One thing colour screen watches often excel at is topographical, full colour mapping, but the Instinct 3 mystifyingly does not have a proper maps function, which is a big miss at this price. You can track where you are or have been with breadcrumb trails while in GPS mode and get very basic navigation, but the screen can’t display full maps, or any real kind of recognisable map bar lines that denote distance for you to orient yourself. It feels like a miss for a company built on its navigation technology, and means you can’t rely on the Instinct 3 to help you if you’re lost in the woods.
The screen is also not a touchscreen, a rarity for colour AMOLEDs in modern tech, and it feels a bit odd to have to control the UI purely with the watch’s five physical buttons.
Jack of all trades
But enough of what this watch can’t do. I tracked several walks and runs using the in-built multi-band GPS and found it supremely accurate. It’s a shame then that Garmin didn’t upgrade the sensor array on the underside of the unit to its Elevate Gen 5 tech, leaving this watch with the solid but less accurate Gen 4 heart rate sensor.
Despite the lack of solar, the Instinct 3 lasted for days even when I was using GPS regularly. With the always-on display disabled, it can go for well over a week before you need to top up with the included cable.
Turning the handy always-on display on, the watch will last up to seven days, according to Garmin. If you’re on a mega weekend of hiking and want to fire up the GPS constantly, you’ll still get 32 hours before it conks out. Adventures can also take in a swim or a dive, with the 10ATM rating meaning the watch can survive underwater up to 100m.
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