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Watches and wearables · Garmin

Garmin Instinct Solar

5owners with an opinion
80%of verdicts positive
3/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for battery and ease of use.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it
How much better is it now? I hate Garmin with a passion because their watches are effectively region-locked by language support, an insanely consumer-hostile move in this day. I was unable to use any features related to text or whatsapp messages because the watch shockingly could not decode messages in my native language. Their software was also so flaky that I was woken up by a faulty vibration alert in the middle of the night multiple times during the few months I wore the Garmin Instinct Solar, and at least twice I was unable to fall back to sleep. That is, the watch was supposed to be in silent or DND mode, but the watch probably crashed or reset in the middle of the night, losing the silent or DND state, allowing an alert to go through. The sleep tracking was also very inaccurate, and sleep tracking is the single most valuable metric for me. To this day I fantasize posting a video where I smash my Garmin watch to pieces alerting other people how bad it is. Still, the hardware was near perfect and it's hard to hate the watch itself. But because of the software issues, it was no better than a dumb watch to me. I hate Garmin the company.
Likes it
> A laptop/phone that needs to be recharged every few weeks… heaven. Agreed. Unfortunately it seems like increases in battery density are soaked up by either increased energy consumption (screen resolution/brightness, processor) or decreased battery volume to make a thinner device. I have a smartwatch that doesn't require wall charging (a Garmin Instinct with solar) and I really like the combination of solar cells, low-power processor, monochrome screen, and frugal radios. That got me curious about a low-powered laptop and I've been eyeing an e-ink tablet with keyboard (e.g. Boox Tab or Remarkable 2) but I think it'd be a little too limited for my laptop usecases. And all the super-energy-efficient phones (e.g. e-ink) I've seen simply shrink the battery volume to offset any efficiency gains.
Likes it
I have an Instinct 2X Tactical with solar charging, and from what I see with normal usage it prolongs battery life 1.5-2x in sunny weather. Probably if you optimize the power consumption it could fully offset the discharge, as advertised. Very much like this watch, especially with aftermarket Velcro strap. It's also surprising how useful the builtin flashlight is on a watch, much more convenient in everyday use than one in a phone.
Likes it
I recently got the Garmin Instinct Crossover with solar charging, basically if you turn off all the features that the OP did you get infinite battery life more or less. It functions as a normal watch with hands and can do most of the smart notifications. I've turned off all notifications apart from calls/messages so it doesn't constantly beep and have been very happy with it so far.