Garmin010-02293-10 Instinct Solar, Rugged Outdoor Smartwatch with Solar Charging Capabilities, Built-in Sports Apps and Health Monitoring, Graphite

If you're looking for a sport smart-watch to listen to music while you run, navigate throughout the city or install apps, then THIS IS NOT YOUR WATCH.To put it simply and give you a better feel for the watch, I'm a rock climber, amateur alpinist and during COVID took up running as part of my training routine. Me choosing this watch came down to the following points (in order of relevance): battery life, cost, and long-term usability.As an alpinist, the need for charging a device can be crippling, particularly GPS-enabled ones. The watchs' battery lasts for 13 days on the basic setting, meaning it registers your heartbeat, daily activities (steps, floors, etc) and utilizes GPS without connecting for a charge for a long time (with Sleep PulseOx disabled it can last close to double that and in battery saver mode even longer). Of course, activities such as running, skiing, and others (it comes with preloaded activities but you can create your own custom ones) use up more battery, but you can set up different power modes so that the charge lasts longer. Moreover, I've had a simple Casio solar for the last 10 years and never changed the battery, so no way was I buying a 1-day-charge watch after that.Regarding cost, I got it during Presidents Day sales for 320-ish, which to me is a steal for this watch. If you are the kind of person who wants all the Instinct Solar has but wants street maps and more customization, then you may need to spend more cash on things like the Enduro or the Phoenix lineup, both of which come at twice the cost or more (do your research on those). The Instinct Solar is a basic watch in terms of looks and visuals (black & white screen, breadcrumb navigation, only a few preloaded watch faces), aimed mostly at giving you many features for outdoor adventures and sports while not wasting resources on useless gimmicks. In my case, running is only part of and not the focus of my training so, while valuable, things like VO2max are not a must-have, whereas wrist-based blood O2 readings can give me an approximate idea on the field (this is NOT a medical device).Regarding long-term usability, it comes down to one simple fact: these things are expensive.The reality is, unless you are made out of money, you cannot buy one of these every year, be it the Instinct or any other smart-watch. In my case, I wanted a device that can function on the mountains without worrying about whether it will make it on a single charge or die midway. I wanted something that has GPS capabilities but doesn't break the bank or needs a replacement for a while. Solar charging makes it a tough contender for this price range.Overall, if you want a basic do-it-all adventure watch that won't set you back too much but can be used for more than just extreme terrain, this is an excellent product. If you are looking for a more running-oriented or activity-tracking device, Garmin has other line-ups, more affordable than the Instinct Solar and with specific features for those activities. The only problem with this watch is the learning curve, but there are youtube guides to simplify it.

Do not trust the alarm feature to wake you up for critical events. I overslept by about an hour when the watch updated overnight. After software installation the watch powers itself off AND MUST BE RESTARTED MANUALLY BY PRESSING THE POWER BUTTON. I got lucky it happened on a weekend.Update 1/26/2024:I believe the watch reads 100% full BEFORE a charge cycle is actually complete. Instead of taking it off charger as soon as it reads full(usually an hour to charge from 50 to 100), I let it stay plugged in for 4-5 hours. Now battery life is just like new, dropping approx. 6-7% per day when not getting any sun. I recharge it every Sunday evening and the battery is consistently between 48 and 52 after seven days use.Maybe Garmin released an update? I don't know.Update 12/2023:About two months ago the watch suddenly went from going 2 weeks on a charge to just 4-5 days. I researched a bit, ended up doing a factory reset and it was back to normal for 2 weeks. Now it's acting up again, consuming about 1% of the battery per hour. I know it's software related because the reset worked for a while.I Contacted garmin support. Since it's out of the 2 year warranty they offered to exchange it -- for $140 plus tax!! No thanks. They basically said "well tough luck, call us if you change your mind."Original review:I spent probably 10 hours watching tutorials and reading reviews before making the purchase. Color touchscreens look nice and eliminate the need for instruction manuals with all of their detail, but I was looking for something simple, rugged, and affordable with great battery life. Solar charging was just a bonus. I was not going to be tied to plugging a watch in every night.The user manual is huge and the five button controls mean a lot of functionality must be memorized.I didn't want to wait months for a big sale and purchased at about $55 off msrp. Still seems like a good value.