This is an awesome watch/fitness tracker! I've had mine for over a year and absolutely love it. 12+ day battery life, rugged, lightweight, etc. It's been in the ocean a few times, down the ski slopes, and through hundreds of miles of running and hiking in rain, heat, cold, etc. (As a side, I recently did a 20-mile (7-hour) hike that I was tracking with my Instinct and it only used around 30% of the battery using regular GPS mode.) If it comes with the regular one-year warranty, $149 is a great price.
Like someone else said, it's not a 1 to 1 comparison. The Apple Watch is a Smartwatch that can also do fitness. The Instinct is a fitness/outdoor watch that has only a few smartwatch features. Hope this helps!
Is this touchscreen and does it have media controls? I tried the Forerunner 35 and was completely disappointed with it. I went back to my vivoactive and been thinking about updating for a while now.
This is a big differential. This isn't an Apple watch, it's a running watch. But has solid battery life as a 'regular' watch.
Finally, from a basics standpoint the battery life of the unit is claimed at 14 days in regular watch mode (no GPS enabled), and 16 hours in GPS-on mode. It claims 40 hours in GPS-on mode with UltraTrac enabled. I'd say these claims are in the ballpark based on my usage. Of course, like most people I don't tend to do 16hr hikes every day, nor do I just use my watch sans-GPS either for 14 days. But the battery seems to easily last me a week with about an hour of GPS activity each day (on average).
Is this touchscreen and does it have media controls? I tried the Forerunner 35 and was completely disappointed with it. I went back to my vivoactive and been thinking about updating for a while now.
It doesn't have touchscreen controls, but buttons on the sides (rain/sweat can mess with a touchscreen). It does have music controls if it's linked via bluetooth to your phone.
It doesn't have touchscreen controls, but buttons on the sides (rain/sweat can mess with a touchscreen). It does have music controls if it's linked via bluetooth to your phone.
I've had a handful of garmin and non-garmin smart watches and fitness watches. They were all OK for what I needed but not the best. This thing is amazing. Here are the reasons I am a huge fan:
Battery life is amazing. Even using it to work out every day, I only charge it once a week or so. It's never got low enough I worried about it getting to 0%.
It is non-touch screen. Easy to use mechanical buttons on the sides like old school watches. Super easy to use while exercising and sweaty. I don't have to stare at it and make sure the touch worked. It is easy to control when my heartrate is 170bpm, I'm soaked with sweat, and bouncing up and down on a trail or paddling a boat.
The screen is configurable for the information I care about, and it is very easy to read.
It doesn't blind me or my wife at night by turning on the backlight when I get a message or turn my arm.
GPS is super accurate. Much more accurate than the non-Garmin models I've tried.
Works seamlessly with my chest strap heart rate monitor. It has the built-in wrist HRM which is pretty good, but my chest strap is more accurate. It can flip between the two monitors mid-working if needed. If the chest strap is connected and sending data, it uses that. If not, it reverts to wrist.
Durable. I have destroyed so many watches while hiking, biking, boating, or working on cars. This house a tough housing around it and raised above the screen. An advantage of not being a touchscreen.
I consider this to be a great watch for a 'man of action' (to quote Princess Bride). Not glamorous like most smart watches, but I've had those and found them lacking.
It's really a great watch. I have a Fenix 3hr but bought the Instinct when I found it on sale at Dillard's a few months ago. I bought with the intention of gifting but seriously thought about keeping it after playing around with it. I also briefly had a Fenix 5x but returned bc heart rate reading was way off. Instinct HR monitor was perfect. The display is more readable than the Fenix and lightweight. No Connect IQ but the original watch face is perfect..so much so that I downloaded the Instinct watch face for my 3HR.
It has automatic rep counting for strength training, ability to access the training workouts on Garmin Connect (not available for 3 series). No Vo2 max though.. But I really enjoyed everything about the watch.. all the way down to the way the buttons pushed in.
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Perfect timing, I just became interested in this! Repped
GPS ABC Heart rate
Just having those basic function mentioned above from reputable company at 161 shipped is sweet
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I went ahead with the Apple watch due to $100 sale (currently one on target) and its other use cases outside of running.
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Finally, from a basics standpoint the battery life of the unit is claimed at 14 days in regular watch mode (no GPS enabled), and 16 hours in GPS-on mode. It claims 40 hours in GPS-on mode with UltraTrac enabled. I'd say these claims are in the ballpark based on my usage. Of course, like most people I don't tend to do 16hr hikes every day, nor do I just use my watch sans-GPS either for 14 days. But the battery seems to easily last me a week with about an hour of GPS activity each day (on average).
Thanks for the reply
- Battery life is amazing. Even using it to work out every day, I only charge it once a week or so. It's never got low enough I worried about it getting to 0%.
- It is non-touch screen. Easy to use mechanical buttons on the sides like old school watches. Super easy to use while exercising and sweaty. I don't have to stare at it and make sure the touch worked. It is easy to control when my heartrate is 170bpm, I'm soaked with sweat, and bouncing up and down on a trail or paddling a boat.
- The screen is configurable for the information I care about, and it is very easy to read.
- It doesn't blind me or my wife at night by turning on the backlight when I get a message or turn my arm.
- GPS is super accurate. Much more accurate than the non-Garmin models I've tried.
- Works seamlessly with my chest strap heart rate monitor. It has the built-in wrist HRM which is pretty good, but my chest strap is more accurate. It can flip between the two monitors mid-working if needed. If the chest strap is connected and sending data, it uses that. If not, it reverts to wrist.
- Durable. I have destroyed so many watches while hiking, biking, boating, or working on cars. This house a tough housing around it and raised above the screen. An advantage of not being a touchscreen.
I consider this to be a great watch for a 'man of action' (to quote Princess Bride). Not glamorous like most smart watches, but I've had those and found them lacking.It has automatic rep counting for strength training, ability to access the training workouts on Garmin Connect (not available for 3 series). No Vo2 max though.. But I really enjoyed everything about the watch.. all the way down to the way the buttons pushed in.