GarminGarmin Instinct 2X Solar, Rugged GPS Smartwatch, Built-in Flashlight, Solar Charging Capability, Multi-Band GNSS, Flame Red

I'm normally an Amazfit guy, as I always found the Garmin products out of reach price-wise. However, as Amazfit has slowly brought up their prices on their flagship products and are now in the realm of Garmin pricing.I switched from an Amazfit GTR3 to this, so this was not apples to apples. However, I liked the GTR3, and it did most of what I wanted in a smart watch/fitness tracker. However, the lack of ruggedness just wasn't for me. It survived for about 2 years, as long as I kept a screen protector on it. However, after I stopped putting the screen protectors on, it survived about 2 months of my active lifestyle, before the touchscreen started to fail. Unfortunately, Amazfit deemed it unnecessary to allow the watch buttons to act as alternatives to the touchscreen. This slowly rendered the watch less and less functional until, about 5 months after I removed the screen protector, the touchscreen failed completely. This made most of the features of the watch unusable. I also had to replace the band several times and almost lost this watch due to a broken band during a Spartan race.Again, these are not competing watches. However I'm calling out design & pricing choices that led to me considering the Garmin.Now, for the watch itself: it's definitely big on my wrist. However, the band fits well and feels very durable. The UI took a lot 20 minutes to figure out, and pairing with my android phone (Gamin Connect app) was very easy. That's another thing that Garmin has refined over Amazfit: I didn't have to manually make the app run in the background all of the time, or do any other manual steps that Amazfit required with the Zepp app to make things like texts to the phone work.The screen is readable with the light on in daylight. Setting up a run was easy and there were a lot of options that I could configure, if I wanted to do so. GPS seems pretty accurate. I haven't done a long run on it yet, but it easily picked up my location from inside of my house.Watch face is customizable. I need to do a bit of this, but have only played around a bit sof far.I woke up to it today to telling me I didn't get enough REM sleep last night, so the sleep tracking was intuitive and only gave me necessary data, then left me alone.Heart rate monitoring appears to be quite accurate, and even seemed to be about right while swimming. It handled swimming with no glitches or bugs.I'm still not sure how long I'll get regarding battery life, but it's currently estimating that I've got 34 days left. I'm very interested to see how accurate that turns out to be, considering this is the solar variant. I won't he getting a lot of out door running or hiking time in for a while, especially during the day, so I expect the solar will help more on the Arizona fall and winter.For hiking and trail running, it has the ability to easily track my initial location, set way points, etc. right from the watch, so I'm looking forward to testing those features. It also supports trail map downloads which is something I've really wanted to try out. It easily accessed the local weather to the watch as soon as I shared my location with the app.Overall ruggedness: it's a big watch, and it feels very tough. There is no touchscreen, so that is compensated for by having 5 navigation buttons. It didn't take long to figure out what each button does. I think I'll be hard-pressed to actually damage this thing, and the band is going to tolerate a lot of punishment (although, it will probably be the first thing to fail).Last feature: the flashlight/torch: this works surprisingly well. I was very surprised when I had to use it last night as to how bright it is. It's easy to activate and deactivate, and you don't even notice it's there when it's not on. It faces outward, so you aren't blinding yourself when you turn it on, nor are you holding your wrist upside down to use it. Surprisingly great feature.It appears to be great value for money (I'd always prefer a little cheaper, but if this lasts at least 2 years, ideally 4, then it was worth the money). I got mine on sale for a decent discount.

I wanted to wait a few months before writing a review on this watch, as I've never owned a Garmin and was aware they have a proprietary software that I would need to get used to. It's also more expensive, which took me a while to pull the cord, and I didn't know whether I would feel buyers remorse and let it cloud my feelings on performance. While I was not surprised per se, I had also expected this to take some time to navigate, as it has an immense amount of functionality. However, it was completely natural to use. Also great watch faces and really bright, easy to read info, which is notable given all the information on the face. Very easy to navigate functions. Sleep monitoring is (much) more accurate and consistent than the last two watches I had, neither of which were particularly cheap or lower quality. Battery life is amazing. I charge once a week out of habit, but it's usually around 50% so could last two weeks. I'm not a heavy user so assume that could be different for others, but any way you cut it, the battery will stay charged a long time. To charge, it is a proprietary cord, so that's the only downside, but unless you lose cords all the time you should be fine. I'm sold on Garmin now!

Pretty huge on my lady-wrist, and will need to replace the silicone band with a stretchy one before it gives me a rash, but that's true for any Garmin with these bands. Now, the watch /tracker itself is fully loaded with about a zillion features (most of which I won't use), and the battery life is unbeatable! My Instinct v1 was great for a while, then started randomly turning off more and more often. I got this one hoping it's more reliable. So far, so good. Time will tell. Bonus: cool little flashlight and monster sized screen are good for these old eyes.

I love this watch even though you have read the manual very carefully if you want to get all the functionality out of it.

It's a great watch it lasts over 30 days without changing

Long-lasting battery (1–2 weeks) even with several features active.Used in seawater without any issues.Highly recommended.

It's the watch I've been waiting for for a long time. It's everything I want a smart watch to do without having to charge it every night. I love it and I might have to get the color version next year. It receives text messages emails and notifications keeping you in touch with everything your phone tells you at a glance. Very happy with my purchase

Solar, long battery life, mapping/trails, sleep/steps tracking, etc.The integrated light saved me from bumping my knee many times in the middle of the night. I have used other trackers and this being my first Garmin watch I was amazed at all it could do. I am a gadget geek and am overjoyed at all of the settings, customizations, activities, information/weather/tides, etc., it provides. I am addicted to seeing my body battery percentage vs. sleep score to get the most out of my day.I tested the solar charging and it took about an hour of full noon summer sunlight to increase the battery 1%. Considering wrist movement and overhead tree foliage I am sure my results would be less. However it is extremely efficient and last weeks on one charge.Also, I am an AllTrails user and I love how it integrates with their App/website. I am able to see and share my hikes across both Garmin and AllTrails including the ability upload trails I have found on AllTrails to my watch.Having a full map with contours would be a plus rather than a line on the screen, but at the price I purchased it I am good with what it offers, as similar watches with full maps capability can add $200+ to the price tag. I use my phone/AllTrails to get my bearings, but I don't mind using my watch as my back up.