In the sea of gadgets today, there’s the strong and the dainty, the rugged and the pretty, the high-maintenance and the switch–on-and-forget-about-it. One company that offers products across these attributes is Garmin Inc. It has a long history of producing high-quality, rugged devices, with the US Army being its first customer. Over the last 20 years, the company has consistently brought its expertise to the consumer tech world with its smartwatches, the latest being the heavy-duty Instinct 2X Solar.  

Design

The Garmin Instinct 2X Solar is obviously designed to be rugged. It weighs about 67 grams, which felt heavy on my wrist, especially as I switched from the Apple Watch 8, which is 20 grams lighter. If you’re already used to a heavy-duty smartwatch or just have a bigger forearm, this might not be an issue for you. The watch is designed with a slightly elevated round bezel with physical buttons on all sides and a torchlight on top. On the left bezel are the controls, menu and ABC buttons (altimeter, barometer, compass), and on the right, the GPS button, which serves multiple functions. The ‘set’ button below it doubles up as the back button. 

While the bezel is crafted with fiber-reinforced polymer, the strap is good ol’ silicone. 

The monochrome digital watch face on the Instinct 2X solar measures about an inch across, with ample customisation options. The display is built with Power Glass - which is basically Corning Gorilla Glass DX - but with the ability to soak up sunshine and turn it into battery juice. Although low-res in a very 90’s retro way, the display is impressively anti-reflective and scratch-resistant. The visibility outdoors is excellent and indoors, even without the backlight amped up, I could easily glance at what’s on screen. 

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The initial setup with the Garmin Connect app takes a bit of time. No Garmin watch is an exception to this. Once connected, it pairs quite quickly each time.

Fitness features

Garmin obviously has all the basic features in place  - step count, heart rate, calories burnt, respiratory rate , pulse oximeter - all of which work quite well. 

There are different tracking modes available for a variety of exercises. I used it often to track my strength training sessions. I press the GPS button on the right to start the timer. The reps generally register only after I’ve completed at least four reps of one move. This was definitely useful while recording, say, progressive deadlifts, across multiple sets. Where it becomes cumbersome is training days on which I need to say one rep each of different moves in the first set, two reps in the second, and so on. Here’s where I need to do an extra step to manually input the number of reps post each set.

A familiar friend on Garmin devices - the Body Battery - keeps informing me of when my energy reserves are low - which seems to be quite often during this relentless summer. 

One feature that was especially helpful was breath work, which is rather well designed with a warm-up with on-screen instruction, followed by a pattern of breathwork designed for relaxation with haptic-prompts for breathing in and out. 

Those of you who swim regularly can use the Instinct 2X Solar to log your swim laps in the pool. The smartwatch automatically identifies whether you’re practicing a backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly stroke, or a mixed set of strokes. It also lets me track more workouts and sports than I’ll ever do in a lifetime. It tracks everything from yoga, pilates, boxing, MMA to skiing, kayaking, surfing and horseback riding - and everything else in between.

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Making it ideal for hikes and treks is the ability to connect to a satellite directly without a mobile phone. On overcast days, the connection did take a bit of time to snap in. Once connected, I could save the location, and then have the watch track my walking path. The only thing I missed here is that the tracking path isn’t superimposed on a map - just two points connected by a line. However, if you’re out on a walk, jog, or run, you can customise the torch to shine white or red, and blink to match your jogging pace. Trackback routing ensures that you can actually follow a digital breadcrumb route back home, unlike Hansel & Gretel.

In addition to the heavy focus on health and fitness on this smartwatch, there are basic smartphone-connected features such as alerts for calls, a limited range of auto-reply to messages received, music controls, and reminders based on your calendar events. 

Battery 

The Garmin Instinct 2X Solar has insanely good battery life. On regular use, it promises to go on easily for 35-36 days, which decreases drastically with continuous GPS tracking. It drops to a promise of 5-6 days of usage with GPS on constantly, which should still suffice on a Himalayan trek. In sunny Chennai, I haven’t had to use the charging cable at all during almost three weeks of usage. 

Verdict

As power-packed as the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar is, it’s clearly not an everyman’s gadget. It’s not for you if you’re looking for a colourful, dainty smartwatch that gives you company through the day with fun animations, sleek notifications, and a colour touchscreen. For those of you who are outdoorsy, engage in a variety of sports or are semi-pro athletes, the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar has a lot to offer. 

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Published on June 14, 2023