Garmin - Instinct 3 Solar

The day apple makes an actual ruggedized smart watch that can last longer than 2 weeks on a single charge is the day I’ll switch. Until then my Instinct 3S is my little pride and joy.

Garmin Fenix. The 7X Pro is “older” so you can get it at a good price. If you’re a little more hard pressed for money a Garmin Instinct is a great option. Edit: I see you linked the Instinct 3 solar. That is a great option! If your fiance is a bigger guy they may be good with the larger size (51mm) which will give them a larger screen and longer battery life.

When it comes to your budget, Garmin's premier value offering is the [Forerunner® 165](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1055469/pn/010-02863-20/#specs). It's sleek, well-made, has an AMOLED display, and has solid gym profiles: Strength, HIIT, Cardio, Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Floor Climbing. A step up from the FR165 is the [Forerunner® 265. ](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/886785/pn/010-02810-00/)It's right there at the top of your budget, has a more premium construction, but offers minimal additions to gym profiles compared to the FR165. For a more rugged offering, the [Instinct® 2 Solar ](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/775697/pn/010-02627-10/)is a great choice, and has the same gym profiles as the FR165/FR265. As a step up from the Instinct 2, The [Instinct® 3 ](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1315317/pn/010-02934-00/)does everything the Instinct 2 does, but has a flashlight. And the flashlight is AMAZING. I use mine daily. For a sleek, lifestyle watch that also provides the same gym capabilities as every other watch, the [Garmin vívoactive® 6 ](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1555457/pn/010-02985-02/)is a great choice. If the Vivoactive 6 doesn't quite scratch your itch, then the next step up from there at the top of your budget is the [Garmin Venu® 3](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/873008/pn/010-02784-01/#specs). It has a more premium construction than the Vivoactive 6, and it has the same gym/strength profiles as every other watch listed here. All these watches are under $450. Your considerations would be: 1. Do you want a middle-of-the-road watch with respectable gym capabilities? The Forerunners meet that criteria. 2. Do you want rugged, solar-charging capabilities and a design that looks good on a thick wrist? Check out the Instincts. 3. Do you prefer a premium build that looks great in the gym, at the opera, or on the beach? Go for the Vivoactive 6 or the Venu 3. Just in case you wanted ALL the data, here's a side-by-side comparison of these watches. You can toggle the "Show only differences" option for a more summarized view: [Garmin | Product Compare](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/compare/?compareProduct=1055469&compareProduct=886785&compareProduct=775697&compareProduct=1555457&compareProduct=873008) Have fun checking out your options--and early welcome to Garmin!

Honestly, this takes me back to my Casio G-Shock days. I love this so much. It's like I have a real watch again! But it also vibrates and gives me text message previews and tracks my sleep and heart rate and all the other junk! I love it!

So, I really thought the screen would be easier to read with the high contrast black/white, but it's really not all that easy. I have 45 year old eyes, and I guess I need to get my prescription adjusted because I'm still having trouble reading the tiny print and icons. If I REALLY take my time to look, it's not bad and I can get it. But the condensed font they use, and the blocky lettering, though cool in an "old school" kind of way, is much harder to read than anything I had on my apple watch. With that said, I do like that it feels like I have an actual watch again. I missed my casio g-shock, and this is like that watch on steroids because it gets all the notifications and buzzes and tracks my sleep and everything else. I love that aspect of it. But I haven't found the perfect watch face yet for me. As a graphic designer, I would love to just design my own face. I'll have to look into how to do that. But long story short, the readability is far lower than an apple watch in every respect except in bright sunlight, when it's way better than apple watch aside from the size of the icons and text. Also, navigating the menus via buttons instead of the roller crown is kind of a pain in the ass. I find myself taking the watch off entirely and making my modifications in front of me with both hands, instead of keeping the watch on and using my right hand only to push the buttons with the watch on my left wrist. I'm not as enamored with it as I was when I first contemplated it. but that said, I'm going to stick it out and try to make the adjustments I need to to make it "mine". It kind of feels like getting a new linux installation setup just how you want it. Once you figure everything out, it's great. But getting there takes a lot of trial and error.

Ok, try instinct 2 or 3 solar 45mm

Ok, solar on i3 is worth it, your battery will last from 20-40days. Dont know for 165, couple of days maybe. Also, i3 having more metric than 165

45s>265>epix pro gen 2>instinc 3 45>vertical 2>255>enduro 3. That was my way. After couple years can say- 255/955 mips are one of best ever for lot of sports and mip lovers, their amoled sibilngs are also great. Instinct 2,3 also great rugged tanks. A little smaller screen for me (like 6-8 metrics for one screen during runs, ins.can go up to 4-5). F7 pro or 7x for bigger wrist, epix pro gen 2- fanstastic options but bulkier- just dont swim with them because buttons can get smooshy (mine did!). Flash and newest opt.hr great! Dont like too bright screens on vx1 and 970, and lame battety. Now enduro 3 comes in a way. It is truly fantastic. Smaller wrist about 17.5cm and it is not heavy like epix pro gen 2 47mm. Battery is 40days with little sun a day and 1h of gps 6 times a week. Crasy. Didnt now what to except, many here adore it, but now- I am one of them.

45s>265>epix pro gen 2>instinc 3 45>vertical 2>255>enduro 3. That was my way. After couple years can say- 255/955 mips are one of best ever for lot of sports and mip lovers, their amoled sibilngs are also great. Instinct 2,3 also great rugged tanks. A little smaller screen for me (like 6-8 metrics for one screen during runs, ins.can go up to 4-5). F7 pro or 7x for bigger wrist, epix pro gen 2- fanstastic options but bulkier- just dont swim with them because buttons can get smooshy (mine did!). Flash and newest opt.hr great! Dont like too bright screens on vx1 and 970, and lame battety. Now enduro 3 comes in a way. It is truly fantastic. Smaller wrist about 17.5cm and it is not heavy like epix pro gen 2 47mm. Battery is 40days with little sun a day and 1h of gps 6 times a week. Crasy. Didnt now what to except, many here adore it, but now- I am one of them.

I just switched a month ago from 4.5 years of Apple Watch Series 6 to Garmin instinct 3 Solar 45mm. I love it! The Apple Watch definitely had much more attractive watch faces that’s for sure. But in terms of practical use for fitness activities I prefer the garmin instinct 3 MIP display. It’s better in very bright sunlight. When it’s not legible in really dark settings, I just use the back light. Most important activities is easier than using the Apple Watch thanks to the button-driven UI. When I’m in the middle of a run on a bright day flipping through my metrics, the Apple Watch is quite difficult to use while the Garmin is easy to use and always legible.

If you like the G-shock look, Instinct 3 costs a little less and gives you everything you laid out in your original post. The three watches you mentioned all have extra features beyond the instinct 3 that you didn’t mention you actually would use. For whatever reason, Garmin charges a really huge premium for watches that have built-in maps. Also: if you get the instinct 3 solar model, and you rarely use it to track activities, the battery life can be infinite if you are outdoors in the sun a lot.

If I had a very large wrist and the prices were equal, I would go for the Enduro 3. But at 165mm or so, my wrist is not big enough for the Enduro 3. I switched from Apple Watch 6 to Garmin Instinct 3 a couple months ago. Given my extensive use outdoors and my wrist size, I am very happy with Instinct 3.

Enduro 3 is too big for my wrist so I went with the instinct 3 solar 45mm and have no regrets. I can get 3-4 days out of it tracking with HR(Bluetooth turned off). It’s very quick to add some charge off a battery bank if needed. I do collect a lot of solar up here in the Colorado alpine but to be honest when gps recording solar isn’t keeping up much at all because the drain is higher than the solar can take in. Enduro 3 is the better option but probably overkill. If you can afford it and like how it sits on your wrist go for it. If it feels too big then switch to an i3 solar.

Garmin instinct 3 solar is the watch I got for this. Without even really changing much settings on the watch to preserve battery other then disconnecting it from my phone I get 4 days of gps recording when backpacking. The enduro 3 would have been my clove but it’s too big for my wrist. Use the optimity app to get a 20% coupon off for garmin watches. The watch batteries are small so charging them every few days is not much better at all. This lets me keep my iPhone in airplane mode and I get 4 or so days of battery off that.

I get 4 days of gps recording when backpacking 6-8hr days on my instinct 3 solar 45mm.

I wear my instinct 3 while bouldering. Never had an issue. I like recording my session and using the timer for rests in between try’s.

Another option could be the coros nomad. I currently have the coros nomad and the instinct 3 solar. Nomad is 349usd and has maps, color MIP touchscreen, over 20 days of battery life, ecg. The Instinct 3 solar 45mm is 400usd has slightly better battery life not including solar charge but no maps, no touchscreen but has flashlight. Ultimately it depends if you'd use maps or not. Both have been great for me thus far.

If downloadable music isn’t important to you I’d say maybe check out the Instinct 3. I have the 45 mm MIP display one and love it for swimming, running, gym, and hiking. Battery life is insane. Only downside is really the lack of downloadable music but if you just keep your phone on you it’s not an issue 

I have an Instinct 1 solar 45mm and bought the Trex3. It's huge compared to the instinct. Also, it's shape and odd strap made it feel even bigger. I changed out the strap with nylon, which helped a bit, but still It's very big. It's very bright so you'll like that. Heart rate sensor during exercise is a bit better, but not much. The OS is a bit laggy when using touch. The app is better than Garmin IMO, but I don't care about all the metrics, so I don't know how they compare. It certainly syncs faster than Garmin. The zepp flow voice thing is very bad. I removed it from the widgets. I sent mine back despite getting it on sale for $170 because I found I didn't like the AMOLED at all and the shape made it look comically big. Some parts of the OS are clunky, like vibration. As long as the shape and size would work for you, it's a much better watch than the Instinct if you like AMOLED.