Thread: Garmin Instinct

Hey team,

Who is running a Garmin watch? If.so which one and what are the pro and con?

Keen on a Garmin Instinct

Hamish

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Got a 6x pro and rate it. Mainly got for battery life. Was in the back country for 5 days and came out with 81% after using maps, compass, altimeter etc on and off. Also has a pretty simple but effective ballistic app

How do you rate the maps on it? Or have you downloaded a different one to the stock one or something? I find I prefer to look at the maps on my phone instead

I have the 6x pro too, I find the info interesting if nothing else I don’t find the temperature etc very accurate

I just use my phone for maps 90% of time. I use the golf app a fair bit has all the courses in New Zealand which is very handy.

The rest of it is just a bit of a gimmick to me but still interesting information.

@HNTMAD Got the Instinct Solar for myself and the Instinct for the wife.

- Solar has longer battery life, but time in Sun plays a big part in this.
- Non Solar is cheaper.
- Battery Saver mode almost triples battery life
- Bluetooth, GPS and Activites chew battery faster, but I still get approx. 3 weeks with minimal sun.
- Solar has 'Hunt' feature, non Solar does not. (Best google that feature).
- Both are almost completly plastic, but are rather hardy and very light.

These do not directly connect to Garmin inReach Explorer/Plus
They do connect directly to the inReach Mini and other later model GPS units.

This is not a biggie, My Garmin inReach Explorer Plus connects to Garmin Earthmate app on phone, Garmin Instinct connects to Garmin Connect and Garmin Explore apps on phone.
These apps sync with each other.

All in all, both the wife and I are pleased with our watches.

Anything specific, feel free to ask!

Originally Posted by kiwi-adam

@HNTMAD Got the Instinct Solar for myself and the Instinct for the wife.

- Solar has longer battery life, but time in Sun plays a big part in this.
- Non Solar is cheaper.
- Battery Saver mode almost triples battery life
- Bluetooth, GPS and Activites chew battery faster, but I still get approx. 3 weeks with minimal sun.
- Solar has 'Hunt' feature, non Solar does not. (Best google that feature).
- Both are almost completly plastic, but are rather hardy and very light.

These do not directly connect to Garmin inReach Explorer/Plus
They do connect directly to the inReach Mini and other later model GPS units.

This is not a biggie, My Garmin inReach Explorer Plus connects to Garmin Earthmate app on phone, Garmin Instinct connects to Garmin Connect and Garmin Explore apps on phone.
These apps sync with each other.

All in all, both the wife and I are pleased with our watches.

Anything specific, feel free to ask!

Legend cheers, thats a mint review

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by kiwi-adam

@HNTMAD Got the Instinct Solar for myself and the Instinct for the wife.

- Solar has longer battery life, but time in Sun plays a big part in this.
- Non Solar is cheaper.
- Battery Saver mode almost triples battery life
- Bluetooth, GPS and Activites chew battery faster, but I still get approx. 3 weeks with minimal sun.
- Solar has 'Hunt' feature, non Solar does not. (Best google that feature).
- Both are almost completly plastic, but are rather hardy and very light.

These do not directly connect to Garmin inReach Explorer/Plus
They do connect directly to the inReach Mini and other later model GPS units.

This is not a biggie, My Garmin inReach Explorer Plus connects to Garmin Earthmate app on phone, Garmin Instinct connects to Garmin Connect and Garmin Explore apps on phone.
These apps sync with each other.

All in all, both the wife and I are pleased with our watches.

Anything specific, feel free to ask!

What sort of battery life does the wife get?

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

@HNTMAD she has only just got hers, charged it up Wednesday night, and its still on full.

I was given one for Christmas. I've trialled it a fair bit in the bush. Conclusions are that the compass is reliable and use it as my primary compass now (have a regular compass as a backup). The other stand out features for hunting are GPS location, navigation in a straight line to predetermined coordinates and retracing your steps back to your starting point. The latter is arguably the most useful, but it will drain battery relatively fast (manual says 16 hours in GPS mode) and it's a bit random. It will probably get you home eventually, but it drives me nuts to the point that I don't use it. On the other hand, straight line navigation seems quite reliable. There is also a "Sight N Go" function which takes you in the direction that you point the watch. I could see some uses for it, but haven't used it in anger.

Lots of other features that I will probably never use. You have to sit down and read the manual or better still, watch YouTube tutorials as the menu system is not intuitive until you get your head around it.

Bottom line is that it's OK. I wear it every time I go hunting or tramping primarily as a very expensive compass, but also as a backup navigation device. I wouldn't want it as my primary GPS.

Looking at getting an instinct solar. Is there a way you can have it update a topo map on your phone? And if so which app?