Epix2 pro and Venu 3

I agree Epix but it also costs way more . Guessing sapphire screen is more scratch resistant than Venu 3 . 

You make good point about better display on Epix . I hope Epix gets sleep coaching feature like whoop has . 

Yes there are a lot of major differences - Venu 3 is more of a health and wellness watch whereas the Epix is more of an outdoor / fitness / training watch.

Venu 3 has the Mic & speaker, and currently the sleep coach and a couple of new health and wellness type features, on wrist texting and seeing images in notifications and 2 font sizes - that is all it currently has over the Epix; and I expect that other than the hardware, all the those new sotfware features are very likely to come across to the epix.

Epix is 10ATM over V3 5ATM which means its rated for high speed/pressure water sports (you will probably not see garmin add these activity types to the venu range); more durable, it has a host and I do mean a masive host of additional fitness features like running dynamics, running power, stamina, pace pro, drill swimming, and its trainng metrics and analytics are far more complex and detailed that the very simple workout benefit the venu 3 shows; then add in the offline maps & offline TBT navigation (V3 doesn't even offer course routing - which I think is a miss on their part) and the features that come with that like climbpro etc.Epix has longer battery life (normal and activity tracking, its host of power modes feature to extend out even further, multi-band GNSS, much more storage for music, its golf tracking is far more advanced (basically same as Approach S70), hot keys, 5 buttons etc etc etc

Easiest way is just to run a compare on them via the Garmin website:

https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/compare/?compareProduct=873008&compareProduct=894067

Another major difference is that you CAN use the touchscreen on the Epix, if you want to, but you can also do everything with buttons too if you want. In fact you can just turn the touchscreen off altogether and you won't lose any functionality on the watch.

On the Venu you HAVE TO use the touchscreen, whether you want to or not, because it is the only way to interact with the watch for most things.

One is not necessarily better than the other - for lifestyle/wellness watches like Venu, many people prefer to have a more sleek watch design with minimal buttons, and would prefer to use touchscreen to interact with it. Conversely, for multisport/athletic watches like Epix, many people prefer to use tactile buttons for everything. So it really just comes down to what you personally prefer.

Whoop is a dumpster fire so you're not missing anything. 

Update: Epix does have sleep coaching now.

Nice breakdown. I've had Venu 3 for 2 weeks and would love to have maps, better GPS, flashlight. I dont think I can pay the additional $600+ for those features though.

But... I'd like to add that the Venu 3 also includes these running dynamics that you listed so it must have had a nice software update since.

The compare tool sucks, so many fields left blank on Venu 3 when it should say "Yes".

If anyone is actually interested, don't take blank fields to mean "No",  Google "Venu 3" "(whatever feature that is blank)", you'll be surprised how much "Yes" is missing for Venu 3.

One big difference is the Epix has the "resume later" feature, which the Venu series, since forever, has lacked (and the 3 still does). Made the difference in my decision.