Garmin - Instinct

Considering they don't offer much more in terms of utility to cheaper Garmin options, the Fenix series is hardly a value proposition. Better to stick with an instinct or forerunner for the vast majority of users.

Get a Garmin. My Instinct is good for three days of tracking and, like, I don't need a fancy screen in the woods.

I went from an Instict 1 to a Enduro 3 and can confirm with other comments that the design for the Instinct is certainly the worst of the others for the UI. The Instinct is meant to be more like a Gshock, just smarter, so it is meant to be minimal. The watch face selection by Garmin was mind blowingly awful for me too. I found a lot better selection, and way better customization opportunities from garmin.watchfacebuilder.com. A lot of great pre made ones and it's rather easy to copy an existing watch face and make it what you want. 30 day free trial is a lot of time to create a few and load to your watch. For a 6 day battery life, that is incredibly short. You might have unnecessary tracking turned on maximum or other settings.

Love my instinct too, gshock vibe and can't beat that 30days battery.

The smartwatch stuff can be very distracting. I just turn on DND most of the time on my Garmin or even disconnect the phone. These are sports watches and when I'm exercising I just want to focus on the moment. If I'm hiking then I have my phone on airplane mode since weak signal drains battery like crazy too. Plus there's people who hike/bike/trail run with just breadcrumb maps on their Garmin Instinct. There's people that maybe sync their Instinct with their phone once a week or never at all. If you prefer design and minimalism above bells and whistles then it can be better even.

I went for Garmin Instinct because it's extremely durable (great for hiking, mountain biking, and other rugged outdoor activities), excellent battery life, better GPS, and it isn't as integrated with a smart phone as the Apple Watch. The last thing I personally want is my iPhone on my wrist. Having a smart phone is already enough of a distraction. I don't personally value more integration, so the Garmin was a natural choice.

The Garmin Instinct is spot on for distance but atrocious for accurate elevation. I'd give that one a pass.

Definitely keep the Fenix 6X. My wife is still using a 6S and happy with it, I'm using an Instinct with a 7X for hiking. Apple Watch is just way too distracting. The biggest problem isn't even the horrible battery life and having to charge every day, it's the feeling of being a complete slave to your phone. Having a phone on your wrist just isn't good for your mental health with all the constant buzzing and notifications. It creates so much stress. Sure you can turn off most of the notifications but at that point you're just using a worse Garmin.

I work with sensitive information so I can't have my cellphone at work, or any smart devices. An Instinct is allowed because it can't record or take notes like an Apple Watch can. My Apple Watch can record what was said in a meeting or with a client, an Instinct can't. It's also worth noting the high end Garmins are not allowed either.

I got a Garmin Instinct. It's their more rugged watch for hiking, camping. Etc. I personally like that it has buttons, instead of a touch screen, a black and white display, and looks like an old-school Casio G-shock. The solar ones have extra battery life. Take a look, see if you like the aesthetic... it can be used for all different types of activities... watch is a total beast - it has been going strong for literally years...

As a long term user of Garmin devices I my suggestion biased towards garmin vivosmart 5. Have used multiple garmin devices over last 15 years and all have been great for activity tracking. Used it so far for steps, cycling, swimming, running, strength training, open water rowing, hiking (My garmin instinct has a 24 day battery life which can do gps tracking for a long 20+ day hike without 2nd charge). Garmin connect is one hub for all my Garmin devices. Tracks activities which in my case currently is gym, steps, swimming, sleep, HR monitoring, O2, body battery (recovery from workouts). Can setup challenges for myself and friends. Have goals and track progress. I don't pay for any premium subscriptions. I would say it can be a bit overwhelming sometimes if you just want a simple health and wellness device. Garmin are built to withstand abuse and for training.

Instincts are not good for strength in my experience

My seventh Fitbit died last week (from Luxe to Versa to Charge 5 and 6, this was my second in-warranty replacement), white line on the screen to no screen at all within 24 hours. So with some Target credit I decided to go with a Garmin Instinct for $200. The GPS is much, much more accurate (even when not paired with my phone), the app tracks a lot more information than the Fitbit app did and takes up a third of the space on my phone. I miss the constant step updates; the Garmin just updates every minute. That's about the only drawback.

Forerunner 165 would likely fit the bill. It can alert you to call, texts, etc, but you can't really respond. Also, you can modify settings to not notify you. If you are wanting rowing specific info, that might be tricky. If you just want to track heart rate training zones and workout times, it would work just fine. Basically stick to the lower end of the spectrum. Instinct could also work too, if you are OK w/ the G- Shock style.

Came to say Instinct. Solar options too which are great if you're outdoors a lot (which OP obviously is)

I do the same as you. I ended up with a Garmin Instinct

i just got a helio earlier this month for the same reason. I still wear my Garmin Instinct from time to time, and always use it to track workouts, hikes, etc.... The band give =s me the data i was looking for - plus it's way more comfortable to sleep with.

I was able to duplicate the strength profile on my instinct and rename it "Bodypump" so it shows up as that on Garmin connect, but otherwise it's just me setting it to strength and forgetting about it

I got my Instinct in 2021 and it was still going strong. Over two weeks of battery, even with HR and gym visits. That watch went with me on all kinds of trips including a few cruises. I did end up breaking the band, but was able to get a 3rd party replacement on Amazon. The watch itself is in great condition, looks brand new. I've also had an Apple Watch and my wife currently has one. Neither of those is as durable as my Garmin Instinct. I just upgraded to Vivoactive 5 because I wanted a newer device and I got a great deal.

No, I just select Yoga as the activity and it simply tracks the time and the HR.

Yes! I switched from an ultra 2 - love my instinct - simplicity with features that you want.. winning combo!

Have you considered a Garmin Instinct or Instinct 2 ($100-$200)? I use it in parallel to my Time. It supports canned responses for replying to messages, GPS, heart rate, has a msg counter on the watchfaces (useful for determining whether to check your phone), has long battery life, MIP AOD and I can scroll through my daily calendar too. New ones ($400+) have a mic you can use to reply to msgs and for the voice assistant.

Even without solar the 50mm one gets 40 days battery life, and that's with an hour a day of gps tracking.

If you want max battery life and don't care about smartwatch features other than fitness tracking get the instinct series. There's several options based off of your preferred display and it gets up to 28 days of battery with notifications turned off

A few things. One is battery life. Some Garmin's have solar charging. But for the one's that don't you can get at least a week of charge if not more depending on the mode it is set in and how infrequently you use GPS. Two is that Garmin's are still fully functional without using the app or connecting to your phone. Sure, you won't get messages pushed to the watch or have the ability to sync metrics, but still it is more of a watch first and connected device second. You can use the Ultra without a phone, too, but this kinda defeats the purpose of the iWatch series and smart watches in general where there are meant to be connection to your phone first and then a watch second. Sleep tracking, if it matters to you, is generally better with Gamin watches. Garmin has also been doing GPS for a really long time. But probably the biggest advantage is that Garmin watches, well nearly all of them, are designed to be used while the user is wearing gloves. Meaning, you can navigate to and do everything by clicking the buttons on the sides even if the model has a touch screen. There is a slight learning curve to this, but once you figure it out it seems rather intuitive. And I dunno. Some of us want something more than a fitness tracker but also not a full-blown, app-centric, always-connected device. This might sound weird, but if you need to use timers, one right after the other, then Gramins win hands down. Some Garmin watches are actually built for the out-of-doors based on the premise that you will scrape the watch on a tree trunk, rock, side of a cliff, on sandy, rocky, bottom if surfing, etc. I have the first model of the Instinct that I still use. It was run over by a semi truck and barely got scratched on the outer casing. Still works like a charm. But probably the biggest benefit is that Garmin is pretty good so far with updating older watches every so often, even though they don't have to. There is no real need to update the watch every 2 - 3 years (I suppose you don't really need to either, with the iWatches, but you know what I mean) other than if you simply want to. If you bought a Fenix 8 today it would still be functional going into 2035 assuming the battery can still hold a decent charge.

Garmin Instinct is the go here. The solar charging is good, only something like 3 hours of sun a day for unlimited battery life and the built in torch is super useful.

Same, I bought my instinct 1 around the same time and have beat the ever loving shit out of it. No scratches, everything works, battery still lasts weeks. I finally had to replace the strap literally last week as it finally tore through at my usual buckle spot. $8 later from Amazon and it's brand new again!

If you had the Fenix 7x an instinct isn't going to provide better data and a Samsung will be a better smart watch but not a better fitness tracker. So you do you but at this point an instinct would be useless to you and if you aren't happy with a Garmin might as well try the Samsung.

I wear my garmin instinct with no issues

I have a Garmin Instinct and it tracks yoga just fine. Maybe play around with your settings?

Have you noticed a difference in Bluetooth range? My instinct 3 solar was terrible. Maybe 15 feet. Certainly not in another room or around a corner. My Instinct 1, Instinct 2, and especially my older Apple Watch had far better range.

Honestly your best bet would be a Venu or an instinct, Venu is Garmin's health and fitness while instinct is there more traditional "G-Shock" style (best way I can describe it) watch, they don't really do the fitness tracker it's mostly all smartwatches. I have the Venu 4 coming from an instinct 2 solar. The vivo moves might also fit you well but they are older in comparison. If you are set on not having a smartwatch you may have to look into another brand, hope this helps, if you have any questions about the Venu or instinct let me know!

You can't go wrong with a Garmin. The Instinct series is very rugged and reasonably priced. The fenix series is also super rugged but is at a premium cost

I KNOW. It's so hard to go back. I had a Garmin instinct before buying my first Apple Watch back in 2021 I think. The Garmin seemed awesome coming from a Fitbit Ionic before that I had forever. But now, trying to go back to even a Fenix 7 feels like I'm going back in time. The only time I've really been able to break away is while wearing my Garmin on vacations. For some reason I like it because it can get dirty (especially at the beach) and the charging is basically nonexistent.

Instinct will do you fine. I have one I take camping and backpacking. It's the original instinct and it works great. My everyday watch is geared for the gym, but the only thing it really does that my instinct doesn't is hold onboard music

Garmin are of course great, but I wouldn't pony up for anything over the instinct. The Fenix series is pretty, but you're spending more than twice as much for features you probably won't use and a worse battery life. Less is more when it comes to GPS watches (or so I keep telling myself for not having replaced my disintegrating forerunner 235).

Same Takes a beating. Receives texts and calls (can't reply or answer) Tracks sleep , heart rate , steps etc. Best part.. I charge it once every 3 weeks

I have a garmin - but the stats it gives aren't that useful for bodybuilding. I've had fitbits but they always break after 18 months - I don't want a smartwatch at all. It does track my heart rate on stationary bike, treadmill and treadmill. It's relatively good at tracking how long I slept and how well I slept. It tracks steps well enough for me to be able to see when I need "to get out". The strength app is awful, never tracks reps accurately and is horribly fiddly to use. I went for the instinct - which is a "outdoors man watch" and has other functions that are good for me - altimeter, tides, barometer, storm alerts etc. it's also built like a tank. My wife can track my location for when I do a trail run or something - which is useful Really for bodybuilding - I am not sure if you need more that a heart rate tracker. If I did it all again I would probably just get a tracker and go back to wearing a normal watch on my left wrist.

Bought Instinct in 2019 and it still feel great after 5years of rugged usage,needs charging once a week,only my coros apex 2 pro has better battery life than that but thats doesnt make me love my garmin anything less..I use apple series 8 once a month post run to look into my Ecg just to rule out any stress related changes 😅

I had owned and AWU 2 for about a year. I've sold it about a year ago so some things may have changed (though I know some things haven't). I initially did find the charging to not be problematic, but over time it became really daunting. Every other day I'd be like "ugh, again." For me the convenience of a watch comes from the fact I don't have to worry about charging it more than once a week (and before anyone tries to give me their secret trick about charging while in shower, don't even bother or I will flip out at you). I'm extremely happy being back on the Instinct. Garmin's connector is overdue for a new design but I struggle to believe anyone genuinely prefers to charge their watch every other day only because they have a magnetic connector. If I do something once a week at most and if I can be like "maybe today, maybe the day after tomorrow", plugging an inconvenient connector in really isn't a problem. The AWU 2, for being as power hungry as it is, feels pretty sluggish. It became one of my major issues with the watch. There were also plenty of annoyances. Like the way the stupid timers app is designed, with a bunch of predefined timers which you can't delete. When it comes to the ecosystem, there are definitely some serious nice to haves. Most notable one being that when you're tired and need to get into bed right now, you don't have to chase around for your nearest device, you just activate sleep mode on your watch and that activates it on all your Apple devices. That's honestly something I still kinda miss. Notifications handling is much better, very smartphone-like. You can interact with notifications more. However, doing that is almost always slower than just pulling out your phone. Never mind that I personally prefer to just look at the notification I get, acknowledge it, and make an educated choice whether or not I want to pull out my phone to deal with it now. So most of the time, I just have my phone on silent to not disturb media playback and check incoming notifications on the watch without really interacting with them there. Garmin is perfect for this. Apple's ecosystem isn't perfect though. The Apple Watch does not interact with the iPad at all. You can't use it to unlock the device, you can't use it to control media playback or interact with any of the notifications. For being their most popular computer after the iPhone, the iPad feels like a second class device in some ways. And when it comes down to it, how come Apple still doesn't have a feature to check all your notification from all your devices on a single device? Using Airpods with an Apple Watch is supremely annoying (at least was while I was using it, some of this may have gotten fixed), especially for me as a timers heavy person. The watch tends to grab Airpods audio with alerts (timers, alarms). When listening to audio from my ipad or iphone, a timer going off on my watch would play the alert through my airpods. The playback on the other device would not resume as the airpods would remain connected to the watch. I'd need to pick the device up and resume manually. There was no way to disable the connection to the Apple Watch unless you also wanted to disable it for the iPhone. At one point I was briefly trialing a different set of earbuds and I was so relived they didn't connect to the Apple Watch. Again, been a while, maybe this behavior is different now. Garmin isn't perfect either. The way sleep mode works is flawed and the best way to use it is to work around the automatic setting and just trigger sleep mode manually (the same way you do on Apple Watch). Yes, some devices have bugs and they may take over a year to iron out (and with some devices they just didn't bother). It used to be a lot worse than it is now though. Then again, Garmin also does a lot of stuff better. Their approach to fitness is IMHO much more productive. Apple praises you for doing nothing with their stupid rings, while Garmin is more about showing you how you're doing in terms of recovery and how ready you are for intensive activities. They really are more about actual fitness, that is a lifestyle where you have training days followed by resting days and where you also do different kinds of activities in between and have to worry about overtraining and such. Apple is just not good at this at all. With Garmin there is stronger focus on sleep. And garmin is a lot better at presenting data than Apple and lots of people end up buying third party software for their Apple Watch to get functionality Garmin watches come equipped with. Personally, I find the statement that Garmin makes fitness trackers with smart features accurate.