Garmin Instinct GPS watch

[tdhanses]

The one other thing the Fenix has is, if I'm not mistaken, considerably longer battery life.

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Man that is hard to believe but possible, I get great battery life.

 

[CLibka]

The one other thing the Fenix has is, if I'm not mistaken, considerably longer battery life.

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Having had both the fenix 5x plus and the instinct, I would say they have no appreciable difference in battery life. Both run like champs.

 

[Boxerboxer]

Good to know. I was basing that off my recollection from a review, not actual experience.

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[rfra]

I picked up an Instinct two nights ago and so far like it, as it has just the right set of features for my activities and still shows a full charge from initial plugin. One question though, have you noticed that heart rate during runs may be lower than actual? I was on the dreadmill yesterday doing some 5 minute jog/run intervals and it felt like during the run the heart rate was lower than expected and if I'd stop swinging my arms (say to mess with the watch) then the HR would spike up a bit to what I'd consider to be more expected levels. Attached snippet is an example, the green circle is all at a steady run pace for 5 minutes, the spike at the end was me holding my watch hand steady and is more representative of where I'd expect my HR to be at that pace. Yellow line has no meaning, just where I cut and paste the section of interest.

 

[rfra]

My enthusiasm for the Garmin Instinct is fading quickly. I just did a 60-story stairs ruck with 30# in our office building over lunch. It recorded 16 flights (I did 60 up and down), showed my heart rate averaging about 115bpm on the climbs (it was 155-160), and showed a total ascent of 160' (it was about 700'). Will do some more troubleshooting but right now this is getting close to being returned...

 

[twall13]

The elevation tracking doesn't sound right but being indoors may throw it off some. Mine has been pretty consistant and accurate when compared with my phone and my garmin GPS on both distance and elevation. The heart rate tracking will never be super accurate because it's an optical heart rate monitor. Make sure the watch is snug and it will help with the heart rate monitoring but it's never going to be perfect. I find it's a really comfy watch band so I don't mind it being a bit tighter than other watches I've worn in the past. Regardless, if you want more accurate heart rate monitoring you probably need a chest strap.

I feel like the technology used in this watch is meant for it to be used outdoors. All of your testing so far has been indoors (treadmill, stairs). Just something to consider.

 

[steelheadmike]

My enthusiasm for the Garmin Instinct is fading quickly. I just did a 60-story stairs ruck with 30# in our office building over lunch. It recorded 16 flights (I did 60 up and down), showed my heart rate averaging about 115bpm on the climbs (it was 155-160), and showed a total ascent of 160' (it was about 700'). Will do some more troubleshooting but right now this is getting close to being returned...

I don't think any wrist based device is going to be super accurate in that case. You are relying on the barometer/alimeter for your elevation data, not GPS. And, going up and down stairs is not big enough of an elevation change to yield a significant pressure difference.

Not sure about the heart rate. Did you monitor it with another device? For super accurate heart rate, you really need a chest strap.

I've had mine for a couple days as well and have found it pretty accurate. The elevation seems to be pretty accurate with GPS. The only hiccup was that the distance was not recording during an activity. I came to find out that this was a bug in the latest software update. Garmin released (yesterday) and beta version of the new software to fix this. I loaded it last night and the Instinct worked fine today.

 

[rfra]

You are relying on the barometer/alimeter for your elevation data, not GPS. And, going up and down stairs is not big enough of an elevation change to yield a significant pressure difference. Not sure about the heart rate. Did you monitor it with another device? For super accurate heart rate, you really need a chest strap.

I called Garmin this afternoon. The tech said the stair climb activity tries to combine accelerometer and pressure readings to define flights climbed, so apparently it cannot handle more than one set without getting confused, which seems about right since for the first 20 stories climbed it was somewhat accurate and went downhill from there...bizarre design. I'm going to try to use the stair stepper activity next time which should be strictly accelerometer based and see if that's any more useful.

As for heart rate, yes wrist based is less accurate but shouldn't be 50bpm off for 30+ minutes unless doing something like biking with a lot of vibration and weird wrist angles. For walking/jogging it shouldn't be that far off or there's no point having one at all. I'm going to try shaving the area under the sensor to make sure there's not hair interfering.

 

[Jordan Budd]

Echoing what a lot have said, I think it was meant to be used outside. Plus I have my doubts on the heart hate monitoring accuracy. Therefore my review will be based on a few outdoor features, and not on others.

Planning on reviewing the functionality and customizable features, GPS, altimeter, phone pairing and alarms/timers.

I’m doing this because I personally don’t use the other features like the heart rate monitor. IMO if you need a heart rate monitor I would by a dedicated one. Then with the stairs climbed and steps taken, I don’t think they’re accurate. But I don’t think they’ve been accurate on any watch I’ve owned. Since I don’t look at that feature when I’m on the mountain I won’t be reviewing.


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[tdhanses]

Yeah I have to agree, this watch was designed for outdoor use but that is why I ended up with it as well.

 

[Backyard]

The one other thing the Fenix has is, if I'm not mistaken, considerably longer battery life.

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This depends on the settings. there are multiple different ways to prolong or shorten battery life simply by making adjustment on settings, i.e. backlight time on, message alerts time on, etc. I found a few good tutorials on youtube that deal with this subject.

 

[PMcGee]

I’ve been using mine for my runs and I’m not to impressed with the gps. It constantly cuts out and this is running in town with not to much obstruction. When running the same loop the distance is all over the place. I’ve tried all the different settings no difference. If it’s off in town I’m not to optimistic how it will perform in the woods.


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[twall13]

I’ve been using mine for my runs and I’m not to impressed with the gps. It constantly cuts out and this is running in town with not to much obstruction. When running the same loop the distance is all over the place. I’ve tried all the different settings no difference. If it’s off in town I’m not to optimistic how it will perform in the woods.


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That doesn't sound right. Here are a couple snapshots of some stats from my last two trail runs, same exact loop. It's not perfect, but I consistently get stats very similar to this on this run and it tracks well when compared to the mapmyrun app on my phone. I've also used it on multiple hikes into some canyons where I know the gps signal isn't as strong and it still tracks fairly well. I did have one hike that it was clearly off by about a half mile but most of the time it's pretty close.
Run 2-18-19
Run 2-20-29

 

[S&S Archery (Rob)]

I’ve been using mine for my runs and I’m not to impressed with the gps. It constantly cuts out and this is running in town with not to much obstruction. When running the same loop the distance is all over the place. I’ve tried all the different settings no difference. If it’s off in town I’m not to optimistic how it will perform in the woods.


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Have you changed the GPS mode to GPS + Galileo INSIDE your run activity? Makes a huge difference in accuracy. You might also talk to Garmin. They are very helpful over the phone.

 

[steelheadmike]

Once I got the distance bug fixed (3.10 software may have a glitch) by uploading the 3.11 beta version, my Instinct has been flawless. Battery life has been great and I haven't had any GPS issues. I haven't tried using it with Galileo or Glonass to see if there is a marked difference. All in all, I absolutely love the Instinct.

 

[PMcGee]

Have you changed the GPS mode to GPS + Galileo INSIDE your run activity? Makes a huge difference in accuracy. You might also talk to Garmin. They are very helpful over the phone.

I had it on GPS + Glonass I’ll try the Galileo.


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[PMcGee]

Once I got the distance bug fixed (3.10 software may have a glitch) by uploading the 3.11 beta version, my Instinct has been flawless. Battery life has been great and I haven't had any GPS issues. I haven't tried using it with Galileo or Glonass to see if there is a marked difference. All in all, I absolutely love the Instinct.

Shouldn’t the updates happen automatically through Garmin connect? Mine still has the 3.10


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[ChrisS]

Shouldn’t the updates happen automatically through Garmin connect? Mine still has the 3.10


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The latest update is still in beta, you have to manually install it.

As an FYI, these gps sensors aren’t great. If you’re looking for accuracy it’s going to cost money and then post-collection correction. A sub-meter gps we use for surveying points in the field is about $5k. And that’s to get a point the size of a manhole cover.

 

[Jordan Budd]

Everyone, I'm currently putting this article together but wanted to share this snippet with you early. These are the directions to change settings for altimeter accuracy. Let me know if you have questions.

You’ll need to go to: main menu -> settings -> sensors & accessories -> barometer -> watch mode -> change from auto to altimeter. This makes the watch only factor in the elevation gain and loss into the altimeter reading and will not factor in barometric pressure. From there back out of the barometer and up to altimeter. From there you can calibrate by inputing your own known elevation or you can use the GPS to calibrate.

 

[tdhanses]

My software is on 3.20.