As a smart watch, more details on that in here, just one bit so ive been testing. The new instinct 2 out for quite a bit and in todays video ill, be going over everything new, with the entire lineup of instinct sports watches and just like all, my reviews ill be going over how this device actually performs for sports and fitness for different activities. Like running cycling, weight training and i even took it skiing, so ive got lots of data to share in this video, and if the information in this video does help you out at all dont be shy by hitting that, like button down below its a small little Thing that you can do that will help this video and the channel quite a bit, and i appreciate it so to back things up. Theyve actually already been kind of two versions of the instinct, the original instinct and the instinct solar. The original instinct was kind of an unexpected hit and was super popular because of its rugged and retro style. And when the follow up instinct solar came out, it came out with quite a few upgrades from the original beyond just the solar charging, and you could have almost thought of that as an instinct too, but they didnt call the original instinct solar. The instinct tube for very good reason, because this is the real instinct too, because theyve packed in a lot of new features, and this is definitely worthy of the new version.
Okay, so lets first talk about all the different options that they have with instinct too. So theres a larger 45 millimeter instinct too, and then a smaller 40 millimeter instinct, 2s and theres going to be solar options with both of those sizes and then with the smaller bigger, as well as the solar options. Theres going to be tons of colors to choose from so pretty much anything to fit your wrist and your style, and then the solar models get solar charging, as you may have guessed it, but they also get garmin pay for contactless payments. But then they also have a camo edition of the instant 2, with a special camouflage, colored case and band. They also have surf editions of the instinct 2 in both solar and non solar options which have special colors, along with an exclusive tide feature which can give you up to date, tide conditions and then theres. Also, a tactical edition which come with a unique bezel thats different than the other models, along with tactical features like night vision, mode, kill, switch for wiping the device, as well as a jump master mode for jumping out of airplanes and then for pricing. The base level instinct 2 start at 3, 49, the solar edition start at 4, 49 and then the camo surf and tactical editions range anywhere from like four to five hundred dollars, and then one last thing is that you can also use garmins your watch.
Your way customization tool to create your own personalized instinct too. So i think, all in all, they say that theres, like 240 ways to customize the look of the instinct too. So with the new instinct twos theyve upped the display resolution quite a bit where, on the 45 millimeter version, the display resolution is 176 by 176 pixels versus the 128 by 128. On the original instinct and even the new, smaller 40 millimeter instinct 2s has a higher resolution than the original instinct with 156 by 156 pixels and seeing the new instinct two solar side by side with the original instinct solar. You can really see the difference like if you look at the time. The lines are just a lot smoother and the number in the top of the cutout window. That has a lot more detail as well. Youll also notice how they took advantage of the higher resolution display in other areas of the interface like widgets, which are now what they call widget glances, where, with each press of the up and down key, instead of just having one widget show on the screen. It actually has multiple widgets at a glance and then same thing goes for the activity profile list where you can see more than one activity profile at one time, and then that display also makes for much smoother graphics and fonts throughout the interface. And then one more thing id point out is that, just like the original instinct and instinct solar, the instinct 2 comes with an integrated band that nicely wraps around your wrist and another good thing about this band.
Is that its nice and long? So you can wear this over a jacket like if youre skiing, without any issues and then in regards to battery life. The original instinct had some pretty good battery life with up to 14 days in smart watch mode without recording any outdoor activities and then the follow up original instinct solar. They upped that to 24 days without solar charging and then, if you added some sun, you can get up to 56 days. But with the new instinct to the larger version, you can get up to 28 days in smart watch mode, but heres the kicker. If you have enough sun with the 45 millimeter instinct, two solar, you can actually get unlimited battery life and again, that is with the larger 45 millimeter version. But the smaller instinct 2s is in the slouch, either with up to 21 days in smartwatch mode, and then the instant 2s solar can get up to 51 days with enough solar charging and then for gps battery life. The larger 45 millimeter instinct 2 can get up to 30 hours of gps recording time and then the instinct 2 solar can get up to 48 hours with enough solar exposure and then with a smaller instinct 2s that can get up to 22 hours of gps. Recording time and the instinct 2s solar with enough solar exposure can get up to 28 hours, now heres an improvement with instinct 2 that im really stoked on.
So i had to go play with the original instincts, as well as the original instinct solar, where the elevation data that it collected wasnt necessarily accurate. Some of the time due to the location of the barometer but theyve, reworked that with instinct to where theyve repositioned the barometer slash, altimeter – and i am super happy to see this change because from all the testing ive done. This has definitely paid off with the elevation data. Thats been quite accurate, like on this backcountry ski activity. The total ascent lined up nearly perfectly with the phoenix 7x solar, as well as stravas, corrected elevation figure, which is based off of gps elevation data really good stuff and then looking at the minimum maximum elevation of that activity. Again, very much in line with the phoenix 7x solar. The new instinct 2s also come with garmins latest 4th generation, elevated heart rate sensor, which can track your heart rate 24 hours a day, and it also has an spo2 sensor for measuring blood oxygen saturation levels and for my testing this is definitely garmins. Most accurate heart rate sensor to date and were going to have more details on the hardwood accuracy. When we talk about the sports and fitness accuracy here in just one bit and then for daily activity, tracking and health tracking, the instinct 2s can track your steps. You can track your fullest climbed your heart rate, 24 hours a day, your blood oxygen saturation levels using the pulse ox sensor.
You can also track your calories as well as your intensity minutes, which you can think of as how many minutes youre spending doing vigorous activity throughout the week. And then the instinct is also come with garmins advanced sleep tracking, where youll be able to get a sleep score, and then it also breaks down your sleep stages. In terms of how much time you spend to wake in rem, light sleep or deep sleep, but using this latest fourth generation elevated heart rate sensor, the instinct 2 also gets garmins health snapshot feature which takes multiple health metrics at one time, including your blood oxygen saturation Level heart rate respiration rate, as well as stress level, which can kind of give you a general overview of these stats at one time, rather than to see these metrics separately now. Something else that a lot of people wanted on the original instincts was more training and performance feedback features and im super happy to report that the instinct tubes come with many of the same training and performance feedback features that youre going to find on garmins phoenix 7 Line of sports watches, as well as garmins higher end 4runner watches so first off. This was something that i thought they should have had with. The original instinct is being able to estimate your v2 max, and the instinct 2 is able to do this for both running as well as cycling, but just note for cycling, vo2 max. You will need to be using a cycling power meter which the instinct 2 can pair with another feature that you get is garmins new visual race, predictor feature that was just introduced on the new phoenix 7 and epic sports watches, which gives you estimates of potential race Times you can achieve for common running race distances based on your training over the last four weeks and it visualizes how your recent training is affecting your potential race time so like here.
You can see that ive been running a little bit more lately and a smidge faster as well, which has impacted my potential race times in a good way. The instinct 2 can also provide your training status based on your latest workouts. It can also show trends of your vo2 max over the last 7 days of running workouts. It can also show your training load over the last 7 days with a range of what is optimal, as well as a recovery time advisor, which can give you an indication of how long you should rest before your next workout. Another feature that the instinct 2 gets. Thats found on garmins, phoenix and higher end former models is altitude acclimation, which gives an idea of what altitude youre currently acclimated to for your workouts, and then the instinct 2 also gets daily suggested workouts, which can give you workout suggestions based on your past training, whether That be rusting intervals or steady state workouts and yet another feature that the instinct 2 gets that just came out with the phoenix 7 and epic sports watches is garmins new, real time setting sync feature where youll be able to adjust tons of settings from your smartphone. Rather than on the watch, so, for instance, before with the original instinct and the original instinct solar to adjust data fields and data pages, you had to do that from the watch itself, which worked, but it wasnt quite as easy as their new way of doing it.
From the garmin connect app and these settings happen in real time like even while an activity is in progress where you can see these settings change in real time. The instinct 2 also comes with tons of different activity profiles and even more than the original instinct and the original instinct solar and some notable ones are. The new cycling profiles like e mountain biking, gravel biking and commuting theres also pool swimming and open water swimming. Just like the original instincts, but two new big ones to come with the instinct solar are triathlon mode and multi sport modes and then, in addition, youll also get indoor, climbing and bouldering garments. High intensity interval profile as well as golf, and then it also comes with plenty of winter sports too, like garmin ski and snowboard activity profiles which are able to automatically track your runs using the built in altimeter, and i have another video that ill have linked on The description below which gives a demonstration of how all that works, and then it also comes with both traditional cross country skiing, as well as skate skiing profiles, and it also comes with garmins back country, ski profile, which is designed specifically when youre earning those turns. And this is a pretty neat activity profile where, when you go to start the activity, it starts in a climb mode and shows you a climbing specific data page that shows the elevation that youve climbed distance covered as well as vertical speed and heart rate.
And then, when youre at the top and start your descent, you just simply press the lap button and then it switches to a descending specific profile, page with the metrics for the descent and then, when youre done with your day and save your activity. It has all this information saved in garmin connect where it separates out your climb phrase from your descent phase in red and blue on the map, as well as the elevation profile, its pretty cool stuff. The instinct. You also now get support for garmins connect, iq app store where youll be able to extend the functionality of the instinct to with third party apps like accuweather and minutecast, for weather information commute for route syncing, as well as garmins own running power data field. Where youll be able to collect running power when paired with a compatible external sensor? Okay, so now on to gps accuracy and lets look at this run here, so you can see that everything lined up really nicely with the other test devices that i was using. So really no complaints at all here and then for the finer detail of the gps tracks again, quite good with nothing crazy going on. If i had to nitpick – and i guess thats part of my job – there were just a couple spots where i could complain, but these were super minor where right over here it took this corner just a little bit wide and then over here is a little bit Off the path, but overall the instinct 2 solar performed really really well so the new instinct 2 comes with garmins latest 4th generation, elevated heart rate sensor and ive gotten some pretty darn good results out of it.
So lets first start out with one of the easiest types of activities for these types of risk based heart rate sensors, to track accurately and thats indoor cycling. So, as you can see for pretty much the entire workout, the instinct 2 solar did a great job here. At the beginning, when all the sensors were lining up, it had a moment where it tracked a little bit high, but it then got back in line with the other sensors and theres really not much to nitpick at all here so theres. This one spot right here where it tracks four to five beats per minute high, just for a second or two, but overall this is a fantastic result and then for running pretty good here too, for the most part at the beginning, it took about 45 seconds to Lock on and then it was good for the first few minutes. It did veer off just for a couple moments right around the 5 minute mark. But after that it was solid for the rest of the run. Now cycling and running tend to be easier types of activities for these types of wrist based heart rate sensors to track accurately but weight training thats a really hard activity because of all the arm movement as well as wrist flexion, but the instinct 2 did pretty well Here so on the first set, it tracked a bit high, but nothing crazy by any means, but then over most of the workout it was actually more in line with the chest.
Heart rate strap that you see in green than even the other optical heart rate. Monitor that i was wearing on my arm on the high intensity intervals at the end of my workout, it did track high on the last two intervals, but overall, this is a very respectable result for weight training, oh and then. Lastly, i also wanted to mention that the instinct 2 compared to a bunch of external sensors – and these are going to be both bluetooth as well as amp plus sensors, so compared to external heart rate, monitors, speed and cadence sensors recycling power meters for cycling, foot pods Verb action cameras, temperature, sensors, as well as in reach satellite communication systems, dog track sensors, as well as smart trainers. So, as you can tell garmins packed in a lot of new features with the instinct too, and i think whats great – is that theyve added a lot of features that many of us wanted, including more training and performance features. More health features like advanced sleep tracking, as well as multi sport and triathlon modes, and then they even packed in some features that just came out with garmins phoenix 7 and epic sports watches anyhow thats everything new with garmins new instinct, 2 line of sports watches. And if you have any questions about anything that i didnt cover in this video definitely leave those down in the comments section down below and on your way down there.kpGNO-KWI3c
