Garmin Instinct 2 vs Garmin Instinct 3: what’s changed?

The Garmin Instinct 3 is available to pre-order now in 40mm, 45mm and 50mm watch sizes, following its announcement at CES 2025. While we’ve only briefly gone hands-on with the watch, we’re incredibly excited about it: after all, we gave the Garmin Instinct 2 a seriously impressive five stars back in 2022, so anticipation for an Instinct 3 couldn’t be higher.

On the surface, it looks like the Instinct 3 will deliver. When purchasing the Instinct 3 you have the option of either a memory-in-pixel (MIP) black-and-white screen promising ‘unlimited’ battery life due to solar technology, or a multicolored, smartwatch-like AMOLED screen. Either way, the Instinct 3 looks as rugged as the old one ever did.

The older MIP screen is what's on all versions of the Garmin Instinct 2, albeit only the watches marked 'Solar' use that technology in conjunction with Garmin's Power Glass solar charging. However, there are also a lot of new changes under the hood: it comes packed with new gadgets such as the torch, and improvements on old ones such as its new GPS SatIQ technology. More on these later.

So, while you wait for our full review, we thought we’d crunch the numbers and tell you exactly what’s changed, and what separates the Instinct 3 from its capable predecessor, one of the best Garmin watches ever. Should you buy the cheaper, now soon-to-be-discontinued Instinct 2, or should you pick up the newer, shinier Instinct 3? Read on.

Garmin Instinct 3 vs Instinct 2: Price and availability

The Garmin Instinct 3 was revealed at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, and officially launched January 10. The cheapest version of the watch, the Garmin Instinct E (the 40mm option without the AMOLED screen option and with no LED torch) starts at $299 / £259 / AU$549, while the AMOLED version starts at 45mm and $449 / £389 / AU$829.

The Garmin Instinct 2, on the other hand, began life at an list price of $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549, but can be found a lot lower, especially during sales events – we’ve seen it drop as low as $190 / £180 / AU$350 during Black Friday, for example. It’s also available everywhere Garmin watches are sold, so it's very easy to find, and it's frequently discounted too. If you’re going on pure value for money, it’s hard to argue with the Instinct 2.

Garmin Instinct 3 vs Instinct 2: Specifications

Above you can see the specs of the 45mm Instinct 3 vs the 45mm Instinct 2. At first glance, Garmin’s Instinct 3 specifications look solid. The AMOLED smartwatch offers a battery life of up to 18 days (rising to 24 for the 50mm), although that's beaten by the 28 days offered by the MIP Instinct 2. However, the MIP-screen Instinct 3, due to using less power and solar charging, offers 40 days in smartwatch mode and up to ‘unlimited’ battery life while using solar power.

In practice, Garmin’s small print states that this means ‘all-day wear with three hours per day outside in 50000 lux conditions’. So if you’re using it in smartwatch mode in blazing sunshine, you might offset your usage, but in practice, it’s a battery extender, not a way to charge the watch.

The Instinct 2X Solar also offers similar ‘unlimited’ battery life claims, so nothing new here. What is new is the use of SatIQ technology in the Instinct 3, which stands for ‘satellite IQ’. It intelligently switches GPS mode based on your needs at any one time, ensuring that you’re always getting the most accurate signal possible. In addition, you get an extra 10 hours or so of battery life in GPS mode on the Instinct 3 compared with its predecessor.

Otherwise, the specs are remarkably similar, other than the obvious switch over to AMOLED. The Instinct 3 is lighter than its predecessor, but not by much. (the 50mm Instinct 3 is 58g compared to 67g for the 50mm Instinct 2, although the 45mm watches have just 1g of difference between them). They share similar designs, with Garmin’s classic five-button system and a raised bezel to protect the watch face, although the Instinct 3 also sports a metal-reinforced bezel instead of a fiber-reinforced one.

Garmin Instinct 3 vs Instinct 2: Features

The software features, such as Training Readiness, Health Snapshot, Body Battery, Morning Report among others, are very similar between both watches. There’s actually very few software features we can see on the Instinct 3 at this stage that the Instinct 2 doesn’t have, except perhaps Nap Detection.

Hydration, women’s health tracking, fitness age, abnormal heart rate alerts and lots more health features common in most Garmins, as well as notification functionalities and access to the ConnectIQ store, are all present and correct on both watches. However, we suspect that software feature additions won't come to the the Instinct 2 in future updates, so expect this slender gap to widen over time.

Otherwise, perhaps the biggest hardware feature addition to the Instinct 3 is the LED torch, as seen on the Garmin Fenix 8 and the Instinct 2X Solar. The torch is a fantastic, usable feature and great for runners and hikers with four intensities, a red light and strobe function.

Garmin Instinct 3 vs Instinct 2: Which should you buy?

It all depends on your priorities. Do you want to spend lots of time outdoors? We assume so, as you’re interested in buying a Garmin Instinct watch. However, do you want to spend a serious amount of time outdoors, especially in the dark? If so, get the Instinct 3 if your budget allows, as the AMOLED screen is brighter and the LED torch will make for a useful gadget.

If you’re a keen runner or hiker who's looking for a cheaper rugged sports watch, you don’t want or need a torch, and you’re happy with an accurate estimate of your GPS activities rather than to-the-second accuracy, you can save yourself some cash and get the Instinct 2.

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