Are you an adventurer and looking for a smartwatch that will provide you all the basic functionalities of an outdoor watch at an affordable rate? Welcome to the Garmin Instinct. Power-packed with features meant for the outdoors, it is one of the best smartwatches to track and monitor your activities, outdoors. As Garmin Instinct Review: Garmin is a very well-known and popular brand that manufactures some of the best smart devices. And one of them is the Garmin Instinct, which is specially designed for outdoor activities. So if you are thinking of owning one, and want to know more about it, then follow this review.
Activities You Can Do with the Garmin Instinct on Your Wrist
The Garmin Instinct was specially built for outdoor activities. And with this smartwatch on your wrist, you can avail of a total of 28 sports modes. And these are regular run, cycling, trail run, mountain biking, walking, standup paddleboard, hike, ski, indoor cycling, treadmill, indoor track, pool swim to name a few.
The only sport mode you will not get is the triathlon but that is something which is not that important. With the Garmin Instinct, you can customize the activity of yours, and make use of the Manual Lap, Auto Lap, Automatic rep Counting, Auto pause, and many other helpful features.
Features of the Garmin Instinct You Don’t want to Miss
Garmin Instinct comes with some of the best and unique features that you should not miss if you are planning outdoor activities.
Basic Features of Garmin Instinct
Basic features include the clock, date, stopwatch, timer. It also comes equipped with the step and the calorie counter. Instinct comes decked with temperature, calendar and automatic daylight saving time. Apart from that, you can also get the notifications of the phone on the smartwatch. In addition to that, Instinct will learn the activity level of your overtime and create auto goals, thus keeping you motivated.
Advanced Features of Gramin Instinct
The GPS system of the Instinct is really impressive and is very much accurate. And thus it makes the smartwatch more popular in the market. Apart from that, Garmin has included a barometric altimeter along with multiple global satellite systems to track the user’s performance.
Garmin has provided a 3-axis compass that lets you turn the display into a magnetic compass. Actually this better than GPS based compass. And to access the magnetic compass, you just have to select the “Sight and Go” option in the Navigate profile.
The Instinct navigation provides the history of your location via the breadcrumb trail. If you are unsure of the way back then the Instinct also has the TracBack feature that will automatically create a way back point.
The HRM (Heart Rate Monitoring) of the Instinct is very useful and outstanding as it keeps track of the blood flow. Apart from that, there are a lot of other HR features or options you can choose from.
Pros and Cons of the Garmin Instinct Smartwatch
With all the features mentioned above, you might want to check the strengths and weaknesses of the Garmin Instinct.
Pros
- Garmin Instinct comes with great battery life.
- It has a rugged design.
- The price is very reasonable.
- You can opt for 28 various sports modes.
- The watch is very durable.
- The accuracy of the smartwatch is satisfactory.
- Very comfortable to use.
- You can even control the Music.
- Smart notification is also available.
- You will have wrist only Heart Rate Monitor
- You get a magnetic compass
Cons
- You cannot use the Heart Rate Monitor while swimming.
- It lacks metrics like VO2 max and training load info.
- You cannot use any third-party apps.
- The screen is monochrome.
- Android users can only avail of text responses.
What makes the Instinct different from others?
When you opt for a smartwatch you should check some parameters and how the watch functions based on those will help you decide whether to buy it or not. Parameters such as accuracy, connectivity, to name a few are of top quality in the Garmin Instinct, which makes it a quality bargain.
Accuracy
Garmin Instinct comes with altimeter accuracy and this is something more than satisfactory. As it can be auto-calibrated based on the GPS of the starting point. However, you can also change it manually in the middle of a hike or run. Perhaps this is tougher when you are climbing a vertical rock, and the best option at that time is the barometer one.
Heart rate monitoring in a smartwatch is not something new for Garmin. And in Instinct, this gives fairly accurate results.
Connectivity
All Garmin products connect with your device using Bluetooth. The Instinct can be connected to Android as well as the iPhone. Apart from that, it can also be connected to different devices. The best option is that you can connect the Instinct with the iReach device and this will allow you to send and read preset messages via a satellite connection.
Comfort
Talking about comfort, Garmin Instinct has a very rugged as well as robust look. However, the smartwatch is very comfortable to wear. The silicone strap of the Instinct is very soft and durable. Apart from that, the smartwatch is very lightweight.
Style
Garmin Instinct has a very edgy, rugged and sporty look. The company has pulled out the best they can offer. Besides, the smartwatch is available to you in various colors to choose from.
Durability
Instinct is built especially for adventurers, so the durability is unquestionable. It comes with a silicone strap which is very durable and the build of the watch is strong enough to withstand any impact.
Ease Of Use
According to users, the smartwatch is very simple and friendly to use. Even for first-time users, the watch is very friendly. The interface is very basic and features a lot of widgets for you to access.
Summing Up
That is all with the Garmin Instinct. Apart from what mentioned, the smartwatch comes with a USB charger cable to charge it. Also, the Instinct has a very long battery life to run with you for the whole day.