The new Garmin Enduro 3 is here — better battery life than Fenix 8 and cheaper

Person wearing the Garmin Enduro 3
(Image credit: Garmin)

It’s a big day for new Garmin watches, with the Garmin Enduro 3 launching alongside the Garmin Fenix 8 range. The Garmin Enduro 3 stands out for its incredible battery life, with the watch lasting up to 90 days in sunny conditions, and offering up to 320 hours of GPS tracking.

That monstrous battery life has been a feature of the Enduro line since it launched, with the watch being designed for multi-day adventures, and Garmin has managed to increase the battery life in the new model while keeping the case size the same at 51mm.

Along with the upgrade in battery life, the new Enduro 3 has improvements to its navigation features, including dynamic round-trip routing where you set a target distance and the watch will create a route for you that updates on-the-go to get you back to your starting point in that distance.

Garmin has also added strength training programmes to the watch, with these four to six week plans helping you to hit a variety of fitness goals. Plus, there are guided strength workouts on the watch that support certain sports, like skiing and trail-running.

Person wearing the Garmin Enduro 3 while cycling

(Image credit: Garmin)

The titanium case and sapphire screen on the Enduro 3 make it a lightweight but very durable watch. It has a built-in flashlight and solar panels on its watch face that help to boost its battery life in sunny conditions, and it comes with Garmin’s UltraFit nylon band, which I’ve always preferred to the brand’s silicone bands.

It is lacking some features from the Fenix 8 range, with the most notable being that the Enduro 3 doesn’t have an AMOLED display, like the Fenix 8 AMOLED. It has a similar design to the standard Fenix 8, with a memory-in-pixel screen that allows for longer battery life.

The Enduro 3 also doesn’t have a built-in mic and speaker, which have been added to the Fenix 8 watches, and it isn’t a diving watch. The Fenix 8 has a 40m dive-rated case and scuba diving and apnea sports modes. The Enduro 3 instead focuses on battery life and performance in a lighter design, but does seem to match the features of the Fenix 8, while offering longer battery life. 

So the fact it’s actually cheaper than the Fenix 8 at $899.99/£769.99  vs $999.99/£949.99 for the base Fenix 8 models makes the Enduro 3 an attractive option to those who regularly partake in long adventures in the great outdoors. There is also the new Fenix E to consider though, which offers the essentials of Garmin’s top watches for $799. 

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Nick Harris-fry
Senior Writer

Nick Harris-fry is an experienced health and fitness journalist, writing professionally since 2012. He spent nine years working on the Coach magazine and website before moving to the fitness team at Tom’s Guide in 2024. Nick is a keen runner and also the founder of YouTube channel The Run Testers, which specialises in reviewing running shoes, watches, headphones and other gear.

Nick ran his first marathon in 2016 after six weeks of training for a magazine feature and subsequently became obsessed with the sport. He now has PBs of 2hr 27min for the marathon and 15min 30sec for 5K, and has run 13 marathons in total, as well as a 50-mile ultramarathon.

He runs 50-80 miles a week and races regularly with his club, which gives him a lot of opportunity to test out running gear: he has tested and reviewed hundreds of pairs of running shoes, as well as fitness trackers, running watches, sports headphones, treadmills, and all manner of other kit. Nick is also a qualified Run Leader in the UK.