[Closed] Garmin Instinct, thoughts and options please.

Mine hasn’t arrived yet but I was looking for G shock or a rugged smart watch for outdoors use.  DC Rainmaker has a good review, and I decided to pull the trigger after that.

As a point of difference I prefer to wear a proper watch during my working and social time and not be constantly distracted by notifications, but for its useful to have those at weekend rides, races and campsites so to keep a shiny phone clean and to avoid stopping during a ride to work out if its a family call.  I’d have no issue throwing an Instinct a la g shock in a bag when it’s time to get on the starting grid, on the turbo or at a gym, and a Fenix was more money for all of that - those were my justifications anyway, not sure if that helps!

Spec wise im going to take a punt as i think theyre bit of a bargain at the current discounted prices so for me its just down to colour choice now...the graphite is quite dull although is a 'safe' colour but can't decide if the tundra looks too white!

Hi, I've had an Instinct Flame Red for a couple if weeks now, having used a fenix 3 Sapphire before. Got some blue straps so it's in the Gulf colours!!

The only thing I'd ask for on the instinct that was on the fenix is Multisport (Triathlon etc) modes. Don't do triathlon but do multi activity gym training, that said the net result on connect is the same with separate events....

Other than that,  it's great. Display amazingly clear, loads of software improvements over the 3-they've made it have the ability to reply to texts etc- as they've stopped updating the 3's software.

I got it for its inbuilt HR as I was fed up travelling with loads of devices for HR etc and it's proven to be a superb value full featured device. It was a stop gap until I get a 5x+ or 6 but it's excellent in its own right.

the graphite is quite dull although is a ‘safe’ colour but can’t decide if the tundra looks too white!

Ha ha. I went for graphite.  I decided the Tundra might look grubby after a while, although now the flame red looks ok if used for sports only...

😂😂

I went for the flame red precisely because is wasn't safe or dull! With a grey strap it's fine at work. Orange strap it looks great and with blue strap, I'm all bright and retro!

Whichever colour, it's a superb watch for any money let alone £200!!

The wife has got me the safe graphite Instinct for Christmas. I like the tundra but thought it would grubby up too much as an everyday watch. The red definitely isn't me!

Thanks, any other options folk would recommend?

Well, mine has arrived and I’ve been wearing it for a few hours, including during a Turbo session.

I am impressed.  It’s light, not overly large, clear display and quite g shock like.  It connected to my phone / the app in seconds (unlike my Vivosmart 3) and the Trueup has worked well.  It’s very easy to use and configure, charged from 1/4 to full in 30 mins from my laptop USB. HR was within 1-2bpm of my HR strap during the turbo session after about 5 mins, it recorded within 4 cals of TodaysPlan within which I was using HR and Power

Frankly, if you wanted a good looking robust outdoors watch with notifications/responses and fitness tracking I’d find it hard to look elsewhere, add the tracking, compass and directional content its a great device.

I’m still unsure which colour is best 😀 The gray is quite stealth/military and IMO the flame red says “sports” to me.

Cheers Kryton

Good to hear kryton

...i went 'safe' 😎

Looks like I've sold my Fenix 3. I bought the instinct to hold me over until I get a 5x+ or 6 (as and when) next year,  but I really rate it. Think I'll stick with this for awhile....

Flame Red (orange) is clearly the sportsman's choice...😎

I have a fenix 3 ,thinking of changing to an instinct. Can you choose which data fields the watch displays during an activity like you can with a fenix 3? Does it have the same fields available?

You can disable all notifications Kryton, only one o have on is a running one to mark every mile, and only use that when 'racing'.

@julians

Yes it's fully configurable and apart from VO2 and run metrics (L/R Balance etc)  I think it displays everything the 3 can.

It DOESN'T do Multisport,  however,  so if you're a triathlete look elsewhere.

This may be a minor thing - I discovered you can turn it off.    If you don't wear it 24/7 therefore you can happily leave it "off" without the green HR "light" glaring / beeping notifications from inside a drawer.

Thanks for that.I have no need for vo2 max ,multisport stuff or run dynamics, so it looks like a veritable bargain then when compared to the fenix 5 range.

I've read the dc rainmaker review too, but thought I must be missing something, as it looks virtually identical to a basic fenix 5 in terms of functionality, just missing the multisport stuff , the vo2 max  and run dynamics. I suppose those are big deals to some people.

Might have to pick one up soon as the fenix 3 is looking pretty battered.

Just to update - still very happy with mine. Did a bit of walking / tracing and a faux "get me home" as a trial, all good.

Now on day 14 an although the battery is showing 1/5 bars, I haven't had to charge it yet - daily use, alternate daily 1hr turbo sessions, all day notifications and a probably an hours GPS.

Good to hear, I'm looking forward to getting mine.

Does WhatsApp work with it? Have you bothered with a screen protector?

No screen protector.

WhatsApp works fine. You get the notification and a bunch of short responses should you want to use them.

When it comes out of the box you link it to your phone and - voila, everything is taken care of. Its one of the things I enjoyed, there relatively little setup. Put the Garmin app on your phone, link phone, add device to Garmin app and 5 mins later you're off.

"Now on day 14"

Do you turn it off every so often, or have Garmin improved their uptime reliability?

I turned it off one for 6hrs - about day 2 I think. I turned it back on in the morning and its been on ever since.

Great updates, thanks.

Santa is bringing mine, hopefully notin tundra colour

I'm tempted by one too. Do they link to Strava? I want a watch for running (distance/pace/HR and a beep after each mile). One that can be used for biking, nothing fancy, just total distance from strava at the end. And to be used for hill walking/runnin, GPS grid ref, altimeter and barometer.

On paper the instinct looks like it fits the bill and is under £200? I don't want a colour fancy map on screen, it is a watch!! Is there anything not to like about the instinct?

Father Christmas is bringing me a Tundra one (bloody Kryton 😉 ) and I'll be downgrading from a 935, but it's time for a change, so I'm looking forward to it 🙂

Do they link to Strava?

Indirectly uploads through Garmin Connect yes. The Strava app sends notifications through your phone which do show on the Instinct. Bear in mind the instinct does not have “apps” like a true Smart watch.

Not to like? Our use case seem very similar and the only very minor bug bear I gave is that the button functions seem to be in a slightly unnatural location, but you soon get used to it. That could be me though!

The

Where are you all finding the instinct for 200 quid? I'm looking in Spain and struggling to find cheaper than 280eur/250gbp. Might as well take advantage of the weak pound (chortle) and save a few bob.

It dropped to £200 during black Friday week. Keep an eye on Bkacks, it's currently £225 but they seem to rotate discount codes.

£220 at Millets...

Also worth checking Go Outdoors, they have the Instinct bundled with the Tempe temperature sensor. Currently £230, but was a bit cheaper last week.

Still a big chunk of saving even at 220. Going to the UK on the 28th, might be cheaper then? No rush, currently running with an Edge 520 in my pocket, works alright 😀

Do you turn it off every so often, or have Garmin improved their uptime reliability

Not sure I know what you mean, but my 935 is used all day and night, side from a brief break once a week or so to charge, and I've had no problems with it at all for nearly a year now.

( Yay! Cut and paste worked on Chrome/Android! )

£220 at Blacks too plus extra 15% off if you're a new customer using 'NEWSU' 🙂

Well, i’m officially 15 whole days in now... when will it run out!

Thanks Nobby. 55eur cheaper than I found in Spain, code expires tonight so I panicked and pulled the trigger. Orange of course!

You could also get gooutdoors to price match and then save an additional 10%. Not sure they would match a voucher on a voucher?
I wonder if you could get them to match the reduced Blacks price, take another 10% off and then take another 10% for being part of the scouts???? £151...

I’ve got one and like it, it is a bit clunky to navigate and the screen doesn’t really lend itself to reading messages etc but that’s not what I want it for.
A couple of things could be improved in my opinion:-
Would be much nicer to edit custom screens from the app rather than the watch.
Also the strap could do with being a bit longer, it fits but looks a bit daft with a stumpy bit sticking out the end. Admittedly I have that issue with most watches so tend to go for metal bracelets normally.

anyone got that NEWSU code to work ?

oh well, punt taken on an orange one from Blacks at £220 - Happy Christmas to me 🙂

Loving my orange one!

Anyone know how to disable barometer in certain apps?

Surfing and kiteboarding produce some bonkers elevation data!!

Good to hear, not used a smart watch though do use a Garmin 130 on road bike

anyone got that NEWSU code to work ?

It expired a couple of days ago.

They are back at Millets at £220 with 15% of use ICE15.

I took mine off Thursday morning as I went Christmas partying and put it back on this morning expecting to charge it but no - an empty battery indicator but its plugging away!

Arrived this afternoon, seems pretty easy to setup. Only bit I can’t work so far is seeing email as a widget. I get mail when it comes in on gmail and can read then, but there doesn’t appear to be a mail widget to view later, like there is with text messages. Any pointers ?

Orange (red) one arrived the other day. Couple of runs with it, just one niggle.. incoming calls only show the phone number, not the contact name. Same for you?

^ I haven't noticed as have had notifications switched off most of the time, as been at work anyway, with laptop and mobile to hand.

Anyone worked out what the 'track me' feature is all about ?

Nope, haven't had chance to really get to grips with much of it. The reason I bought it was for the breadcrumb trails - I've pushed a course to it and try it out tomorrow - though I suppose it'll work like any non-mapping Garmin, ie fine when there's an obvious turn coming up, but 50/50 for forks so you end up running a fair way up the wrong one until you realise you wanted the other. Still, better than stopping and digging the phone out.

IIRC, only displaying the incoming number and not the name is how my 520 does it too, though it does show the name for Whatsapps.

Mine shows the callers name. iPhone SE if it makes any difference.
The Bluetooth connection has been perfect compared to my Edge 25 which was 50/50 at best.
Would be nice if the ‘move’ prompt was disabled when driving, I guess that would require the phone to tell it I’m driving when it connects to the hands free kit. In all reality I’ll probably just turn it off as usually if I’m not moving around, it’s because I have no choice.

I found it for Android, mine was the same.

In settings go to app permissions, contacts then you see the list of apps which have permission to view the contacts. Turn Connect to on. Voila, names appear on the Instinct.

The strap is a bit fiddly, isn’t it, with the second band needing to locate into the strap itself - keep pulling hairs out my arm !

I've got a nice navy blue quickfit strap off Amazon for £12... it looks great against the orange face and seems more comfortable than the official Garmin quickfit strap.....

Didn’t realise the Instinct had the Quickfit connection, thanks

Thanks Kryton, sorted 👌

Followed a course on my lunchtime 10k today, for the first time. All the widgets are different in course mode which is annoying. COuldn't see my km pace. Back to the settings!

@iainc

The supplied strap isn't quickfit.. just pop out the pins, take the supplied strap off... refit the pins alone and then it's ready for the quickfit strap. I've got 2 official Garmin quickfit straps and 2 Amazon jobs; the Amazon ones are more comfortable.....

ah, thanks for that, will have a look, cheers

Santa came good and I got my Instinct today. I likes it, not overly bulky and seems relativity easy to use. Although it took a while to turn the "Move" notice off.

A question for other Instinct owners-

I went for a run the other night and my elevation went a bit scatty. It had me drop below sea level 2 or 3 times and as a result added about 600ft to my 400ft run. Do I need to turn something on or off? Or is it just a random glitch?

TIA

Check the altitude is being autocalibrated with the gps. Even with that on, I can get weird readings if the weather is changing (low pressure). There might be a way to correct the elevation data (to a base DTM) in the web version of Garmin connect - I don’t think that will also fix associated stats though, eg calories burned etc.

I’ve pushed a course to it and try it out tomorrow

Probably a silly question, but how do you do this? The user's guide is really rubbish 🙁

2 Amazon jobs; the Amazon ones are more comfortable

Quite a few on Amazon...which brand did you go for mikertroid?

Hello instinct owners....

Quick question - if you use the GPS + galileo option during activities (as opposed to purely gps), do you find the battery life terrible?

Garmin say the battery should last 16 hours in gps mode. when I tried with GPS +galileo it only lasted something like 5 hours, just wondering if this is to be expected or a bug in the garmin firmware.

In gps mode it looks like it will go the full 16 hours. I was expecting some increase in power consumption using galileo, but not 3 times the power usage.

It is running the latest firmware (v2.80)

EDIT - stupid question

if you use the GPS + galileo option during activities (as opposed to purely gps), do you find the battery life terrible?

Didnt think Galileo was fully operational yet? I use GPS + GLONASS on my Instinct and hadn't noticed any battery life issues with that

^ What he said.

Didnt think Galileo was fully operational yet?

not all the satellites are running yet, I think there's something like 25 out of a total of 30 up and running.

I wouldnt have expected a lower number of satellites to affect the battery life on the impact though, but maybe if it was spending most of its time trying to find a signal it might.

Will switch to gPS + glonass and see how it goes.

What software are you all using to load new courses into your instincts. Garmin connect appears to only work for roads, it doesn’t show footpaths or bridleways. Thanks

Garmin explore app on android seems OK for creating courses to follow footpaths etc, but I havent used it extensively to see if its riddled with the usual garmin bugs.

Duh...

Haven't created any courses yet, but I have downloaded some as GPX from Wikiloc, Strava etc. They've worked fine, forest/mountain tracks, and across open ground (no path).
I don't have Garmin Express (or whatever it's called), so upload to COnnect website, then sync to the watch using the phone app.

Talking of sync, it often doesn't. Have to turn off the watch, restart the phone, eventually it syncs, though real time HR is displayed in the app. COuld equally be a phone bug.

Have to turn off the watch

Sorry, can't help re syncing but, dumb question, how do you turn off the watch?

On a side note fwiw, I'll add i prefer the cheap replacement straps...they are slightly more stretchy than the genuine straps and ive found this helps keeping the watch in place on your wrist

Top left button press and hold then gps button to confirm

Cheers plus 👍

Did anyone one consider the Vivoactive 3 over the instinct? Considering both but the £45 price increase of the Instinct for similar features isn't really convincing me.

Vivo active 3 has more features/functionality than instinct, payment features, vo2 max estimates, colour screen etc.

But instinct has better battery life (looks like it will last twice as long as vivo active 3), is tougher and more water resistant than vivo active3

And obviously there is a styling difference.

vo2 max estimates

Available on the phone app from the Instinct data.

looks like it will last twice as long as vivo active 3

12-14 days for me.

Cant find the boring colour one for cheap at the moment though so prce difference is close to £100. Millets have the orange for £220 but want to be able to wear it for work and that is a bit bright. So it is almost full retail which is £100 more expensive than a Vivoactive 3.

Tried the Vivoactive 3 but it isn't great. The touchscreen isn't ideal so thinking the instinct would be better. Do the button get pressed when flexing the wrist when riding at all or are they suitably protected?

I've caught the lap button a couple of times (winter gloves) but they are pretty well protected.

Touch screen would be far worse IMO.

I really like my Instinct, it's my daily watch and my phone is always on silent now.