Garmin Instinct 2S Solar, Smaller-Sized Rugged Outdoor Watch with GPS, with Solar Charging Capabilities, Built for All Elements, Multi-GNSS Support, Tracback Routing and More, Graphite

First of all, know what you are getting with this watch. I have had several Garmins, most recently a Forerunner 965, an Apple watch, and a Coros Pace. Here’s what you get with the Instinct 2S: 1. Always-on, MIP display. Not colorful or even bright, but always accessible at a glance without having to flip your wrist. 2. Small size. It is small and lightweight. Will only fit smaller wrists and the display size means only basic metrics can be displayed at all times. I don’t need to see my heart rate, my miles run this week, or my Garmin vo2 max at any given moment. 3. Long battery life. The solar charging works ok, but you’ll get 2 weeks or more if you’re using it regularly. 4. No touchscreen. I don’t want one, I know the Garmin buttons and how to drive one. I bought the watch to track my road and trail running and so I can simply see the time on my wrist when I look. Tired of huge AMOLED displays with a bunch of metrics I can’t read in time before the display shuts off. I don’t even want that much data available at once, I can look on the Connect app and see all I need. Always-on mode for an AMOLED always seems to come with the cost of a rapidly dead battery. You might be different from me. If you want a bright colorful display, touchscreen, and AI training metrics, get a 65 or 70 series Forerunner. If you want an always-on MIP display but also a big watch face with a lot of metrics AND insane battery life, Enduro 3 is the one. If you want a smaller (and cheaper) Enduro 3 with less metrics on the watch face, Coros Apex is worth a look. I think that’s it. The worst this thing will see is a 50k trail run, and it isn’t even getting started when that is complete.

I don't write a lot of reviews, but I thought I'd chime in about this. (Just a regular old customer here--no connection to Garmin or Amazon.) My point of view might be uncommon for Garmin owners: I actually don't think of myself as a Smartwatch guy and have actually turned down free Apple Watches (as holiday gifts) on two occasions. No interest in texting on my wrist. I'm a "watch guy" in the more traditional sense--a big fan of mid-tier to high-end mechanical watches. But I wanted one techy watch for when I bike and work out and for a long backcountry hike where GPS was going to be necessary. I've owned this watch for a couple months now and have put it through its paces: swimming (it's highly water-resistant), biking, lifting, and (as mentioned) in the wilderness. It hasn't disappointed. Set up is easy and intuitive: if you can handle using an iPhone, you should have no problem making your way through the process. Downloading the smartphone app on your device and syncing it is worth the trouble, in my opinion. Among other things, it will allow you to keep on top of software updates, control your music while working out (without having to touch your phone), and get whatever alerts (like texts or Ring notifications) you might want to opt into. I have it set up so that the Garmin app only seeks out my watch when I open the app---don't want this thing constantly searching and draining my phone battery when I'm not even wearing the watch. I do still fumble through the different buttons trying to remember what does what, but it is getting better. I usually only wear this for a few hours at a time a few days a week; if I wore it more regularly, I'm sure I would be far more fluent by now. And the good news is, you really can't mess anything up by pressing the wrong button. There's tons of customization that you can do (during setup or just whenever) to rearrange the main screen, add or remove activities and options, etc. For an entry-level smartwatch, it's impressively featured! Battery life is utterly insane. I charged it before a 10-hour hike where the GPS was going the entire time--that was in early May. Since then I've worn it several times for many collective hours, sometimes in GPS mode, sometimes not, and I only had to charge it again today--in mid June. Granted, I power it down whenever I'm not using it, but still, you get a lot of time out of a single charge. I have the solar version, and I suppose that extends the battery life in a limited way---can't say I've tested that or noticed strong evidence of it, but I'll take Garmin's word for it. The GPS tracking feature works very well once you get it dialed in to your preferences, which isn't tricky to do. If you get lost, you can flip to the screen where your track is: it's just a squiggly line on the screen---there's no map background on this plain-Jane, smaller, black and white display---but with pretty minimal brainpower, you can use it to retrace your steps, no problem. No chance of getting lost with this thing on, as long as you've got a signal---and I've never had any trouble acquiring one. Beyond that, just having it on your wrist as a trip computer, tracking how long you've been at it, how many miles you've covered, your elevation, etc, is really nice. It allowed me to provide very specific answers every time my kid asked "how many more miles do we have to go?" Note, though, that you'll need to activate the GPS mode when you start your hike (or ride or whatever). And you'll want to shut if off when you're done in order to extend the battery life. Nice to have the heart-rate and pulse oximeter features. Also reassuring to have the "incident reporting" feature, or whatever it's called. Thankfully haven't had to use it, but I've read positive customer reviews from folks who have. It's a comfort to know that my wife will get an instant alert on her phone if I crash my bike, for example. And I believe the alert will include my exact location. As for the watchy-watch stuff: this thing is very well built. It feels robust, but is as light as a feather. I mean, you can really forget you have it on, especially if you're accustomed to wearing a luxury sports watch that weighs more than 100g. I haven't tried swapping out the rubber strap, but I see no reason why you couldn't put it on a NATO or something if you wanted to. The integrated strap itself feels like it's good quality, though I imagine it will eventually need to be replaced after a few years of putting it on and taking it off. The overall look is very rugged and "tactical." At least with the black model, there's nothing refined or luxurious about it at all. The main thing I want to say about it as a watch per se is that the size is perfect, at least for me. A lot of these smartwatches nowadays are enormous: 45mm and super-thick. To me they look absurd. This one is about 40mm, which is by no means small, but it's sensible and while definitely "sized" for a man, could work well as an oversized unisex option. Point is, when I'm wearing it, it just feels like a normal watch, proportioned like several of my other, mechanical watches---not like a giant wrist computer. It calls no attention to itself. The screen isn't tiny or anything: the display is plenty readable. It's not touchscreen, it's not full color, you can't watch videos on it---if you want all of that, look at a different model. This is one of those "everything you need, nothing you don't" items. (Though, again, it has a pretty surprising array and number of features---most of which I've never used.) Big fan.

I bought this watch over a year ago and have loved it, but it does come with a couple bugs. Originally I wanted a watch that would outlive my Apple Watch (which now only holds charge for 4-6 hours at best), while tracking my heart rate, sleep schedules, and exercise continually. This watch does all that and more, and excels at the tracking aspect. It has so much data when you link it to the app, which breaks down into very readable and digestible information. The sleep data is especially important to me and has helped me change habits and figure out nights where insomnia is present. However, giving it a 4/5 I feel is fair for the 2S Solar. I cannot compare to the 2 Solar or the 2XL, but the solar charging and capacity on the small version is quite bad. With only SMS notifications coming to my watch, and basic monitoring of my heart and sleep, the watch will last "21 days". This is more realistic to about 14-16 (if you do not record any activity), but for me this is okay as it was a huge step up from my previous. However, the first model I had was a lemon. The solar charging did not work; I took videos of leaving my watch in direct sun on a blue bird day for hours, at various times of day and different days, and solar never worked. Garmin has great customer support, and within a couple weeks I had it exchanged. The second and current one does pick up the solar and does "charge", but its more like a maintenance charge where the battery stays at say 50% for a day or two rather then it charging up to 53-55% to go that extra day. If solar capacity is your main goal with this, where charging it maybe once a month or less, I would say stay away from the small version. Father in Law has the bigger one and has maybe charged it 4-5 times this year alone. Great watch, solar has a bit of a ways to come from my experience. If you are in the market for a backpacking or no charge watch, I'd size up or possibly go with just the regular Instinct 2.

Great value watch, durable and simple.

Exactly want I wanted. This is more of an exercise watch than a smart watch. I have turned off most notifications but still get calls/texts. Heart rate monitor seems to work fine. Love the gps and hiking functions. While the display is black and white, it is easy to see. Back light for night use. I get about 18 days battery with the sensory turned on, around 40 days with them off. Solar charging helps extend some, but not a ton. I did get the smaller version, instinct 2S. I have about a 15 inch wrist. Little small, but the normal would’ve been too big. The band for the Instinct S is smaller than my old vivoactove 3 band. If you have larger wrist (I would say larger than 16.5-17) it may be a tight fit. Lots of different exercise options to choose from and ways to track activities. Update: 7/19 Still love this watch. Have tried out several features/different workouts such as run, walk, hike, kayak,etc and it seems to track everything well. Heart rate monitor seems to be accurate. I have been exploring the suggested running workouts and have been enjoying those. Only complaint is that the smaller watch size cannot accurately use the track back feature when hiking. The screen seems too small to load the whole map when retracing steps. Because of the small screen size, it is hard to see everything on the track back feature. Every other screen is easy to use/read. Save money and don’t get the solar option. I have not noticed a very big difference even when leaving the watch in the sun all day as an experiment.