tldr; Rugged solar Garmin. Huge size, infinite battery. Outdoor beast.
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Best praise vs top criticism for Garmin Instinct 2X Solar
“I had some ideas but asked my GPT and these are the suggestions from her and also me. ---- Got it — here’s a solid recommendation for the Reddit user in your screenshot: 🏆 Best Fit: Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Why it nails their wishlist: Slim & Compact: The Instinct 2 is noticeably thinner and lighter than most rugged Garmins (14.5 mm thick vs 17+ mm for older models). Night Readability: Transflective MIP display — clear under direct sun and backlit at night. Premium Build: Fiber-reinforced polymer case (super tough) + chemically strengthened scratch-resistant glass (sapphire is only on the Instinct 2X Solar Tactical edition — but the regular glass is very robust). 10 ATM Water Resistance: Safe for swimming, showering, even snorkeling. Battery Life: Up to 28 days in smartwatch mode; unlimited with enough sun (solar charging really works for long life). Accurate GPS: Multi-GNSS support (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo), very precise. Offline maps aren’t full topo but breadcrumb navigation + trackback works well. Health Sensors: HR, Pulse Ox, sleep, stress — but not gimmicky fitness overload (and way more reliable than cheap bands). No Clutter: You can turn off notifications, no social media apps, no contactless payments. Alternatives (if they want sapphire glass) Garmin Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar — premium steel/titanium bezel, sapphire lens, still long battery (11+ days smartwatch, 37 hrs GPS). A bit pricier and bulkier but gorgeous build. Garmin Epix Gen 2 Sapphire — OLED screen but still excellent battery (6–16 days depending on use), sapphire lens, high-end finish. 💡 Quick Decision Guide Want maximum battery and ruggedness → Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Want sapphire glass & more polished look → Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar Want premium display + sapphire + GPS maps → Epix Gen 2 Sapphire”
“The casio's with the polar algorithms should be decent, but hate the software. Not sure the step tracking - but fitness wise they should be pretty good due to polar alogirthms - the problem is they aren't using the polar phone app software but rather casio woeful attempt (major mistake). This does leave the Garmin instinct series (though note these are full smartwatches so can show digital and analog watch faces - but do look way better with digital watch faces. The instinct 2 series are all MIP screens and B&W screens at that - so yes very much like an old school digital screen. The garmin instinct 3 has just been released and it has the usual 3 size options 40mm, 45mm and 50mm case - 40mm offers MIP or AMOLED. 45mm offers MIP or MIP with solar or AMOLED 50 offers MIP with solar or AMOLED The instinct 3 offers full mutli-band gnss which is a mcuh better chip than the instinct 2 which uses the sony chip (exception is the instinct 2x which uses the same chip as the instinct 3). Includes a led torch (only 2x has this); and they have added the full grarmin training metrics and analytics to the instinct 3, and all instinct 3 offer nfc pay (previously only solar versions of the instinct 2 included NFC pay) - otherwise its pretty much the same watch but with better battery life (amoled battery life is pretty similar to the fenix amoled/ epix watches).”
78 Reddit opinions analyzed • Last updated 2/24/2026