To find our quarantine-partner family in the woods, we hiked on a trail, paddled a canoe back to the car, loaded it up, and paddled back. Right after the Instinct finished charging, I strapped it on my wrist and took off with my family for a camping weekend.
GARMIN INSTINCT SOLAR HOW TO
On most watches that have a multi-button system, it always takes me a few days to remember how to use it. I like the Instinct’s retro look a lot, and I also-eek!-like the button instructions. It points out which button lets you start GPS and which one is the menu. It's waterproof up to 100 meters, and I don't worry about accidentally knocking it against canoes or my car door.Īround the basic black-and-white memory-in-pixel display, which you can customize with different face styles and display metrics, is a thick bezel printed with instructions for Garmin’s five-button system. It takes up most of the real estate on my small wrist, but it's still comfortable, not to mention durable and robust. I measured the face to be 1.75 inches across and 0.25 inches deep. Still, it does make my favorite sports watch even better. After more than a week of testing, I’m not convinced solar charging adds as much power as Garmin would like me to think. This year, the company debuted a successor: the Instinct Solar, which has a Power Glass face so it can recharge from the sun. After all, it keeps you from getting lost in the woods and it doesn’t empty your bank account. Since its debut, the Instinct has become an extremely popular Garmin tracker. So many other great fitness trackers fit the sleek, minimalist aesthetic that the chunky Instinct seemed out of place. But as with dad sneakers, Kraft Singles, and Pete Davidson, I have yet to meet anyone else who likes it. Why would you get one with half the functionality?
GARMIN INSTINCT SOLAR SERIES
Garmin already makes a fantastic series of backcountry watches.
GARMIN INSTINCT SOLAR FULL
But I ended up skipping a full review because, at that time, I wasn’t sure about the watch’s value proposition. That said, there are few things more embarrassing than trying to memorize a route ahead of time, only to miss a turning and have to sheepishly check my phone to see where I went wrong.When Garmin first debuted the Instinct in 2018, it instantly became my favorite sports watch. Following the same paths every week would make training seriously dull, so it's important for me to come up with new routes to spice things up. That particular tool has come into its own when I'm leading club runs. It might have become synonymous with sports watches, but this is a company that first made its name in marine navigation systems, and whose first customer was the US Navy. Never walk aloneĪs you'd expect from a Garmin watch, GPS is super accurate. Thankfully, it has all the essentials I need in a running watch already – including great navigation tools. It’s one of the watch’s biggest strengths, though it could also have been of its greatest weaknesses, as it means the Instinct Solar doesn’t support additional watch faces and apps downloaded through Garmin Connect IQ. The upper right button performs dozens of different functions, which could be a real headache to remember, but the little secondary display always shows exactly what it will do in the current context. Like many rugged watches (the Coros Apex is another example), the Garmin Instinct Solar eschews a touchscreen in favor of physical controls that can be operated with wet hands or while wearing gloves. The Instinct Solar has no touchscreen instead it's operated with a series of buttons that can be used with wet hands or while wearing gloves (Image credit: Future)
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