Garmin Instinct 2 Solar vs Apple Watch SE (2nd generation)
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: 2022
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Garmin Instinct 2 Solar is a purpose-built, rugged outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for extended adventures and comprehensive activity tracking, featuring enhanced battery life through solar charging. It accurately tracks steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with customizable daily goals. Its extensive activity profiles are tailored for a wide range of outdoor pursuits, offering reliable data for prolonged training and exploration in demanding environments.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) offers the core Apple Watch activity tracking experience, making essential fitness monitoring accessible. It accurately records steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes, utilizing the intuitive Move, Exercise, and Stand rings to encourage daily movement. It supports a variety of workout types with reliable metrics for tracking physical activity.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and detailed sleep tracking for insights into daily well-being and recovery. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, particularly useful for altitude acclimatization and assessing physiological status during extended demanding activities, supported by consistent power from solar input.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring and notifications for high or low heart rates and irregular heart rhythms. While it lacks some of the advanced sensors of higher-end models (like ECG and SpO2), it serves as a capable tool for monitoring foundational heart health and overall daily activity levels.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: A key highlight of the Instinct 2 Solar is its exceptional battery life, significantly extended by solar charging. It provides up to 28 days in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours with continuous GPS active, with the potential for virtually unlimited battery life in smartwatch mode with sufficient solar exposure, making it an ideal companion for multi-week expeditions where charging is impractical.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) provides up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge under normal usage, consistent with the standard Apple Watch experience. This is sufficient for a full day of activity tracking and smart feature usage, typically requiring nightly charging.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: Sleep tracking on the Instinct 2 Solar monitors sleep stages and provides valuable insights into sleep quality, contributing to a better understanding of recovery. The data, combined with other metrics like Body Battery, helps users optimize their rest and training, with reliable overnight tracking ensured by the efficient battery management and solar capabilities.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): Detailed sleep tracking is available on the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), monitoring sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and sleep duration within the Health app. This helps users gain insights into their sleep patterns and work towards better rest habits.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Instinct 2 Solar provides accurate outdoor activity tracking without needing a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo) for reliable positioning in diverse and challenging terrains, essential for navigation and route tracking during extended outdoor excursions.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): With built-in GPS, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) accurately tracks outdoor activities like running, cycling, and hiking without needing a paired iPhone. It provides precise route mapping, pace, and distance data, essential for monitoring performance during outdoor workouts.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar supports a wide variety of workout modes beyond standard running and cycling, including profiles for hiking, climbing, swimming, strength training, tactical activities, and more, providing relevant metrics for each activity, with the battery capacity to track even the longest sessions.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) supports a wide variety of workout modes, including running, walking, cycling, swimming, yoga, hiking, and more. Users can select specific modes to get tailored real-time statistics and post-workout analysis within the Fitness app.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these movements are captured in the activity log even when a specific workout isn't manually started, contributing to seamless and comprehensive tracking over extended periods.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The smartwatch features automatic exercise recognition for common activities such as walking, running, and cycling, ensuring that workouts are logged even if the user forgets to manually start tracking, providing a more complete record of physical activity.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications, ensuring connectivity is maintained even during prolonged periods in the outdoors.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): Seamlessly integrating with the Apple ecosystem, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) requires an iPhone 8 or later running the latest iOS version for full functionality. It connects via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, offering tight integration with Apple Health and other Apple services.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app provides users with detailed analysis of activity data, performance metrics, and health statistics. The app allows for planning routes, customizing watch settings, and connecting with the Garmin community, leveraging the extensive data collected by the watch during extended use.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): Leveraging the App Store, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) provides access to a vast ecosystem of third-party apps, enhancing its capabilities for fitness, productivity, communication, and entertainment, offering a comprehensive smartwatch experience at a more accessible price point.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: Beyond its rugged outdoor focus, the Instinct 2 Solar includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also features a barometric altimeter for accurate altitude tracking, a crucial tool for hikers and climbers, all powered for the long haul by solar charging.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): As a capable smartwatch, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) provides comprehensive smart capabilities, including on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, emails, and apps. It supports Siri for voice commands, Apple Pay for contactless payments, and offers key safety features like Fall Detection and Crash Detection, providing peace of mind.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Instinct 2 Solar is built to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it a durable and reliable device for watersports and wet environments encountered during outdoor adventures.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): With a WR50 water resistance rating, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for everyday wear and aquatic activities. It is capable of tracking swimming workouts.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar features a monochrome, sunlight-readable, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display with an integrated solar charging lens. While not a color screen, this display offers excellent contrast and unparalleled readability in direct sunlight, which is essential for outdoor use, and is highly power-efficient, directly contributing to its exceptional battery life.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) features a bright Retina LTPO OLED display. While it lacks the always-on capability of higher-end models, it offers sharp resolution and good brightness for clear visibility of notifications and stats when the wrist is raised.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The device utilizes a five-button interface, designed for reliable operation and easy navigation through menus and data screens, particularly useful in challenging conditions or while wearing gloves. This button-based interface prioritizes functionality and durability over touchscreen complexity for demanding outdoor use.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The device offers an intuitive user interface with a combination of the responsive touchscreen, Digital Crown for precise scrolling, and a physical side button for navigation. The watchOS operating system provides a familiar and user-friendly experience with customizable watch faces and complications.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar features a rugged and durable design built to withstand tough outdoor conditions, incorporating the solar charging lens seamlessly into the display. Its construction prioritizes resilience, while the comfortable silicone band ensures suitability for extended wear during activities and throughout multi-day excursions.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): The Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) features a sleek and familiar Apple Watch design with a lightweight aluminum case. It offers a comfortable fit for all-day wear and comes with a wide variety of interchangeable bands for personalization, providing the core Apple Watch aesthetic.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and at altitude. This feature provides valuable data for assessing acclimatization and overall physiological well-being in varied environments, with continuous monitoring supported by the extended battery life.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): It is important to note that the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) does not include SpO2 (blood oxygen monitoring) functionality.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: It is important to note that the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): It is important to note that the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress, contributing to a more complete picture of their daily physiological state and recovery, essential for sustained performance in challenging situations.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): While not a dedicated stress tracking metric, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) contributes to overall well-being insights through features like Mindfulness and Breathe apps, heart rate variability (HRV) data (accessible in Health app), and sleep analysis, helping users understand aspects of their physiological state.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest. This is a key feature for optimizing recovery in demanding training cycles and extended trips, with reliable data available due to the device's battery performance.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): Recovery is primarily tracked through sleep analysis and insights provided within the Apple Health app based on workout data and heart rate variability (HRV). While it doesn't offer a dedicated recovery score, the collected data helps users gain a general understanding of their body's state.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Instinct 2 Solar are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced tracking features, providing comprehensive and enduring value for a rugged, outdoor-focused device with exceptional solar-enhanced battery life.
2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): No subscription is required to access the core features and data tracked by the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) through the Apple Health and Fitness apps. Optional services like Apple Fitness+ require a separate subscription.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: $399.99
Check Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Price *2️⃣ Apple Watch SE (2nd generation): $249.00
Check Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you