Garmin010-02293-10 Instinct Solar, Rugged Outdoor Smartwatch with Solar Charging Capabilities, Built-in Sports Apps and Health Monitoring, Graphite

If you're looking for a sport smart-watch to listen to music while you run, navigate throughout the city or install apps, then THIS IS NOT YOUR WATCH.To put it simply and give you a better feel for the watch, I'm a rock climber, amateur alpinist and during COVID took up running as part of my training routine. Me choosing this watch came down to the following points (in order of relevance): battery life, cost, and long-term usability.As an alpinist, the need for charging a device can be crippling, particularly GPS-enabled ones. The watchs' battery lasts for 13 days on the basic setting, meaning it registers your heartbeat, daily activities (steps, floors, etc) and utilizes GPS without connecting for a charge for a long time (with Sleep PulseOx disabled it can last close to double that and in battery saver mode even longer). Of course, activities such as running, skiing, and others (it comes with preloaded activities but you can create your own custom ones) use up more battery, but you can set up different power modes so that the charge lasts longer. Moreover, I've had a simple Casio solar for the last 10 years and never changed the battery, so no way was I buying a 1-day-charge watch after that.Regarding cost, I got it during Presidents Day sales for 320-ish, which to me is a steal for this watch. If you are the kind of person who wants all the Instinct Solar has but wants street maps and more customization, then you may need to spend more cash on things like the Enduro or the Phoenix lineup, both of which come at twice the cost or more (do your research on those). The Instinct Solar is a basic watch in terms of looks and visuals (black & white screen, breadcrumb navigation, only a few preloaded watch faces), aimed mostly at giving you many features for outdoor adventures and sports while not wasting resources on useless gimmicks. In my case, running is only part of and not the focus of my training so, while valuable, things like VO2max are not a must-have, whereas wrist-based blood O2 readings can give me an approximate idea on the field (this is NOT a medical device).Regarding long-term usability, it comes down to one simple fact: these things are expensive.The reality is, unless you are made out of money, you cannot buy one of these every year, be it the Instinct or any other smart-watch. In my case, I wanted a device that can function on the mountains without worrying about whether it will make it on a single charge or die midway. I wanted something that has GPS capabilities but doesn't break the bank or needs a replacement for a while. Solar charging makes it a tough contender for this price range.Overall, if you want a basic do-it-all adventure watch that won't set you back too much but can be used for more than just extreme terrain, this is an excellent product. If you are looking for a more running-oriented or activity-tracking device, Garmin has other line-ups, more affordable than the Instinct Solar and with specific features for those activities. The only problem with this watch is the learning curve, but there are youtube guides to simplify it.

I’ve been eyeing down the Instinct and Fenix for a while and finally decided on the Instinct when they introduced this solar version. It’s been a month of using it every day and I love it. I came from having a Viviactive HR and love the Instinct Solar much better. The wrist heart rate monitor is slimmer and doesn’t poke so much into your wrist, like the Vivoactive HR.Why did I choose this over the Fenix? For my use I didn’t need music storage built-in, nor the on-device topo maps of the Fenix. Those were the two big features that were on my would-be-nice but not essential lists. Other than that the Instinct gives you most of the same tracking capabilities and feedback. The Instinct gives you access to an app called Garmin Explore, which allows you to download topo maps to see where you are at, when out of cell coverage. That app resolved my desire for the Fenix, since I didn’t want to spend that much money.The solar feature of the watch is really cool and really works. I’m indoors most of the time when I’m at work, so solar alone won’t keep me going indefinitely, but when I’m outdoors it does increase battery life. One hour of full sun gave the watch one more day of smartwatch use or one hour of GPS tracking. More sun time gave about the same results with sunny days. Overcast days charged too, but we don’t have many of those in the desert I’m in so I can’t give I’m depth detail on overcast charging.Battery life is exceptional, even without solar. This was another reason I went with the Instinct Solar over the Fenix. I can get up to 32 days using smart watch (not tracking pulse ox all night ), or up to 64 days with the smart watch features turned off. When turning on the pulse-oximeter tracking at night, the watch only got 7 days of battery life. Still pretty dang good if you ask me, especially compared to the more GPU centered smart watches that I don’t need from Samsung or Apple. I ended up turning off the pulse-ox tracking because it wasn’t worth it to me for the battery dip. You can still check your pulse ox manually when you turn the nightly tracking off. The first charge of the battery got me 15 days of smart watch use, combined with 9 hours GPS tracking, and an hour of Cardio/Yoga tracking. The battery life with the pulse-oximeter tracking turned off roughly equates to one day of smart watch (watch with no tracking during the day) =one hour of GPS tracking.One complaint I was worried about was that the display doesn’t show you the percentage left on the battery on the main watch display, but shows you the days left of battery life (or hours when using GPS tracking). But I quickly discovered that when you navigate to the menu, the watch battery days remaining display toggles between days left and percentage. I got used to the days remaining and actually liked it better, after a month of use.The watch seems to be very durable but nice and light weight. I still got a tempered glass screen protector because I’m rough on watches. I did have a tough crash while mountain biking and the watch held up but the screen protector cracked because I hit a rock after flipping over the handlebars and hit right on the screen, but after taking the glass protector off the watch face was still mint new. Definitely recommend the screen protector if your a cluts like me.There are some really cool features like Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, area measurement, multiple sport tracking profiles(hiking, running, cycling, mountain biking, skiing, paddle boarding etc), open water swim, course navigation, and route back to start point. There are some hunting and fishing features but I’m not a hunter so can’t speak to those.The Instinct Solar is excellent for any outdoor or fitness enthusiast.