Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Watch: Review

Let me tell you now, before the nitty-gritty, there are many who assume the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED is something it is not. It is not just a cheaper version of Garmin’s Fenix smartwatch — that watch is designed for your Indiana Jones heading on expeditions. The Instinct line is designed for outdoor enthusiasts who love hiking and backpacking on established trails and camping in lean-tos or state-maintained campsites. 

Deep sigh.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I am stoked to share with you what the last 6x weeks of my life have been like with the new Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED. When people say, “It’s the little things in life,” they may very well be referring to what this smartwatch has to offer. And, in this case, the things it does not.

I am your average outdoor enthusiast and have found the Instinct 3 to be well-balanced, well-built, and visually impressive. I also cannot say enough about how much of a lifesaver the built-in LED flashlight has been while the state of Connecticut has been covered in ice. Now, after 2 months with this watch, this is my take on this updated classic.

In short: With the release of the Instinct 3, Garmin has given its most practical watch line the AMOLED treatment. While it still doesn’t have a touchscreen or turn-by-turn maps, it doesn’t need them. If you’re looking for a rugged smartwatch with exceptional battery life for your active life in the great outdoors, the Instinct 3 AMOLED is the answer.

Looking for a new fitness watch? Check out how the Instinct 3 AMOLED compares to the rest of the market in GearJunkie’s Best Fitness Watches and Best GPS Watches Buyer’s Guides.

Review: Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Watch

Design & Features

The Instinct 3 AMOLED is part of Garmin’s Instinct line, which has three distinct models, each with submodels and color configurations. It is a full-featured GPS smartwatch that visually errs toward the Timex Ironman more than it does an Apple Watch.

This rugged aesthetic appeals to the outdoor crowd. Its long battery life and wide array of functions keep us tethered to modern society while supporting our day-to-day lives, be it indoors or outdoors.

The Instinct 3 AMOLED is lightweight and has a fiber-reinforced polymer body, aluminum bezel, and chemically reinforced glass. However, this loftiness does not impact the ruggedness of the watch. You can expect it to take on scrapes, bangs, and bumps with little to no signs of wear. Additionally, its silicone band is comfortable to wear in all conditions, year-round. 

This version of the Instinct is also significant because of its use of an AMOLED display. AMOLED is rich in color, vibrant, and crisp to the point where even a direct hit from the sun won’t impact its visibility. The Instinct 3 Solar and Instinct E still use an MIP LED display. Also, like previous models, all models of the Instinct 3 use five buttons to operate it. There is no touchscreen here, and that’s all right by me!

Smart Features

This is a multiband GPS watch. It uses SatIQ technology to help choose which satellite band will offer the best performance based on your location. It also has an altimeter, compass, and thermometer to keep you plugged in and informed. The watch also has an expanded series of activity trackers and health and wellness monitoring features. 

The Instinct 3 AMOLED uses the latest Bluetooth technology to pair with your smartphone and other smart devices. This allows you to receive phone notifications (Android and Apple) like texts, phone calls, and calendar alerts. Additionally, you can accept or reject phone calls with the watch and provide canned text responses.

Four features that have stood out to me in my day-to-day life have been the Morning Report, which gives you a summary of how you slept, weather forecasts, and Find My Phone, which I use nearly every day. It also has a Find My Watch feature that allows your phone to ping the watch. As I have worn the watch consistently, aside from the 3 hours the one time I had to recharge it, I’ve never used that feature.

The fourth feature, which gets its own segment below, is the built-in LED flashlight. This is a bit of fried gold that Garmin has pioneered on modern smartwatches, and I am blown away.

Beyond all of this, the Garmin Connect IQ store allows you to expand the possibilities of the Instinct 3 AMOLED. I’ll get into that more when I cover hiking and navigating with the watch.

Health & Wellness Monitoring

I blame my competitive nature for my adoption of things like knowing how many steps I’ve taken and what my heart rate is. However, I’ve never been one to monitor my sleep patterns. Well, that’s all changed now. During setup, I was asked if I wanted to enable the Morning Report (Sleep Tracking) feature. This puts the Instinct 3 AMOLED into a soft sleep mode (you still get smartphone notifications), and when you wake up, it gives you a report of how you slept.

If I wasn’t testing this watch, I might not have opted into this. But I am glad I did as I am more conscious of when I go to bed every night, which I now try to do at the same time every night — 43 is a great age to start being responsible about stuff like this.

Regarding the heart monitor, I’ve read some complaints about it not being the latest and greatest that Garmin has to offer, and I did my due diligence and compared my heart rate during activities and while at rest. The numbers matched up with my Apple Watch Ultra. And, not for nothing, Apple Watches are the industry standard right now. That said, I couldn’t find any issues worth reporting.

One feature that I can’t use but that I think is wicked cool — especially with a preteen daughter — is the Women’s Health feature. This allows the user to track both menstrual cycles and pregnancy. As a dad, I can keep up with my daughter without prying into her life. For women, this is a wonderful benefit that keeps you from having to hunt down the right apps for your phone. 

LED Flashlight

If I could write solely on the LED flashlight, I would. It has come in handy for everything from navigating trails to my icy driveway at night. It also saved the day when I had to head into the basement to figure out why my solar battery backup didn’t kick in when the power went out during a storm a few weeks ago. Two clicks of the top left button allowed me to navigate through spiderwebs and snake skins.

Additionally, the Instinct 3 AMOLED has a Red Shift mode where you can turn the display to red to save your eyes and be a little less noticeable at night. Pairing this with the red light setting on the flashlight is an excellent experience. I’ve long used the red light setting on my headlamps when hiking at night. This is a nice feature to have when I don’t have a headlight or I need to read a map. 

Maps (Deal With It!)

In the last decade, aside from testing watches, I’ve never been concerned about detailed maps, turn-by-turn directions, or anything like that. Even when I owned a Fenix 7, I never used the watch as my GPS, and that was a major feature. That’s what my phone is for. That’s what your phone is for as well.

However, I do understand where people are coming from in wanting the convenience of using one device to track their activities and help them navigate. If you want that, you can buy a Fenix.

However, I guarantee that at some point, a majority of people who go that route will end up using All-Trails, Gaia GPS, or even Garmin Explore on their phones. It’s much easier to refer to a 5-inch-plus phone screen than a 1- to 1½-inch watch face. #facts.

The caveat to that is those folks running ultra-marathons and people going on trailblazing expeditions. You all are an inspirational yet different breed of human being. You keep doing what you do.

That all said, you can download maps to the Instinct 3 AMOLED from your smartphone. This is common with quite a few Garmin products. It requires you to think about where you’re going ahead of time, take a few minutes to find your trail, and download it to the watch.

Garmin recommends Wikiloc, and I have been using it since I started testing the watch. It’s a simple map app that shows you that you’re heading in the right direction on your path. $20 a year gives you access to a massive database of trails that you can use and even add to. You can also follow the trail markers on the trail, you silly gooses!

Battery Life Goes a Long Way

Coming from an Apple Watch Ultra, the battery life on the Instinct 3 is a real treat. At the time of writing, I have only charged it once, 22 days after I first put it on. Garmin claims that I could get 24 days out of a single charge, but you won’t catch me complaining.

For the first week, I was constantly fiddling with settings to get everything just right for my needs. I figured that alone would have drained a couple of days’ worth of juice, but it barely moved the needle.

When you consider the half dozen hikes I logged, the constant heart rate monitoring, and even the sleep tracking and phone notifications, that’s a lot going on. Even with Garmin’s 24-day claim, I wasn’t expecting to get 2 weeks out of it. So, color me surprised.

Charging

When it comes to charging the Instinct 3, Garmin doesn’t stray from its proprietary charging path. The brand has long used a specific four-pin cable for its watches. That hasn’t changed for the Instinct 3, and I have a love/hate relationship with it. It’s just another cable I need to keep tabs on; however, the upgrade to USB-C on the power source end is a bonus. 

Considering the watch’s overall height, I am not sure Garmin could switch to a standard USB-C cable. The plug is too tall, so it would still need to provide a specific cable. I only need to deal with it every few weeks, so it’s not a deal-breaker for me.

In Conclusion: Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED

When it comes to watches, I go from being a casual user to being addicted to what it can do for me, like the moon phases. I found the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED to be easy to jump into. The buttons are clearly labeled, and after a few days, you understand what menus you can access through each button as well as what holding the buttons can do.

There’s no touchscreen here, nor does there need to be. The only reason I would want a touchscreen on this phone is to wake it up, as sometimes raising the watch to view it doesn’t work (usually when lying down). But after wearing an Apple Watch Ultra for 2 years and switching over to the Instinct 3, there was little to no adjustment for me.

I would also like to add that a majority of what I have written in this review pertains to the 45mm version of the Instinct 3 AMOLED. I am a bigger guy, and I like big watches, but you might prefer a smaller version.

Overall, I am pleased with the watch. Considering how much smartwatches are going for these days, $500 is right in the middle. For what you’re getting out of it, I believe the price of the Instinct 3 AMOLED is justified.

If you’re looking for a rugged GPS-enabled smartwatch, I think you’ll enjoy what the Instinct 3 AMOLED has to offer. It’s easy to use, it looks fantastic, and that LED flashlight is going to spoil you rotten.