. I’ve largely saved 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 all the time 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 cloth 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 sometimes fairly sweaty by about mile two of a run, and all that moisture has to go someplace. Sadly, the Enduro 3’s resolution 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 most effective feeling if you already know what I imply. Fortunately, you may 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 advocate doing — the Enduro 3 slotted in as my much-needed coaching companion. Whereas coaching for one marathon is difficult, discovering a solution to keep that health for 5 further 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 couple of journeys to the climbing health club, a motorbike experience or two, and the primary week of my rec league soccer staff’s new season. Thus far, it’s dealt with every little thing I’ve requested of it as a health tracker and executed so with out ever asking for a cost.

And sure, you might say, “After all it hasn’t wanted a cost, you haven’t been sporting it for a full month,” and also you’d be appropriate. Nevertheless, my Enduro 3 didn’t arrive with a full battery, it got here with about 55% cost remaining. Issue within the further battery drain whereas setting the watch up and working 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, once I inform you that the Enduro 3 sits right here at a cool 19% cost after two weeks of exercise monitoring, it actually seems to be like Garmin’s marketed 36 days is inside attain, even with restricted sunshine for the photo voltaic ring to benefit from within the final week or so.

So 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 couple of of my mates put together for the Philadelphia Marathon. Collectively, our aim is to tempo a couple 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 monitor. When the morning of the long term got here, I used to be in a position to hop into the exercise I’d created and hold our little coaching pack of 4 runners hovering proper between the 8:45 and 9:00 marks for all the morning — a fairly good signal for after 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 advance 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, properly, probably not. It’s nearly 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 right down to 40m — so should you’re an avid diver and a distance runner, this is perhaps one to skip.

Anyway, so far as the issues the Enduro 3 can monitor, it nails them. All through our 20 miles, the watch saved an correct log of my coronary heart price and elevation — each of which have been surprisingly diverse as we lined the rolling hills across the Baltimore-Washington Worldwide Airport. They weren’t incorrect — Garmin’s evaluation of my total effort matched my very own — however I used to be shocked to see my coronary heart price tick above 160 beats per minute a couple of times till I remembered a few of the sneakier hills alongside our route. These hills don’t mirror properly on the Enduro 3’s map, however that is perhaps 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 couple of instances to see if the watch may put me on the proper facet every time, and it did so with out situation.

When you’re going to brag a couple of gadget’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 working between costs, which is far more than I log in a median month. Only for enjoyable, I assumed I’d examine on the battery drain from an hourlong indoor bouldering session and located one other shock: The battery fell from 32% to, properly, 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 thing 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 may monitor 55 extra hours of climbing earlier than I would like a cost.

Finally, although, I might want to cost my watch — realistically, I’ll accomplish that earlier than the Philadelphia Marathon, simply in case — and it’ll remind me of my least favourite Garmin function: The proprietary charging cable. I’m glad Garmin has graduated to a USB-C connector for more moderen variations of its cable, however the four-pin setup remains to be a ache when every little thing else I personal may be charged through 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 brilliant new show as a regular function (or a minimum of an non-obligatory further), the Enduro 3 solely presents the basic Reminiscence in Pixel (MiP) show of older watches. At first, I used to be barely dissatisfied to drop again to the MiP days, however I can perceive why Garmin opted for its older tech. It’s not as shiny, nor does it have the identical animations because the Fenix 8, thus permitting the Enduro 3 to financial institution a bit bit of additional battery life.

Additionally, utilizing an older, extra acquainted show know-how means the Enduro 3 has a large library of third-party watch faces. See, every time third-party builders create a Garmin watch face, they need to optimize it for every new kind of show, which is usually simpler stated than executed. 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 in a position to set up the “That is tremendous” face that options everybody’s favourite cartoon canine in a burning room. It’s the identical face I transformed a number of mates to utilizing whereas I wore the Enduro 2, and I’m glad to have it again, even when the animated hearth may cost a little me a couple of hours of total 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, initially. It misses out on the assist for sensible assistants like Gemini and Siri, and you may’t use the Enduro 3 to take calls out of your wrist. Certain, you may nonetheless press a button to just accept a name, however then you definitely rapidly need to seize your cellphone out of your pocket. Nevertheless, should you’re not coming to the Enduro 3 from one thing just like the Venu or Fenix 8 you gained’t have had this stage of calling assist on one other Garmin to start with. I miss it now that it’s gone, however I wouldn’t say that decision and voice assist are important should you’re taking the Enduro 3 to its most well-liked dwelling 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 function all through my previous couple of Garmin evaluations, and it’s turn out to be one which I can’t stay with out. I don’t suppose I’d name the tiny mild shiny sufficient for a path run in pitch darkness, but it surely’s turn out to be useful in a number of non-life-threatening conditions, like studying the printed karaoke record in a poorly lit bar or searching for a sweatshirt in my darkish closet once I can’t be bothered to activate the sunshine. Granted, the LED mild may arise barely higher should you max out its brightness, however I are inclined to hold it midway shiny 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 assist on a weekly foundation — you, Coros — particularly once 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 believe the Garmin Enduro 3 will all the time be too large for me. It should all the time really feel like a little bit of a pancake on my wrist, and I’ll most likely have to modify to one thing smaller every time I’m dwelling a bit extra casually — however I don’t suppose I thoughts. Nowhere does Garmin invoice this as something lower than an ultra-performance journey watch, nor do I believe it needs to be handled as one. The truth is, I don’t suppose it’s a GPS watch that it is advisable purchase except you’re particularly able to push it to its limits — limits that I haven’t run into simply but.

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

With these nice adventures, nevertheless, 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 by way of sensible options. It’s not going to problem Garmin’s personal Fenix 8 AMOLED by way of 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 couple of days later. Avid divers will need to skip this one as a result of its lack of a depth sensor, and the sweatier amongst us will most likely need to change the UltraFit watchband, on the very least.

And, should you resolve you have got the finances for an Enduro 3 however need a bit 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 most likely discover higher integration from one of many first two should you’re a devoted iPhone or Galaxy consumer. Simply know that the Enduro 3 may have weeks — sure, weeks — of battery life remaining after you’ve charged any of its rivals.