Here are the new and detailed Garmin Instinct Specifications and a Garmin Fenix 5 vs. Garmin Instinct Comparison. A separate Garmin Instinct review is now live and these specs & comparison form a part of that.

Q: What Is the Garmin Instinct?

The Garmin Instinct was announced on 11 October and is targeting the outdoors market but in a notably cut-down form when compared to the Fenix 5/6 and Fenix 3. In one sense the lower-priced, lower-featured Garmin Instinct is CLEARLY justifying the higher-priced and uber-featured Fenix 5/Fenix 5 Plus/6 devices but the Instinct is also a full-frontal attack on competitors’ cheaper outdoors watches such as the improving Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 which has morphed into the beast that is the WearOS based WSD-F30

Must Read: Garmin Instinct 2 Review Solar & Thoughts

The Instinct is a clear call on FEATURES and COST.

The Instinct is a clear and good addition to the Garmin range.

A: It’s an outdoors watch and it’s mostly well specified for that job.

…and it is proving surprisingly popular.

In Brief

Product Name: Instinct

Product Description: Adventure and Sports GPS Watch

Brand: Garmin

• [ More Info & Prices ]

• Price - 85%
  85%
• Apparent Accuracy - 85%
  85%
• Build Quality & Design - 85%
  85%
• Features, Including App - 85%
  85%
• Openness & Compatability - 90%
  90%

86%

Well-featured, mid-price outdoors and GPS sport watch

Depending on how you want to see it, the Garmin Instinct is either “a cut-down Garmin Fenix” or “a featured-up Casio“. However, even with fewer features than found on the Fenix, that STILL LEAVES A LOT OF FEATURES that are included in the Garmin Instinct. The Instinct itself focusses on the ‘core’ features that are most useful and most needed for outdoors and hiking buyers.

Even saying that there are still lots of bonus features, for example, you get GALILEO+GPS satellites, a compass and a barometer thrown in for good measure. And you get those on a rugged and well-made device that will keep going in the wilderness for several days in certain modes.

Whilst you will not have ANY of Garmin’s CIQ apps you will, instead, get access to the Garmin Explore app to give you way markers & courses. Whilst you also get breadcrumb trails on the Instinct to help you navigate, you will only get ‘proper’ maps on the accompanying Explore app.

The Instinct has a certain aesthetic that many like. I would certainly consider the Garmin Instinct if your budget is around £200/$300. That’s over half the price of some of Suunto’s or Garmin’s high-end outdoors watches. Indeed if your budget is limited I’m not sure what real choices you have if it’s features you want…sure you could go for the Casio WSD-F20 or WSD-F30 but they are ‘large’ watches with a still-higher price tag and I’d tend to trust the Garmin more for multi-day usage.

The full specs and details follow below

 

Pros

• Significant ‘pro’ feature set
• Significant ‘pro’ hardware features like a barometer, compass, battery life & galileo
• Rugged build quality
• Solar version add the potential for significant battery life increases

Cons

• Aesthetics will only appeal to some
• Breadcrumb routes only. Maps on app.

• Black Friday - Cyber Monday Pricing
• Garmin Instinct Specs & Details
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What Garmin Instinct HAS got

• It’s got nearly all the sensors of the Fenix 5 including GALILEO and a barometer
• It’s smaller and lighter than the Fenix 5
• Nearly all the outdoor adventure features on offer from Garmin.
• Open Water Swimming
• 3D distance measurements
• Waypoints and trackback
• Garmin Explore app compatibility

What Garmin Instinct has NOT got

• It’s got a smaller and lower-resolution screen when compared to the Fenix 5. I’m not happy about that.
• The bezel and case are more than sufficiently rugged, but not as ‘elegantly made‘ as the Fenix 5
• No colour screen, just black and white. Perfectly fine.
• 2/3rds the price and 2/3rds the battery life of the Fenix 5. Less money is always good.
• A notable omission is CIQ. That is totally missing and shows that Garmin now sees that CIQ adds value to its offerings – and I WOULD agree with Garmin on that front. Do you need CIQ when the Instinct already does so much? Maybe not.
• No Firstbeat physiological stuff like VO2max. You pays your money…you takes your choice.
• No STRAVA goodies BUT you can sync your workouts back to STRAVA easily enough
• No Group track
• No special sports features like HR when swimming and running dynamics when running and a PM or lights when cycling – fair enough.
• No golf (!)
• No WiFi, no Garmin PAY, no Garmin Music (no CIQ)
• You get the picture. Lots of relevant stuff and no extra fancy stuff.

From a commercial perspective this device makes a LOT of sense to me. It looks sensibly focussed on core functionality for the end-user. IT DOES THE JOB.

The Instinct has missed out the CIQ functionality…why? Go figure. If you want it you pay for it. You don’t need it.

Perhaps the absence of Garmin PAY is a slightly strange omission as Garmin can actually make money from you using that service. However, there could be hardware limitations that warrant its exclusion (eg B&W low res screen)

From a hiking user standpoint, I’m not so sure it makes quite as much sense. Some omissions would just annoy me like, errr,…let me think…..errr…..golf? No. It makes sense for a user as well 🙂 . It has all the core functionality that the vast majority of its intended users will need.

The buyer may feel that they are a bit of a poor relation compared to the Fenix owner. Or the buyer may feel delighted with the rugged Casio-esque looks.

The Casio WFD-F20 ProTrek (F30 now released) is probably a prettier option with a pretty screen and the Casio’s battery MIGHT last you for a couple of days in real-world usage. But the screen WILL DEFINITELY be prettier ONLY while it works. The Casio comes in at $399. I’d probably go for the Casio for short days out walking but if I ever ever ever planned to do anything vaguely serious where there was no phone coverage for emergencies and I relied on my watch for safety then I’d go for the Garmin.

Wiggle: Down to just over £200 in UK (here at Wiggle)

Garmin Instinct Specifications

The Garmin Instinct Specifications are below and shown compared to the Fenix 5 and Fenix 3 (non-HR).  These are the official Garmin specs which often contain small errors eg I don’t think MOON times are included.

Garmin Instinct Comparison to Garmin Fenix 5 and Garmin Fenix 3