Garmin Instinct 2S Solar, Smaller-Sized Rugged Outdoor Watch with GPS, with Solar Charging Capabilities, Built for All Elements, Multi-GNSS Support, Tracback Routing and More, Graphite

The title might sound alarming, but to be clear, this was not Garmin’s fault. My first watch was stolen after I accidentally left it at a college gym. I absolutely loved that watch. It was the Garmin Instinct 2S non-solar version. About two weeks after losing it, I bought the solar version, which is nearly identical to my original watch but adds solar charging and Garmin Pay. The images show are the solar option with the 40 mm bezel. I’m 5’9 155 pounds. My wrists are small if the watch was any bigger I’d look like a dork but I think the 40 mm bezel fits nicely. I believe the battery life given this watch is size is probably its main selling point for me. The non-solar option had me charging about twice a month for about three hours max. Pros Both watches have been extremely durable. My original watch never got a single scratch on the face, bezel, or body. The strap did show some wear over time, but straps are replaceable, so I consider that a non-issue. I also experienced very few software issues overall. Garmin pushes software updates frequently, so any bugs that do appear tend to get fixed quickly. The watch is also highly customizable. Activities, watch faces, data fields, and external sensors are all easy to configure. Connecting to chest heart rate straps or ERG machines is incredibly simple and reliable. The profile is slim, lightweight, and comfortable. It weighs about the same as my G-Shock, and I barely notice it on my wrist. It is also comfortable to sleep in. I believe the optical heart rate monitor is very accurate for everyday use and training. Compared to a dedicated chest strap, I usually only notice a difference of a few BPM. Most inaccuracies seem to happen when sweat or wrist pressure interferes with the sensor, such as while gripping handlebars or machine handles. Cons There honestly are not many. The biggest annoyance has been Bluetooth connectivity. On a few occasions, I had to manually reconnect the watch through my iPhone’s Bluetooth settings. That said, this only happened a couple of times over the past three years, so it was very minor overall. I also experienced a GPS issue a handful of times where the watch stopped tracking GPS properly during activities. This happened maybe two or three times before I decided to restart the watch, which completely resolved the issue. Another small issue involved the optical heart rate sensor. On two rides, I took the watch off briefly to clean my wrist and then put it back on. Afterward, the watch displayed an obviously inaccurate heart rate reading, around 70 BPM when my actual heart rate was probably closer to 150 BPM. The sensor corrected itself after about five minutes of riding, so it never became a major problem. Overall I am extremely satisfied with the functionality, durability, and ease of use of this watch. It is a fitness tracker first and foremost, and it does that job very well and very reliably. Yes, this is a lot of Garmin praise, but I was honestly a reluctant buyer at first and initially scoffed at the price. After owning two of these watches over the past three years, hiking up mountains, swimming in the ocean, riding up mountain passes sweating all over, and occasionally knocking or dropping the watch and its face on various sharp objects which would’ve definitely broken a more fragile watch, I’m sold.

un excelente producto, volveria a comprar, llega en tiempo, ha funcionado correctamente.

Very happy with garmin watch, does everything I want and more. Purchased a refurbished instinct 2x, looks brand new.

Quite a good watch even though it is smaller than I thought and a black & white screen which means you cannot download any watch faces if you want a bit of colour on the face of the watch & the Watchband is very small and won’t fit my wrist so have ordered another band already !

I don't write a lot of reviews, but I thought I'd chime in about this. (Just a regular old customer here--no connection to Garmin or Amazon.) My point of view might be uncommon for Garmin owners: I actually don't think of myself as a Smartwatch guy and have actually turned down free Apple Watches (as holiday gifts) on two occasions. No interest in texting on my wrist. I'm a "watch guy" in the more traditional sense--a big fan of mid-tier to high-end mechanical watches. But I wanted one techy watch for when I bike and work out and for a long backcountry hike where GPS was going to be necessary. I've owned this watch for a couple months now and have put it through its paces: swimming (it's highly water-resistant), biking, lifting, and (as mentioned) in the wilderness. It hasn't disappointed. Set up is easy and intuitive: if you can handle using an iPhone, you should have no problem making your way through the process. Downloading the smartphone app on your device and syncing it is worth the trouble, in my opinion. Among other things, it will allow you to keep on top of software updates, control your music while working out (without having to touch your phone), and get whatever alerts (like texts or Ring notifications) you might want to opt into. I have it set up so that the Garmin app only seeks out my watch when I open the app---don't want this thing constantly searching and draining my phone battery when I'm not even wearing the watch. I do still fumble through the different buttons trying to remember what does what, but it is getting better. I usually only wear this for a few hours at a time a few days a week; if I wore it more regularly, I'm sure I would be far more fluent by now. And the good news is, you really can't mess anything up by pressing the wrong button. There's tons of customization that you can do (during setup or just whenever) to rearrange the main screen, add or remove activities and options, etc. For an entry-level smartwatch, it's impressively featured! Battery life is utterly insane. I charged it before a 10-hour hike where the GPS was going the entire time--that was in early May. Since then I've worn it several times for many collective hours, sometimes in GPS mode, sometimes not, and I only had to charge it again today--in mid June. Granted, I power it down whenever I'm not using it, but still, you get a lot of time out of a single charge. I have the solar version, and I suppose that extends the battery life in a limited way---can't say I've tested that or noticed strong evidence of it, but I'll take Garmin's word for it. The GPS tracking feature works very well once you get it dialed in to your preferences, which isn't tricky to do. If you get lost, you can flip to the screen where your track is: it's just a squiggly line on the screen---there's no map background on this plain-Jane, smaller, black and white display---but with pretty minimal brainpower, you can use it to retrace your steps, no problem. No chance of getting lost with this thing on, as long as you've got a signal---and I've never had any trouble acquiring one. Beyond that, just having it on your wrist as a trip computer, tracking how long you've been at it, how many miles you've covered, your elevation, etc, is really nice. It allowed me to provide very specific answers every time my kid asked "how many more miles do we have to go?" Note, though, that you'll need to activate the GPS mode when you start your hike (or ride or whatever). And you'll want to shut if off when you're done in order to extend the battery life. Nice to have the heart-rate and pulse oximeter features. Also reassuring to have the "incident reporting" feature, or whatever it's called. Thankfully haven't had to use it, but I've read positive customer reviews from folks who have. It's a comfort to know that my wife will get an instant alert on her phone if I crash my bike, for example. And I believe the alert will include my exact location. As for the watchy-watch stuff: this thing is very well built. It feels robust, but is as light as a feather. I mean, you can really forget you have it on, especially if you're accustomed to wearing a luxury sports watch that weighs more than 100g. I haven't tried swapping out the rubber strap, but I see no reason why you couldn't put it on a NATO or something if you wanted to. The integrated strap itself feels like it's good quality, though I imagine it will eventually need to be replaced after a few years of putting it on and taking it off. The overall look is very rugged and "tactical." At least with the black model, there's nothing refined or luxurious about it at all. The main thing I want to say about it as a watch per se is that the size is perfect, at least for me. A lot of these smartwatches nowadays are enormous: 45mm and super-thick. To me they look absurd. This one is about 40mm, which is by no means small, but it's sensible and while definitely "sized" for a man, could work well as an oversized unisex option. Point is, when I'm wearing it, it just feels like a normal watch, proportioned like several of my other, mechanical watches---not like a giant wrist computer. It calls no attention to itself. The screen isn't tiny or anything: the display is plenty readable. It's not touchscreen, it's not full color, you can't watch videos on it---if you want all of that, look at a different model. This is one of those "everything you need, nothing you don't" items. (Though, again, it has a pretty surprising array and number of features---most of which I've never used.) Big fan.