Garmin Instinct 2 Solar vs Garmin Vivosmart 5
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: 2022
2️⃣ Garmin Vivosmart 5: 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Garmin Vivosmart 5 offers foundational activity tracking, diligently recording steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and intensity minutes. It provides inactivity alerts to encourage movement and incorporates Body Battery energy monitoring, a valuable feature for optimizing daily activity planning based on physiological readiness.
❤️ 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: Continuous heart rate monitoring is provided by Garmin's Elevate wrist-based technology, offering insights into resting heart rate trends and real-time heart rate zones during activities for enhanced fitness analysis. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor enables blood oxygen saturation monitoring, particularly relevant for comprehensive sleep analysis.
🔋 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Vivosmart 5 boasts a robust battery life, lasting up to 7 days in smartwatch mode. This extended duration minimizes the need for frequent charging, ensuring consistent tracking of daily activity and sleep metrics.
😴 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: Advanced sleep tracking on the Vivosmart 5 analyzes sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) to provide a detailed understanding of sleep architecture. The inclusion of the Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring blood oxygen levels during sleep, adding another dimension to sleep quality assessment.
📍 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: This device does not feature built-in GPS. However, it supports connected GPS, leveraging the GPS capabilities of a paired compatible smartphone to accurately track outdoor activities such as running and cycling, providing pace and distance data when your phone is with you.
🏋️ 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Vivosmart 5 supports a variety of activity profiles, including walking, running, cycling, yoga, strength training, and swimming. It displays real-time statistics such as heart rate and calorie burn during these workouts, enabling users to monitor their effort and progress.
💫 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: Garmin's Move IQ technology is integrated to automatically detect and record common activities such as walking, running, and swimming. This feature streamlines activity logging, ensuring that these basic exercises are captured without requiring manual initiation.
🍎 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Vivosmart 5 is compatible with both Android and iOS devices, connecting via Bluetooth. Synchronization with the Garmin Connect app provides a platform for detailed data tracking, analysis, and progress monitoring.
📲 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Garmin Connect app serves as the central interface for the Vivosmart 5, offering detailed health insights, workout summaries, and long-term progress monitoring. It also facilitates synchronization with popular third-party fitness platforms like Strava and MyFitnessPal, allowing for data integration into a broader fitness ecosystem.
💡 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: Essential smart notifications for calls, texts, and app alerts are delivered with vibration, keeping users connected. Additional features include music control for a paired smartphone and a find-my-phone function for added convenience.
💦 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: With a water resistance rating of 5 ATM (up to 50 meters), the Vivosmart 5 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for everyday wear and aquatic activities.
⌚ 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: Featuring a larger OLED touchscreen display compared to its predecessor, the Vivosmart 5 offers improved visibility and usability for reviewing stats and notifications directly on the wrist.
👌 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Vivosmart 5 utilizes a swipe-based touchscreen interface complemented by a physical button, providing a user-friendly navigation experience. Wireless syncing with the Garmin Connect app ensures effortless data transfer and tracking.
✨ 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The design of the Vivosmart 5 is slim and lightweight, featuring an interchangeable silicone band that contributes to comfortable all-day wear. The band can be easily swapped for personalization.
🩸 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring of SpO2 blood oxygen levels, particularly emphasized during sleep tracking, providing insights into respiratory well-being during rest.
💖 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: It is important for potential users to note that the Garmin Vivosmart 5 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) monitoring.
🧘 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: Stress levels are tracked based on heart rate variability (HRV). The device includes guided breathing exercises, offering a practical tool to help users manage stress and promote relaxation throughout the day.
🩹 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy levels based on HRV, stress, and activity data. This assists users in optimizing their daily energy management and making informed decisions about when to prioritize rest and recovery.
💳 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 Garmin Vivosmart 5: A key advantage of the Garmin ecosystem is that no subscription is required to access the full feature set of the Vivosmart 5. All data and insights are available through the free Garmin Connect app.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: $399.99
Check Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Price *2️⃣ Garmin Vivosmart 5: $149.95
Check Garmin Vivosmart 5 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you