Garmin Enduro 3 review: A cheaper Fenix 8 alternative?
At first glance, the updates to Garmin’s ultra-friendly, endurance beast of a running watch might seem small. Evolution not revolution. But the new Garmin Enduro 3 packs even more solar-boosted staying power, a lighter build, brighter screen and a reduced price tag. So, if long battery life is your priority and/or you just hate charging your watch, the Garmin Enduro 3 should be on your shortlist.
The Enduro 3 is also a Fenix botherer, packing the same range of training, performance, recovery/health insights and navigation tools as Garmin's top-tier multi-sports watch. If you’re happy to forego a few bells and whistles, like the shiny smartwatch-style screen, speaker and mic, and the dive-proof durability, it might even offer better value.
The Garmin Enduro 3 comes in one 51mm case size and lands at £769.99. That’s cheaper than the equivalent Fenix 8 51mm Solar at £1,039 and a significant price drop over the Garmin Enduro 2 which launched at well over £800 (though you can now pick one up for £729.99).
So, is the Garmin Enduro 3 one of the best Garmin watches going? I've clocked hundreds of miles on it over the past few weeks. Here's my verdict.
Garmin Enduro 3 vs 2: Key differences
The biggest difference between the Enduro 2 and the Enduro 3 is the amped-up GPS staying power. In the right light conditions, it offers more than double the run time in GPS Only mode (up from 150 to 320 hours) and 10% more than the Enduro 2 using multi-band GPS. In Max Battery mode, soaking up enough solar rays, Garmin claims the staying power is unlimited.
The Enduro 3’s aesthetics are simpler than the last iteration, with less bezel and more screen. Ditching the screen-covering solar lens also makes it brighter. Oh, and the v3 is also marginally lighter, shaving 10% off the weight of the Enduro 2.
There’s a new user interface, too – just like the Garmin Fenix 8 – with tweaks to how you start runs, change settings and access things like Morning Report. It’s much easier to use and you won’t get those updates on the Enduro 2.
Design
The Garmin Enduro 3 comes in just one size and style, combining a smaller, classic black titanium bezel and back, and a tough sapphire crystal screen. It still has Garmin’s rugged, adventure DNA but it now looks a little less ‘Fenix’.
There’s new, more-efficient solar technology that Garmins says is 120% more powerful than the Enduro 2’s sun harvesting. The solar ring around the display is bigger, but it’s black so it stands out less.
The power-efficient Memory-In-Pixel (MIP) display is the same screen as the Fenix 8 Solar 51mm and now notably brighter than the Enduro 2.
In my tests, I found the Enduro 3 easy to read in most light conditions, but I had to fire the backlight at times to punch up the visibility and it’s nowhere near as crisp and colourful as the Fenix 8 AMOLED.
At 63g, the Enduro 3 is impressively light for a big adventure watch and less unwieldy than the 95g Fenix 8 Solar 51mm. However, it’s still not the most comfortable watch to wear in bed to unlock all the sleep, HRV and recovery insights. The Forerunner models still cater better for all-day wear.
The Enduro 3 ships with a nylon UltraFit band that’s more comfortable, easier to micro-adjust for a good fit and less prone to skin irritation than the regular silicone straps.
Like the Garmin Fenix 8, the Enduro 3 combines a responsive touchscreen with Garmin’s familiar five button controls. You have the option to use touch or buttons or a combination of both to do pretty much everything. Everything is fast and reactive, too, though scrolling is not as smooth as the Fenix 8.
The Enduro 3’s suite of sensors includes Garmin’s new Elevate Gen5 Optical heart rate set-up, capable of tracking ECG and wrist-temperature. That’s the same GPS chipset as the Fenix 8 with multi-band GPS for more accuracy. You also get the usual altimeter and SPO2 sensor, and the much-loved flashlight is here, too.
Features
From a sports tracking perspective, much of what you get on the Enduro 3 is the same as the Enduro 2 and the older Fenix 7 models.
The Garmin Enduro 3 doesn’t get the Fenix 8’s new speaker/microphone hardware to power the new voice features, or the dive features, but when it comes to training, fitness and health insights, it’s virtually the same beast.
It boasts the full suite of Garmin’s run tracking, training, recovery, navigation and health tools: everything from training effect, training load and performance condition, to HRV, Body Battery, recovery time, VO2 Max and race time predictor estimates. Plus, it’s got progress-charting readouts like Hill Score (how good you are on the ups), Endurance Score (how good you are at going long).
Basically, everything you need to train, race and recover for any type of running is covered. If you’re a data hound, you won’t be left wanting.
For general health, there’s an FDA-cleared ECG app that records your heart rhythm and checks for signs of atrial fibrillation, but that’s not yet available in the UK.
It’s a highly competent navigator with mapping upgrades that add terrain contours on your TopoActive map, dynamic round trip, and route guidance that can update mid-run to hit a specified distance if you go off-course. It’s easy to create routes on the fly or upload courses downloaded from Strava and third parties.
In testing, I plugged the 5 Valleys Ultra race route into the Enduro 3. The off-course alerts saved me a couple of times on race day. I loved ClimbPro serving up how many climbs I had left to conquer, the profile of my current climb and how far was left before I hit the summit.
Outside of running, if you’re a good runner who does their gym work, or a naughty runner who needs to, there are also new strength training plans to follow.
The smartwatch tools cover the essentials, including offline music from Spotifty and Deezer and Co, contactless payments and the new Garmin Messenger app. But even with a growing Garmin ConnectIQ app offering, there’s not enough here to rival the Apple Watch Ultra 2 when it comes to managing daily life.
Accuracy
To test the GPS and heart rate accuracy, I pitched the Garmin Enduro 3 up against a range of watches, including the Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED, the Garmin Enduro 2 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. I also used a Polar H10 chest strap for benchmarking.
I ran everything from urban commutes to the tree-covered New Forest Marathon and a lumpy Lake District ultra. I compared a range of modes, from Max Accuracy GPS harnessing the multi-band GPS, right down to the Max Battery mode that sacrifices accuracy for staying power. I also did lots of miles in AutoSelect mode which automatically finds the optimal GPS settings in real-time to balance accuracy and battery life.
For me, the Garmin Enduro 3 GPS performance has been solid across the GPS modes.
During the New Forest Marathon with bursts of heavy tree cover, the Enduro 3 wasn’t quite as good at sticking me to the tracks as the Fenix 8, but the overall distances came within 0.05 mile of the Fenix 8.
Over the 55km ultra distance, the Enduro 3 and Fenix 8 were just 0.2 miles apart in total distance.
Heart rate was a bit more hit and miss. During interval sessions with sharper changes in intensity, the Enduro 3 sometimes shot higher than the chest strap. But that’s not uncommon for optical heart rate.
On the longer Lakes ultra, it also struggled with changes in effort on the climbs, descents and stops at aid stations, and had a 2-hour period towards the end where it consistently read much higher than the chest strap and fared notably worse than the Fenix 8.
During the New Forest Marathon, it captured the steadily increasing intensity more reliably. It almost matched the Polar H10 chest strap beat for beat aside from a few sections where it was lower and the odd lurch higher.
Battery life
The Garmin Enduro 3 has the best battery life in the business. If you want a watch that’ll handle single-stint 24-hour ultras, multi-stage endurance events or you simply don’t want to charge your watch more than once a month, the Enduro 3 has you covered.
On paper, even without the solar smarts, it offers between 60 and 210 hours of GPS tracking. In the right light conditions, that jumps to 60 hours in accuracy-boosting multi-band mode and 320 hours in standard GPS mode. It’s a beast.
In testing, it lived up to billing, too. When you’re not running, it’s stingy. The average overnight burn was just 1%. Over 24 hours without any workouts, the Enduro 3 shed just 3%.
A 90 minute run in Normal mode burned 3%. A 3-hour marathon using the multiband Max Accuracy mode burned 5%, while my 8-hour 5 Valleys Ultra using Normal power mode and SAT IQ torched just 14%.
For general usage, I got close to 20 days before I needed to charge the watch — that’s with around 8 hours of GPS run time and with notifications on.
RW verdict
If your priority is long battery life, there isn’t a watch to rival the staying power of the Garmin Enduro 3. But there’s more to this good-looking, adventure-ready running watch than endurance alone. If you can live without the AMOLED screen, the voice tools and dive skills that land with the new Fenix 8, it packs the features, accuracy and durability to rival its much pricier stablemate. It’s also lighter and more comfortable to wear 24-7 to unlock the myriad fitness, recovery and health insights. Factor in the price drop and you’ve got a serious alternative to the new Fenix 8 – particularly the non-AMOLED solar editions.
In terms of alternatives, if smartwatch skills are important, the screen quality, Connect IQ app selection and daily life tools fall short of what you get on the Apple Watch Ultra 2. It’s no rival for that. Or for the Samsung Watch Ultra for that matter.
Those who want a more compact watch with similar features and set-up should check out the new Fenix 8 Solar 43mm or the older Fenix 7 Pro Solar 42mm.
If you’re desperate for an AMOLED screen but you want to spend less than the Fenix 8 AMOLED bounty to land it, the Fenix E, Suunto Race and the Polar Grit X2 Pro are also worth a look.
And as ever, keep an eye out for price drops on the Garmin Enduro 2. You won’t get the new software updates but it’s still a hugely capable watch with an excellent battery life.
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