Garmin Instinct 2 Solar 6 Month Long Term Review 

Thanks a lot! I was 2 months in using it and considering it as my future daily driver combined with a vivomove for more formal settings. It a a really great smartwatches in so many ways.

Without even the solar version? Do you confirm these numbers after a few months?

@@MrZilbon In terms of your first question. I don’t have the solar version. Just the standard. In terms of your second question. I can confirm it my friend. There’s no indicator that shows a change in battery performance after all these months.

@@dfm6753 crazy! Thanks!

I am currently making that transition. I have a G-Shock Rangeman that has been with me since it's release. I have a leatherman tread as a band on it and it has severed me so well. Every time I moved away from it, usually into smartwatch land, I just couldnt stand having to charge them, or the two day battery life. I found the TicWatch 3 GPS and it is an incredible smartwatch (an ultra-efficient LCD screen over top of the AMOLED screen, so when the AMOLED is off you have an always-on screen that uses no power). It is super fast has all the features I want, built in GPS, and on average around 10 days of battery, up to around 25 with minimal use or if I went out for a long time I could set it to dumbwatch mode and it was like 60 days of charge. So, I have been swapping between the two (usually TicWatch as a more formal thing and Rangeman for everything else), but always come back to that solar Rangeman as default. I just ordered this watch because it looks like a hybrid of my two main watches, and I am completely fine with lower res monochrome with no touchscreen. I can always have it charged and 90% of the time it will be telling time, counting steps, and running the barometer...dont have much call for the other functions most days, but having them is ideal when needed (GPS, bloodOx, bluetooth notifications when waiting for an important call or as a "hey you forgot your phone back there and I lost connection!!" alert). I have a screen protector (solar glass isnt gorilla glass after all), and a better custom band already waiting for it's arrival in a couple days.

Have you seen he new "leaked" images of the Instinct 2X Solar? Looking good!

I haven't used the first version, so can't provide any direct comparisons. But i had ti charge ut about every two weeks with loada of tracking during the fall and winter here in Norway. It is mostly dark from November. Based upon that and if you spend a lot of time in the sun, you would get the same as yours if not even the promized unlimited batterylife if you get the right amount of sunlight. But it really depends on how many activities you are tracking, gps usage and for how long.

Thanks! I am pretty sure that is possible to add as a data field. I can for sure on the Fenix 7. I do not currently posses an Instinct 2, but I am pretty sure total ascent was available to add to the the data screen.

It certainly has the capability to track triatlon, but it depends if you feel gps only chip is presise enough for your needs. I would say yes, if this is your first triatlon watch. What the Instinct may lack in estetics and screen size/resolution , it makes up in terms of very good batterylife and features.

Unless you relly want the most precise tracking for your ultra marathon, you should choose the Instinct 2x with multiband and multiple satelite support. If GPS only is fine, the insintct 2 would do 48 hours. My current fenix 7 can do 53 huours of GPS only tracking at 100% battery. Again consider the Instinct 2X for the maximum batterylife.

​@@hmuller how many hours does your watch Last with multiband tracking?

Thanks! I would think so. If you can live with the body beeing made of plastic as well as a slower device with smaller screen with lower resolution. But otherwise it seems like an uppgrade from the fenix 5.

Check out the Garmin epix gen 2

Yeah, seems so be something happening with most tpu bands. Got a few extra tpu bands for my fenix 7 from ebay and it happened both to them as well as the original one.

If you use handsanitizer it may damage tpu

Given that it has a light gray color, it kept its looks without the need of any particlar washing treatment. But it did pick up dirt in the corners, and tight spaces of the watch, a toothbrush or similar could fix every now and then.

Hmm, I did not have that, unless I was tracking an activity with GPS. Once I experiance gaining a whole day of batterylife with just 30 minutes in the sun when an activity was paused. But it could have been right under that number it solar charged itself up to. That beeing said, the purpose of the solar panel is not to charge the watch, but to slow down the battery discharge. It does slow down the charge of the watch a lot better than the Fenix 7 Solar. I never turned off the heart rate sensor, but turned off pulse ox imiediately I got it. But given that you report 28 days of estimated battery life, you probably have done that too. When pulse ox is on it will say 14 days remaining. So I do not think the problem lies with the heart rate sensor. You say thhe battery life declines by two days within an hour. Does it continue doing that?

@@hmuller thank you for all these answers. I think the problem is using the GPS and it automatically switches on when starting an activity. I think this might be the problem. We had some sunny days and I used an app on my watch to see the decline being less (not Up) when it was in the sun or under a lamp.

@@w.vangaal1077 Yeah, if you do not need the GPS-data, you might want to create a custom activity without it.

No. You will need one of the dedicated diving watches from garmin. The Instinct 2 is only intended for surface level surfing, and diving can damage the watch and affect the warranty, scoring to Garmin.

Unfortunately no. I have this watch for 7 months now and the depth sensor is the only thing that is missing. I do a lot of snorkeling and I would love to have that feature.

There is the surf edition that would be better for you. I have no clue why, but check it out I guess?

@@jey8605 i thought that this was the surf edition actually. at the website I cannot find any other white model. by the way, its only availble as the S model also.... so my question consider that, in the video, he is wearing Instinct 2S white - surf edition. Tricky is that I cannot found the exact product (as in the video the watch dont have the inscription "surf"). So im more confuse than ever. xD

If you are refering to my video this is the 45mm Instinct 2 Solar, and not the smaller instinct 2s solar. I read that the Instinct 2 got updates so they all can track surfing and not the surf editions only.

I,ll measure later this day, and will let you know ;)

@@777x77 I can confirm to you now, as I look at the Instinct 2 Solar that I am wearing right mow, I have surf as part of the activity program on the watch. However, there is a specific surf edition of the Garmin Instinct 2 series, and it is not this one. Now, to be frank, I have zero clue as to what the difference may be between the surf edition and my instinct 2 solar for instance, considering that I have surf as part of the activities.

Yeah, I have seen many forgetting just how much batterylife the pulseox feature eats. I remembered when i had turned it on for measruing during nighttime it was estimated at 14 days of remaining from fully charged. When I turned it completely off if went up to 28 days. For my usage I never needed pulse ox, and have turned it off on my current Fenix 7 Saphire Solar.

I turn off PulseOx, and it says 32 days after fully charged. But in reality it's probably about half that. 8 days after fully charge it shows 18 days left. I don't use GPS, no phone notification, 5% back light. Indoor office environment use (no direct sunlight). Basically I just use heart rate measurement and step counter.

@@himmelsturmerIX How often and for how long do you track activities? That affected my batterylife of the Instinct 2 Solar I was using. And 14-18 days worth of battery life with 1-2 hours og tracking with gps per day.

@@himmelsturmerIX The backlight is only on when you turn it on?

@@hmuller Yes, and gesture after sunset only.

Yeah, it does.

I used the 45mm version.

U cant get a 40mm solar only 45

@@djgoa The 40mm solar is very much real. Look up the Instinct 2s solar at Garmins website.

How did it happen?

Thanks a lot! It was a very interesting watch to use and the biggest surprise was how much it grew on me - especially the screen size and resolution. A a temporary soluton, you can try out making a custom tracking. It wont have any SUP-spesific functions like many of the other trackings but at least you can have one that fits you beter than the others. Also I see in the connect IQ store has several apps that tracks SUP you might want to try out: apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/749a7702-3ec5-42be-b9e3-731b1b13f7f6 apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/fe4c88ea-e34b-408d-b712-75502c1a938e Congrats on your new watch! The instinct 2 is my second choice after the Fenix 7.

@@hmuller thank you, also about the links for the apps, especially the second one looks really promising! Honestly I didn't know that apps for these watches even existed 😀!!! I'll first try out the functions that come with it to see where it gets me. The Vivosport had 5 different sport-modes and I could program the sport function "other" to any of my boards (choose the one I'm using before the session if I want to know how many kilometers I've done with each), and by using outdoor-mode when starting automatically got the track. Not the speed as it did with walking (and other activities) but the track and the heart-rate. Which was a huge improvement over the Huawei where, (although built-in GPS) I had to start SUP on the watch, then start "walking" in the app on my phone and take my phone with me to have the GPS-signal for the app (!!!) to record the track. Tried open water swimming and whatnot on the watch before, but nothing came up as a proper solution. My phone is watertight for 5 ATM, no worries, but it's heavy and I don't want to loose it and have to call in a diver to hopefully find it back obviously. Next thing that happens is I'm getting a warning there is something wrong with my recording as clearly I wasn't "walking" on terra firma - I was "delighted". Wrote to Huawei and got promises about the sports-mode in the watch but nothing changed, well, yes, the warning disappeared with the last update. It'll take a bit to work it all out as this watch has way more functions than I'm used to, but luckily I can hop on and off my boards to test within minutes and I've got mobile Internet on the boat, which is a huge advantage over those who have to go for a drive to test and then are out in the sticks and can't do anything about it till next time. Can't wait, and it actually might be here tomorrow fingers crossed, and luckily there is rain in the forecast for Friday so I'm kind of restricted getting on with my boat and happy to take playtime 😀 xD

Thank you so much again! She arrived a few days ago and I must say I'm really impressed with this watch. There wasn't heaps of time yet, but I tried Mountain-biking and walking (hiking),, and today - although far too much wind to get somewhere proper with the SUP - at least a little spin around inside the port-area. It was working perfectly out-of-the-box, tracked my route and all of the health-features, and even tracked the cadence and amount of my strokes per minute with the distance! The awesome thing with Garmin is, that it records the amount of kilometers/nautical miles with a specific gear if you want, so you can always check how much you have been using which board or bike or whatever. I wasn't sure how to set that up in the beginning. With the Vivosport I would choose the SUP I'm using before starting the session and make it default for "other", then it would automatically add the session to this board. But I couldn't find something to automatically add the specific board I wanted to use today to my session with the Garmin Instinct before taking off. Relying on finding a solution afterwards it didn't take long. After syncing the watch with the Connect-app I opened the session, chose "add gear" in the drop-down-menu and selected the board. Easy-peasy. I had made a copy of SUP for each of my boards, curious now if it would use the very same board if I start it from the same session, not that it matters. Somewhere else people were complaining a year ago that the GPS of the Instinct wasn't working when the arm with the watch was below water (swimming, surfing etc.). Apparently there were quite some updates in the meantime. While I haven't tested this yet, when setting up my watch I had the option if I wanted the GPS to work below water when swimming etc.? I set her to yes and got the info that it will take more battery-life - which I'm more than happy with. Would be lovely if it works, fingers crossed! xD

@Omarkhaled and Mohammed khaled Thank you 😀!

Yeah, its wierd just how different music controls are on the various Garmin Watches. On the Fenix 7, it helps a bit more with touch screen, but bot much gi en how poor the layout og the buttons are.

Yeah, I know. I did not try it out for swimming. But I have done so with the fenix 7, and my experience with it will be shared in a future review ;)

Thanks for the feedback! I´ll make sure it will be a lot more easier to follow in the next long term review of the Fenix 7.

How do you mean? That lost smartwatches has bad battery life and this is hardly a smartwatch? If so I very much agree. I think Garmin mostly makes watches focusung in health, fitness and i this case outdoor oriented features and less on the smartwatch part.

I have thiniest FR 965 and charge battery every 2 weeks. I think that Instinct is better on battery life. Do you mean that 2 weeks is bad battery life?