Garmin’s newest rugged solar-powered smartwatch, the Intuition 2, guarantees limitless battery life. You simply have to remain within the solar.
Trying extra like a rugged digital watch resembling Casio’s legendary G-Shock than an Apple or Samsung smartwatch, the Garmin feels made to take a beating with its monochrome display screen, bodily buttons and durable physique.
It prices from £299.99 ($349.99/A$549) and is available in varied variations resembling one for browsing and even one for skilled truck drivers. However it's the photo voltaic charging fashions, costing £389.99, that promise by no means to should be plugged in for energy.
Beneath the rugged exterior is Garmin’s smartwatch tech, that includes market-leading sport, well being and location-tracking. It has smartphone connectivity for notifications, alerts and syncing your knowledge by way of the Join app on an Android or iPhone.
It is extremely just like many different Garmin sport watches, however what units the Intuition 2 aside is its promise of unimaginable battery life even with out the facility of the solar.
The usual 45mm mannequin with out photo voltaic will last as long as 28 days used as a normal smartwatch, which is 10 days longer than the already spectacular Fenix 7 and about 14 occasions longer than an Apple Watch.
The photo voltaic model, which prices utilizing a clear “energy glass” overlaying the display screen and panels across the fringe of the show, guarantees to maintain the battery topped up for primarily limitless battery life so long as you spend at the least three hours in direct daylight (50,000 lux of sunshine).
How lifelike that's is determined by your day-to-day actions. On a sunny winter’s day in London the watch obtained 40,000 lux of direct daylight by a window, so in case you spend your days outdoors relatively than locked in an workplace it appears greater than possible.
For primarily indoor utilization throughout winter with out a lot in the best way of photo voltaic charging, the watch lasted about 15 days between prices, together with 5 hours of workout-tracking. I wore it 24 hours a day with message alerts, coronary heart charge, stress, energy, normal exercise and well being monitoring, plus sleep and blood oxygen (SpO2) monitoring in a single day. Turning off the Sp02 sensor added days to the life as did limiting exercises. The photo voltaic charging would add at the least 24 hours battery for every sunny spring day spent outdoors, too.
Specs
Display: monochrome transflective MIP LCD
Case dimension: 40 or 45mm
Case thickness: 13.3 to 14.5mm
Band dimension: normal 20 or 22mm fast match
Weight: 42 to 53g
Water resistance: 100 metres (10ATM)
Sensors: GNSS (GPS, Glonass, Galileo), compass, thermometer, coronary heart charge, pulse Ox
Connectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+
In fact its battery prowess comes at the price of options on fancier-looking Garmin watches such because the Fenix 7 or rivals just like the Apple Watch. The Intuition 2 lacks a touchscreen, although the button-based interface is quick and logical. It lacks the brand new high-accuracy multi-band GPS monitoring know-how, however nonetheless has an altimeter, barometer and compass.
The largest lacking options are offline music playback, resembling Spotify with out having to make use of your cellphone, and offline maps. It could possibly plot breadcrumb trails of the place you will have been on an exercise that can assist you get again to the beginning, information you within the route of factors of curiosity and even measure the realm of an area by strolling its perimeter, nevertheless it has no maps obtainable.
The watch tracks an unlimited variety of actions together with varied types of working, strolling, biking, swimming, power, cardio, Hiit and extra unique ones resembling paddle boarding, searching, fishing, backcountry snowboarding and bouldering.
Some actions are restricted to particular variations of the watch, such because the jumpmaster mode for skydiving being solely obtainable on the “tactical version”, browsing and tide data on the “surf version” and the truck-driver instruments on the “dēzl version” to plan breaks and exercises. Solely the photo voltaic fashions have Garmin Pay for contactless funds too, which helps few UK banks however is beneficial in emergencies when out on excursions with out a bank card or cellphone.
On the well being entrance, it has Garmin’s glorious physique battery, which makes it straightforward to grasp the influence of sleep, exercise and relaxation in your day, plus stress monitoring, irregular coronary heart charge alerts, each day exercise ideas, Vo2 Max health measurement and restoration estimation after train and lots of different options.
All of the exercise and well being data the watch collects is distributed by way of Bluetooth to the wonderful Garmin Join app in your cellphone, inside which you'll be able to pore over mountains of information, graphs and insights. Plus you'll be able to join it straight to social networks resembling Strava.
Value
The Garmin Intuition 2 is available in two sizes and varied fashions, beginning at £299.99 ($349.99/A$549) for the usual model or £389.99 ($449.99/A$699) with photo voltaic charging.
For comparability, the Garmin Forerunner 55 prices £149.99, Venu 2 prices from £349.99, Fenix 7 prices from £599.99, Epix prices from £799.99, the Coros Apex prices £299.99 and the Polar Grit X prices £369.
Verdict
The Intuition 2 Photo voltaic is the closest mannequin up to now to what's the holy grail of smartwatch makers – a watch which you by no means must plug into the charger.
It appears and feels extra like a standard digital watch, however is backed by Garmin’s complete exercise and normal well being monitoring, and easy smartphone notifications. It lacks a couple of bells and whistles you get with much less rugged smartwatch rivals, resembling voice assistants, maps, offline music or ECG (coronary heart rhythm) measurement, however its featureswill in all probability be greater than sufficient for these not in search of an Apple Watch or comparable.
When you spend lengthy sufficient every day within the solar or vibrant environments you could by no means have to cost it. For these of us extra usually confined to the indoors, it’ll nonetheless final near a month or longer with some much less crucial options disabled.
The Intuition 2 is dear and definitely not for everybody, however in case you’re an open air particular person or in search of a better health-tracking model of a digital watch, the Garmin is nice.
Professionals: probably limitless battery life with photo voltaic charging, tracks numerous actions and well being metrics, cross-platform cellphone notifications, 100m water resistance, sturdy design, alternative of colors and variations.
Cons: costly, no offline music or maps, restricted smartwatch options in contrast with Apple or Samsung, no voice management, display screen primary in comparison with OLED or different Garmins.
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