AMOLED SHARPNESS or SOLAR POWER? Garmin Instinct 3 HANDS-ON at CES 2025!

Garmin's simple, rugged Instinct series got a major update to kick off 2025, but now you have a choice to make: Would you rather have a bright AMOLED face or unlimited battery life? I tested both versions of the Garmin Instinct 3 at a local climbing gym to see if I could decide.

0:00 - Garmin at CES
0:20 - Choose your features
0:30 - Flashlights on all Instinct 3 models
0:55 - Bright new AMOLED face
1:35 - Is there touchscreen support?
1:50 - Garmin Instinct 3 color options
2:15 - Size options and pricing

#garmin #running #ces2025
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[BirdJumble]

The black and white display, solar charging and nearly unlimited battery life if what made the Instinct cool. If I wanted AMOLED I would just get an Apple watch. Solar Instinct 3 is my choice easily.

[shogunx]

The whole idea of instinct series is to have mip display and unlimited battery at affordable price. Amoled version make no sense. Enduro 3 is so much better for that

[NeoVdV]

I WAS a Garmin user for many years and had several watches, F 3, F 3hr, vivoactive 3 and 4, F5, F 6pro, F 7x. I now decided I'm done with Garmin !!
The became way to expensive for what it is ! And there are now other brand and models that are offering about the same for less money.
And then this new watch the biggest disappointment of all so far. Where is the innovation ? AN AMOLED without touch, no maps and a 3y old sensor for a ridiculous high price.
Sorry but Bye Bye Garmin.

[leocmen]

Amoled in Instinct, IMHO seems to be pointless
I would prefer a very resistant glass, shock resistance, no fancy colors, and long battery

[BrianHartman]

I can live without the touch screen if the button navigation is intuitive. A lot of smartwatches nowadays are discouraging you from touching the display by having buttons and spinning crowns and whatnot.

I think the cost of these units is way out of my price range, but depending on the brightness of the screen, I'd go with the solar one. It would be nice to not have to charge the watch, unless it weren't legible in bright sunlight. :)

[GIBSONGASPER]

For smartwatches, power consumption is very high than normal digital watches. As such, battery power is more important than colour display or touchscreen.

[mwboost]

I'm guessing a . 5 version will come of some kind with upgraded sensors instead of the old sensor.

[jnrfalcon]

Does the MIPS versions support East Asian languages? Also, if you ever used MIPS before, you'd know MIPS performs much better in bright sunlight as it uses reflected sunlight as backlight, as opposed to light from pixels in OLED. It is in darkness they struggle a little. But the watches built-in backlight is sufficient enough

[MartinVisser]

I'm not sure why you would say the AMOLED display is better than the MIP "blank & white" display in bright sunlight. The whole point of MIP is that it users the ambient light to be reflective. My experience with the the OG Instinct with the MIP display is the brighter the sun or ambient light, the easier the display is to read. AMOLED displays readability is determined by how bright the OLED can light u the display compared to the ambient light

[andrewchong]

Gen 4 heart rate sensor. I'll pass.

[RealMTBAddict]

It's wild how nobody is saying anything about the 5x more efficient solar panel making some gps modes unlimited! Also the price is $50 less than the Instinct 2 Solar was!

[BroAnarchy]

24 days?
With an AMOLED display??

Sign me up!!

[cassiofonte]

Overpriced. Garmin is becoming hard to justify.

[artemi_sg]

As a second watch on top of Apple Watch, I am definitely going for the solar!

[hardknuckle]

Yes - these are great watches - BUT where is the touch screen? where is the microphone? where is the speaker? My old 2018 Samsung Galaxy smartwatch has these functions - can make and receive calls when the watch is in Blue tooth range of the phone.

As I said - great watches - but missing some key features.

[JB]

Nice but wow, no touch screen!? Come on it's 2025.

[NeoVdV]

For me, as a long time Garmin watch user for over 8y with owning the F3, F3hr, Vivoactive 3 and 4, F5, F6pro and F7x, ... I say Goodbye to Garmin.
They became to expensive ! And now there are other brands and models that give about the same for much less money !!!
Instinct 3 WTF Amoled without touch, no maps a d a 3y old sensor for a very high price.
Bye-bye Garmin.

[killertofu]

Damn the design of the 3 is miles better than the 2 solar. 2 solar now looks like a temu watch ever

[JB-hqyj]

Whoever decided amoled for a watch used significantly but the military was a good idea needs to get kicked to the curb. Whoever though the HR sensor from 4 years ago is a good idea also needs to go. Finally - whoever thought it’d be cute to put a huge red/orange ring around the watch instead of black like nearly everyone wants - you are literally the worst. Hard pass.