Garmin Instinct 2 Solar review: smartwatch promising unlimited battery life | Smartwatches

  • Case measurement: 40 or 45mm
  • Case thickness: 13.3 to 14.5mm
  • Band measurement: customary 20 or 22mm fast match
  • Weight: 42 to 53g
  • Water resistance: 100 metres (10ATM)
  • Sensors: GNSS (GPS, Glonass, Galileo), compass, thermometer, coronary heart charge, pulse Ox
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+
  • The back of the Garmin Instinct 2 showing the heart rate sensor and charging port.
    When it will definitely involves charging or syncing the watch to a pc, the USB cable plugs into the port on the again beneath the guts charge sensor. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

    In fact its battery prowess comes at the price of options on fancier-looking Garmin watches such because the Fenix 7 or rivals like the Apple Watch. The Intuition 2 lacks a touchscreen, although the button-based interface is quick and logical. It lacks the brand new high-accuracy multi-band GPS monitoring know-how, however nonetheless has an altimeter, barometer and compass.

    The most important lacking options are offline music playback, akin to Spotify with out having to make use of your telephone, and offline maps. It will possibly plot breadcrumb trails of the place you’ve gotten been on an exercise that will help you get again to the beginning, information you within the path of factors of curiosity and even measure the world of an area by strolling its perimeter, however it has no maps obtainable.

    The watch tracks an enormous variety of actions together with numerous types of working, strolling, biking, swimming, power, cardio, Hiit and extra unique ones akin to paddle boarding, looking, fishing, backcountry snowboarding and bouldering.

    Multiple screens showing smartwatch features of the Instinct 2 including timers, alerts and music control.
    Normal smartwatch options embrace stopwatches, timers and alarms, the climate, calendars, smartphone notifications, music management and numerous fast settings menus. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

    Some actions are restricted to particular variations of the watch, such because the jumpmaster mode for skydiving being solely obtainable on the “tactical version”, surfing and tide info on the “surf version” and the truck-driver tools on the “dēzl version” to plan breaks and exercises. Solely the photo voltaic fashions have Garmin Pay for contactless funds too, which helps few UK banks however is helpful in emergencies when out on excursions with out a bank card or telephone.

    On the well being entrance, it has Garmin’s wonderful body battery, which makes it simple to know the affect of sleep, exercise and relaxation in your day, plus stress monitoring, irregular coronary heart charge alerts, every day exercise strategies, Vo2 Max health measurement and restoration estimation after train and plenty of different options.

    All of the exercise and well being info the watch collects is distributed by way of Bluetooth to the wonderful Garmin Join app in your telephone, inside which you’ll pore over mountains of information, graphs and insights. Plus you may join it straight to social networks akin to Strava.

    The Instinct 2 showing a mid-activity screen.
    For working, strolling, biking and swimming, the Intuition 2 gives a lot of the identical knowledge as the highest Fenix 7 with equally easy-to-read knowledge screens obtainable. {Photograph}: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

    Worth

    The Garmin Intuition 2 is available in two sizes and numerous fashions, beginning at £299.99 ($349.99/A$549) for the usual model or £389.99 ($449.99/A$699) with photo voltaic charging.

    For comparability, the Garmin Forerunner 55 prices £149.99, Venu 2 prices from £349.99, Fenix 7 prices from £599.99, Epix prices from £799.99, the Coros Apex prices £299.99 and the Polar Grit X prices £369.

    Verdict

    The Intuition 2 Photo voltaic is the closest mannequin to this point to what’s the holy grail of smartwatch makers – a watch which you by no means should plug into the charger.

    It seems and feels extra like a standard digital watch, however is backed by Garmin’s complete exercise and normal well being monitoring, and easy smartphone notifications. It lacks a number of bells and whistles you get with much less rugged smartwatch rivals, akin to voice assistants, maps, offline music or ECG (coronary heart rhythm) measurement, however its options will most likely be greater than sufficient for these not on the lookout for an Apple Watch or related.

    When you spend lengthy sufficient every day within the solar or vivid environments you could by no means must cost it. For these of us extra usually confined to the indoors, it’ll nonetheless final near a month or longer with some much less essential options disabled.

    The Intuition 2 is pricey and positively not for everybody, however in case you’re an outdoor particular person or on the lookout for a wiser health-tracking model of a digital watch, the Garmin is nice.

    Professionals: doubtlessly limitless battery life with photo voltaic charging, tracks numerous actions and well being metrics, cross-platform telephone notifications, 100m water resistance, sturdy design, alternative of colors and variations.

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