Ordered it (surf edition) on last sale with the same price.
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved from GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
Best watch and fitness tracker I've ever owned. I'd buy another one for backup if they had it in black. Never deals on the black ones.
Had been looking at this one. Wasn't sure for $199+. However, at $150 I think it will be a step up from my Amazfit.
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Plectonema
12-14-2022 at 10:34 AM.
Ordered it (surf edition) on last sale with the same price.
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved from GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
Ordered it (surf edition) on last sale with the same price.
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved to GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
Thanks for the rundown. Does the surf edition always have the tides displayed on the face, or can that be changed to something else?
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank espy
12-14-2022 at 11:20 AM.
Quote
from Plectonema
:
Ordered it (surf edition) on last sale with the same price.
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved to GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
Thanks for the rundown. Does the surf edition always have the tides displayed on the face, or can that be changed to something else?
You can customize your watch face as you want.
Actually the first thing I did was to remove "surf" from my favorite list (). And it is capable of showing tides, but you can change it to whatever you like.
Yes I did. But I am not provided with any other language option in Garmin Express.
I read this post[garmin.com], which is worth trying. But I am not optimistic as the firmware in US version may not support Asian language display at all.
How's the sleep monitor? Is the heart rate sensor a older generation?
Not sure about the generation of HR sensor.
Sleep monitor is average. Not sure how it detects I am sleeping or not as I found my time with my phone lying on the bed is also counted as sleep.
I guess it acknowledge my sleep the second I am more still.
Another downside is it does not track mid-day napping. So your body battery is not charged if you take a nap during the day. But I do like the body battery index and stress monitor during the day.
How's the sleep monitor? Is the heart rate sensor a older generation?
Don't know if the absolute latest but it's a newer design, that newer design with the pulse ox was roughly 1st launched on Fenix 6x. I'm currently on Fenix 5+ and have an older design HR sensor, will probably go to Instinct 2 or 3 next..
I bought and returned the esports version of this watch.
I found that it was a pain to have to remember to tell the watch which activity I was about to start, and also tell it specifically when I finished the activity -- you can edit the activity after the fact but that's also inconvenient.
It was also HUGELY inaccurate for home workout type of activities. I wore a Polar chest strap at the same time to compare, and legit there were times when I was super sweaty/panting/dead tired where the chest strap showed 170bpm while the Garmin showed 70bpm. For me at least, this thing simply doesn't work for this type of activity (and my primary type of exercise).
Check it out, these are the two graphs during the EXACT same workout/time period (and the Instinct, on the left, showed I burned ~150 calories during the same workout):
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Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved from GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Plectonema
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved from GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved to GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
Thanks for the rundown. Does the surf edition always have the tides displayed on the face, or can that be changed to something else?
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank espy
Pros:
- Very happy with the battery life (I moved to GW4, which I have to charge it every 1.5 days). I work in a plant setting, but only 10% of my work involve outdoor. And I don't need to do yard work as it is winter now. So I am getting at least 7 days with sleep monitor, exercise 30 min per day, call/text/email notifications from phone and continuous HR monitoring.
- Surf edition looks very neat. This, however, can be a con as it is white, and it may be stained over the time easily.
- It is surprisingly light, and the watch strap is very comfortable (again comparing to my GW4)
Cons:
- My biggest complain is it does not support Asian language. All my text in Chinese is %$#$#&*. As far as I know, there is no way around it for Instinct. I almost returned the watch because of this, and Buydig offered me a discount and I ended up keeping it with some refund.
- As I mentioned, the Surf edition looks good (that's why I ordered it not the other two colors). But it is difficult to find a matching strap for different appealing. The color on Garmin website says it is white/lakeside blue, and I ordered a lakeside blue strap from Amazon with no luck of matching the color. In addition, it of couse does not look styling comparing to GW4 for a more formal situation...
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Actually the first thing I did was to remove "surf" from my favorite list (). And it is capable of showing tides, but you can change it to whatever you like.
I read this post [garmin.com], which is worth trying. But I am not optimistic as the firmware in US version may not support Asian language display at all.
Sleep monitor is average. Not sure how it detects I am sleeping or not as I found my time with my phone lying on the bed is also counted as sleep.
I guess it acknowledge my sleep the second I am more still.
Another downside is it does not track mid-day napping. So your body battery is not charged if you take a nap during the day. But I do like the body battery index and stress monitor during the day.
Don't know if the absolute latest but it's a newer design, that newer design with the pulse ox was roughly 1st launched on Fenix 6x. I'm currently on Fenix 5+ and have an older design HR sensor, will probably go to Instinct 2 or 3 next..
I found that it was a pain to have to remember to tell the watch which activity I was about to start, and also tell it specifically when I finished the activity -- you can edit the activity after the fact but that's also inconvenient.
It was also HUGELY inaccurate for home workout type of activities. I wore a Polar chest strap at the same time to compare, and legit there were times when I was super sweaty/panting/dead tired where the chest strap showed 170bpm while the Garmin showed 70bpm. For me at least, this thing simply doesn't work for this type of activity (and my primary type of exercise).
Check it out, these are the two graphs during the EXACT same workout/time period (and the Instinct, on the left, showed I burned ~150 calories during the same workout):