Garmin Instinct 2 Solar review

Garmin is well-known for its standalone out of doors GPS gear and nice working watches, so it’s no shock it additionally efficiently combines the 2 to make out of doors GPS watches.

The corporate’s Intuition 2 Photo voltaic is among the newest and after having been on my wrist for the perfect a part of three months I can name it a roaring success.

I solely needed to plug within the charging cable twice in that point due to the photo voltaic charging function, which when on vacation in Greece virtually stored the battery meter degree due to all-day solar publicity.

Even away from the solar’s rays indoors (and, let’s be trustworthy, outside when within the UK), the watch has very good longevity. It’s an amazing mixture of operate over kind, with a monochrome show to save lots of energy relatively than a draining OLED or LCD.

Packed in beneath the fundamental display screen are an enormous host of sports activities monitoring and out of doors options on a watch that prices lower than an Apple Watch Sequence 8 in a design that may enchantment to sports activities and out of doors folks.

At $449.99/£389.99/€449.99, it’s truly among the many least expensive watches you should buy that may do that a lot.

Design & construct

• Utilitarian look
• Solidly constructed
• Monochrome show

The Intuition 2 Photo voltaic within the black model I reviewed is kind of refined regardless of the rugged, military-esque look. It additionally is available in a lightweight gray or darkish blue if you need the photo voltaic function, although there are a rainbow of color choices for those who don’t get the photo voltaic one.

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The bezel and case of the watch is constructed from fibre-reinforced polymer that took a little bit of a thrashing as wore it daily. The casing nonetheless seems to be fairly immaculate and due to a raised lip the glass display screen is free from scratches.

That display screen makes use of Corning Gorilla Glass (learn: sturdy) and paired with the intelligent memory-in-pixel (MIP) monochrome show expertise makes for a no-nonsense arrange. MIP screens have very low energy consumption, and this one can be transflective, which suggests it displays gentle and makes use of it to gentle up the show. It means the watch is straightforward to learn in direct daylight, in contrast to smartphones and most smartwatches.

I seen some put on to the strap loops largely as a result of my left wrist sits on my desk as I kind at my keyboard – not essentially the most outdoorsy solution to check sturdiness of a GPS watch, however value noting.

After I was exterior, I used to be by no means nervous in regards to the rugged construct of the Intuition 2 Photo voltaic. It has 5 bodily buttons which might be simple to press although don’t stick out very far so are slightly tough to precisely press with gloves on.

I discovered the watch supremely snug regardless of its bulk. It measures 45 x 45 x 14.50mm so sits off the wrist slightly approach and shares a variety of design traits with Casio’s G-Shock merchandise. At 53g it’s additionally slightly weighty for a smartwatch however I personally go for daring, cumbersome watches so it didn’t trouble me.

Garmin ensures you’ll be able to put on the factor virtually wherever with a notable 10ATM water ranking (something water based mostly all the way down to 100m, bar scuba diving). For the value, that is an especially nicely thought out and hardy design.

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Health & sports activities monitoring

The watch is pitched extra as an outside trekking watch than a runner’s, however it may be used for all method of exercise monitoring, working included. I used it to document many runs and located the in-built GPS monitoring to be extraordinarily correct, in a position to log tempo and cadence effortlessly. Garmin is famend for its reliability on these fronts.

I additionally used it within the UK and on vacation to trace my strolling routes, and there’s a useful breadcrumb path function that drops waypoints as you go so you’ll be able to observe it again for those who stray out of cellphone sign or can’t name up any maps. For peace of thoughts, the watch may choose up GLONASS and Galileo positioning methods on high of GPS to be sure you can all the time know the place you might be.

I had a variety of nerdy enjoyable simply standing exterior and utilizing the watch to rapidly document my international coordinates, which you’ll log.

It’s slightly tough to learn it given the show is monochrome, however it works, and it’s good to realize it’s there must you get misplaced – you simply have to recollect to set it going within the first place, it’s not computerized.

The guts fee sensor on the underside of the watch is constant and at this value you’ll be able to anticipate or not it’s fairly correct – although if you need full assurance of accuracy with coronary heart fee you need to all the time look to make use of a chest strap product.

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However I really like that the Garmin lets me set steady, as soon as per second coronary heart fee monitoring with seemingly no impact on battery life. In addition to this sensor it additionally has a barometric altimeter, compass, accelerometer, thermometer, and a blood oxygen saturation monitor for high degree monitoring and browse outs.

Stroll, hike, and pool swim are the opposite fundamental monitoring modes, however you should use the watch’s customized menus so as to add your particular exercises, which vary from indoor monitor runs to triathlon, to golf, bouldering, or fishing. It could robotically document reps within the health club and although can’t auto detect exercise, it will probably robotically pause them if it senses you taking a break.

Most modes will merely monitor your coronary heart fee however deciding on them permits to view particular exercise exertion throughout the Garmin Join app, which works with iPhone or Android telephones.

Should you put on the watch 24/7 it will probably additionally document your stress and sleep patterns. That is doable due to the excellent battery life however I discovered the watch too cumbersome to put on at evening.

An expedition mode can be utilized that may document a multi-day exercise by turning off all sensors and equipment to squeeze essentially the most out of the battery. It data a monitor level as soon as per hour, to full map your path. This mode guarantees 32 days of GPS use, with at the very least 3 hours of solar.

A plethora of different options are additionally packed in with irregular coronary heart fee alerts, health age calculation, cycle monitoring, hydration monitoring, and on-wrist exercise ideas. Absolutely featured is an understatement (full listing of options right here), and it will probably obtain all of it with simply 32MB of onboard reminiscence. It made me query the existence of one-day battery life smartwatches with color shows and distracting options.

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Smartwatch options

• App slightly complicated
• Notifications buggy

Top-of-the-line issues in regards to the Intuition 2 Photo voltaic is it will probably ping you with notifications out of your smartphone, replace you about your exercises, stress, and different metrics – or you may make it solely silent and keep out of your approach.

That is usually uncommon for smartwatches, that are normally designed to seize our consideration to make us pull out our telephones and spend time on apps.

Although you may get notifications on the Garmin, I turned them off as they’re pretty rudimentary, and you may’t reply to something or motion something on an iPhone, however you’ll be able to on Android. I typically left the cellphone name notification on although, and the discover my cellphone or discover my watch options got here in useful.

There’s worldwide assist for NFC funds utilizing the watch, however neither of my two banks was supported within the UK so I couldn’t check this out. You’ll be able to management your music or audio app from the watch, however you’ll be able to’t load tracks onto it – and there are not any third occasion apps available on this working system.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

You can even choose from just a few totally different watch faces. I just like the stat heavy ones, and I used to be in a position to look down at my coronary heart fee, coronary heart fee graph for the day, the date, days of battery let, climate and temperature, and dawn and sundown – in addition to the time, in fact.

A draw back to customising the watch and getting insights out of your knowledge is the Garmin Join app is difficult to navigate and has a steep studying curve. It’s all in there, however you usually should search by means of menus a number of layers deep to search out the one setting that’s bugging you.

For instance, the watch beeped at me after I accomplished every kilometre of a run with my time for that kilometre – sure please. However within the app, it confirmed me my run instances all in miles. It took me without end to search out the setting to vary it.

Many of the smartwatch options on the Intuition 2 Photo voltaic are nice-to-haves and are finest considered issues you should use if you need, however aren’t the core expertise, and should not the principle causes you have to be seeking to purchase one. It excels in monitoring, and one different issues.

Battery life & charging

• Insane longevity
• Solar energy tops it up
• Battery saver modes(!)

That factor is battery life. I examined the Photo voltaic mannequin particularly, which has panels in-built behind the display screen to absorb energy from the solar’s rays so that you don’t need to cost your watch with the included cable so usually.

In three months, I solely needed to plug it in 3 times. My indoor desk job meant that’s most likely greater than you’ll have to in that interval for those who work outside, or in a really sunny nation.

In Greece in blazing 30 levels centigrade solar, the battery degree stayed just about fixed, dropped solely a day or two (because the metre data days left relatively than a proportion, such is the lengthy battery life). Again within the dreary UK, it depleted slightly. You want at the very least 3-4 hours of the watch in direct daylight for it to achieve any noticeable solar energy.

Even with none solar, a full cost will final about 30 days, although that shall be much less for those who use GPS daily. With solar, the determine can stretch to a number of extra days. A battery saver mode guarantees as much as 65.

Plugging the proprietary-to-USB-A cable into the watch takes an hour or so to high it again up. I went on a number of journeys away with out even taking the cable with me.

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Value & availability

The Garmin Intuition 2 Photo voltaic prices $449.99/£389.99/€449.99 for the mannequin with 45mm that I examined.

This can be a aggressive value for the function set that pitches itself immediately at outside individuals who would possibly need one thing slightly extra succesful than an Apple Watch, and with a stable month of battery life.

It won’t have a color show, however this watch packs in most issues the Apple Watch Extremely can do for about half the value.

You should buy it within the US direct from Garmin or from Amazon or REI.

Within the UK, you may get it from Garmin and Amazon. It’s on sale in Europe too from, you guessed it, Garmin and Amazon.

A smaller 40mm mannequin, known as the Intuition 2S Photo voltaic, prices the identical however I didn’t check it. If you wish to spend much less, solely need health monitoring, and don’t want the solar energy, I’d suggest the Polar Pacer as a substitute.

Verdict

The Garmin Intuition 2 Photo voltaic might look plain however it’s fairly a unprecedented health and outside watch. It packs in a miles-long listing of options that may enchantment to anybody on the lookout for a watch that may monitor a number of actions nicely due to intelligent on-wrist and app-based software program, a ton of correct sensors, and a number of the finest battery life I’ve ever seen on a wearable.

Having the photo voltaic high up constructed right into a watch that’s beneath $500/£500 is daylight theft, and Garmin has finished nicely to pack this a lot tech right into a watch that might be mistaken for one of many extra refined G-Shock fashions. That stated, for the value, it stays an entry-level product of Garmin’s and a few folks would possibly see the monochrome display screen as a downgrade, however in actuality, its decrease energy consumption is the watch’s secret weapon.

Specs

• 45 x 45 x 14.50 mm
• 53g
• 23 x 23mm show, 176 x 176p
• 10ATM water ranking
• 32MB reminiscence
• GPS
• GLONASS
• Galileo
• Coronary heart fee sensor
• Barometric altimeter
• Thermometer
• Blood oxygen monitor
• Bluetooth, ANT+
• NFC