One of the biggest concerns of our day is- alas-battery life. The battery of what? About everything. Of the smartphone, the laptop, the tablet, the smartwatch. Fortunately, sportwatches generally have a respectable battery: but when it comes to outdoor sports such as trail running or hiking, distances often get longer and we may have more extreme needs.
The way I see it, the battle for market share in this area will be won in the coming years by whoever is able to best solve this issue: for me, it is no longer acceptable to have to run an ultra trail like the LUT, UTMB or Tor de Géants and see people forced to fiddle with power banks and cables running through every part of their bodies, instead of just thinking about running.
So I wanted to test a sportwatch that promises to solve-at least in part-the issue: the Garmin Instinct Solar.
Out of the box
As soon as I take it out of the box I immediately think that it is an extremely ignorant object, in the positive meaning I give to the term: not a complex object to study at leisure, but something you put on and start using right away, with all the main functions at your fingertips.
Mine is yellow, and I can’t help but think that it is some kind of homage (or at least quotation) to a glorious model from the equally glorious 1990s.
If you are accustomed to the Garmin world, you will find everything you are looking for here: the proven five-button system and the navigation menu structures-notwithstanding the different functionality between models-are what you expect. Me, who usually use a Garmin Forerunner 945, it takes me less than five minutes to set everything up, synchronize it with my profile on Garmin Connect and automatically import my latest (poor) performance, so that the watch already learns something about my (poor) sports habits.
Stress settings
After an initial 100 percent charge the Instinct tells me that the battery life will be 24 days, after a couple of hours on the wrist it increases to 26 days: clearly this is a value that refers to use almost exclusively as a smartwatch-without GPS tracking-but it seems like a very good start. I decide, however, to squeeze it from the start to its fullest potential, so here’s what I do:
- I activate the 24/7 automatic activity detection settings, so my every movement (steps, floors climbed, sleep) is recorded.
- While keeping the original watchface (for me the best) I replace the altimetry field with the heart rate field so that it is always visible and updated in real time.
- I set gps detection every second.
- I activate all the smart notifications received via Bluetooth from my iPhone (and it’s immediately a riot of pleasant vibes; sunsets on Instagram always pull a mess).
During the testing period I mainly do three activities: a lot of running, some cycling and a good amount of hiking. The latter also allows me to evaluate continuous use of Gps/Glonass detection for many continuous hours.
Solar Energy
The Garmin Instinct is a model that has always tickled me because of its simplicity: it is extremely spartan in its construction, minimizes frills (both hardware and software), and has a black-white display that is just the right size. These are all features that in themselves contribute to battery savings.
The Solar version additionally uses part of the dial to house small surfaces capable of storing sunlight. Attention, here a necessary disclaimer. Contrary to what one might imagine (or at least what I had imagined) this is not a full-fledged solar charging: once the sportwatch has discharged it will need to be recharged with the cable, as usual. Rather, it is a system that causes the battery to discharge much more slowly, as long as you keep it exposed to the sun as much as possible. A dedicated widget (set on the default watchface, but of course also accessible via menu) always shows how much solar charging the device has received in the last six hours. It is permissible to occasionally shout something like “and now, with the help of the Sun, I will win! Solar attack: energy!” if you feel up to it.
For me it’s a big yes
What can I say? For me, it is an item that is promoted with flying colors.
I was fully satisfied with the battery life: with the settings described above-so with high stress-the Instinct held its own 15 days and about 20 hours of GPS activity. By activating smart battery management I would get roughly two and a half times the battery life. Also, there is the fact that I was not always able to spend a few hours outdoors, so potentially I could have taken even more advantage of the Solar function.
The design (no less important than the functions) for me is spot on: that small circular area allows you to always have the focus on what you’re interested in, and that’s the first thing I missed going back to the 945. Of course you have to like the somewhat flashy watch, but it is my duty to remind you that “the tamarack is always in vogue because it is never in fashion.” For goodness sake, you can get it in total black, but that would be a shame.
Finally, the functionality/price ratio is absolutely competitive: despite being a Spartan item, it is equipped with a heart rate monitor, pulse oximeter, compass, and-most importantly-a barometric altimeter, which for me is essential for trail running and hiking outings. True, you may not have advanced running metrics, but how much do you use them? It also has very useful features for all outdoor activities such as auto climb, livetrack, and the ability to track open water swimming.
I would have liked the maps, that yes. But I also would have liked to marry Katy Perry (Katy, in case you know we are still in time).