Garmin Instinct vs. Instinct 2: Should you upgrade?

The Garmin Instinct series has all the trademarks of a reliable adventure watch, from a rugged design to unstoppable battery life and reliable tracking. If you compare the Garmin Instinct vs. Garmin Instinct 2, however, it's no contest: the newer model makes some significant improvements in specs and software that make it the better purchase.

So the question then becomes whether these newer features justify an upgrade, or if you should stick to your current model. Both the Garmin Instinct Solar and Instinct 2 Solar are often significantly discounted during the holidays. So, it's fair to ask whether the newer model does enough to justify spending more, or if you should just save as much as you can during seasonal sales. We're here to help you decide!

Garmin Instinct vs. Instinct 2: Battery life

The Garmin Instinct and Garmin Instinct 2 come in both Standard and Solar varieties. The latter adds a Solar panel that massively increases battery life estimates, assuming you spend about three hours a day outdoors in 50,000-lux conditions. Garmin says the Instinct Solar has "Unlimited" battery life" in Battery Saver mode if you spend your time outside, while the Instinct 2 Solar has "Unlimited" battery life in the standard smartwatch mode as well as Battery Saver.

Below, we've collected all of Garmin's battery estimates for the Garmin Instinct (Solar), Garmin Instinct 2 (Solar), and Garmin Instinct 2S (Solar). For the non-Solar Instinct 2 and 2S, simply ignore the "with solar" portion to see their battery life.

If you own the non-Solar Garmin Instinct, the mediocre battery life alone is enough to justify an upgrade. You get 16 GPS hours or two weeks in standby, which is decent enough compared to some fitness smartwatches. However, it falls well short of what you can get with most Garmin watches these days.

Garmin Instinct Solar owners, on the other hand, aren't nearly as bad off. The 30-hour uptime matches the Instinct 2 and beats the smaller 2S handily. Its Solar Panel clearly isn't as efficient as the newer panel, only adding eight GPS hours instead of 18 hours. But it does add an extra month of standard use, more than enough for most people.

That being said, the Instinct 2 Solar is the clear battery winner in every category. In our Garmin Instinct 2 Solar review, we found it would last for weeks even with frequent GPS tracking and not much time outside. But when it does run low, you can get days of chargeback simply by keeping it in direct sunlight. If you're an outdoorsy type, the Solar panel will give you triple the GPS span of a typical fitness watch, and an absurd 370 hours in Max Battery mode — almost double what the Instinct Solar delivers.

The Garmin Instinct 2S had to make battery compromises to offer its more petite 40mm case. Because of its smaller display, it also catches less sunlight, making the panel less effective for offering more GPS hours. It gives you more than twice the standard smartwatch life but this is perhaps the one model for which you could save the $100 upcharge and skip the solar panel without a feeling of missing out.

Garmin Instinct vs. Instinct 2: Specs

Both the Garmin Instinct and Instinct 2 are tanks, built to handle the elements or any major falls. The thickly raised bezels, in particular, ensure the screen doesn't take many direct hits — especially useful for the Instinct, since the newer model adds Gorilla Glass.

Thanks to the giant bezels, each has a compact 0.9-inch display that's very small compared to most smartwatches, along with a circular window that highlights certain information like your heart rate. Neither monochromatic memory-in-pixel (MIP) display is particularly pixel-dense, but the original Instinct is particularly lacking in this area. Thankfully, the Instinct 2 is slightly more pixel-dense.

Generally speaking, the Instinct Solar and Instinct 2 Solar aren't that different in terms of specs, with the same dimensions, weight, polymer materials, band size, and sensors. The original Instinct lacked a Pulse Ox sensor for blood oxygen readings, which can be especially useful for people training or hiking at high altitudes.

The Garmin Instinct 2 does upgrade to the latest Garmin Elevate Gen 4 sensor, which Garmin claims has the most accurate heart rate readings yet. We're not sure which Elevate generation the Instinct or Instinct Solar uses, but it may not be quite as accurate for health and stress tracking.

You might be able to live with these specifications and battery downgrades if you own the Instinct Solar. But it's in the Instinct 2's new features where you'll find the most compelling reasons to upgrade.

Garmin Instinct vs. Instinct 2: New Garmin Instinct 2 features

The original Garmin Instinct offers the baseline you'd expect on any Garmin watch. You get Garmin Body Battery, stress tracking, ABC sensors for directions and conditions, simple phone notifications, and Tracback routing. You get core sports modes that'll give you a general sense of how hard you worked out.

With the Garmin Instinct 2, it's still not as specialized as other Garmin watches but goes far beyond its predecessor. For starters, only it can use Connect IQ to add custom watch faces and widgets, even though its screen doesn't leave much room for creativity. Perhaps more useful is Incident detection, which sends a warning and your last known location to your emergency contact if you appear to stop moving suddenly during a run, bike ride, or hike.

The Garmin Instinct has a few gym profiles and workouts, while the newer model adds HIIT timers like AMRAP, EMOM, and Tabata. That way you can create customized workouts that time you more effectively. For cyclists, you'll have access to several more modes like triathlon and road biking, along with metrics like MTB Grit & Flow and Functional Threshold Power. It even adds new golf features if that's how you get your steps in.

Runners will benefit from a ton of new Garmin tools. Your VO2 Max and fitness age will give you a better knowledge of your own capabilities, coupled with Garmin's daily workout suggestions that take your age, body battery score, and past workouts to devise a daily regimen. Then, once you complete your run, you'll be shown the aerobic and anaerobic training effect and a suggested recovery time before you run again.

Add in new tools like women's health tracking and Garmin Pay, and you can see how the Instinct 2 crushes the original model in terms of actual usefulness. The original Instinct tracks your health data, but the Instinct 2 tells you what to do with that data.

Garmin Instinct vs. Instinct 2: Should you upgrade to the Garmin Instinct 2?

You can get the original Instinct or Instinct Solar at a significant discount, but the base model just isn't worth buying in 2024, and the Solar model doesn't have much beyond the still-excellent battery life to recommend it. If you're buying a new rugged watch to last you through years of epic outdoor adventures, you should indulge yourself with the latest Garmin software and a slightly better display.

Say you own the Garmin Instinct Solar already. You can still make a strong case for an upgrade, though the Instinct 2 Solar isn't exactly affordable. You'll get a respectable battery upgrade paired with new tools that'll make wearing it for weeks at a time more productive. But if you can't afford an upgrade at the moment, the Instinct Solar isn't obsolete yet, even if the standard Instinct is.

As for which Garmin Instinct 2 you should buy, the Instinct 2S costs the same despite offering much less battery. If you're looking for a non-Solar option to save some money, the regular 2S doesn't fall too far short and won't be quite as heavy on your wrist. But for a true solar marathoner of a watch, you can't go wrong with the larger Instinct 2 Solar and its "unlimited" battery. It's undoubtedly one of the best Garmin watches available.