Final Garmin Instinct 2 Review - Pros & Cons for CrossFit & vs Polar, Coros, Suunto & Other Garmins 

CORRECTION TO LAP BUTTON: Someone pointed out that you CAN add the Lap Button feature by going into the settings for each activity and toggling the Lap Button to On. First watch of Garmin’s to require this step!

a note on Battery, the Pulse Ox on is a huge drain. Quite a massive drain. My Watch's battery easily lasts 3 or 4 times longer if I don't use the pulse ox feature.

Great final review as always sir. Always appreciate your reviews.

Monochrome dial meams great visibility in full sun. Was pleasantly surprised,and i previously owned a huawei 4 pro which had a really sharp oled screen,

Awesome review. And good comparison. I would like to give my thoughts on couple of things. 1. Delay - I do agree with this. Seems like they didn't upgrade the processor. I have seen this watch actually got freeze and restarted in the middle of his hiking. This is a major issue. 2. Lap counter - So if there is no any lap counter button then how do we register the laps? That's a bummer. 3. Legibility - I'm not very sure if this a fair comparation with Epic cause it has a AMOLED display. So it should be bright outdoor. Comparing with Fenix7 would be reasonable. And yes I was hard to read. I have a question. May I know for how much money in loss % you are reselling your new products you've purchased? Are you selling them on online or local dealers?

Thanks for this very in-depth review! you helped me greatly to choose my smartwatch. I went for Instinct 2S Solar and I'm very happy with my choice. Thanks!

Nice Harry Mack swag. thanks for the review appreciate it, im torn between instinct 2 , fenix 6 or 7....the choices!!

Great review. Do you know if the Instinct 2 has silent/vibration alarm/notifications? Thanks

Thanks for the Review, i cant agree in a lot of Points but we all request different things from a watch that we consider good or best, i returned the fenix 7s and got a instinct 2 for example. A bit like People who love Casio GShock vs. regular Watches its just not for everybody and for your use scenario the epix surely is the better fit.

I really liked the video. I wanted to know if crossfit training still requires a chest strap?

I think you need to toggle lap button from the workout settings.

Great video! I am thinking about buying the Instinct Solar. If I want to use the watch mostly for hiking and navigation, are all the improvements from Instinct 1 to Instinct 2 noticeable beyond better solar efficiency and performance tracking? Thanks!

Thank you for the review. What are your thoughts about the Instinct 2 versus Venu 2 Plus? Is one better than the other, from a data analytics perspective? This would be my first fitness watch, and I am having trouble differentiating what is most important.

Nice review - there are so many functions on this watch it is a true challenge to cover all of them. One point I don't fully agree with is battery life. I think the main goal of the designers with this watch was to minimise the drain on the battery and to boost the charge with the solar tech. So that's why the color screen is sacrificed for a monochrome display, and a smaller screen. Testing the battery when using 100% brightness sort of sabotages that approach, when the default is 20% brightness to save battery. The main reason I bought the Instinct 2 Solar was that on longer bicycle rides I was tired of seeing the "Low Battery" message on my old Forerunners. This will never be an issue with the Instinct 2 Solar as it is getting a charge on the go during bike rides. Recent activity shows that for a 3-hour bike ride the battery level drops only 15% thanks to the solar charging during the ride. A 10 km run in the afternoon sun drains the battery only 5%. You are right, the smaller display can make it more difficult for folks with poor eyesight - my solution is to reduce the data fields to one or two to maximise the font size - typically I'll just have distance on one screen, time of day on another - pace, etc., as the activity analysis can all be done after completing the activity on the smartphone or laptop where Garmin Connect has all the details - not necessary to see during activities. Reading text messages can be done without too much trouble - but during activities who wants to read text messages? One issue I have had occasionally is during pool swims: three times since I got the Instinct 2 Solar it has restarted during pool swims. It was not the result of the buttons being pushed accidently - looks like it is a software issue. Otherwise the Instinct 2 Solar has functioned well for bicycling, swimming and running. I have also used it for dumbell curls just to try that feature but that's not valuable data for me so I don't use it regularly for free weights - but the option is there - same for yoga, etc... many more features than most people will ever use.

Ηι iam trail runner and have instict 1 but the altimeter shows wrong on track run even i did updated.maybe the sensor touches the skin,i guess.the instict 2 has better and the sensor is in another place right?

One of the gripes I have is your repetitive criticism of the screen and the apples/oranges comparison to a oled screen. The main reason I like this over other watches in the category is because of the simple non intrusive black and white screen, it's simple, classic and not so bright to stand out like a cell phone Imo if people don't like the screen, there is an unlimited supply of watches with better screen, but as an overall watch, this for me ticks absolutely every box. Otherwise, brilliant reviews of this model.

I had great expectations with this Garmin, thanks for your video detailed and concise about the good and the bad. Garmin has created a complete sensor watch with a awful experience (screen and buttons). Data is important but if your feeling is to "wait" until it responses only to keep battery, then customize it and get a better experience if not, watch will be turn over. At this moment this watch has been removed from my list, only 745 and venu 2...or wait until new models appear. Thanks for your effort, really appreciated !!!!

Have you checked what kind of standby times you get with the epix2 spO2 sensors on at night? I was also little bit dissapointed how much the spo2 drains the battery on instinct2.

What is the best watch instinct 2 or polar pacer ??

Hi great review. Does the instinct 2 sync stats like resting heart rate and stress over to a fenix 7? Thanks

Thank you for the good overview of the Instinct2. I had it and sent it back, in spite of the fact that everything was working function-wise and had wonderfully lightweight compared to other offers from Garmin. The issues I could not overcome were - that the interface was sluggish at best. with a 3rd party watch face, this thing is screeching to a halt when changing into the widget glances. - Also, the buttons are really hard to press and feel when wearing gloves due to a very mushy pressure point. If you don't necessarily need the solar function and weight reduction, the Fenix 6 in its current reduced price (~ 350€ on eBay) is the superior watch in several dimensions, IMHO. BTW, the Instinct of course has the lap button function which needs to be activated in the sport profile.

i am debating between instinct 2 or fenix 7. during the Wods, when it involves wearing grips my current instinct 1 is of no use cause the buttons get pressed a lot. do you have such experience?

Would the lagging be improved by firmware updates?

soo there is a lap counter?? looking for a good crossfit watch....what is ur preference top 2??

Are there also options for other languages instead of American English? I mean not only software but also hardware inscriptions? I would feel uncomfortable looking all the time for Chinese, Russian or Japanese text engraved into the watch.

The instinct does not need the back light to be seen. Thus the slightly dimer backlight than other Garmins is a bit missleading. Backlight is plenty bright enough to see it in the dark. I found other Garmins such as my wife's vivoactive did need the backlight on to read them easily. Backlights drain batteries. Not needing backlight means I can get great battery life. Also I find wrist activated backlight have a time delay, so I have to glance and pause, which I hate. With this I glance and can read the time. On my wife's watch I have to wait for the backlight or squint as the contrast of the color mip dissplay is too low for me. The screen resolution is actually the same as the higher end Fenix 7, just the screen itself is smaller. (R=P/S) It does not look pixelated.

Comparing instinct with pulse ox on and then it's off on the Epix is definitely not a fair comparison. If you turned it off on your tests, it will see better run time numbers.

Hi, what is your thought between Instinct 2 Solar vs Forerunner 955 Solar?

Would you say a good buy if you could buy new for $250 ?

Kinda regret this watch, it can be slow as hell on occasion, it's also crashed and restarted on several runs, it doesn't seem to have enough memory.

How instinct 2 compared to fenix 6? They seem to have the same price range..

Slow down when talking about a anything when you are doing a review and explaining features of said product . please !