Instinct 2 45mm Solar vs Instinct 3 45mm Battery Life

Odie21 4 months ago

While I gave my I2 watch to my son, I can attest that the battery figures are correct because I’m the one who charges his watch. Both watches are off in terms of HR/health features, no phone connection, no activities. No flashlight used on the I3 (for testing purposes). Settings exactly the same.

Even though the I3 has an error in terms of the battery estimate being backwards (like the F7 series STILL has an issue with), it’s still perplexing a new watch doesn’t even come close to its previous generation. Both watches at 45mm are estimated to have 28 days in “smartwatch mode” on Garmin’s site.

Top Replies

All Replies

0 9820003 4 months ago

so i3 estimate is 33 days, is it really 33 days in this configuration? are you saying it's worse than i2/x in terms of battery life? still giving some time before i go i3 way, so your insight is most appreciated, thanks

0 trux 4 months ago

I tested Instinct 3 Solar 45 mm in smartwatch mode (no GPS activities), with HR, BT, notifications, and sleep detection on. No Solar charging. Other options trimmed down, or default (see details on the screenshot).

Specifications claim 28 days in this mode. The watch discharged before completing the 20th day. That was with firmware v6.28.

0 Odie21 4 months ago in reply to trux

Yes, the battery life claims do not match real word usage. I’m just perplexed on a watch that’s 2 years old has better battery life.

@9820003 - The battery estimates are wrong as it’s backwards:

The battery life on the I2 45mm is considerably better in the real world than the I3 45mm.

0 9820003 4 months ago in reply to Odie21

thank you. that's a bummer :(

0 FilthySVK 4 months ago

www.zivotsgarminem.cz/srovnani-vydrz-hodinek-instinct-3-solar-instinct-3-amoled-instinct-2x-stale-tomu-nemohu-uverit

0 9820003 4 months ago in reply to FilthySVK

nice one, thank you. so weird that amoled beats solar, it's just so counter intuitive and sad actually. so it boils down to 2x (solar yet end of software) or i3 amoled (losing solar though), truly I3 is one weird release (hard to call upgrade)

0 Jannis 3 months ago in reply to FilthySVK

What for a disgusting website full of ads is that?

But back to the topic. I really think that the Solar Version needs a lot of software optimization. It seems that Garmin concentrated completely on the Amoled instinct 3, and released the solar version just for the fans of MIP displays. The very bad availability of the solar version is just another proof.

0 Justas 180 3 months ago

At this point observing and reporting bugs on I3 I noticed lots of unrefined aspects. One of them is battery estimate calculation.

But to be honest my Crossover calculations where also off but in different way - crossover was very generous with estimations where i3 seems to be more conservative.

What I realised - I just need to ignore the calculations (as hard as it can be) and see how it works in real life. While it’s winter and I don’t get much sunlight, I simply charged i3 once and now observing how much battery life will I get in my usage.
I definitely see improvement in solar Charing and battery cosumption, but only real life test for 6 months will give me a real answer.
I will say it’s a success if I will not need to charge my i3 till 2026

0 Justas 180 3 months ago

By the way are you sure you have all the setting same on both watches? Even light timeout timer 4 vs 8 sec will have impact of few days difference in estimate. You didn’t mention backlight settings in your shortlist

0 Adalis 3 months ago

I confirm, for me Instinct 2X Solar worked longer than the current 3 Solar :(