Description
- Go longer than ever with solar charging that gives you unlimited battery life in smartwatch mode (assuming all-day wear with 3 hours per day outside in 50,000 lux conditions)
- Battery life: in smartwatch mode, up to 51 days with solar charging in 3 hours of direct sunlight (50,000 lux) per day; in GPS mode, up to 28 hours with solar charging continuously in direct sunlight (50,000 lux)
- Built-in sports apps to take on running, biking, swimming, strength training and more; plus, VO2 Max and other training features
- Live the ultimate connected life with smart notifications and Connect IQ compatibility when paired with your compatible smartphone.
- Track your adventures with the built-in 3-axis compass and barometric altimeter, plus multiple global navigation satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo)
- Understand your body better with all-day health monitoring features that track your heart rate, sleep, Pulse Ox, respiration and more (Pulse Ox not available in all countries. This device is intended to give an estimation of your activity and metrics; it is not a medical device)
- Extend your battery life and your time doing what you love using the power manager to see how settings and sensors impact your watch’s battery life and make changes on the fly
- Rugged GPS smartwatch is water-rated to 100 meters and thermal- and shock resistant with fiber-reinforced polymer case and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla glass
Bbells –
Excellent service je suis très satisfait.
Prison Mike –
Great product, reasonable price. My husband is very happy with this purchase. Upgrade from his Apple Watch for fitness purposes.
Abbie Contreras –
I bought this for my husband who is an officer and in the military and he loves it. It’ll be great when he’s in training and not able to charge it every night.
DT –
Size: This was one area I thought it would be ungangly, but it’s not. I got the 44mm version and it’s surprisingly slim, about like a Casio Pathfinder. It’s not as slim as a Galaxy or Apple Watch, but it’s not huge.
Band: The band is good, a bit of give, end to end holes, and a properly angled latch to help prevent it from coming off under pressure.
Screen: The screen is easily viewable in the bright sun and in the dark with the backlight. It’s only black and white, but it isn’t a power sucking OLED screen, though it means the maps are very basic.
Battery life: As a smartwatch it’s been a week and has used 15% power, with the always on pulse measurement. Granted I got the solar version which helps keep it topped up, but 3-4 weeks as a smartwatch, less if you use GPS, but I would say the advertised times are accurate.
Watch faces: You’re somewhat limited by the screen choice, but there are several nice included ones and there are more which can be downloaded from the Garmin Connect IQ Store (more on that below).
Glances: Scrolling up and down from the watch face you can choose to display the weather, heart rate, barometer, and more. Most I find quite useful, and you can remove the ones you don’t like.
Sleep, step, and heart rate tracking: In line with my previous Galaxy watch, but more accurate. Shaking a bottle of juice doesn’t add steps, for example.
GPU Accuracy: It’s within 3 feet of my Garmin Montana, so it’s accurate. It doesn’t show GPS accuracy, sadly.
Software: This is the area which really lets the watch down. Garmin Connect IQ syncs slowly and doesn’t (currently) pair with Google Fit. You are also required to use the Gamin Connect IQ Store to not only download new watch faces, but to CUSTOMIZE downloaded faces as well, which seems daft.
All in all it’s a great watch that I’m not regretting buying over a Galaxy Watch 6. I’d recommend it over a Fitbit, or the original, ASIN B07HYX9P88, if you’re unsure, though you miss out on the Instinct 2’s refinements, such as a higher res screen.
ppbarbalho –
Muchas funciones y la batería de larga duración.
Rogue Disciple –
My Samsung watch died a little while back. Was nowhere satisfied with that watch due to battery life and bloatware,
This watch looks like it has about a 30 day batter life which means I can recharge it less often. Also the associated app is much better. Tracks all the information I want
In addition, I like the look of the polymer case (very similar to the check “dumb” watch I was wearing. Add in the fact that, with the extended battery life, I am able to wear it to bed to get sleep readings.
Matt –
Months later, and still holding strong. I upgraded from the 1st Gen tactical and honestly aside from battery and a few sensors being faster, no difference. If you have the money and are like me where you want the newest tech, go for it, if not the OG solar can do about 85% of the same stuff. I have noticed the heart rate, steps, and GPS to be a lot more accurate. The breath rate actually is a nice touch, I monitor all of that for when I’m working to find my “Normal” work day so I know when to add caffeine.
DT –
I bought this to replace a Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar that is in for “repairs”.
Garmin’s app is leagues beyond Suunto’s.
I look forward to testing the GPS and longevity while I wait for my soon to be sold off Vertical to come back from Helsinki.
Ryan Whitehouse –
The Instict series sites essentially at the bottom of Garmin’s smartwatch lineup. It’s a monochrome screen, controls are via buttons rather than touch, and it’s not a mini-phone for your wrist. That said, I’m really not sure any of those are a bad thing, and in some cases, for the better.
The monochrome LCD screen is easy to read in bright sunlight, something that can’t always be said for color TFT touchscreens (or the brightness has to be maxed, zapping the battery in a hurry). It also has battery life measured in weeks, not hours. It’s also “always on”, so you don’t need to waggle your wrist or tap it to wake the screen up to check the time.
I’ve never been a fan of touch interfaces on a watch. Some brands handle it better than others, but given the form factor, you’re trying to either poke miniscule icons, or are just going rough swipe gestures- which can too easily be done accidentally. A few dedicated buttons are clear, easy to use, and accidental inputs are quite rare. The Instinct has five- one functions generally as as “OK”, one is “Back”, two are up/down for menus, and the third generally functions as a menu/options for whatever screen or activity you’re on. It’s surprisingly intuitive to figure out.
GPS accuracy I’ve found is excellent, and only take a tiny hit when in “max battery GPS” mode, which uses only 1 of the 2 possible antennas and takes location data less frequently. Heart rate data also is quite accurate, and seems minimally affected by moisture/sweat. You also don’t have to have the watch strapped on uncomfortably tight to get consistent readings, as I’ve found with some other devices. As long as it’s not totally flopping around, you’ll get good readings. It can take Pulse Ox readings as well, although this feature is disabled (on “manual test only”) by default as it gives a bit hit to battery life.
The companion app I found is easy to use and gives robust data about recorded workouts or activities. It also allows you to configure (most) watch settings, but for some reason a few can only be adjusted on the watch directly. This isn’t a big deal, and after initial setup, you won’t be needing to touch these much, if ever. That said, unlike a lot of smartwatches, the app or a phone link isn’t totally essential. The watch can function entirely on it’s own as it has GPS built in (some other watches rely on the GPS in your phone, so away from your phone, they can’t do much beside count steps and tell you the time). You can choose to get notifications from your phone on the watch, and being it lacks a speaker or mic can’t dictate responses, but you can choose to send a few canned responses like yes/no/can’t talk now/I’ll get back to you soon, ect without having to stop what you’re doing or fish your phone out.
There is a separate app- the main one is Garmin Connect, but there is an “app store” called Garmin IQ where you can download extras like mini-apps for different sports or activities not built in, different watch faces, and even some basic games. I didn’t find much of interest there, it seems more aimed for their higher-tier watches with more capabilities, but you can sort by what watch you have and it will only show content that’s compatible with yours, a nice touch. The watch face has 12 pre-sets to choose from, 6 each in both “dark on light” and reverse “light on dark” patterns. Each preset then be further customized to change what each data field displays from dozens of options.
The Instinct 2 does support Garmin Pay for contactless payments, though this does require a link to the phone- and Garmin Pay only supports a couple of the major CC’s. I don’t use this feature (I very rarely use it on my phone either), to me it’s just as fast/easy to pull a wallet out and tap the card, than pull my phone out or tap through a few menus on my watch to pull up a payment. But, it’s there if you want it.
Also nice is the Instinct line comes in 3 sizes- the “S” 40mm, the standard 45mm, and the “X” 50mm. The S and standard are functionally identical, aside from the standard having a bit larger battery and thus longer life. The X adds a mini flashlight feature, but I carry a EDC light anyway- which is far brighter- and 50mm watches I find a little too chonky for my taste. Some reviews complained about the default band not being hinged, although I think this would only be a concern if your wrists are substantially slimmer or thicker than normal. For the vast majority of people, it will be fine. I find it perfectly comfortable to wear 24/7 and the very fine “notches” give a lot of adjustability to get the fit just right. There are other bands you can get from both Garmin and third parties, including one with hinged pivots.
You also get the option of solar, which enables “unlimited” battery life in theory, but in practice, this won’t be the case for most people. Garmin makes this claim assuming the watch gets 3 hours of moderate sun exposure a day, and in “smartwatch mode” only, i.e, not using the GPS. The watch does soak up meaningful charge off solar- a 1 hour bike ride on a very bright day I noticed a 3% increase on the battery- which is about how much it does down each day just in smartwatch mode with 24/7 HR monitoring on. So it recouped a day of battery in only about an hour, cool! It does function, but riding a bike has the watch face directly facing up- other activities like walking/running will net much less exposure (you can check a graph of the last 6 hours), and even on a sunny day, only net a trickle of power. 1 hour of GPS usage also takes about a day’s worth of standby time, so if you plan to track activities routinely, don’t expect a watch you “never” have to charge”. Even if you do so seldom or never, unless you consistently spend several hours outdoor every day, chances are you will still need to occasionally charge it. Still- compared to most smartwatches that need charging every couple days, if not every day, the Instinct offers stellar life. Fresh off the charger, mine reports about 30 days of battery. Using the GPS for a few hours a week to track some jogging, I find realistically, I get between 2-3 weeks before the battery is down to 10% or less and it starts asking for the charger. I’m sure the solar contributes to that, but I don’t imagine it added more than a day or two. If you don’t spend a lot of time outdoors, or live in a location that’s overcast- or you wear a jacket a lot- you can probably skip the solar option and save $100. If you live in a sunny climate and spend a decent amount of time outdoors, the solar can help stretch the battery and net you an extra few days before charges. While I don’t doubt the “unlimited” claim is technically possible, it would require foregoing most of this watch’s main features (GPS) almost entirely, and spending a fair bit of time outdoors on sunny days.
It does use a proprietary USB charger cable, which pulls about 0.6 watts while charging (so even the most basic 5w charging brick from an old iPhone, or a USB port on a computer, will charge this just fine). The charging is relatively brisk. A full charge from ~5% to 100% took only about 90 minutes (it seems to gain about 1% charge per min), so if you need a quick top up, just a 10 minute plug in can net you another couple days of battery.
All in all, this is a fantastic smartwatch/fitness tracker for people who value simplicity and phenomenal battery life. It doesn’t offer the dozens/hundreds of activities to track like some others, and offers only the basics for phone connectivity. It also doesn’t cost a thousand dollars. You get three sizes, several special editions that include some specialty capabilities/apps, several colors in each size, and the option of solar or not.
Cliente Amazon –
Melhor relógio para tudo que faço. Além das corridas de rua, trail running, trekking, utilizo no trabalho, pois, atuo em área naturais no Brasil, principalmente nas escarpas e regiões montanhosas do Quadrilátero Ferrifero em Minas Gerais. O protegi com película para maior longevidade da tela. E possui tantas funções que as vezes nos deixa perdido, nos forçando a pesquisar e entender cada item. Enfim, quem ta nesse meio, é louvável juntar uma grana e adquirí-lo.
Os pontos negativos (em comparação a outro modelo que possuí) são o tamanho do visor (e sem cor), e a questão de armazenamento de música. Para ouvir musica na atitivdade física, tem que carregar o celular.
Guy –
Calidad increíble y super funcional..
Amazon Customer –
Easy to set up with my android phone and Garmin connect. Love the long lasting battery. According to the watch the battery will last probably about 1.5 to 2 months. Much better than my samsung with the 2 day battery.
Arody Salvador Lorenzo Bautista –
Stays charged much longer than other fitness trackers I’ve used, easy to use and powerful app