Garmin - Instinct 2X Solar

My 2X Solar does a great job of recording my heart rate and other raw data. Garmin claims that the watch can automatically determine which lifts you’re doing and count reps/sets. These functions have always been inaccurate for me. I prefer using the “free” strength session mode with autodetect turned off. You just use one button at the beginning/end of each set to time sets and rest periods. After I’m done, I use the app to manually enter movements, weight and rep numbers. The odd thing is, even though the autodetect claims were a major reason for me to buy the watch, I still love the thing and find I get more out of manual logging. It forces me to think about how I did and take notes for the next session.

My Garmin Instinct 2X Solar is a great watch but it lacks precision in swimming situations where it's usually off by about 10%, both in pools and open water. Caveat emptor!

I use the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar. It's about 90% correct in open water and in the pool, and always errs to the low side. Whenever I swim 40 25 m laps in the pool the watch will indicate 40 laps when I've actually done 35-36 laps. In open water on a 100 m lap length and using GPS I need the watch to show about 1150 meters before I've actually done 1,000.

Garmin Instinct 2x or just the regular Instinct

Vivosmart 5 is great. But I feel like the instinct series are more “future-proof” due to its simplicity. Also I feel like you should look at what the instinct can do, don’t let the simple looks fool you- it’s packed with activity tracking features. I recently got a Garmin and I have to say it’s literally been life changing for me.

Garmin definitely I have the instinct 2x solar. Got it as a gift for my birthday. Would not trade it for anything. It has everything I needed and everything I didn't know I needed.

Are you tired of the old-school MIP (memory-in-pixel) watch faces from a decade ago? Do you want your daydreams transformed from monochrome into AMOLED color, eh...? Yes, I have had these same thoughts, which is why I purchased a Garmin EPIX 2.0 nearly two years ago. It was one my favorite timepieces since my first Apple Watch. Nevertheless, I sold it and purchased the Enduro 3 and then they announced the Instinct 3, dang it, far too many temptations online, right? Day Four with the Instinct 3 and... the watch is down to 28% battery life with 2 days left. Wed. 01/22, unboxed around 17:00, AOD enabled, SP02 at night enabled, raise to wake was enabled by default. Left wrist all day with the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar on my right wrist. Thur. 01/23, wore it all day & night Instinct 3 (right wrist) Instinct 2X (left wrist) Fri. 01/24, wore it all night & day Instinct 3 (right wrist) Instinct 2X (left wrist) Sat. 01/25, I woke up with it on my right wrist. The time is now 08:53, 28% battery, and 2 days left even with my one-hour of GPS workouts, what? Why can't Apple or Samsung build watches with battery life like the Garmins? Instinct 3 (right wrist) Instinct 2X (left wrist) Yes, the battery life is great, yes, the screen is bright. And sure, it feels more like a Casio G-Shock with a gorgeous screen or a little sister watch from the Garmin EPIX line. It is comfortable to wear all day and night. The buttons are easy to press and make less clicking noise than the Instinct 2X Solar I purchased over 18 months ago. Yet, what is new and why should you upgrade if you're like me an already have a Garmin Instinct 2X to 2X solar? Reasons to upgrade to the Garmin Instinct 3 1. AMOLED screen with AOD (always-on display) that lasts for six to 10 days 2. it tracks naps now and has the nap timer just like the EPIX 2, Fenix 8, or Enduro 3 3. Body Battery factors - wow, and about time. After a workout, nap, or even low stress, yes, on the watch or in the app, there is a breakdown of your activities with positive or negative details and your body battery is affected. I am unsure at this point if Garmin will release these features to the Instinct 2X models. 4. Louder speaker 5. Faster navigation 6. Faster solar charging...? To be announced 7. Instinct 3 is faster at saving workouts 8. Night Shift - oh yeah, the entire watch interface changes to red, green, or orange. It's such a fun feature to have on a $400.00 watch! 9. The buttons are softer to press and make less noise. 10. Steps on the data screen during workouts 11. Torchlight has a better menu for changing the light from red to white on the Instinct 3, about time, and thank you Garmin! Oh yeah, 11 new features if you buy another MIP Instinct 3 or slightly less if you purchase the AMOLED version like I did from Garmin.com. There are new color options, yet that is standard for Garmin, Apple, Samsung, Amazfit, COROS, Fitbit, Suunto, Polar, and most watch companies. They attempt to entice us every year to upgrade, upgrade, and upgrade. Okay, the Instinct 2X will be two years old soon and yet I don't think there is a need to upgrade. If you're still rocking the first edition of Garmin Instinct Solar, yes, your four-year timepiece needs an update. You'll notice many changes from four years ago, that much I already know. Thank you for reading and for clicking on by... More about this Garmin Instinct 3 (AMOLED) soon. Sincerely, Pietro & Gadgets Anonymous **Update, Sunday, 01/26/2025, 22:50** Yes, I made it to Day Five, my Instinct 3 battery life is at 11% with a 2-day estimate. A pretty radical accomplishment of battery life since those initial days of any new watch are the hardest. In fact, it blows my mind that it made it this far out of the box without a charge and even upgraded the first day. Now, I did have to disable AOD earlier today and the battery life went from 22 hours back up to 2 days. **Monday, 01/27/2025, 07:00** Just to prove a point, yes, I still have yet to plug in this Caribbean-colored Instinct 3 and did a bizarre test last night with my Garmin versus Garmin research. A. Garmin Instinct 3, right forearm, above the flaming red wearable B. Garmin Instinct 2X Solar, right wrist as directed by the manual I slept this way to see how the sleep data reacted. https://preview.redd.it/2rgr8ygm06fe1.jpg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d8f40294dabead7fc73c82087d33773014b90f7 on https://preview.redd.it/lfe9kygm06fe1.jpg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2301f2a3c6d02e7c6d7cd6819afc7af3f852e3f https://preview.redd.it/f1d6g0wp06fe1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e6dbb1e7658ab05ec15b1277c11643a499ef20a https://preview.redd.it/rxbbgzvp06fe1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84efab89a09127927da79ecec27895542fa939e9 https://preview.redd.it/ynktv2x67hfe1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90df4c9586f905e92f6c4f5e66c40636cf05322b

There are actual activities that automatically track and assume the workout/strength specific exercise you’re doing. And if it got the wrong name, you can edit the name and how many reps you did as well as the weight used. It’s an extremely nice setup. And if you’re a bit of a larger size person, get the 2 X solar. The extra battery is very nice and it has a better solar panel. With my current settings, I get 40 days of battery life. Also, having a flashlight/red light is the most handy thing ever. I never expected to use it as much as I do but the amount of times you’re there “man I wish I had a flashlight for a moment right now” is often frequent, and the red light for waking up in the middle of the night and being able to see while going to the bathroom without turning on a bright light that disrupts your sleep is amazing.

That’s fair. For me, it was all about battery life when I got the 2X and the upgraded solar. I thought about upgrading to the 3 but there isn’t a white color scheme yet and the upgrade aren’t big enough between the 2X and the 3 to be worth it. Either way, the instinct is a great line and a great choice! I would just avoid the 2S as it is small and light weight, but the battery is smaller.

For what it’s worth, I have used both, now, and am keeping neither. I’ve already sold both of them actually and decided I’m going to keep my Instinct 2X Solar, which I love, and buy a second hand FR965 that has everything, more or less, that the F8 has (minus the torch) and use the two alternatively. Even on the I3 AMOLED 50mm I found the screen too small.

I’m in love with my garmin instinct solar 2x. 45 days battery, almost all the features as the flagship fenix but it is rugged and black and white screen, kinda looks like a g-shock. I love the style and don’t really care about the maps (black and white screen=no maps), not to mention that I got it for 250 euros on Amazon warehouse. 10/10

I use a Garmin Instinct 2X. The lack of a touchscreen is an advantage when swimming and it does a decent job of tracking laps. Only downside is it can be quite large for some people but there are two other sizes as options in those instances.

Garmin is probably the only smart watch for you then. (Maybe also some Casios, but never used them.) Had Forerunner 955 Solar, Instinct 1, have Instinct 2 and 2X. All of them can be set up fully standalone. All of them have the _option_ to set up time using GPS (manually, no autosync like Casio) if you want, but it's not required. Touch-enabled Garmins with new enough firmware (FR955 with old fw doesn't have that) allow you to scroll graphs with a finger so that you can look in history of various metrics very similar to what the Connect app provides. Even with graph scrolling though, the history of steps and HR can be afaik viewed only for the week, do if you want long term stats, you'll have to manually write that down to a notepad or something. All Garmin watches compute everything by themselves and the Connect app just downloads, saves and displays that data. There's no in-cloud / in-app computation as long as you have only 1 device.

The instinct 2x as well as another Garmin model watch have an actual flashlight so no clue where you got that

I recorded my 2024 SOBO hike on both my Garmin Instinct 2x and also on an Inreach. The inreach was more for family and friends but I think out of all my gear the watch was definitely the least necessary but I loved having it. Not just for the stats which were cool to look at but honestly I liked the mileage/navigation component on trail. I would use the mileage on the watch while hiking to gauge how far I was from water/camp/etc. and that saved me from having to pull up Farout alot. Once again not necessary by any means but was nice. I had to charge mine around every 3-4 days it felt like but luckily it doesn't take nearly as much juice as a phone in my experience. Best of luck!

For those activities the Garmin Instinct line will work fine. It’s not the most expensive line, but honestly I prefer it more than the expensive ones. I have a Fenix 7x Pro and prefer my Instinct 2x over it. Only thing the Fenix has over the Instinct is built in map navigation, but to be honest trying to plot a course on your watch is not a good experience, I’d much prefer to plot a course on my phone and just send it to my watch for step by step navigation, and in that aspect the two watches work the same. The screen on the instinct, though less advanced than the Fenix, is easier to read and more clear than the Fenix. The battery life on the Instinct 2x is one of the best Garmin has to offer, with potential unlimited battery life if you are in a lot of sun, on my Fenix I got about 3 weeks with solar helping it along the way. Lastly I like the band/case material and how the watch feels on the wrist more with my Instinct than Fenix 7x pro. I’ve damaged walls, scratch my car, etc with the metal bezel on the Fenix, but that does not happen with the Instinct. The instinct also has a raised bezel so it protects the screen more, and you won’t get the metal on metal grinding feeling when working out. I will be selling my Fenix since I got the Instinct. That is how much more I like it.

I was hoping for a AWU3 with revolutionary batterylife. We did not get that so I bit the bullet and ordered a Garmin Instinct2x. I chose a „dumber“ watch on purpose so I could disconnect more from my phone. If I am going to keep my AW SE I will see, when I’ve had the garmin for some time. I have the feeling that all the notifications and all the connections don’t make me use my phone less as I hoped when I got the AppleWatch.

I love my instinc and am not looking back to the apple watch at all.

Besides the 945, no other garmin watch has LTE. (And even then, it's just for emergency texts and can't do phone calls.) So no other watch has texting/calling without your phone. You can use canned replies to texts on android phones but not on iphones (it's a limitation by apple, not grmin). You still need your phone with you for this. For podcasts, you'd need to have your phone with you to stream them to the watch. Or, if you can download directly (not sure what, if any, apps allow offline listening). For great GPS, you'd want multiband. At your price point, this really kind of narrows it down to the Instinct 2 or 2X (mono crome MIP screen, insane battery life, no maps and no touch screen) or the Forerunner 165 or 265 with touch screen and AMOLED but no maps. If you can, see if you can find a refurbished Forerunner 965 to get at/under your $500 price point. The Fenix 7 (non-Pro) and Epix 2 (non-pro) are often on sale for around $500. Those watches are touch screen, AMOLED, have maps and substantially higher build quality (Titanium/steel, sapphire screens) but somewhat more 'bulky.'

Garmin Instinct 2X is my current fave as it’s got almost all of the sensors of the top models, but has a better battery life and if I smash it to pieces (happens more regularly than I want to admit to) then cheap enough to replace and not fuss about.

Hard disagree here. I have had the Instinct 2X and now have the latest Rangeman (GPR-H1000) The styling is exceptional and is far in front of the Instinct. Also likely to last a lot longer given the meaty protection.

Ligther and faster - good, since Instinct 2x was chunky and very slow watch. Lack of maps, no touchscreen, slightly worse flaslight - bad. Regarding issue with strength training ("*the watch defaulted to the exercise list, rather than the summary rest page. I found this honestly infuriating...*."), that is how it works on Fenix 7, Epix and probably some other Garmin watches as well, since many people complained exactly about that since that "improvement" was introduced in some software update about 2 years ago. Garmin ignored users' requests/complaints so that will remain so on Instinct 3 as well for indefinite amount of time (or until Garmin finally recognizes how dumb paused view in strength training is). As you said *"3 Solar is a huge improvement in terms of contrast and brightness over the 2X,"* which is not surprising since display on Instinct 2 and 2x left a lot to be desired although many reviewers omitted to say that. Thanks for your review.

I have Epix pro gen 2 47mm ss, it is great, got it for 50% off. Don't pay 800, look for discounts, also don't go for newest models, Instinct 2 solar or 2x is great, also Foreruner 955... Find some store and go try them and seek youtube for further info- chase the summit, desi fit...

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

Instinct - rugged and battery lasts weeks

The Garmin Instinct much like any Garmin watch isn’t separate from the cloud UNLESS you don’t connect to wifi or Bluetooth, however you would then lose information provided by Garmin Connect. Any fitness watch from Polar, Coros, Garmin, Suunto and such will need to connect to their eco system for updates, long term training history, training plans, etc... Even a separate HR monitor such as the H10 plus gets updates through an app on your phone.. As soon as you connect to Bluetooth or Wifi your stuff from any of those companies will get stored in their cloud. Even if you plug in your Garmin, the information will link to your account in the cloud from Garmin Express which is the PC/Mac app for updating Garmin devices.

I can use my Garmin Fenix 7s pro technically without my phone or computer but it works better with. However if I never wanted to connect it to anything I would still be able to see my Heart rate, SpO2, listen to music MP3s that I drag and drop into a folder on the watch. IF you don’t use Garmin Express then a drive will pop up on your computer with your Garmin label so in my case the drive would be called Fenix 7. Then I can drag and drop music files or whatever files onto it. So while it is possible to be disconnected in that way.. I don’t recommend it as you wouldn’t get any software updates. You could also take your activity files out of the Garmin Instinct this way and upload to them to another platform such as Strava or Training Peaks (if you wanted to, or if Garmin Connect is offline). However I don’t believe you would get any updates for the watch this way. I’m not sure about Polar watches though but since they connect to computers via a USB plug.. I would assume something similar would pop up.

You can’t go wrong with a Garmin. The Instinct series is very rugged and reasonably priced. The fenix series is also super rugged but is at a premium cost

If you don't want to charge your watch everyday, check out the Garmin Instinct series. Amazing battery life, even with activity tracking. It'll track your laps, distance, drill logging, the works.

The instinct series is, in my opinion, by far the best. I believe this mainly due to the screen, which is not the awful LCD/LED stuff that most watches have. It's clear in all conditions, and extremely durable. I think the UI is also quite well done. Any of the instincts will fit the bill, but probably instinct 2 is the best balance of features.

It motivated me, I bought a used Instinct for around 100 dollars, to try it out and I had to be able to carry it while working without damaging it - and a year later I bought a second hand Instinct II solar Tactical for about 200 dollars because of how happy I was with with it. Now I'm waiting for the Instinct III I guess 🤷‍♂️

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

Garmin ecosystem is chocked full of goodness. Since I run and cycle, it’s great for multi sport. A lot of folks who only run seem to love Coros watches and their environment. I think either of those (with Strava integration) would be an improvement over your Apple Watch.

People have to stop comparing these. These are for two different people. I would never wear an Apple Watch based on battery life alone. I specifically got the Garmin for a wrist based gps and mapping tool to track and orient myself. You buy an Apple Watch to use smart features and be connected to your phone. Garmin has never been in that market. It’s a whole company based on gps systems for outdoor activities . You buy an Apple Watch to have Apple ecosystem. you can’t use half the feature of the fenix on an iPhone bc they only want you to use their watch… Garmin are all specifically made for their audience even down the the model . Apple watches are just to keep you plugged into your phone and have no bearing on actual outdoor activities despite calling it ultra. The Millitary has been orienteering with Garmin wrist based gps systems forever. You’d never catch an Apple Watch on patrol in Afghanistan. 😂