Venu 3 sensor compared to FR 945, esp. sleep

I don't have the FR945, but my friend has the FR245 (which uses the same Elevate V3 sensor) and in activities like running/jogging, the Venu 3 does better, compared to the FR245 (she tried my watch only for 1 run, so take this with a pinch of salt). But I remember reading DCR and he mentioned a lag in Elevate V3 sensors, meaning you run and it takes a few seconds to record the sudden highs (running fast) or lows (coming abruptly to a stop). This is notably not present in next-gen sensors (V4 on models like FR265,965 and V5 on the Venu 3).  I cannot comment on breathing rate, but stress and sleep have been good for me (especially the body battery, sleep score, and stress levels; I am totally in love with it). 

I don't run a lot (just started last week), but the reason I chose Venu 3, was the new Elevate V5 HR sensor (I cycle a lot, and play badminton), mic and speaker, and its probably the smartest sports watch from Garmin and it has Running Power (added in a recent update), so many features overlap FR265 (granted that FR265 has lot more in running).

This is great to hear!  Thanks so much for the detailed feedback!

You're welcome. You can ping, if you have more questions regarding the Venu 3.

Unfortunately I dont have comparism of those warch, but I can comment on Venu 3...

Breathing rate:

Complete joke in my experience. It can not track it at all. Shows basically constant breathing rate of 15 breaths per minute. If you do breathing exercise, it shows just predefined values from that exercise. It should be calculated from HRV, but there are limitations which seems venu 3 can not overcome.

Stress:

Stress and body battery, on the other hand, are quite good, reliable and relatively accurate metrics for me.

Sleep:

For me, this is the mots difficult one. It usually tracks fall-asleep time and wake-up time pretty well. Few glitches here and there. But it is quite good.

I encountered two things that are not ok with me: nap detections and wake moments during sleep...

1st...I dont do naps through a day, but if I sit still, watching a movie, the watch thinks it is a nap. This happens way too often for me. 

2nd...If I wake up in the middle of the night, lying in my bed...and I am usually awake for one or two hours... it does not recognize a wake moment. I can even scroll through the watch but it does not recognize it as awake state... I have to get up from my bed for the watch to recognize wake moment or start an activity to interrupt my sleep time.

But keep in mind that sleep tracking will be diferent from person to person...

Yesterday new firmware was installed on my watch, so I will continue to keep an eye on this.

Breathing rate is something that I am yet to explore. But during sleep, it varies a little (for me it goes as low as 9-10 bpm) and if you have sleep apnea, probably it would vary a lot (and for that, I recommend turning on Pulse Ox). 

Sleep has no issues for me, it's been perfect, but yes I never had a nap, so cant comment on that one. Regarding your point of, scrolling the watch at night, it would ask if you have woken up and if you tap yes, your sleep should technically break there. (I have not woken at the middle of the night and tried this one, but based on the question it asks in the morning, I assume that is how the function should work).

Great...thank you.  I wondered about the breathing and how any kind of sensor would accurately track that.

Venu 3 does have all-day respiration rate tracking. But it does not do that for activities, It does this only for Yoga and, Breathwork activities. So you are unlikely to see any change because none of your activities are monitored. But again if you have sleep apnea, I think it will show a difference when compared with Pulse Ox data. For how it calculates, it uses the HRV data according to Garmin.

support.garmin.com/.../

Well I bought a Venu 3 and am running it through its paces.  Overall I'm pleased with the sensor functionality, except that I've tried two naps and neither were automatically detected; looks like I'll need to add those manually.

I'm also disappointed/perplexed at why some of the data field/customization I could do with my 3yo 945 isn't available (or I can't find it) on the Venu 3.  For example data fields like battery %, GPS strength, etc.  I've included those as part of my "biking" activity on the 945, but don't see them as available on the Venu 3.  It's hard for me to understand why something billed as a "smart watch" would lack the ability to include something as basic as battery % during activities, particularly for longer ones where you might want to know that.

Some of the data fields of FR unfortunately remain on FR. However, you can do one left swipe and check the battery level on your home page and then press the A button to go back to the activity page. I know it is an extra step, but that is the only workaround I know for the moment. But I usually have a rough calculation regarding the activity and make sure I have enough charge to do that activity, I would never like to get my battery close to 0 while performing an activity (this is ok on a hike when you are away from a charger, but I would not do it for daily basis as that can damage the battery). Like other electronic devices battery, never bring the charge to 0% frequently. I do the 10-100% charge or 20-100%, and would do my best to never go below 5%. (you can do the full drain may be once in 10 cycles or in other words, approx 10 weeks).

Thanks for the tip!  I just tried the swiping, and actually I can get back to the activity with a right swipe.  I can live with the swiping to get that data ;)  And as you say, the better practice is good battery and charging practices beforehand :)