Garmin - Instinct 2S Solar - Surf Edition

Same, but I'll buy the previous model on eBay for a fraction of the price (like I did with the s40)

I've had a Garmin S40 for years and love it. When it dies I'll get another one or whatever the new model is.

I have an Instinct 2s Solar, which has served me very well for the 2 years I have been using it. Ive considered switching up to a forerunner 500 series to better work with non-hiking training activities, but haven't made up my mind yet on if its worth the spend.

As someone who does not enjoy having a dinner plate on their wrist I very much enjoy the Garmin Instinct Solar 2S - simple, long battery life, robust. Edit: meant to specify the solar version

not at all! If you like it and it works for you that's all that matters. im the proud (woman) owner of a garmin instinct 2s Solar and i love it. it's improved my life and my health

I’d recommend the s70. The plays like distances without a subscription makes it worth it alone over s40/s50. No touch targeting on the others is rlly bad too. The health data on the s70 is all I could ask for. It tracks my runs/lifts/sleep etc without issue

I use the instinct 2s solar have a small wrist it has amazing battery life and doesn't lack metrics imo. I don't know how pretty pretty it would be as it has more of an outdoors look although I think the band and color could really make that nicer.

Garmin watches are junk, I have had 2 replacements on the Instinct Solar surf and the replacement is now dead. The software is bloated and horrible, the watch is buggy and very restrictive. Garmin was indicating an incorrect altitude - more than 100 feet off. I went back to a simple Casio W800. I am an IT guy BTW.

S40 does great getting front back and middle distances to the green. 

Oh no, my Garmin Instinct Solar (!!) Surf needs to be charged again after 1.5 days. My Apple Watch SE lasts a day longer. Please tell me what i do wrong with my Garmin

2x is too large (50mm) for my tastes. If you have a large enough wrist, go for it, but it's a bit more expensive than the regular I2. Personally, I wear the 40mm Instinct 2s.

My 40mm Instinct 2S is perfect on my male 16,7 cm wrist. I dread the day I need to upgrade and only 45+ mm options are available.

1 solar also works in the water. It's not super accurate. If you care about HR the HRM-pro or better (if in a pool environment) the HRM-Swim. Instinct is great but the 1Solar doesn't have save and download so I use my 5X in the pool most of the time. I use my Instinct open water. Neither watch is better or worse in the pool. Laps are accurate unless I do something dumb like swim more than 10m underwater per length. Even swimming non traditional strokes it's accurate on laps and swolf.

I took a Garmin Instinct Solar in 2022 and loved having it. I used a small USB-C adapter-dongle to charge the watch and carried either one or two 10,000mAh power banks, along with an iPhone and InReach Mini 2, so similar power demands. While watch settings were heavily changed to optimize battery life, I was able to keep GPS and heart rate tracking active. I don't recall a single day where I ran out of battery after pausing during big breaks like lunch, and didn't find it annoying to do so. The stats were useful for managing my heart rate when things were tough, knowing roughly where I was (mileage or elevation-wise) without needing to check FarOut, and helped me understand and develop my pacing and pacing prediction accuracy (short legs). I've also found the data to be great post-trail. Sometimes, I'll look at my trail journal and have a question about the day (weather, distance, difficulty, start/stop location, detours or side-quests, etc.) - days can blur together, or specifics can become vague over a couple of thousand miles and 100+ days. The tracking provides answers if not strong hints. As a stupid but personally worthwhile example, I used this info to drive hours east to an access road north of Truckee and visit a camp spot I couldn't remember, despite speaking to multiple people in the group, even after looking at their photos and videos 😂

This! I have a Garmin instinct Solar and I can’t wear it all the time because it starts rubbing my skin off. lol

While I agree having come from a Garmin instinct solar with incredible battery life. The pixel watch 4 needs to be charged every ~2 days and has fast charging. So take it off, pop it on the charger, have a shower and it's back to 100%. It's seriously impressive.

Same. I still rock an original instinct solar. Love having all the basic stuff and the solar is super helpful. If I needed maps I have a forerunner 955 as well.

I use Garmin Instinct Solar and pretty happy about it :)

man fuck Garmin on the ass. my very first fitness watch instinct solar was a pita since the first year. worked great a few months and then charging issues and after a few weeks, randomly dying while tracking workouts. oh also it bloody changed hr depending on the workout chosen??? I asked customer support about these issues and they're like meh . this single watch haa completely put me off from fitness watches so ty Garmin:)

garmin forerunner (255 or 265 are good choice )or instinct series both have solar models if you want even more battery, or garmin fenix 7 or 8 but they are bit more expensive. also coros pace 3 its a great price to performance sport watch with great battery life

Garmin. I started with the original instinct solar, but now have a Fenix 7, edge bike computer, garmin scale, garmin heart rate strap... garmin has always just worked for me without a ton of work or research to figure out how it works. It's all very intuitive for me. I also love using garmin connect to have all my data from cycling, running, and working out in one place without having to import and export stuff from different apps or devices.

Can accept / decline calls for the phone on the phone Can reply to text and calls with prewritten / selectable texts (up to 10 I believe?) No LTE Yes, via Garmin IQ App (although most don't work on the instinct solar watches specifically) No smart assistant It has SOS functionality that (as far as I know) doesn't react to falls, but to a rapidly declining heart rate

Yes. For an Ultra I think you'd be looking at the Enduro or Instinct Solar. You could also consider the Fenix 7 Solar or Forerunner 955. Gotta look at the battery life. Solar per se doesn't necessarily do much, it's more that these watches are lower-power or bigger-battery too.

I like the instinct solar, I’m on my 2nd. It’s does what you you need for the events you mentioned.

I have a solar instinct and between May and September I never have to charge it.  November to February is once every 2 weeks though. If I lived in Denver with those sunny winters, I don't think I'd ever have to charge it.

I only use my Instinct Solar for exercise (running, mtn biking, weight training) and activities such as hiking, skiing, and kayaking. I don't care about data for sleep or steps. My actual digital watches for daily wear/style are G-Shocks.

My IS is a black & white MIP screen, non-touch. Altimeter and barometer and compass (ABC). More butch design and more shock, cold, heat dust and dirt resistant. Feature set more for stuff INCLUDING running. More suited backpacking and hiking which I've used it for a fair bit. Great tool watch despite the side-eye from my G-Shocks... FR55 has a bright AMOLED screen, touch, designed with running features (I guess cadence, stride length, recovery etc.). ALSO, I guess more smartwatch-y. My take is that if you're primarily interested in getting to be a better runner then FR is absolutely the way to go. No sane person would call me a "runner"; hence the IS. Mothers' cover their children's eyes when I plod by...

I’ve always been more of a g-shock style watch girly - I think a ‘masculine’ watch looks really cute on women! Plus, for practicality purposes it really just can’t be beat… a little solar charging boost for those longer outdoor activities, smart watch features, and the garmin data for all the metrics my mind desires. I prefer a MIPS display vs OLED, and didn’t want something touchscreen, so this one really checked all the boxes for me. I’ve had a Fitbit, and a Whoop band, back in 2018-2021, and I had a harder time wearing them consistently because it just didn’t have everything I needed. If you want to add a little color to yours, you can always change your watch bands! Green, blue, purple, grey; all would look good with a black watch face. Might help it feel a little jazzier for you. If you like it, wear it, girl! https://preview.redd.it/wao8xc2p75sf1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=10abd41934e14875a61af55f4122cafdcd51da10

My guess would be Instinct 1 or any of the solar variants, and that's purely because it has the most efficient screen (MIP) of the entire lineup, and screen is the biggest power hog. Solar variant offers solar charging on top of that. Enduro is probably up there, but if you try to maximize both battery life on both, I think Instinct will come up on top. Instinct 1 is very bare bones, so keep that in mind.

My Garmin instinct solar has been going 8months with no charge yet. Although prob not a smart watch?

A Garmin solar can last an infinite time I guess. I’m going 8 months now on one charge.

Garmin instinct solar. It’s like a Casio gshock. Had a nice mbip display

Garmin instinct solar. Hard to beat

Very very few people on this earth do 15hr workouts for 45 days straight. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t even bother with any of the regular garmins and would opt for something like an instinct solar. But your experience is such an edge case that 95% of sports watches wouldn’t really work lol

This all the way. I have the instinct solar, had it years, been on many adventures, plus it’s a normal size and looks like a g-shock what’s not to like

Late to the conversation but I love my Garmin instinct solar. Battery is easily 14+ days and it tracks sleep, workouts, altitude, and a plethora of other outdoor activities. Their app with it is pretty good too 

Solar isn't really worth it honestly, at least for me. I'm outdoors quite a bit but when the battery lasts 2-3 weeks already solar really isn't necessary.

I hated smartsatches, especially those AW or Samsung, because battery life was useless. Then I got an Instinct Solar, 23 days of charge and all the health and sport capabilities were as good or better than AW but I missed the colour screen so I got a Epix Pro and it have it all, 6 to 7 days of battery life with always on display, 15 days without it. Oled screen, sapphire cristal, and everything I need. Never come back to other regular brand.

Garmin Instinct Solar has good battery life and is a nice addition - not essential by any means but useful.

Garmin instinct solar any version. Long batt life including solar charging, heart rate and calories. It has a digital watch face instead of a colour screen but the navigation works great when you make courses. Best watch I've ever owned.

I only own the first version, the instinct solar. For me, and it's my personal opinion. Oled screen not worth it. I think instinct watches must bee entry point no maps devices. The price is very close to other better models...

I have a Garmin instinct solar and I really like it. Before this I had a vivoactive and also liked it, but never climbed with it. I also run and do indoor bouldering. I’m not as concerned about tracking when I boulder, there is an activity for it where I’ll do one warm up route and just leave it on a break for the rest of my time climbing. The instinct is not a touch screen (which I actually really love) and it’s super durable. The watch clasp has gotten scratched up but the face is still fine after nearly a year of climbing inside with it. I’ve cooled off on my lifting with climbing, and was never that into it, but the strength activity isn’t horrible at keeping track of exercises. You can edit the activity afterwards to get the exact rep/weight/exercise, but some of the smartIQ exercise guesses are pretty accurate (ie a recent workout guessed pushups correctly, but also classified tricep dips as pushups). The solar add on is pricey and I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but the base option is pretty reasonable Cons for garmin: sleep isn’t super accurate, some data breach issues, a lot of grumbling that the Garmin+ subscription may be pushed on people in the future for things like updates and access to features Pros: easy to use, good tracking for running/hiking, instinct is very durable, lots of activities to chose from (cardio, indoor climbing/bouldering, runs, strength, swimming), fun metrics like HRV, training load, and vo2 max, decent battery life

I've got a Garmin Instinct Solar and it works well for basic xc - time distance elevation heartrate (from wrist) good enough for me - easy to wear and fits under my sleeves. It's more that I wear it everyday and it happens to be good at skiing..

I love my Garmin instinct solar. Battery life of a month

maybe instinct series 2 or 3... with solar option if hiking multi days... lighter options like 45mm i2 solar for HR (lighter watches tend to give more precise HR results overall, especially recommended ones like i2)... good luck

If you're already in the Apple ecosystem then an Apple Watch will be good choice that's pretty straightforward to use. A Garmin Instinct2 is also a good, relatively low cost option, but you'll need to use the free Garmin Connect app on your iPhone to view your exercise data. The Garmin is more complicated to set up.

PS, battery life is 1-2 days on the Apple Watch and up to 28 days on the Garmin

Forerunners are great even if you don't run. None of the watches are great for the gym btw. For hiking you basically want an altimeter (which all new watches have) and maybe maps (which only the most premium watches do). I think the main advantage the Instinct has over the Forerunner is that it comes with Garmin Explore integration (for offline realtime mapping with the companion app on the phone). Only the Forerunner 9xx series support this. I think an Instinct 2 or 3 will be a great choice for your use

I only wear my Garmin Instinct when actually out for a run, or working out. If I wanted something to track my stats throughout the day, I would look into a Whoop. They don't have a traditional display, so it probably wouldn't feel as much like you're wearing two watches.

I'm a big fan of the Garmin Instinct watches, but I do like and use more of the smart features like notifications and whatnot. Features I love: * completely and utterly water proof (almost everyone I know using an apple watch has killed at least one in the water) * The rubber band is different material from the fitbits, I find it a lot more comfortable and doesn't smell when I wear it while sweating a lot like some other watches I have * 30 day battery life, and they have a solar option I'd like to upgrade to which will net essentially unlimited battery life if you're outside or in bright light often enough * Music controls! I haven't used a fitbit in years now but I always missed that back then. * Timers and alarms, I find myself being a lot more organized with my timers when they're on my wrist and visible at all times * Actually good step tracking * Sleep tracking * Heart rate monitoring and resting heart rate * Exercise tracking and actually decent approx calorie burn estimates (I did the math with my CI and weight loss and found it lined up within a pretty good margin) * I use the compass a surprising amount * GPS tracking for hikes including good ascent tracking * Buttons instead of touch so it can be used while sweating buckets * A battery saving mode that boosts the already great battery life into the stratosphere * Automatic data import into the LoseIt app, which I use for calorie tracking Most of these are specifically things that I like a lot better than similar products I've used like fitbits and the google pixel watch lineup. I've never used an apple watch myself but my sister and previous partners have used them and I really don't jive with the interface, although they have all said the idea of having a streak of "closing their rings" sufficiently gamified the process such that they actually did more exercise.

Hi guys. What fitness trackers/wearables do you guys use when daily wearing your Omega’s? I’m quite big into the gym and tracking my health, fitness and lifestyle and for this I currently use a Garmin Instinct smart watch. I only really use it for HR, steps and sleep tracking. It does also tell me about my recovery and training readiness which I quite like. But, in December I treated myself to a SMP300 in Seaweed Green to celebrate a really great year I’d had in 2024…Married, had my first child and landed my dream job. So to me it was worth celebrating by purchasing my first luxury watch. My issue is that I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I’ve worn it. I didn’t buy it to collect dust in a box and be an expensive ornament, I bought it to wear! So with that, I’m wanting to ditch the Garmin and daily my SMP but still be able to track my fitness and lifestyle. So what wearables are you guys using or what do you recommend? So far I can only really find Whoop that ticks the boxes for me, the biggest thing is it being screenless. I don’t want to be that guy who wears 2 watches 😅. Any recommendations and personal experience are great appreciated! Cheers guys.

My garmin instinct does a good job. Garmin also makes chest straps that sync with your phone just like their watches do

For running, the **Forerunners** win because they’re lighter, have better training tools (readiness, load, recovery, VO₂, etc.), and give you more run-specific metrics. The **Instinct/Fenix** are better for hiking/backpacking since they’re tougher, with longer battery and more rugged features. Animated workouts are more of a nice to have, useful if you like guided bodyweight or gym sessions, but most people don’t rely on them. Daily suggested workouts are hit or miss: they’re good for structure but not something to blindly follow. Maps are genuinely handy if you do trails or long hikes; on runs they’re mostly good for keeping you on a planned route. The 970 only records ECG if you start it manually, it doesn’t passively check like an Apple Watch. Smart features: you’ll see texts and calls, but RCS isn’t supported (just standard SMS/notifications). The mic/speaker are fine for quick replies or answering a call in a pinch, but not something you’d want to use all the time. Why Garmin? Mostly the depth of training metrics, reliability, and ecosystem, Coros and Suunto are good but Garmin still has the most polished data!!