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

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.

I got this watch after being frustrated by my Apple Watch's 6-8 hour battery life. Yes, out of the box. Yes, it was sent in for repair and they said it's working as designed. No more Apple Watches for me. In fact, no more new Apple products. Nice job, Tim Apple. I digress. The Garmin watch does what I need it to do and has a real-world battery life of around 19 DAYS for me. That's constantly monitoring my pulse rate, keeping Bluetooth on, and getting notifications from my phone. NINETEEN DAYS! Is it perfect? No. The monochrome screen is functional and high resolution. It is very readable in bright sunlight, unlike the Apple Watch. But the backlight leaves something to be desired. Even at its highest brightness, it's a bit dim for my eyes. The user interface takes some getting used to. Pressing buttons is different than holding buttons. So each of the 5 buttons has two functions. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's pretty intuitive, but do expect a learning curve. Garmin Pay works... if your bank is supported. None of mine were supported until I changed banks. (Not for the watch alone, other reasons too.) Even then, it was a manual process on my bank's side, causing me to have to call them up. Apple Watch just works better in this case. The solar panel does function, but do not expect to reach 100% battery, even outside all day in the direct sun. You may see several percent increase, but unless you turn almost everything off except the time, the solar cell will not provide significant charge. With nearly everything off, however, you can attain "unlimited battery" being in the bright sun for several hours a day. The app was just updated recently. It works well, but isn't as intuitive as the previous version. Learning curve again, I think. I manually sync my watch daily (or when I remember). This works well. There are ways to customize many watch faces, and there are a few apps available on the Garmin store to add functionality to the watch. It's a little challenging as it is a separate app for the Garmin store on your phone, and you have to look for apps that run on your specific model of watch. I wish it could filter by the watch you own, but alas they haven't done that yet. Overall, this is an excellent watch with a wealth of features. Just expect to study the manual and memorize buttons and other functionality. I highly recommend this watch.

I'm a stay at home mom with a toddler, so I probably am not the best person to review this product but let me say, I love this watch! I used to have an apple watch that had the worst battery life and constantly gave me a skin rash despite wearing their breathable sport band. I wanted more of an outdoorsy watch because I genuinely love to walk outside for long periods with my toddler and am always curious how far and how long we're out. My garmin has been doing a phenomenal job with it and also has been tracking my sleep extremely well. I love that it also can notify you of phone notifications but limits your actual phone use by not being able to always respond to those notifications via watch. Also, the battery life is phenomenal. I literally charge it 1x a month for the most part. It's great!

I’ve enjoyed the Instinct for years. User friendly easy to adapt too. Works amazing for hikes. Multiple functions. Step/stair/heart rate/gps you name it the list is long. Upgrading to the solar is rewarding . 30 day battery life is no joke . Specially for using it actively on a daily basis. Another bonus, they moved the elevation sensor to the side for better readings. Garmin's product have never let me down. I solo hike thru all 4 seasons and I feel safe every time I go out knowing I have there products on my person. I’m a minor. I wear this watch at work 6 days a week. My hands are deep in machines daily. This each is durable and can take a beating . They do sell protective glass for the face. It’s nice to have the extra protection. TBH even with the first watch I’ve had for over 5* years the glass is strong . Easy cleaning. Plenty of accessories for this Garmin product.

Perfect gift for my husband. This watch is awesome. He has two bird dogs and it pairs with their collars, so when they are out of view he can look them up on his watch and see which direction they are and how far away they are. Besides that, there are so many other great health features. Battery life is awesome too.

I've been using this watch for about 6 months, and I've been loving it so far even though there are newer models out now. The battery life, GPS tracking, notification options, application functionality and more are all what I was looking for in a rugged outdoor focused fitness/activity tracker. I don't know how accurate the sleep tracking is, but I stopped wearing the watch to bed after a while anyway. The bezel is too bulky for to be comfortable while sleeping anyway, but I like the size for normal wear, and the display provided excellent clarity while I'm trying to read stats or messages in bright sunlight. My only minor complaint is that the stock band has softened up a bit over the past few months, but that's likely because this thing has been exposed to but spray, sunscreen, and other substances that it probably shouldn't have been. That being said, I've had multiple opportunities to test the water resistance while fishing, or swimming, and it's held up to that abuse so far.

Watch works good except that it lost the ability to charge with solar after a few months. It wasn't dropped, and didn't get wet. I tried a master reset and it still didn't work. Other than that, I like the watch and would have given 5 stars if the solar feature was solid.

I bought this watch during Black Friday to replace an aging Forerunner 735 XT. The old watch is triathlon centric and was starting to act up a bit. I wanted a watch that would track a wider variety of activities, and the Instinct 2 Solar seemed to fit the bill. Two major strengths are that it acquires satellites way faster than my old watch and the battery life is much better. Being winter, I've yet to see how much the solar charging will help with that, but this summer it should improve further. The Instinct 2 Solar tracks more than enough activities for my needs and pairs easily with a variety of Ant+ and Blue Tooth sensors. The GPS has proven very accurate. I have seen some complaints about the user interface but having experience with another Garmin watch, I found it intuitive. My major disappointment, which I have not seen mentioned in other reviews, is the inconsistency of altitude measurements. The 735 XT was always spot on accurate. I am an equal opportunity cyclist living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. All my local rides range between 0 and 49 feet in altitude. My first road ride with the Instinct 2 Solar had me ranging between -100 and +100 feet. My first mountain bike ride had me climbing and descending over 5000 feet. After some research, I figured out the 735 XT used Digital Elevation Model data for altitude. The Instinct 2 Solar relies on its barometric altimeter which can be affected by a multitude of factors. After additional research I found that by turning off the barometric sensor and manually calibrating a known altitude at the start of a ride, the result was closer to reality but trended upward as the ride progressed. Garmin's own website states that calibrating altitude by GPS instead which is the default if Auto calibration is chosen can be off by as much as 400 feet. It is possible to manually recalibrate during a ride, but I haven't taken the time to try that. After even further research, I have found that the altitude measurements for an activity can be changed from the device's measurement to DEM on the Garmin Connect website (not the app) after the fact. That is my plan because I want the numbers to be accurate. ABC navigation is touted as a function of the Instinct 2 Solar with the A being altitude, but I'm not sure how that would work out given my experience. The other area that I have found disappointing is sleep monitoring. I have found the data provided by Fit Bit devices to be more helpful, and as a result wear an Inspire 3 on my other wrist primarily for sleep. In summary, the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar does much of what I need it to do very well. The more expensive Garmin watches with the ability to load maps containing DEM data would solve my elevation issue, but at this price point it's a fine watch.

Good watch. Tested it to be working well. Price was lower than other store. Note: bought on Black Friday but turns out it became cheaper after Black Friday. WTH. Update: buyers not residing in UK/CA to note. Warranty is only available in UK/CA. There's no Chinese fonts and it's impossible to download Chinese fonts pack (only available for APAC watches).

Buen reloj. Un smart watch sin perder lo clasico de un reloj.

Amazing watch, great upgrade from the original Garmin Instinct. Connect IQ is a welcome addition as is the ability to track and see my VO2max. Same ruggedness as the you'd expect with the Instinct series. The solar featrure is a bonus -- I don't need to worry about constantly charging.

This watch is amazing. I'm very happy with the build quality and features. I've been using G-shocks for years at work and this Garmin met every expectation and more. I wanted a smart watch again, but wasn't willing to give up rugged reliability. I really like having the health and sleep tracking feature and Garmin does not try to force you to pay a subscription to get this data that the watch collects. Every other manufacturer extorts a subscription fee to get the data they take from you anyway. You can tell Garmin puts careful thought into the design, it's very comfortable and functional.

Me encanta el reloj, ya que le duró muchísimo la pila. Me encanta que tenga un montón de funciones, la que más ocupo es la de senderismo, gimnasio y bicicleta. Sirve mucho su GPS ya que ayuda a localizarte en medio de la anda y te muestra el camino de regreso. Por el precio siento que es un mega reloj y no le pode nada a Garmins más avanzados