GarminInstinct 2 Solar, GPS Outdoor Watch, Solar Charging Capabilities, Multi-GNSS Support, Tracbak Routing, Graphite

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.

So I come from wearing a Casio Solar Atomic (not smartwatch) for over 7 years. At the time of this review I have been wearing the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar (45mm) watch for 11 months. The Casio was a true solar watch and I never replaced the battery, not once in 7 years and when I gave it to a friend after I moved to this watch it still showed full battery. HOWEVER that was NOT a smart watch. There is a point to me bringing that up and it has to do with a previous reviewer. But I will get to that point in a minute.Comparing the size and weight to that old watch I was quite surprised. I expected this watch to be bigger and heavier. However it was neither. This 45 mm Instinct is about the same size as the old Casio but it is much lighter. The band is silicone which is very flexible and comfortable while still being strong. It has two excess band holders which I thoroughly love! Now I have worn a watch since I was about 6 or 7 and could tell time. I am 43 now so you do the math. It all that time my biggest pet peeve about watches is that excess band sticking out and catching on EVERYTHING! The band would come out of those old holders or it would catch on something. it was just a fact of life. Enter Garmin, they give you two excess band holders. one old style slip and slide that you can slide into any position and one on the end that is same type but adds a notch that fits into the excess band and locks it in place! No more catching it anything! OMG I can't get over such a simple and wonderful feature!!!!Now for the watch itself. Lets talk battery/solar and then we will get to features. So the face of this watch is a Solar panel. the outer ring takes in 85% of the solar light while the center watch face itself takes in 15%. The battery has a great capacity compared to other smartwatches. Another reviewer stated that she owned a Casio watch exactly as I had and got this watch, now she has to charge it often and her old watch she didn't that makes this watch trash. How wrong that is. Is it possible to use the solar panel to keep the watch charged and never need to plug it in? YES! However that means shutting off every feature that you want this watch for including smartwatch mode. If you used it EXACTLY like the Casio watch and it got the minimum amount of sun every day then yes, you could achieve an infinity battery. However you wouldn't pay this kind of money not to use it right? so lets be realistic here. I'll tell you how I use MY watch and what kind of battery life I see. I use smartwatch mode which includes receiving text messages from my phone and sending canned replies often. I also have the heartrate monitor on 24/7. However I do have the Pulse ox turned off. I had it on constant the first day I received my watch and I watched the battery go from being measured in days/weeks to hours! it said my battery would be dead in less than 24 hours so I turned that feature off! My watch goes on Sleep/do not disturb mode for bedtime each night so I don't receive texts and have it wake me. Also backlight goes to 5% at night. I also use the gps at least once a week sometimes twice for about an hour during walk/hikes. In the summertime I am outside alot and get way more sun than the wintertime so this timeline is during then. I realistically on my settings see a battery life of 26 days on a full charge. However due to gps and everyday usage I on average have to plug it in to charge it every 21 days. ( I charge it at 15% or 2 days left) Now my sister has the Instinct 2 40mm watch size and she uses hers like mine with roughly the same settings and she has to charge hers typically every 14 days. So an additional 7 days and an additional gps time is the difference between the 40mm version and the 45mm version if anyone is curious. So realistically the solar panel is a subsidiary battery charger not meant to charge the whole battery (though it can be used that way if the watch is turned off and placed in the sun all day during when you cannot charge it via power supply). the panel subsides the need for a full battery charge more often. I do believe the non-solar versions battery life are measured in hours or a few days. not the amount that this one gets. So the solar version really is worth it! I have seen in the summertime when I was in the sun alot, I have seen my watch actually charge an extra day or two.Watchface: Now this watch comes with some chooseable watch faces. However by using a separate program, you can build your very own watchface from the ground up! I love it. I have everything that I want to see at a glance on my watch face. The the rest accessible by sub menus.Gps is very accurate and tracks everything well. No complaints here. Now I could go into detail about every feature and be here for another 10 pages but I do believe I have hit the most questions asked and the high points of this watch. If you are doing research on this watch then you already know about all the features it has.In conclusion this watch is now my favorite. it is very comfortable to wear, very usable and just plain wonderful. I have no idea how I have lived life without it. Sad thing is, I now can NEVER go back to a plain old watch like my old Casio.