Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Rugged GPS Smartwatch, Tidal Blue

great watch, great battery shame it's a black and white display but it is super clear. very happy with it

Battery life is very good

Just what I was looking for in a smart watch

This is my 3rd Garmin watch, having previously owned a Fenix 3 and 5. This time around I wanted something with better battery life, and so I went for the Instinct 2 solar.Overall pretty happy with the watch, however this is mainly down to the new software features such as the body battery, health snapshots etc. It weighs next to nothing compared to my old Fenix 5, and seems very well put togther like most Garmin products.Slight dissapointment over battery life, as it seems to only last me 15-16 days before I need to charge it up (from a full charge showing 28 days.) I am off out running 4 times a week however with GPS tracking enabled, and this summer has hardly been what you'd call sunny, and so the solar charging hasn't really had a chance to work yet.My main gripe is to do with the screen size. Because there are solar panels around the circumference of the screen, the viewable data area is squeezed into a smallish square in the middle (tried to show this in the attached photo.) This can make reading some of the info on the screen very hard to do when running, especially if you have 4 or 5 data fields on show. I quickly reduced my data fields to 3 per screen, but even then it can be difficult.If I had my time again I think I would have gone for the bigger Instinct 2X just for the bigger screen, or maybe just saved up more and bought a Fenix 7 or a Epix 2. I bought the Instinct 2 Solar during Prime week, and also had a £20.00 voucher, so the watch only cost me £225.00, a lot less than a Fenix 7 or an Epix 2!

I had a garmin 405 before this and still have and use it, but this one is up a good few levels. the info available on it is brilliant. I bought mostly for my running but that has been curtailed for a while. The accuracy of time and all info is very very good. Morning reports weather etc (more reliable than local weather forecasts) Heart rate, lap time, safety tracking, track back onyourself everything i need love it and Highly reccomend.

As a new hiker this is a fantastic tool to use along side OSMaps for navigation & monitor your performance.