First impressions

I got my Instinct yesterday, and thought I might post some of my first impressions. I've had a number of Garmin watches, including the Forerunner 210 and every fenix from the 2 through the 5X Plus. I really like the Instinct, and here are a few reasons why.

1. It was smaller than I expected. Very much Casio-watch sized.
2. Screen contrast is excellent. In low light, the screen is far more visible than the fenix 5X. In daylight, it sometimes feels like the backlight is on because the screen reflects so much ambient light.
3. The inset circle display is really well executed. It would be easy for it to be a gimmick, but Garmin has done a really good job utilizing it. For example, it provides an actually useful 4th data field on the 3-field layout that you'd be familiar with from the fenix. It's also used to display a progress bar and status icons on various screens and as a selection indicator on the controls menu or the on-screen keyboard (which is circular here instead of vertical as it is on the fenix line)
4. The screen is low resolution but the watch is extremely responsive and there are lots of subtle animations that make it feel like a modern watch rather than an old-school LCD.
5. The default hot-key configuration is extremely thoughtful and very well presented. Long-pressing the start button, for example, shows you the current GPS coordinates and allows you to save your current location. You could set this up on a fenix but there is some extra UI here that I haven't seen before. Long pressing the back button (SET) takes you to a sub-menu where you can set time with GPS and use the stopwatch and timer. The countdown timer also now has a memory of different values, which I haven't seen before. Long pressing the down button (ABC) takes you to a version of the altimeter-barometer-compass widget. Again, you could set this up on the fenix but the UI is slightly different here and feels more cohesive.
6. The vibration motor is really powerful.

The overall impression I've come away with is that the Outdoor group at Garmin has really put a lot of time and effort into creating a watch that in a lot of ways feels more tightly integrated than the fenix line. Yes, it has less functionality, but the functionality that it has is presented in a less confusing and more intuitive way.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi All, please can someone shed a light if Instinct is capable of showing pressure in mm Hg units?

0 renhoek54 over 6 years ago

Hi All, please can someone shed a light if Instinct is capable of showing pressure in mm Hg units?

You'll be happy to know the following options for Barometer units are available:

Inches (Hg)
mmHg
Millibars
Hectopascals

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

mmHg

Versatility - That's class! Thank you, mate! :)

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago

- The barometric altimeter does not measure well: I calibrate it manually (automatic calibration off), I move 10 meters for different heights of the building, I return to the initial point and mark other values, it has been decalibrated again.
This is very important for a hiking watch. I hope they fix it in the next update.

It sounds like you are talking about the floors climbed feature, if so, please free to take a look at the following FAQ:

The floors climbed amount does not seem accurate

If I miss understood, then feel free to reach out to me via a private message.

0 bgrenda over 6 years ago

Has any of Instinct owners had a chance to try the Garmin Explore mobile app (and web service)? What is your first impression?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Here's a comparison walk I did this morning with the Instinct, my Fenix 5X Plus, Suunto 9 and my iPhone X:

https://analyze.dcrainmaker.com/#/public/c682ac9b-1289-4a7e-5314-e2bd5eb3f896

I don't know if I would draw any hard conclusions from one comparison. It seems like the pace is smoother on the 5X Plus, but it's had several GPS firmware updates recently specifically to address walking pace, so it might just have slightly more mature software. Optical HR didn't do well on the Suunto 9 or the Instinct this morning, but it was really cold and I've never personally gotten good results from optical HR in cold weather.

Thanks for sharing!

As far as cold weather with heart rate, that make sense since your blood flow near the surface of your body is reduced to conserve heat, and that is what the OHR is based off of. If you perform a rigorous workout, the OHR should improve as blood flow increases to regulate your core heat.
It is also likely why it sometimes seems that the beginning of a workout doesn't respond very fast, as your blood flow near the surface is low until you get warmed up.

I'm disappointed in cadence/pace, as it is jumping between values with a little noise on top. Clearly wrong. It must be based on a combination of GPS detected speed and step rate or something, but should really be based only off of step counting over time IMHO, and should not take GPS into account at all. Much like the cadence detectors on bikes. I have never seen a decent chart from my Fenix 5, even when I have had a very regular pace when I don't bring the dog while hiking. I don't get how it can be this bad without pointing a finger at a bug.

Speed is similar with problems, and as GPS visibility goes in and out, and thus a decent location varies, then the speed results get glitchy. Again this has a great deal of room for improvement, but may simply be Rainmaker's interpretation of the data with no "smarts" to smooth the data or determine when to use average pace instead of GPS distance or whatever. The actual final data used may be different than the captured fit file data.

Elevation looks pretty bad on the Apple. Surprising! All look good when you realize the elevation is changing very little and are offset by only a few feet.

0 jburchm1 over 6 years ago

bgrenda after seeing your post I checked and was pleased to see that the iOS version of Garmin Explore had been released. I've played with it a little bit, here are my impressions:

1. It seems to use the same maps as the Earthmate app.
2. The device support is very limited and sort of weird. Why isn't my inReach Mini supported? Why wouldn't it support the fenix 5 Plus series?
3. Pairing and syncing with the Instinct was very quick and easy. My Waypoints synced right over and I could see/edit/etc.. them on the phone.
4. Route creation is extremely basic. You have to tap for every point--there's no following roads or trails on the map.
5. Activities from the Instinct don't seem to have synced over, but logged tracks from my inReach did. It appears the inReach data synced from the inReach website since the inReach Mini isn't supported by the app.

I obviously haven't used the app enough to really understand it, but I question how useful it is. Garmin Connect is far superior for synchronizing routes. I guess Explore would be good for dealing with waypoints?

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

I obviously haven't used the app enough to really understand it, but I question how useful it is. Garmin Connect is far superior for synchronizing routes.

Garmin Connect doesn’t work when you’re beyond internet connectivity (such as in the mountains; these are outdoor GPS watches/devices after all), so the great hope is that Explore provides an offline waypoint and route capability with transfer to/from the GPS device via BLE. This is what the old BaseCamp mobile app provided back on the old Fenix 1 and 2; Garmin Connect Mobile has never been a suitable substitute.

0 jburchm1 over 6 years ago

Crispin_Ellisdon that makes sense, and it seems very comparable to the Earthmate app in that regard.

Here's another track comparison against my Fenix 5X Plus from this morning (walking again):

https://analyze.dcrainmaker.com/#/public/c1f50e8b-6431-4337-54b9-2185c1114c53

The optical HR on the Instinct really did not do well at all today, and I'm kind of concerned with the pace dropouts to 0. The track doesn't look as good either. Here's a couple other activities from the Instinct from Thursday that look better, IMO, but I wasn't comparing it head to head against anything.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3099453213
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3099455410

0 Volker over 6 years ago

Is tbt navigation available on the instinct?