I have a thing for watches and have lots of them and over the years this has extended to smart watches and now I have a collection of those too and people again ask WHY but just like my phone collection which both happened by accident really because of what i do it is nice to pick and choose from and weigh up what is on offer and it is good to change over every now and then, currently I am using the Apple Watch Series 7 45mm which I have left aside to check out this offering from Garmin as it has quite alot on offer despite its clean plain looks vs a stand out looking bright screen face and full of colour do not let the black and white screen on the solar instinct fool you.
Build is solid on the Instinct Solar and one of the best you may find out there this is as tough as it gets, having used this for a few weeks it has had all kinds of bangs and knocks and not a mark to be seen which is remarkable which less can be said for other watches I have which have had to have a cover added or screen replacement so for me this is win.
On the looks department well it is pretty bog standard and plain akin to a casio however people like this and some do not for me it is new and by that I mean it is a first of a kind when it comes to a display I do own older similar styled non smart watches just because your watch might be plain and simple looking does not mean it is not capable and that is what most folk I showed this watch could not believe when I showed them however there is some caveats here but overall not much else to complain about being honest.
The watch has 3 pushers on the left and 2 on the right and all labelled these pushers are also solid with a texture and easy to identify blindly and function well all the time,sometimes pushers can get blocked or simply fail to work which is not the case here certainly after what I put it through.
The screen is Black and White but it does not take away the features available or what you can avail of built in on the app, there is something for everyone here no matter what sport you are into, you can see more of what I mean in the video below. The screen is power glass which can keep your watch topped up on the go never mind the insane battery life which is really impressive and for someone who hates charging a smartwatch daily this is one key feature for me that I like, I have not had to charge the watch yet since it landed which is great.
To get going you will need the garmin connect app which is quite good actually in terms of functionality and easy enough to set up and navigate and once applied you can custom to your needs like any other offering out there and control what you want delivered to your watch, this is something you spend time on with any smartwatch as having the dam thing going off all day can be annoying and for me I tailor what I want to receive.
This watch is ideal for the outdoors for the most and also has a built in compass which is handy but it also offers health features galore so it is a pretty solid overall purchase if you can get past the black and white affair on the screen yet robust and solid with graphs galore and more which can deliver much useful information to you, the price though might out some off due to the influx of cheaper watches out there but again these do not offer as much as this one does, perhaps if this was a color screen it might be more attractive but then so would the price.