Garmin takes swipe at Apple with its ‘months, not days’ Instinct Crossover battery life
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Garmin has announced the Garmin Instinct Crossover, a hybrid smartwatch with analog timekeeping designed for “those who appreciate a classic analog watch experience, but don’t want to compromise essential smartwatch functionality or rugged watch durability.”
It’s a Garmin Instinct 2, one of the best Garmin watches, with hands. Hands! The analog timekeeping elements are coated with Super-LumiNova illumination markers and are superimposed on the watch’s digital display. The hands are said to “move quickly” when you want to access your smartwatch functions, and the new ‘RevoDrive’ technology keeps the watch accurate when it resumes, although no details have been given on how this works.
The other big news about this watch is battery life. The Instinct Crossover comes with solar and non-solar charging options. If you get one of the versions of the watch without solar charging capabilities, the smartwatch mode can last for 28 days, while the low-power battery mode can last a whopping 71 days. If you charge a watch with solar power, the low power battery mode will last forever.
That’s not hyperbole. As long as you spend three hours a day in 50,000 lux conditions – the equivalent of a cloudy day – the watch will continue to work.
Garmin emphasizes in its press material that the watch measures battery life in “months, not days,” a thinly veiled swipe at Apple. When the excellent Apple Watch Ultra was first announced on September 8, it was hailed as the longest-running Apple Watch ever, at over 36 hours. Garmin, somewhat derisively, tweeted the following:
We measure battery life in months. No hours. #Enduro2 pic.twitter.com/OcTLdpvHV6September 8, 2022
Garmin Instinct Crossover retains most of the smart features of the Instinct series, including GPS tracking, multi-band GNSS and TracBack functions, which bring you back to the start of your route the safest way. It also includes all the usual Garmin bells and whistles, including accurate heart rate monitoring, the Body Battery recovery stat, the ability to record your VO2 Max, your fitness age, and sleep tracking.
Garmin Pay and Notification Reports are also both present, although some of Garmin’s newer features, such as Training Readiness Score or the Morning Report functionality, are not mentioned in the watch’s description, nor are notification features.
The watch is available in three models: one with solar charging ($539.99 in the US and £529.99 in the UK), one without, ($499.99 in the US and £479.99 in the UK) and a special Solar-powered Tactical Edition ($599 in the US and £579.99 in the UK). We will update these offers with Australian prices when we receive them. Preorders are now open (opens in new tab)and the watch is expected to arrive in five to eight weeks.
Analysis: Everything I’ve Ever Wanted
I recently wrote that as useful as they are, it’s time we stopped pretending that smartwatches look as good as analog watches. Garmin seems to have read my mind and wanted to prove me wrong as I love the idea of this watch. As mentioned above, it’s essentially a redesigned Garmin Instinct 2 with analog timekeeping, which isn’t a bad thing.
I haven’t done it myself yet and I know Garmin’s array of metrics is excellent (the Forerunner 955 Solar sits on the wrist as I type), so for me it will be proof of how the hands and smart interface work. Withings Scanwatch Horizon opts for a smaller screen to get around this problem, but the Instinct Crossover has gone for a full-size screen in a pit, with the thick luminescent hands layered over it.
Unfortunately, the timing of this release means you’re unlikely to score one for cheap in the Black Friday Garmin deals, but you’ll be able to find some excellent discounts on its predecessors in the Instinct range.