correction prediction on altimeter 16.50

I downgraded mit I1S back to 16.00 almost immediately after writing an extensive post on this matter.

From my personal experience and opinion, there is a total reality distortion field around Garmin.

The altimeter bug in 16.50 has been more than obvious to anyone who just looks at this for even a very brief moment.

Instead, and I have been following issues like this for years with Garmin, support either pretend or seriously do not have a clue what is going on, and management mark anything that isn't about the bottom line, i.e. selling new watches, as low priority.

In general, quality assurance at Garmin feels at an all time low.

Offering a refurbished watch as a replacement for obvious software bugs is useless, but basically the most common reaction you get while you are still under warranty.

Constantly suggesting to totally reset the watch is just a cheap excuse for bad software. Of course it can help in some cases, because it resets the watch to a known state, but it's a huge hassle.

I have also lost all respect for the usual Youtube-influencers, who constantly post new videos about new Garmin products, so as to increase their own revenue, while at the same time ignoring widespread issues.

A short list of current bugs and problems which apparently aren't deemed as such:

• Altimeter / barometer calibration across basically all watches that received an algorithm update
• I1 crashes while swimming, probably due to bluetooth disconnection / reconnection
• I2 screen polarisation filter orientation mistake
• I2 screen / case gap
• F7/E2 sound quality problems via BT
• V2 black screen after update
• Buttons issues across all watches, with total inconsistency between different watches, and even very different feeling buttons on the same watch
• Crashes when transferring larger tracks via USB
• Crashes during navigation
• Countless usability niggles like miles instead of kilometers, logical mistakes and translation errors that have been mentioned in these forums, but never adressed, over months or years
• Often really bad high heart rate measurement during training, compared to Apple, Fitbit and Huawei
• Questionable VO2max quality due to questionable HR-data
• Questionable HRV accuracy
• Dismal, inflexible sleep tracking
• Surf tracking on the Instinct Surf for years a joke, only partly better now
• Tides incorrect in many places, this is then, if at all acknowledged, blamed on the data supplier

Garmin very much remind me of Nokia, the old Nokia, before they went bankrupt. Although, to be fair to Nokia, at least their hardware was top notch.

Some newer companies, like Coros or even Huawei, have made huge strides, both in the quality of their sensor data, as well as in usability, software quality and battery life.

Garmin so far only continues to lead in data integration and in battery life, due to the partial use of MIP LCD technology. All that, in my opinion, will change fairly soon.

One more word on the heart rate sensor: I was climbing up a mountain the other day. My true heart rate was around 160 bpm. My watch showed 110 bpm. This is a fairly usual experience. Only the measured heart rate during resting and normal movement is accurate. The watch sits firmly on my lower arm.

Having said all this, I still really like my Instinct Solar. I, however, use it without the totally unreliable heartrate sensor and without bluetooth connection, purely as a stand alone hiking watch, like a more compact and sleeker Casio G-Shock that can charge okay-ish on a sunny day.

Constantly being able to graphically see the weather trend of the last two days and the position of the sun, as well as having compass, altimeter, step counter, moon phases (and thus approximate tides) and GPS in reach is invaluable.