So like many here I've been using my original Instinct on & off since I purchased it in Feb 2019. I bought it as it offered the best bang for buck at the time.
It's been a pretty good smartwatch for my activities (trail walking, hiking, biking and a bit of boating). Hardware has been pretty solid except for sticky buttons (which can be improved by soaking in water for 30 mins - then when dry gently flick the buttons to regain clickiness).
Plenty of reviews over the years so I'm not going to say much else about the design & features. Certainly some of the bugs have been frustrating (eg. altimeter, compass issues, HR sensor which stayed on etc). Most are generally fixed. Some will recall the Garmin Explore debacle (many bugs which took months to fix).
The current buggy standout is the "auto" altimeter calibration - why Garmin can't include a simple offset value to allow for people suffering DEM errors or else tall building life? It's amazing that a bunch of Garmin engineers can author such a sophisticated algorithm (documented here https://support.garmin.com/en-AU/?faq=qyfmQF7Au284m7pXMi5ie9&productID=679335&searchQuery=Altimeter&tab=topics) and yet omit a key mechanism to allow easy correction of systemic calibration errors.
Anyway this watch is still being sold by Garmin. And it is also highly likely for Instincts to be handed down to family members.
So what features could realistically be added to the watch? A few features for family competition is all it needs :-) Here are are my top three:
- Mountain Biking Dynamics (Grit & Flow). This shouldn't be too CPU intensive - it is already available on the low end Edge 130 Plus.
- Body Battery v2. Currently the Instinct only implements the original Body Battery algorithm. Some might argue that similar watches from when the Instinct was released have never received an update either. Sure. But the Instinct is still being sold.
- VO2 Max (Lite). Just the VO2 Max estimate for walking & running. Allow younger family members to see their core fitness. No training status or any of the other stuff available on more expensive Garmin watches. Likely an update to the Firstbeat software might be necessary but I suspect this wouldn't be that hard as the software likely exists for other models.
Now I'm not holding my breath on any of this but you never know... surprise us Garmin!
I'm sure you guys will have more suggestions.
