Garmin - Instinct 3 – 50 mm, Solar
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Jan 28, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
655
73
"especially because of the battery life. ... The mouse I had right before this was the steelseries super light one, that was an every other day charge at minimum. Whereas this one is like once a week at most - and I work from home and game all night."
"offers significantly better battery life ... insane battery life"
"Oh, and the battery lasts days even when exercising a lot (weeks without excercise)."
184
24
"I am a power lineman, so I needed a rugged watch that could get banged around, be exposed to energized high voltage, and very harsh conditions. The TREX has worked flawlessly through all that."
"it’s super durable. ... The watch clasp has gotten scratched up but the face is still fine after nearly a year of climbing inside with it. ... instinct is very durable"
"tanky ... Only thing you really lose is a touch screen but that's better for it's ruggedness and water resistance."
89
3
"There's a "Climb Indoor" activity that I use for both indoor/outdoor roped climbing and there's a bouldering activity for bouldering."
"it works perfectly for what you want!"
"my Instinct 3 works perfectly for cycling."
10
3
"The sleep score and body battery is a game changer - It is insane how much this has helped me with better habits in just 6-weeks. ... I can see the difference in my sleep and body battery even if I have two alcoholic drinks at an event or with dinner, or if I have too much caffeine too late in the day. It is helping me understand the effects of these actions on other parts of my life more explicitly."
"The Garmin excels at all of that ... I wear a smart watch to gather my health stats; steps, floors, calories, heart rate etc, and also to get a good measure of my sleep."
"it tracks sleep, workouts, altitude, and a plethora of other outdoor activities."
9
0
"Incredible battery life. ... That is with full GPS use over 30-48 hours. ... I am sure the watch can be switched to battery saver mode when sleeping or not actively using the GPS so it can stretch out a few more days."
"Had a 4 mile swim in a lake that looked pretty accurate, way better than I expected."
"Without even really changing much settings on the watch to preserve battery other then disconnecting it from my phone I get 4 days of gps recording when backpacking. ... I get 4 days of gps recording when backpacking 6-8hr days on my instinct 3 solar 45mm."
Disliked most:
58
121
"The thing whoop is giving me is wildly inaccurate HR readings. ... Did a casual bike ride with my child yesterday afternoon and whoop gave me a 187 high HR. This was a really slow like 4 block bike ride. ... AW said 108hr peak. Ive biked hard, ran as hard as possible doing max HR tests with my H10 chest strap and never hit above high 160s. ... Im not sure whats going on but its been doing this type of odd HR readings all week."
"I had Whoop for three months and it started showing a very bad data. Like catastrophicly bad. ... Bought Polar chest strap to check my HRV, it was VERY different and was showing me my normal data, data that whoop originally showed to me as well until three months into use it stopped."
"HR reading on Whoop are known for being absolutely aweful. ... Better having an accurate reading every 5 minutes than multiple bad readings every seconds. ... Whoop has awesome software and data analysis, but makes it somehow unusable because of bad hr data in. ... If HR accuracy is not a problem for you, and only follow "very general trends", yeah Whoop is a cool product. But if you are at some minimal point serious about HR accuracy, for real sport / performance / improvment, you cannot relly on it. ... If a Polar device, Garmin, apple watch says it's at 80 with readings every minute or so, and whoop says 65 every seconds, your "constant readings" are not worth anything. Garbage in, garbage out. ... Even counting it manually with a timer and my finger on my neck would be more accurate. ... their linear HR sensors are poor quality, and not the ideal way of positioning them (VS circular patern)."
3
13
"the screen is too small ... it's difficult to use with gloves on ... it's just completely and pointlessly impractical to actually use for anything meaningful on the trails regarding the map ... looking at a map on your wrist is less convenient than you might think."
"Main issue is no maps."
"the problem with the maps is that there aren't any. ... The breadcrumb think can work ok in the city, especially if you have a backup device, and not for cycling. Super hard on hiking trails that tend to have forks as opposed to really distinct, right-angle intersections."
0
7
"But those are a fair bit bulkier."
"The Instinct was quite bulky and doesn't really 'dress up' very well."
"It's definitely a bulk "rugged" watch"
0
1
"it's very tedious ... I simply use a notebook for weightlifting."
0
2
"The UI is so bad - I can't believe a massive company such as Garmin has mid-2010's UI on both the watch and Garmin app. The graphs, data presentation and navigation is about 1000 points lower than Apple Health. It is so unappealing it looks like it was created by an accountant. ... I should have focussed more on the UI on the Garmin app - that is mostly my issue. I dont find the Watch UI too clunky but the Garmen App UI seems pretty behind the times."
"But then you don't get the most out of it until you export the data to Strava or similar as the Garmin app is not great."
Glad_Secretary146 1.0Epix pro gen 2 51mm and instinct 3 solar 50mm. One AMOLED and one SOLAR I like both screens.
Imthenewbee 1.0Garmin instinct crossover, 28 days battery life, 50 without constant hr measurement. Instinct 2x and instinct 3 solar 50mm have 40 days battery life, 70 without hr. And solar charging.
I downgraded to instinct 3 solar, because I want MIP and the instinct MIP screen is very bright. And because of battery life: 28 days in smartwatch mode in a 45mm case! And because it's much more comfortable to wear than a Fenix, is more resistant to scratches... I only (rarely) miss offline maps. But the breadcrumb navigation is great and much clearer to see than on the color MIP screen of the fenix I used to use.
Instinct has no maps. Enduro has maps and has a MIP screen. The Enduro maps are harder to see than the Instinct breadcrumb, because of several reasons: * the Enduro screen is dimmer, due to 1) colors, 2) sapphire * the breadcrumb trail is clearer, because it's high contrast black and white, while the Enduro trail is pink-purplish on a colored maps with lots of things going on. The picture show the difference. https://preview.redd.it/nzt2o5c9a4nf1.jpeg?width=2814&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e952c703a2cc52dd3f73f6cf0b4a88829ac0a397
The instinct had no touch screen. What actually makes the tactix 7dimmer is this: sapphire crystal, solar panel on top of the screen, colour screen, and maybe higher resolution. Maybe the touch screen too, but I don't think so.
Rebl11 1.0I have the 3 Solar 50 mm. It tracks HRV, It works well for overall fitness tracking like any other Garmin watch. In 15 days since last full charge it went down to 44% so if you do more activity tracking it should hold for like 3 weeks.
Instinct 3 Solar. -6% in 80 hours after my first full charge so I estimate at least a month. I really need to update my software version so the watch itself can estimate it's battery life. It's just stuck at 11 days for now.
From my quick 5 second search, tattoos will be a problem for all optical HR sensors so a Garmin watch will be just as problematic as an Apple watch if worn on a tattooed area. So a chest strap + bike computer would probably be a better idea. For me personally when I'm not tattooed yet, my Instinct 3 works perfectly for cycling.
sforsyth01 1.0Agreed. Worst thing ever is continuing to research after a purchase. It's how I went on a return & exchange spree from a 45mm Instinct Solar to an Instinct 2X to a Forerunner 570 47mm to an Instinct 3 Solar 50mm to a Fenix 8 AMOLED 51mm to ultimately a Fenix 8 Pro 51mm. I'm settled now. Because I've stopped researching.
Fenix or Instinct series for their ruggedness as a firefighter.
SL0WRID3R 1.0Garmin Instinct 3 solar, 50mm, or Instinct E if you are tight on budget. Works with Healthy365 and has impressive battery life. Expensive, but long lasting. (I got my first gen instinct lasted for 5 years before switching to the current Instinct3)
aerger76 0.5I've took the Instinct 3 Solar to replace my Forerunner that replaced my Apple Watch. 15+ days battery battery life with Solar. Would I turn off some sensor readings through the day, I would get 30 at least.
amitg24 0.5Instinct 2x solar or 3 solar would be the best choice, ruggedness & functionality all in one
BoTox70 0.5My day-to-day watch is currently Garmin Instinct 3 Solar. PROS: It has a FLASHLIGHT, which is a feature I use daily. It has solar charging-literally INFINITE battery if you aren’t using the GPS. Garmin has the most accurate pedometer I’ve tried. I will miss the flashlight feature the most when I switch to PT2. CONS: Bulky. Garmin UI is a mess—filled with exercise features I don’t use. I also own a Garmin FORERUNNER 255. It is less bulky and has a beautiful big MIP screen. 14 day battery life. This is the budget pick for you. I have owned fitbits, Amazfits, Fossil—the pedometer is not accurate in these and it drives me nuts. It counts too many false steps when I’m driving in the car. I’d rather it not have a pedometer feature at all than force me to look at wrong information. I am worried PT2 will have the same problem. I believe the Fitbit and Venu watches you mention have AMOLED screens. 🤮
BourbonBravado 0.5I use both the Galaxy Watch 7 and Garmin Instinct 3 Solar. I wear the GW7 during the week and the Garmin I3 Solar on the weekends, when I travel and on vacations so I don't have to worry about charging and I have something that'll actually last during full day GPS tracking. I like the Garmin health tracking but dislike not being able to select the notifications I want on the watch as well as the GW7.
Mini 3 may be coming out soon. I started with a Mini 2 but after using that for GPS/Navigation, I decided to buy Garmin Instinct watch (currently using the 3 Solar). The watch is easier to use if you're checking the display often.
brokenheart1324 0.5I have an instinct 3 solar, and im very happy with it, almoast a month of battery time ... with 3 to 4 times a week running and i live in belgium so not a lot of solar sharging
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