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When I first started He tried a solar-powered Garmin several years ago, and the solar function extended the battery life by a few days. Now, every solar-powered Garmin I’ve tested has outlasted that Two weeks. When I was about to take a long overdue vacation on a two-week family beach trip, I naturally donned Garmin’s new Instinct 2S Solar.
This latest solar-powered version of Garmin’s popular Backcountry Instinct series has a smaller and sharper display than its predecessors. Best of all, I didn’t have to charge for 21 days. This includes three weeks of daily GPS-tracked activities including running, swimming, hiking, snorkeling, paddle boarding and buggy riding. If you value proper backcountry tracking and don’t have to charge a battery, this is the best adventure watch on the market.
Fun in the sun
Photo: Garmin
Apple Watch has consistently dominated the smartwatch and fitness tracker market for several years. But there’s one area where it simply can’t compete: battery life. If you’ve been busy enough to look for a smartwatch, you’ve probably found it annoying that you have to charge it every day (sometimes more than once).
The Instinct 2S Solar uses a Power Glass face to convert solar energy (measured in lux) into battery power. If you’re the type of nerd who likes to check your Solar Rating and how much sunlight your watch is exposed to during the day, you can scroll down the watch face to get data from the past six hours. At-a-glance statistics like notifications and step count.
It’s fun to watch your solar power go up and down as you bike, run, or sit in the shade. But what I wanted to know is that in a lot of direct sunlight, the Instinct 2S Solar draws very little power. During my trial months, I got up to three weeks on one charge. That’s less than Garmin’s 50-day claim, but better than almost every other fitness tracker. It never puts it in power-saving mode, which extends battery life by reducing the brightness on the watch face and disconnecting the watch from the paired phone. It’s three weeks a lot of time.
It’s especially surprising because the Instinct 2S Solar is much smaller than previous Garmin Instinct watches I’ve tried. The case is 40mm, almost 5mm smaller than the original Giant Institute. Same with my Apple Watch Series 7. It still has a monochrome memory-per-pixel display, but to me it’s sharper than its predecessor. Even with the 1.2-inch screen, I can read my notifications clearly.
Beat the heat
Photo: Garmin
In the year Since its launch in 2018, the Institute has been one of Garmin’s top sellers. It now comes in sun and non-sun versions; Various special editions, including a strategic version of, er, “stealth mode”; And some of the craziest colors in the sports watch market. Different colors are available for different editions, so Garmin now has a “design your own” tool on its website to make sure you get the feel you’re looking for.
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