Limited Bluetooth Range - Need phone right next to watch for notifications

I agree with everything you write. It's a disaster. I don't understand why this doesn't bother all owners. The Venu 3 may be a nice sports tester, but as a smart watch it's miserable.

I'm already thinking of trading them in for a Galaxy Watch. Although less battery life, but at least they are usable.

The va5 also has a shorter Bluetooth range that every other Garmin I've used.  It's the same generation as the venu3

Such an important thing. I don't understand why Garmin let it get so bad. Even in the apartment I have to have the phone in the same room so that the connection is not lost.
I would be interested in the reason, the cause.
None of my BT devices (watches, bracelets, speakers, weather stations) have such a tragic range as Garmin.

I don't understand why the Venu 3 can't use wifi like the Samsung Galaxy Watch. It would be extremely helpful in buildings when the BT  is so bad on the watch.

As I already wrote in another thread. I don't think this will be fixed because Garmin seems to have used a Mediatek MT6739 chipset with the old BT version 4.2 here.

The va5 is the same - It drops when I go to another room.

Wifi would drain the battery very fast.  How often do you charge a Galaxy?

I had a Galaxy Watch 6 for a while and charged every day :-) But I had problems with NFC payments (payments work great on the Venu 3).

I understand that Garmin wanted to excel in battery life, but unfortunately they forgot about functionality and practicality.
With that extra short range, the possibility of smart functions on the Venu 3 loses its meaning. You must have your phone with you anyway.

My Venu 3 isn't quite that bad. I can be 20 feet and a few rooms away with the BT connection intact. However, I don't have the need for more distance since I never leave my phone behind. And other devices do have a a "tragic" range. I have some BT ear buds that have trouble staying connected with the phone in my back pocket. 

You probably have a completely different Vena 3 than the others  Users often complain about the short range.

And you probably also have older headphones 

I would expect BT version 5.0 and above for all devices these days. 4.2 is already several years behind.

Samsung, Honor, Apple, Xiaomi... Probably everyone has been using BT 5 for a long time. I didn't expect that Garmin would be so bad at it.

They're Bose Open Ultra, brand new. I also have several Shokz headphones. The Bose sound the best, but have the most trouble staying connected. 

same with my venu 3. it even drops connection when I go to bathroom across the room. I just learnt to live that way and waiting for an apple watch with 1-week+ battery life (do not think it will happen soon though).

I wouldn't wait for that. Apple still thinks 18 hours is enough for all-day and sleep tacking.