Garmin - Instinct 2X Solar
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Reddit Reviews:
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Last updated: Jan 5, 2026 Scoring
Liked most:
634
109
"battery lasts me forever, I charge it once a week and I game every day."
"especially because of the battery life. ... The mouse I had right before this was the steelseries super light one, that was an every other day charge at minimum. Whereas this one is like once a week at most - and I work from home and game all night."
"Oh, and the battery lasts days even when exercising a lot (weeks without excercise)."
46
9
"those physical buttons are SO much better than touch, swipe, pinch and just anything else. ... Like, want to adjust volume through your hat with gloves on riding your bike? no problem at all"
"physical buttons are far superior to touch or swipe gestures during workouts (think sweaty hands or gloves during the cold season). ... Pressing physical buttons can be done without even looking at the watch, whereas touch gestures require a high degree of dexterity."
"Button operation is also a big plug for the Garmins. After pouring a few cups of water over your head, touch control of the Apple Watch doesn't work well anymore."
184
24
"I am a power lineman, so I needed a rugged watch that could get banged around, be exposed to energized high voltage, and very harsh conditions. The TREX has worked flawlessly through all that."
"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. ... instinct is very durable"
"tanky ... Only thing you really lose is a touch screen but that's better for it's ruggedness and water resistance."
179
49
"It’s also pretty well established that AW has the best motion tracking which shows up when you use the swim feature for distance. ... In swimming, it’s not even close. 100% of garmins worn during our pool swims are incorrect, regardless of swimmer level. ... Every single Garmin incorrectly reported swim distance vs manual counting. Freestyle 4000m in 25m pool."
"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. ... the weight lifting tracking aspect is great as well as all the other activities you can track too."
"I like the apple gives me the actual normal time but gives a score on level of intensity of the work out separately"
8
0
"it has a flashlight which is brighter than the one on your iPhone. ... when I’m trying to find my mouthguard at 3am my cycling computer isn’t going to come shine a flashlight under the covers. ... Crazy how many times a day I use this thing. ... The best is when I turn it on and blind the other people in the room with me. Nobody ever expects the watch flashlight…"
"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."
"The flashlight! Don't want to turn the lights on in the bathroom at night, use the flashlight!"
Disliked most:
4
27
"I'll be damned if I'm going to drag that thing up and down three floors regularly."
"I’ve tried my families Miele canister when I lived with them and never got the hang of it. ... How do you manage the canister? We have a small space and based on my experience it seems like I would trip over it. Even when I tried it in a bigger place I still carried the canister around which was super annoying just to not trip on it ... The space is small enough that it has dead ends without enough space to turn around by pulling the canister. Is there a way that same concept can still be applied? We’re talking bedsides with only 1.5’ space, 4’ hallway with a litter box at the end, 5’ kitchen width with dead end."
"cascadia's never felt broken in to me, they remained really stiff"
58
121
"The thing whoop is giving me is wildly inaccurate HR readings. ... Did a casual bike ride with my child yesterday afternoon and whoop gave me a 187 high HR. This was a really slow like 4 block bike ride. ... AW said 108hr peak. Ive biked hard, ran as hard as possible doing max HR tests with my H10 chest strap and never hit above high 160s. ... Im not sure whats going on but its been doing this type of odd HR readings all week."
"I had Whoop for three months and it started showing a very bad data. Like catastrophicly bad. ... Bought Polar chest strap to check my HRV, it was VERY different and was showing me my normal data, data that whoop originally showed to me as well until three months into use it stopped."
"HR reading on Whoop are known for being absolutely aweful. ... Better having an accurate reading every 5 minutes than multiple bad readings every seconds. ... Whoop has awesome software and data analysis, but makes it somehow unusable because of bad hr data in. ... If HR accuracy is not a problem for you, and only follow "very general trends", yeah Whoop is a cool product. But if you are at some minimal point serious about HR accuracy, for real sport / performance / improvment, you cannot relly on it. ... If a Polar device, Garmin, apple watch says it's at 80 with readings every minute or so, and whoop says 65 every seconds, your "constant readings" are not worth anything. Garbage in, garbage out. ... Even counting it manually with a timer and my finger on my neck would be more accurate. ... their linear HR sensors are poor quality, and not the ideal way of positioning them (VS circular patern)."
25
76
"wtf no time settings in a watch?"
"google's software features and fit-and-finish is lacking for their watch ... there is no option on a pixel watch to just automatically turn on the screen when a notification comes in to view the notification; you have to manually interact with it by either tapping the screen within a few seconds or lift-to-wake the watch, which is very unreliable ... that actually was a dealbreaker for me"
"it does not show new notifications as they come in without some sort of manual action ... unless you tap the screen or lift your wrist when you get the vibration, you don't get to see anything ... 75% of the time my pw2 wouldn't recognize a wrist-raise gesture, so I'd miss whatever the new notification was"
0
2
"as a swimmer I felt not worth for only swimming so I send it back"
"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."
"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."
0
7
"But those are a fair bit bulkier."
"The Instinct was quite bulky and doesn't really 'dress up' very well."
"It's definitely a bulk "rugged" watch"
What Garmin claims and real world texts are not the same. Real world texts are showing the 3 to have worse battery than the 2x
r/GarminWatches • Best Garmin for Military Purpose ->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 😂
r/PacificCrestTrail • Do you record your PCT thru-hike on a fitness tracker / smartwatch? ->Garmin instinct 2x solar. All the stuff from getting calls at work through pulse point, hrv, sleep, all the workout stuff, text and calls, wallet etc. But the most used function that no one talks about that I use the most? The flashlight! Don't want to turn the lights on in the bathroom at night, use the flashlight! Also use the find my phone as well. Most smart watches probably do that though. I charge once a month. Also ditch the silicone watchband, get a fabric/Velcro one.
r/Firefighting • Looking for a decent smartwatch to use on shift ->The first and arguably best choice id recommend for anyone is the Garmin Instinct 2 (or the larger Instinct 2X), that’s about it, check it out and see what you think Yes it has smart notifications but you can fully turn off Bluetooth at the system level, and when you do, those notifications are completely gone just like many other models in the market, they’re not as intrusive as you think If you want something even simpler, check on the Suunto Core and if you want to go for something a bit more on the high end side, check on the Coros Vertix 2 which is a premium option but has an insane battery life, dual-band GPS and amazing performance over smart features. Funnily enough, I got both the Instinct 2 and the Coros Vertix which I alternate between but the Coros hits differ with the premium feel idk. You can try [9 Best Smartwatches Worth Investing in 2025: Hiking and Running](https://alaskanarrows.com/best-smartwatches-in-2025-for-hiking-and-running/) for others though Cheers, hope this helps!
r/backpacking • GPS watch recommendations for backcountry hiking/climbing withOUT notifications/texts/calls ->This! I have a Garmin instinct Solar and I can’t wear it all the time because it starts rubbing my skin off. lol
r/whoop • Fitness Tracker: Pros and Cons ->Instinct 2x solar or 3 solar would be the best choice, ruggedness & functionality all in one
r/GarminWatches • Buying for my boyfriend! ->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.
r/GooglePixel • The Pixel Watch 4 Is the Most Repairable Smartwatch on the Market ->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.
r/Garmininstinct • Planning to buy instinct 2 solar, need advice of workout tracking ->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.
r/hikinggear • Best watch for hiking/skiing? ->Ditto. I have an instinct 2x solar and it ROCKS. The "worse" display isn't a bug, it's a feature. My battery will go 40-ish days with very little sun exposure. I'd like to see a Fenix try that.
r/hikinggear • Best watch for hiking/skiing? ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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