{"id":297683,"date":"2025-11-21T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297683\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:52:09","slug":"save-up-to-150-on-garmins-two-best-last-gen-watches-for-most-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297683\/","title":{"rendered":"Save up to $150 on Garmin’s two best last-gen watches for most people"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Garmin holiday sale<\/a> has some fantastic early Black Friday deals, and if you’ve been waiting for a premium Fenix 8 or Forerunner 965, now’s the time. But as someone who’s tested most recent Garmin watches from the past few years, my first recommendation would be the Forerunner 265<\/a> for outdoor athletes or the Venu 3<\/a> for indoor athletes.<\/p>\n

Right now, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is $299 ($150 off) at Best Buy<\/a>, while the Garmin Venu 3 is $349 ($100 off)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For two years, the Venu 3 has been our #1 best Garmin watch<\/a> recommendation, while the Forerunner 265 was our best running watch<\/a> recommendation for nearly as long. They’ve since been supplanted by the $550 Venu 4<\/a> and Forerunner 570<\/a>, both excellent options but priced outside the range of everyday athletes. As a runner, I’d much rather pay $250 less for a Forerunner 265.<\/p>\n

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\u2705Recommended if: You are at least a semi-serious runner who enjoys the sport but has hit a rut and needs help increasing your mileage or pace safely; you’re not a fan of Garmin’s old MIP displays; and you don’t need traditional smarts beyond notifications.<\/p>\n

\u274cSkip this deal if: You need extra Forerunner 965 perks like offline maps and another week of battery life; you’d prefer a more well-rounded, skinny option like the Venu 3; or you need a true smartwatch with proper app support.<\/p>\n

My Forerunner 265 vs. Venu 3 guide<\/a> breaks down how these two “classics with plenty left in the tank” compare. The Forerunner 265 is more specialized, focusing on training above everything else, while the Venu 3 slacks on workout recs but offers major upgrades for health data, style, and smarts.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2705Recommended if: You want to try out the Garmin ecosystem, but without the bulky, plastic- and button-heavy look of most Garmin watches; you want strong battery life and Garmin coaching, but you’re equally interested in health and sleep guidance.<\/p>\n

\u274cSkip this deal if: You look at the Garmin Venu 4 vs. 3<\/a> and decide that you need the newer model, which has the style of a Venu but the smarts of a Forerunner; or you’d rather save even more money and go for the Vivoactive 6<\/a>, which is currently $100 less than the Venu 3 with similar software.<\/p>\n

The Forerunner 265 and Venu 3 don’t have cutting-edge tools you’d get on the newer models, but you don’t necessarily need every new Garmin tool to improve as an athlete; they have the essentials, and I loved them when I reviewed them both. Just because I have fancier models now doesn’t change the fact that they got me motivated to get faster and lose weight.<\/p>\n

So if you’re looking for a reasonably-priced Garmin watch deal that strikes a balance between affordability and usefulness, the Venu 3 or Forerunner 265 are where you should start.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today’s best Garmin watch deals<\/p>\n

More Black Friday 2025 – quick links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Garmin holiday sale has some fantastic early Black Friday deals, and if you’ve been waiting for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,48,195,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-297683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}