An hour ago I received my Instinct 2 (not solar). First thing ( after I read this post) I checked angles with backlight. I have mixed feelings about this. Photos attached in "washed out" topics are pretty close to my impression but with two important addons:
1. Picture at GI2 screen seems to have more contrast compared to GI1 Solar. Not big difference but noticeable.
2. Angles issue is here as well BUT it looks guys in Garmin just rotated polarization layer because I receive the same washed out effect in GI1 when I look at screen from "above". Of course if I would have option I would choose GI1 variant. It's much less visible in real life. For example now I was checking saturation at GI2 in quite dark conditions and screen was washed like in very cheap digital watch or phone.
I also checked if straps form GI1 are compatible with GI2. Yest, they are. Just pieces of rubber are bit taller, closer to bezel from both sides.
Widgets: I can't see any advantage with this new solution. Like previously I have to click to go to next one but previously I had more info while here is bare minimum
Generally new design of watch is more sporty than outodoorsy to me. Previous looks better for me.
Glass is not flat as it was pointed here. I hope foil instead of glass will be able to adhere to this surface. I'm not sure though if I will test this because I'll give myself few days to check if I won't return GI2.
I can see visual advantage of normal version against Solar. In normal version screen nicely blends with rest of glass while in Solar version this purple solar cell is very noticeable. The same was with GI1 versions.
My main reason to update Instinct was to get more sport functions, mainly VO2 MAX which I couldn't update with GI1 and Zwift. I hope now it will work.
