Garmin Instinct 2 vs Garmin Epix (Gen 2)
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: 2022
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Garmin Instinct 2 is a rugged outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for durability and comprehensive activity tracking in challenging environments. It accurately tracks steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with customizable daily goals. Its activity profiles are tailored for a wide range of outdoor pursuits, offering reliable data for training and exploration.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Garmin Epix (Gen 2) is a high-performance multisport GPS smartwatch designed for serious athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, featuring a stunning AMOLED display. It offers comprehensive activity tracking, including steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with personalized daily goals. Its extensive activity profiles and advanced performance metrics are tailored for a wide range of sports and adventures, providing detailed insights into every workout.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and sleep tracking for insights into daily well-being. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, particularly useful for altitude acclimatization and assessing physiological status during demanding activities.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced physiological metrics including VO2 max estimation, performance condition, and training status. It also tracks respiration rate, Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation, and offers detailed sleep analysis, delivering critical health and recovery data essential for optimizing training and overall well-being.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 offers exceptional battery life, providing up to 28 days in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours with continuous GPS active. Solar charging capabilities further extend battery life significantly with sufficient sun exposure, making it ideal for extended trips where charging is limited.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) offers up to 16 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 42 hours with continuous GPS tracking. While the vibrant AMOLED display impacts battery life compared to MIP displays, it still provides sufficient duration for multi-day activities and extensive training.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: Sleep tracking on the Instinct 2 monitors sleep stages and provides insights into sleep quality, helping users understand their recovery. The data, combined with other metrics, contributes to the overall picture of physical readiness.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Advanced sleep monitoring on the Epix (Gen 2) tracks detailed sleep stages and utilizes the Pulse Ox sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep. This provides valuable data for assessing recovery quality and informing training decisions, especially important for athletes managing demanding training loads.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Instinct 2 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking without needing a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo) for reliable positioning in diverse terrains, essential for navigation and route tracking.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Equipped with advanced built-in GPS capabilities, the Epix (Gen 2) provides highly accurate outdoor activity tracking and navigation without requiring a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems and offers detailed preloaded mapping features, essential for exploring remote areas and navigating complex routes.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 supports a variety of workout modes beyond standard running and cycling, including profiles for hiking, climbing, swimming, strength training, and more, providing relevant metrics for each activity.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) supports an extensive range of multisport and individual workout modes, including running, biking, swimming, hiking, trail running, skiing, strength training, and more. Its customizable profiles and extensive real-time data screens provide comprehensive metrics for performance analysis across diverse activities.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring seamless recording of basic movements within the overall activity log, even during varied training days.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Epix (Gen 2) experience, providing in-depth analysis of all tracked data, performance metrics, training insights, and recovery recommendations. The app allows for creating and syncing detailed training plans, courses, and customizing device settings.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: Beyond its rugged outdoor focus, the Instinct 2 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Beyond its primary focus on sports and outdoor performance, the Epix (Gen 2) includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and on-device music storage with support for streaming services, offering convenience during training and daily use.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Instinct 2 is built to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it a durable and reliable device for watersports and wet environments.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Epix (Gen 2) is engineered to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it suitable for serious water sports and providing durability in wet environments.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 features a monochrome, sunlight-readable, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display. While not a color screen, this display offers excellent contrast and readability in direct sunlight, which is essential for outdoor use, and is highly power-efficient.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) features a stunning AMOLED display with high resolution, offering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and exceptional brightness. This touchscreen display provides excellent readability in various lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, enhancing the visual experience for mapping and data review.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: 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, prioritizing functionality over touchscreen complexity.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The device offers a dual interface with reliable buttons and a responsive touchscreen, providing flexible and easy navigation through menus, data screens, and mapping features during both activities and daily use. The user interface is designed for intuitive operation and quick access to critical information.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 features a rugged and durable design built to withstand tough outdoor conditions. Its construction prioritizes resilience, while the comfortable silicone band ensures suitability for extended wear during activities and throughout the day.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) features a premium and durable design with a high-quality titanium bezel and stainless steel or DLC coating, built to withstand extreme conditions while maintaining a comfortable fit for all-day wear and extended outdoor use. The design balances robust construction with aesthetic appeal.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for on-demand spot checks and continuous monitoring of blood oxygen saturation levels, particularly valuable for acclimatization at altitude, monitoring sleep quality, and assessing overall physiological status during demanding activities.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: It is important to note that the Garmin Instinct 2 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): It is important to note that the Garmin Epix (Gen 2) does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress and promote mental well-being alongside physical training and recovery.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The device provides advanced recovery insights, including a daily readiness score, recovery time advisor, training status, and training load focus, offering detailed guidance to help athletes understand their recovery needs and optimize their training schedule to prevent overtraining and improve performance.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Instinct 2 are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced tracking features, providing comprehensive value for an outdoor-focused device.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Epix (Gen 2) are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced training analysis, providing comprehensive value for a premium device.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: $349.99
Check Garmin Instinct 2 Price *2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you