• State Verified Answer
  • +1 person also asked this people also asked this
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 8 replies
  • Subscribers 4 subscribers
  • Views 1790 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

The updates pass, the solar SURF still has issues, what is GARMIN waiting for ????

amv
over 4 years ago

Updates keep coming, and no improvement in surfing, the watch is sold for it, and it does not register waves, it is a whole accumulation of errors, that surely in the application they could also fix it, the watch counts wrong waves and the application counts badly too

IT'S SIMPLY A FRAUD.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Probably give the Instinct Solar Surf back for not keeping what is promised, and get a RipCurl Search GPS / Rifles Tide or Casio GBX-100NS-1ER - they actually work.

    I totally feel with you. This Garmin overpromising, underdelivering, this barely good enough is totally good enough, it's highly annoying.

    But you won't find help here, sorry.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 4241327

    But how difficult is it to solve? I do not think so, the watch does good GPS tracking, it is the wave count, they must adjust speeds and tractions, it is easier than it seems.
    the other watches, he almost does not count waves ... and the rip curl application only works with iphone ... not android, besides that the quality of construction and durability is low.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to amv

    I very often totally don't get what is going on at Garmin. I think the main software team always moves on to the next watch or model, while the support team somehow just irons out the biggest bugs. It's pure complacency, basically. I could name twenty things that need fixing on the Instinct Solar, illogical implementations, half-hearted solutions, it all could be very much better with only a little more work and love. But they simply are not interested, and group think smoothes it over.

    I also do not feel that Garmin is really doing a very good job in many departments, spare design, marketing and PR. Compared to a four year old Fitbit (!), sleep tracking and automatic activity detection is a total joke. HR and SpO2 measurement is just as good on a Huawei, Honor or Samsung, and miles better on an Apple Watch. And GPS these days just means popping in a chip from Sony.

    The only thing that really differentiates Garmin is mostly using a MIP-LCD-display, which is well ledgible in sunlight and uses little energy. Other companies dare only use (AM)OLED, because consumers supposedly prefer vibrant colours over battery life. Also, the high end watches with routable offline maps are pretty unique.

    Even in the display department the bean counters botched it up by apparently sourcing the displays for their flagship Fenixes from two manufacturers - one of the displays blue instead of black when illuminated.

    Where Garmin uses an OLED display, on the Venu line, it's the glitzy-blitzy animated workouts or moving watchfaces that impress the testers, but otherwise it's very basic stuff that the Asian companies have long mastered just as well or better. Once these also include Strava integration, Garmin theoretically has a problem. Buying FirstBeat didn't make any difference, because all other companies just license VO2max and all the rest.

    And at the top end, Coros are delivering excellent real world battery life, while the Garmin Enduro always advertises these dream values for only very theoretical situations and with a battery saver mode that nobody would seriously use.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to 4241327
    4241327 said:
    I could name twenty things that need fixing on the Instinct Solar

    Name them.  Not 20 things you feel could be better, (everybody has a meaningless opinion), but 20 things that need to be fixed; or in other words, that are broken.

    1.....

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hey I also have a solar surf. I previously had the garmin vivo 3 but the surf data was limited. The solar charging/long battery life of the solar surf had me sold, along with the assumed added surf tracking features/data/accuracy. My battery in the soar surf recently went from lasting 20+ days to only about 3 hours (I think a software update fried it). I only had a little over 30 surfs with it (couple of months old). Frustrated, I bought an apple watch and the dawn patrol surf tracking app on the apple watch has this great feature that allows you to change wave detection based on the speed of the waves you're surfing (slow, medium and fast). I've so far tested it in tiny, medium and large waves and have not yet had to use the slow setting but the fast setting will not pick up slower waves (found this out because I forgot to change the setting before paddling out on a small day) and once changed, the medium setting picked up every wave super accurately. In bigger surf the fast setting is best. The tracking also recognises and counts your missed waves instead of not recognising and bundling both caught and missed waves together. The downside is you'd have to charge the battery for maybe an hour every day or less (I just charge mine with a 12v charger on my way to the beach and back). I wear it all day round besides the small charge time. Anyways my point is if the main thing you use the watch for is surfing then the apple watch might suit... But yeah. Why does a dedicated activity tracking sports watch, especially a "surf edition", not have some of these simple features where as a watch that I bet 99% of people will never take surfing does. Not to mention how low something like surf tracking would be on their priority list. They have multiple apps for surfing and surf tracking with forecasts of any spot you like right there on your wrist and easily changed with just a swipe. Also changes automatically when I drive from spot to spot (shows 12hrs of tides, 12 hours of wind, 12hrs of swell and consistency and shows water temp). I also no matter what I tried, couldn't get the tide data on the garmin to be accurate to where I live, an hour off was the closest I could get. An easy fix would be for the watch to rip the data from the phone when synced and save it to the watch and update when next synced.

    Sorry for the rant! Just thought I'd suggest trying the apple watch if surfing is your main thing and also list a couple of things garmin could think about implementing in future updates. cheers.

    P.s. My dad uses the rip curl gps watch but it is pretty much strictly for surfing, chunky and clunky, uncomfortable (wouldn't want to use it as an everyday watch), battery isn't great while surf tracking BUT it's super accurate and easy to use.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 9988005
    9988005 said:
    My battery in the soar surf recently went from lasting 20+ days to only about 3 hours (I think a software update fried it).

    This seems to be a common issue - i'm starting to think battery life has been tanked to help them try and sell the next gen. as no real explanation has been offered for the post-update battery life; and little evidence of better sensor reliability has been provided.

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    I am sorry your Instinct Solar Surf is not working well for you. Please reach out to your regional Garmin Outdoor Product Support. Thank you.