Garmin Instinct 2S Solar Smaller-Sized Rugged Outdoor Watch with GPS with Solar Charging Capabilities Built for All Elements

I purchased this watch on a great sale earlier this year to replace a fading Samsung galaxy watch. I have no regrets purchasing this watch after having it for several months. There is a steep learning curve in using this as it is so much different than my galaxy watch. It is not a touch screen and you use physical buttons only. This was annoying at first, but I've gotten use to it and I actually prefer the physical buttons. I didn't realize how many times I would accidentally press something on the touch screen during the day. There are so many functions on this watch. I would recommend watching instructional Youtube videos to help. Initial setup of the watch to your phone isn't great. It took several times and getting the phone app to synch correctly was cumbersome. However, once it was synched I haven't had any issues since. I purchased the non-solar watch due to the price as the solar was still very expensive. The battery life is great. You don't realize how annoying it is to charge your watch every night or keeping track of your watch battery so it doesn't die on you. Carrying charging cords is annoying. It's great to go on vacation and not have to worry about bringing or forgetting your watch charger. I've turned off a lot of battery draining settings on my watch and it says it will get 31 days of battery life. You have to keep in mind though if you use the GPS or anything that uses the GPS this will drain the battery very quickly. I mainly use it for working out, hiking(GPS), receiving text messages, timers/stopwatch. These activities will drain my watch a bit, but I don't have to charge my watch for several weeks. Amazing! Like I said you will have to adjust the settings to get the best efficiency for your watch. There's almost too many things to adjust. The GPS is somewhat accurate. I've been on multiple long hikes at Zion park and Bryce Canyon and it was kind of accurate. My wife has a Apple watch and my two boys have a Garmin Forerunner 55 and 245 and each one of us had different readings. I just assumed my watch was the most accurate, but when I looked up the GPS map on one hike it was all over the place and not that accurate. I'm not sure if that was because we were in a canyon and the GPS signal was too weak. The heart rate monitor and O2 sensor seems accurate. I use the different work out settings on this watch almost daily. It is much more expansive and descriptive on the app than the Samsung Galaxy. There is so much more data given. As a fitness tracker it is so much better than the galaxy or Apple watch. Since you don't have to charge the watch I can take advantage of the sleep tracker. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but its nice to use. The weight of the watch is minimal. I don't think it's heavy for the size of the watch. It's definitely bigger than my old Galaxy watch. I like the big watch face as my eyes are getting old and reading the time is getting more difficult. The watch faces are customizable, which is a surprising feature. There are many choices and you can download new ones thru the Garmin app. I do miss answering calls thru my Galaxy watch. I was able to talk thru my watch on the Galaxy. You can answer calls on the Garmin, but it has no speaker/mic so you need your phone next to you. You can reply to text messages with pre-programed answers. I also miss using my watch to pay at the cashier. The base Instinct 2 watch does not have the Garmin pay option. I have a Samsung phone so if you have a Galaxy watch it will unlock your phone automatically if you are within a certain distance. I didn't realize that I'd miss this feature until I had to unlock my phone every time I picked it up. It is waterproof so you won't have to worry about swimming or getting it wet. Apple and Samsung say their watches are waterproof, but I've heard one too many stories about water issues with these that I would always take my watch off if I got in the water. It's definitely rugged and durable. I already have a lot of scratches and scuffs on the watch and band. I have a screen protector, which is a must. I've had to replace the screen protector, but they are cheap and replaceable. The cost of these smartwatches are too much to risk damaging it. I only wish that the longevity of smart watches was greater. I have an old solar casio G-shock that is almost 20 years old and it's still working. I would definitely recommend this watch to someone who is active and wants something different than Apple/Samsung. I can't see myself ever going back to one of those watches again. Read more

First of all, know what you are getting with this watch. I have had several Garmins, most recently a Forerunner 965, an Apple watch, and a Coros Pace. Here’s what you get with the Instinct 2S: 1. Always-on, MIP display. Not colorful or even bright, but always accessible at a glance without having to flip your wrist. 2. Small size. It is small and lightweight. Will only fit smaller wrists and the display size means only basic metrics can be displayed at all times. I don’t need to see my heart rate, my miles run this week, or my Garmin vo2 max at any given moment. 3. Long battery life. The solar charging works ok, but you’ll get 2 weeks or more if you’re using it regularly. 4. No touchscreen. I don’t want one, I know the Garmin buttons and how to drive one. I bought the watch to track my road and trail running and so I can simply see the time on my wrist when I look. Tired of huge AMOLED displays with a bunch of metrics I can’t read in time before the display shuts off. I don’t even want that much data available at once, I can look on the Connect app and see all I need. Always-on mode for an AMOLED always seems to come with the cost of a rapidly dead battery. You might be different from me. If you want a bright colorful display, touchscreen, and AI training metrics, get a 65 or 70 series Forerunner. If you want an always-on MIP display but also a big watch face with a lot of metrics AND insane battery life, Enduro 3 is the one. If you want a smaller (and cheaper) Enduro 3 with less metrics on the watch face, Coros Apex is worth a look. I think that’s it. The worst this thing will see is a 50k trail run, and it isn’t even getting started when that is complete. Read more

I’ve had smart watches I was issued through the military before so that’s nothing new to me. This is therefore a more I formed review. When I got this watch I was pleasantly surprised by ease of use with respect to swapping through the menus and selecting what you need. Does take some time perhaps to memorize where to go for each item but that is to be expected. I mostly wanted this for the GPS with outdoor activity and the heart rate and fitness features. (Fitbit only ever broke after 3 months, that is to say stopped working out of the blue). The compass is on point and the heart rate monitor is spot on as well. One of the coolest things about this is that it connects to an app and you can look for even better watch faces that have exactly what you want to see on them instead of just the default, that’s the kind of support GARMIN gives with this. I got the watch face that displays heart rate, so I don’t have to swap through menus or use the app to see it in real time. The fit is great and the battery life is as well. You should be aware that some features use up more battery than others, such as active GPS etc, so if you use that you can expect the battery to drain a little bit more quickly. The only adjustment I needed to make was the charging cable, I needed to pinch the lip of the plug with needle nose pliers ever so GENTLY just to adjust them the tiniest amount so it seated properly in the watch which is one of the pictures. I am very happy with this purchase! Read more