The Garmin Instinct 2S Solar is a simple, yet very smart watch that is jam-packed with features for any adventure, including mountain bike adventures.
Key specs
- Monitors heart rate, stress levels, sleep patterns, and “body battery”
- Calculates fitness age, Pulse Ox, VO2 max, and recovery time plus MTB-specific features like Grit and Flow score
- GPS, GLONASS and Galileo sensors
- Other features: contactless Garmin Pay and crash detection sensor
- Three sizes: 40mm, 45mm or 50mm
- Weight: 43g (40mm size tested)
- Price:
$399.99$237.85 sale (graphite) - Buy from Amazon
On the bike
I come from the world of the Apple Watch, which can record “Outdoor Cycling” workouts and provide some basic ride metrics like heart rate, power, and distance. The Instinct provides much more than just basic data, and for mountain bikers in particular, the Grit and Flow metrics are of interest. I found these novel measurements motivating to challenge myself to do better on my next ride because, as they say, “my only competition is myself.” During the ride, the MTB screen shows your heart rate, a timer, distance, total ascent, and elevation, all at once, which is easy to check at a glance.
The data screen allows you to reorder or remove fields to your liking, so you can customize them to see as much or as little as you want. Toggling through the MTB setting within the watch, there are other pages which show a GPS compass, your heart rate zone, and the time of day. I rarely find myself toggling screens while out on a ride, but the stats are handy to have just in case. And of course, you can find more detailed information and analytics after your ride on the app.
The monochromatic display is easy to see in the bright sun and there is backlight for use in dark conditions.
After saving your ride or activity, the watch automatically syncs and uploads the data onto the Garmin Connect App. The app provides some pretty in-depth analytics under “Activities.” I used the Overview screen the most, and found it to be the most helpful. After a ride, it shows a map of the ride, the distance, total time, average speed, total ascent, and average heart rate. There are menus that show an overview, stats, laps, charts, and you can even keep track of what gear you’re using, for example to track how many miles you put on your bike.
Day to day wear
The Garmin Instinct 2 comes in three face sizes, from 40mm to 50mm. I have a small wrist and was very pleased with the smaller 40mm size. The included band fits my wrist like a glove.
The Instinct is very comfortable to wear daily. The adjustable silicone strap feels durable but lightweight at the same time. I like the textured, raised buttons on each side, which are easy to operate with or without gloves.
Like most smartwatches, the Garmin Instinct connects to your phone via Bluetooth and can display notifications from your phone like texts, emails and any app notifications. If you want to stay connected while outdoors, you definitely can. I personally found all the notifications to be a bit overwhelming, so I opted to disable those pop-up notifications, allowing me to focus.
On my recent trip to Iceland, I actually forgot to take the watch off when I visited the Sky Lagoon. The geothermal pool is between 38-40°C (100-104°F), which is considered a hot tub-like temperature. While probably not recommended, I’m happy to report that the Instinct survived several hours in the hot lagoon, plus it was put through the 7-step ritual.
Garmin Instinct 2 battery life
I’ve found I only have to charge the Instinct watch about once a week, even with daily walk and ride tracking. The battery life is a lot higher than my Apple Watch, which only lasts me a day. The watch comes with discrete solar panels that can extend the battery life, and Garmin says that it can last up to 21 days on a single charge or up to 51 days with solar charging. In order to truly maximize the battery life, however, Garmin is “assuming all-day wear with 3 hours per day outside in 50,000 lux conditions.” Make sure your long sleeves are rolled up, so the watch can catch that sunlight — this is something that wasn’t possible for me during some of the gray winter days.
In any case, getting about a week of battery life is pretty impressive. This was such a refreshing change of pace, as I typically wake up to a dead Apple Watch.
Women’s health
One of the most underrated features of the Garmin Instinct 2 is the menstrual cycle tracking, in my opinion. You might be familiar with tracking your cycle on an app on your phone. I’ve used an external app to track my cycle for years now, but in just a few weeks, the Instinct has already been more accurate at predicting my next period cycle than my external app. The accuracy may be because the Instinct combines all the data gathered from its advanced sleep tracking, stress tracking, and heart rate. These metrics are being continuously aggregated thanks to the long battery life.
In addition to background tracking, you can also log symptoms into the Garmin Connect App, so this will help to track any patterns over time and gather more in-depth cycle analytics.
An interesting feature that is new to me, is that the menstrual cycle widget provides information about the menstrual phase you are in. Within the menstrual cycle widget, it provides the phase and a snippet of insight into how this phase affects your performance, along with a cited source. In addition, it provides some suggestions about your physical goals and which foods to focus on. For example, it encourages you to hit a new PR during your Follicular phase, as this is when “your strength levels are high […] which means you’ll be able to generate force longer.” It’s been very interesting to learn about my health and it’s been quite eye-opening. All this data has definitely helped improve my overall awareness and wellness.
Other Women’s Health features include Pregnancy Tracking, which provides information about the pregnancy development with nutrition and exercise tips. In addition, there is also a No Period cycle type which can be used to log symptoms and better understand the body and any patterns over time.
Final thoughts
Overall, the Instinct is a do-it-all wearable device that helps record rides, track health and wellness, all in a user-friendly interface. I chose the 40mm screen size, which is plenty to show the data that I need at a glance. While it’s probably not the best as a designated navigation device (especially if you choose the smaller screen size like me), it is reassuring that the watch can provide GPS services if needed. Plus, it is helpful that you can preload a route before your ride from the app, just in case. If you’re looking for navigation on the watch, you may consider a larger screen or one of Garmin’s GPS cycling computers instead.
I truly enjoy all the valuable data the Garmin Instinct 2S Solar watch continues to give me. I prefer this much more than the Apple Watch data, and I’ve worn an Apple Watch for the past 7 years. Because this watch gathers so much data throughout wearing time, it can give insightful advice on how to improve health and wellness, in addition to fitness tips to help improve performance.
The Instinct offers a rugged yet sleek design — it reminds me of the old Casio G-shock watch — and is great for mountain bikers and active people to keep track of their rides and other activities like running, swimming, strength training, indoor climbing, golf, and yoga. Garmin really jam-packed this little watch with all the great features they integrate into many of their other fitness tracking devices.
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