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Model: Garmin Instinct Solar GPS Smartwatch Orchid
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I get that GPS fitness watches track your movement and then you can overlay that onto a map to see the route that you traversed.
But why is that important and how do people use that information for fitness purposes? Or is it just kind of an entertainment / novelty kind of thing?
Real time heart rate, oxygen saturation, activity duration and intensity. If you do performance tracking while training of exercising, it will be of use and probably make a lot of sense to own something similar.
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It's an actual sports watch. The Apple Watch is a smart watch, an extension of your phone. One is for people serious about fitness and tracking activities workouts. I got rid of my Apple Watch and got the instinct solar 2, best move ever. Battery life is also a HUGE upgrade.
when running, it gives the time, distance, and most import the pace at which you are running in real time. It also shows heart rate which combined with the others is like the speedometer and tachometer of a car for a runner. Additionally, it offers other functions of health tracking.
I had ordered it from Costco. I'm still debating whether to keep this or get the Fenix 6 for $250 from Gamestop, which would be $60 more.
Depends how much app do you want to use. This is straight for fitness and sport. And fenix has more smart watch function. Pro is much better and can download maps.
Depends how much app do you want to use. This is straight for fitness and sport. And fenix has more smart watch function. Pro is much better and can download maps.
I will probably keep the Instinct Solar and then upgrade at a later point (if necessary) to the Fenix 6 Pro (or even 7) and save myself $60 now. I'm mostly using these for Backpacking/Hiking and would like the Topo Map features not readily available for the regular Fenix 6.
It has helped me stay more even splits and thus become faster.
If I had one of these 20+ years ago in high school I would have been much faster.
Prior to these my first mile of a 5k I'd go out with the leaders (adrenaline and being a 800-1600 specialists I believed that's where I belonged, toward the front) only to suffer in the last 1-1.5 miles.
I would try to slow down and then realize other runners / races may not have those "rabbits".
So now I'm able to make sure my first mile is consistent.
I also use on my daily training for intervals, hills etc. I love tracking my milage and average pace.
Almost all these "fitness" watches from Fitbit to Garmin are a money grab to sell a sub-$50 wholesale watch for $$$ much more simply framing that monitoring you is somehow "cool".
(Just imagine how old school athletes survived with just a Casio watch, maybe even a Protrek.)
Multiuse devices tend to be less optimized and accurate than single use devices, so even a basic thing like how many steps did you take can be off quite a bit.
Eg for hr, chest strap monitors > watch.
But for the typical millennial posing to be fit wearing lulus all the time, one of the modern culture must haves (or must have annoyances charging some daily).
And for the high school runner, works decently well to keep track of developing performance. (At the college level, the basketball/football etc teams will have much better devices to track athletic performance.)
And to get truly Fit, even the Seals training decades and decades don't need anything more than a regular watch at most.
Some watches have more - altimeter to see how far up K2 you're at (one reason the solar Garmin makes sense because the iWatch will poop out of battery in a day), temperature (although you'll know when your fingers are freezing off from frostbite without - and none are reliable until you take the watch off, sit it in the shade and let it equalize with ambient), compass (useful even navigating a city like Tokyo the old printed map way), and GPS (really useful if you're wayyyyy out in the boonies, forest all around, and you've totally lost your sense of direction and location. The Boy Scouts will be laughing.)
In exchange for some of the tracking features, the Big Evil Corporations that make these (e.g. Apple with iWatch, Google with Fitbit) have you sign up for costly subscriptions while sucking up ALL of your personal data. (Much like how credit card companies know apriori just how much you're worth to them as a customer, your likely purchases, etc.)
...
Now, besides the basic fitness tracking, some have notifications, apps, and calls for those who don't watch to pull out a phone every time.
(Probably good for people like a bus driver that only need to see if there's anything important and not on a headset to voice control the phone for notifications.)
Some have apps so you can use gps offline maps to get around.
And some have phone calling feature so you can do it Dick Tracey style.
...
This Garmin has the fitness, gps positioning (not maps, just return to origin directing), and notifications with a solar panel to help keep it running when you're up on K2 (little use of you're in dense forest with little direct sun).
I'd personally say that almost everything in it isn't really "necessary" except the gps/compass feature beyond the basic stopwatch. The satellite connection isn't needed - Just pull out the sat receiver and call for help on that. But the dog tracker can be useful hunting.
Of course, if I wanted something useful on the wrist beyond this or a Casio Protrek at the $200 price range, I'd just slap a Ticwris Android Wristwatch or the like on and just run EVERYTHING a phone can do, including watching live TV.
Ive said it in other threads but I dont like that this doesnt have Garmin Pay. I understand its a fitness watch, but payments is a pretty standard feature at this point across brands.
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Almost all these "fitness" watches from Fitbit to Garmin are a money grab to sell a sub-$50 wholesale watch for $$$ much more simply framing that monitoring you is somehow "cool".
(Just imagine how old school athletes survived with just a Casio watch, maybe even a Protrek.)
Multiuse devices tend to be less optimized and accurate than single use devices, so even a basic thing like how many steps did you take can be off quite a bit.
Eg for hr, chest strap monitors > watch.
But for the typical millennial posing to be fit wearing lulus all the time, one of the modern culture must haves (or must have annoyances charging some daily).
And for the high school runner, works decently well to keep track of developing performance. (At the college level, the basketball/football etc teams will have much better devices to track athletic performance.)
And to get truly Fit, even the Seals training decades and decades don't need anything more than a regular watch at most.
Some watches have more - altimeter to see how far up K2 you're at (one reason the solar Garmin makes sense because the iWatch will poop out of battery in a day), temperature (although you'll know when your fingers are freezing off from frostbite without - and none are reliable until you take the watch off, sit it in the shade and let it equalize with ambient), compass (useful even navigating a city like Tokyo the old printed map way), and GPS (really useful if you're wayyyyy out in the boonies, forest all around, and you've totally lost your sense of direction and location. The Boy Scouts will be laughing.)
In exchange for some of the tracking features, the Big Evil Corporations that make these (e.g. Apple with iWatch, Google with Fitbit) have you sign up for costly subscriptions while sucking up ALL of your personal data. (Much like how credit card companies know apriori just how much you're worth to them as a customer, your likely purchases, etc.)
...
Now, besides the basic fitness tracking, some have notifications, apps, and calls for those who don't watch to pull out a phone every time.
(Probably good for people like a bus driver that only need to see if there's anything important and not on a headset to voice control the phone for notifications.)
Some have apps so you can use gps offline maps to get around.
And some have phone calling feature so you can do it Dick Tracey style.
...
This Garmin has the fitness, gps positioning (not maps, just return to origin directing), and notifications with a solar panel to help keep it running when you're up on K2 (little use of you're in dense forest with little direct sun).
I'd personally say that almost everything in it isn't really "necessary" except the gps/compass feature beyond the basic stopwatch. The satellite connection isn't needed - Just pull out the sat receiver and call for help on that. But the dog tracker can be useful hunting.
Of course, if I wanted something useful on the wrist beyond this or a Casio Protrek at the $200 price range, I'd just slap a Ticwris Android Wristwatch or the like on and just run EVERYTHING a phone can do, including watching live TV.
I appreciate the extensive write up and your thoughts. Honestly my thinking more closely align with yours. I didnt' really see the "necessity" of these features
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But why is that important and how do people use that information for fitness purposes? Or is it just kind of an entertainment / novelty kind of thing?
But why is that important and how do people use that information for fitness purposes? Or is it just kind of an entertainment / novelty kind of thing?
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
If I had one of these 20+ years ago in high school I would have been much faster.
Prior to these my first mile of a 5k I'd go out with the leaders (adrenaline and being a 800-1600 specialists I believed that's where I belonged, toward the front) only to suffer in the last 1-1.5 miles.
I would try to slow down and then realize other runners / races may not have those "rabbits".
So now I'm able to make sure my first mile is consistent.
I also use on my daily training for intervals, hills etc. I love tracking my milage and average pace.
(Just imagine how old school athletes survived with just a Casio watch, maybe even a Protrek.)
Most of these do the basics of monitoring heart rate and steps, but often poorly.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2016/05/...-once.html
Multiuse devices tend to be less optimized and accurate than single use devices, so even a basic thing like how many steps did you take can be off quite a bit.
Eg for hr, chest strap monitors > watch.
But for the typical millennial posing to be fit wearing lulus all the time, one of the modern culture must haves (or must have annoyances charging some daily).
And for the high school runner, works decently well to keep track of developing performance. (At the college level, the basketball/football etc teams will have much better devices to track athletic performance.)
And to get truly Fit, even the Seals training decades and decades don't need anything more than a regular watch at most.
Some watches have more - altimeter to see how far up K2 you're at (one reason the solar Garmin makes sense because the iWatch will poop out of battery in a day), temperature (although you'll know when your fingers are freezing off from frostbite without - and none are reliable until you take the watch off, sit it in the shade and let it equalize with ambient), compass (useful even navigating a city like Tokyo the old printed map way), and GPS (really useful if you're wayyyyy out in the boonies, forest all around, and you've totally lost your sense of direction and location. The Boy Scouts will be laughing.)
In exchange for some of the tracking features, the Big Evil Corporations that make these (e.g. Apple with iWatch, Google with Fitbit) have you sign up for costly subscriptions while sucking up ALL of your personal data. (Much like how credit card companies know apriori just how much you're worth to them as a customer, your likely purchases, etc.)
...
Now, besides the basic fitness tracking, some have notifications, apps, and calls for those who don't watch to pull out a phone every time.
(Probably good for people like a bus driver that only need to see if there's anything important and not on a headset to voice control the phone for notifications.)
Some have apps so you can use gps offline maps to get around.
And some have phone calling feature so you can do it Dick Tracey style.
...
This Garmin has the fitness, gps positioning (not maps, just return to origin directing), and notifications with a solar panel to help keep it running when you're up on K2 (little use of you're in dense forest with little direct sun).
I'd personally say that almost everything in it isn't really "necessary" except the gps/compass feature beyond the basic stopwatch. The satellite connection isn't needed - Just pull out the sat receiver and call for help on that. But the dog tracker can be useful hunting.
Of course, if I wanted something useful on the wrist beyond this or a Casio Protrek at the $200 price range, I'd just slap a Ticwris Android Wristwatch or the like on and just run EVERYTHING a phone can do, including watching live TV.
https://www.amazon.com/TICWRIS-An...08NPRWPJV/
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(Just imagine how old school athletes survived with just a Casio watch, maybe even a Protrek.)
Most of these do the basics of monitoring heart rate and steps, but often poorly.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2016/05/...-once.html [cnbc.com]
Multiuse devices tend to be less optimized and accurate than single use devices, so even a basic thing like how many steps did you take can be off quite a bit.
Eg for hr, chest strap monitors > watch.
But for the typical millennial posing to be fit wearing lulus all the time, one of the modern culture must haves (or must have annoyances charging some daily).
And for the high school runner, works decently well to keep track of developing performance. (At the college level, the basketball/football etc teams will have much better devices to track athletic performance.)
And to get truly Fit, even the Seals training decades and decades don't need anything more than a regular watch at most.
Some watches have more - altimeter to see how far up K2 you're at (one reason the solar Garmin makes sense because the iWatch will poop out of battery in a day), temperature (although you'll know when your fingers are freezing off from frostbite without - and none are reliable until you take the watch off, sit it in the shade and let it equalize with ambient), compass (useful even navigating a city like Tokyo the old printed map way), and GPS (really useful if you're wayyyyy out in the boonies, forest all around, and you've totally lost your sense of direction and location. The Boy Scouts will be laughing.)
In exchange for some of the tracking features, the Big Evil Corporations that make these (e.g. Apple with iWatch, Google with Fitbit) have you sign up for costly subscriptions while sucking up ALL of your personal data. (Much like how credit card companies know apriori just how much you're worth to them as a customer, your likely purchases, etc.)
...
Now, besides the basic fitness tracking, some have notifications, apps, and calls for those who don't watch to pull out a phone every time.
(Probably good for people like a bus driver that only need to see if there's anything important and not on a headset to voice control the phone for notifications.)
Some have apps so you can use gps offline maps to get around.
And some have phone calling feature so you can do it Dick Tracey style.
...
This Garmin has the fitness, gps positioning (not maps, just return to origin directing), and notifications with a solar panel to help keep it running when you're up on K2 (little use of you're in dense forest with little direct sun).
I'd personally say that almost everything in it isn't really "necessary" except the gps/compass feature beyond the basic stopwatch. The satellite connection isn't needed - Just pull out the sat receiver and call for help on that. But the dog tracker can be useful hunting.
Of course, if I wanted something useful on the wrist beyond this or a Casio Protrek at the $200 price range, I'd just slap a Ticwris Android Wristwatch or the like on and just run EVERYTHING a phone can do, including watching live TV.
https://www.amazon.com/TICWRIS-An...08NPRWPJV/ [amazon.com]