Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Made for The Outdoors GPS Smartwatch Review
Morgan Rogue 02.10.23
I’m outdoors a lot and because of this, I didn’t want an Apple watch or even a FitBit, I wanted something with more features and could be more rugged and quite frankly, fit my lifestyle better.
I’ve tried the other smartwatches before and nothing has even come close to the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar.
Of course, the option that stood out to me the most is the ability to charge the battery with solar. Without the solar charging, with a full battery, it lasts about 29 days. How much solar do you need to keep the battery at full charge? You would need about a full days worth of direct sunlight to charge one days worth of battery. This would mean that you’d have to either set the watch outside in the direct sun all day, or be outside in the direct sun all day.
So with this information, though it’s very cool that it can charge with solar, it’s not necessarily a super practical feature in some areas of the world or seasonally.
It’s pretty cool to see the tracking on the watch face of how much solar you’re getting, though.
Personally, I was looking for an outdoor watch that had GPS capabilities. You can use the GPS for about 30 hours straight if you wanted to. That’s an impressive amount of time. It’s not just GPS, though, it actually has multi-GNSS support which accesses various global satellites to track in whatever environment you’re in.
It has trackback routing, so when you use GPS, you can also use it to track back to your starting point. You can also set a reference point like your car, spot you spotted deer, and so on.
It also has an altimeter for elevation data, barometer to monitor weather and 3-axis electronic compass.
One feature that I didn’t know whether I’d like or not, is the fitness aspect of it. It monitors your heart, daily workout suggestions, HIIT workouts, stress tracking, pre-loaded activities for activities you already enjoy, and more.
This doesn’t have a touchscreen, which I like because that’s one less thing for me to worry about breaking. The screen and watch itself are extremely rugged. It has buttons on the side that help you navigate around. It also has a backlight to see the watch face at night.
Connecting to my phone and getting notifications is my least favorite part. I never had a smartwatch because I don’t want notifications showing up on my watch. That isn’t a negative of the watch, it’s just my personal preference. And also, though I feel this is a feature of all smartwatches, I wish it wouldn’t do push notifications when I’m not wearing the watch. It’s annoying to hear the buzz on my watch every time I get a notification on my phone. Again, this is a feature of all smartwatches, not just Garmin. I just wish they had some sort of sensor or something to disable notifications when it’s not being worn.
I’m a petite woman and the 45mm size fits perfectly on my wrist. Doesn’t look too big and doesn’t look too small, it’s a perfect size.
Overall, I’m really happy with this watch. It fits my outdoor and active lifestyle and even encourages me to be even more active by tracking steps or daily workout suggestions. I get excited wearing it outdoors to see how much solar I can absorb or to track my GPS. It’s engaging, but it’s overwhelmingly so.
There are some other editions such as the Surf edition or the Tactical edition. I thought I wanted the Tactical edition but it had features that really only applied to the military or those with night vision (as much as I want night vision, that’s not something in my grasp right now so maybe I’ll look into the Tactical edition later). These versions have slight variations in features to fit the specific needs of the user.
Take a look at the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Smartwatch.
MSRP: $459
