new Garmin Instinct Solar

4906382 said:

For 100$ more

Actually for $200 more - double the price of the standard Instinct, because until the last week the catalogue price of Instinct was $199. They rose it to $299 only recently, not to make the price of the new Instict Solar too shocking.

Frankly told I am rather disappointed with the new Instinct. It is the practically the identical watch with just the solar panel and better HR sensor+PulseOx. Nothing else changed - apparently the same chipset, the same rather low memory size, the same bad design of the altimeter, still no Connect IQ technology, no VO₂Max, no Training Effect, no Multisport / brick mode. I was hoping for more imrovements both in the hardware and in the firmware.

Ditto here...

If I'm going to spend $200 more, may as well nudge the budget a bit and get a lower-end Fenix.

It's so close to fenix territory that it makes it less desirable.

Yeah true! Will have a closer look this evening...200€ to spend when selling my old instict is much for only getting solar...

And also no tide data until you buy the sirfing edition but then no tactical features

I don't see this new watch as a new instinct, rather an improvment of the old one. So maybe what we all been waiting for will come in the future, one year from now, who know's, or from a software point of view, we might see this things rolled out first in instinct solar. For me a good accurate gps, an altimeter to rely on under any circumstances, ascents/descents more detailed, training effect, multisport and brick mode are the features that i like to see, besides those that already exist now. Let's see what the future will bring up and how the instinct line from garmin will look like.

According to DC Rainmaker, the new Instinct has the new GPS unit (the one that's in Fenix 6), so it should be slightly more accurate, and will definitely need less power. And including the new HR sensor and the solar charging, I think it is a nice hardware upgrade. In fact, I don't think Garmin offer anything better in terms of hardware at the moment. Well, yes, there are watches with bigger and colorful screens, but anyone buying an Instinct shouldn't care about that.

As for the software features, they didn't have to release a new watch to add support for VO₂Max, training effect and so on. These are just extra calculations based on the HR measurements (maybe also considering the age and weight). They could have added them to the old Instinct if they wanted to. But then again, why would anyone buy a Fenix, to track golf on a color screen? :D So, I don't think they would add these, until they come up with even fancier features for the Fenix, no matter how bad we want them (including myself).

trux, it is interesting what you say about the price. In Bulgaria, where I live, the average price has been always around $300. There were good discounts here and there in March, during the strict lockdown, but that's it. Where did you see those lower prices? If I remember correctly you were Czech, right?

sspanak said:

Where did you see those lower prices?

Directly in the Garmin Store. In the US it was for $199, in EU for 199€ until around a week or two ago

Yeah, I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't just get a Forerunner 935/945.  Tons and tons more features, and can be had for roughly the same price.  The Instinct looks cooler, but...

I understand that Instinct is geared towards different market, but it having VO2 max would not have compromised the forerunner series, which I’d like it to have.