I really like the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED, even if one thing keeps me from loving it

These days, new GPS watches (and smartwatches in general) seem to be all about more, more, more. If they’re not adding something new like better battery life, new activities to track, or upgraded smart assistant features, why waste your time? I know that to be true, partly because I’m guilty of it, too — look at my recent Garmin Fenix 8 and Enduro 3 reviews. I praised Garmin for finding ways to add new wrinkles, and I am perfectly happy to brush off their nearly $1,000 price tags.

And yet, ever since I strapped on the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED, I’ve seen things differently. I’ve been adapting to life without a touchscreen or a smart assistant and loving it. It’s the opposite of the Garmin experience I’m used to, yet one that I’ve enjoyed far more than I thought I would. In some ways, the Instinct 3 has put the adventure back into my adventure watch, which makes its main flaw that much more frustrating.

Living out my G-Shock dreams

When I was younger, I thought the Casio G-Shock was the coolest-looking watch on the market. It was big and bulky and looked like it could take a beating. Better yet, it came in a ton of bright, borderline obnoxious colors that warmed my neon-loving middle-school heart. Eventually, I grew up and moved on to slimmer, more mature smartwatches like the pebble-like Pixel Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 for life between workouts. My fondness for a chunky, rugged wearable remained, though, and when I saw the Instinct 3 AMOLED in its Neo Tropic color (pictured above, below, and everywhere), I was taken back in time.

And luckily for me, I received that same Miami Dolphins-esque Neo Tropic version for review, this time in Garmin’s smaller 45mm case. While I’ll readily admit that it’s impossible to match a watch that looks like toothpaste with a glass of orange juice to anything in my closet, I like that it’s a bright, bold wearable. Of course, Garmin also offers its Instinct 3 AMOLED in a basic black version for both the 45mm and 50mm cases if you want something more subtle. Either way, Garmin’s new stainless aluminum-reinforced bezel acts as its pop of color, offering peace of mind should you clatter your watch against a wall while rock climbing or slip on ice while running — ask me how I know.

Once you’ve settled on your size and color, navigating the Garmin Instinct 3 is about as simple as possible. This is the first Garmin watch I’ve used in quite a while that comes without a touchscreen, so you’ll have to become very comfortable with the five-button setup and the flashlight (marked Torch) tucked on the top edge. I struggled with this at first, almost instinctively (get it?) swiping with my finger whenever I wanted to check my sleep report or pull up a notification from my phone. Since then, though, I’ve retrained my brain to reach for the buttons on the left side of the small frame when I need to jump back and forth. If I have one complaint with the buttons on the Instinct 3 AMOLED, it’s the fact that they’re almost flush with the frame. I often miss them when I think I’ve pressed them, and I accidentally pull my own arm hair just as often.

Bare patch on my wrist aside, the largely plastic Instinct 3 AMOLED has another benefit I didn’t expect: It disappears on my wrist. After spending a few months with bigger, heavier watches like the Enduro 3 and Fenix 8 AMOLED, the mere 53g feels almost invisible. It’s only about 10g lighter than the Enduro 3, which surprised me, given that Garmin’s ultra-focused watch is a full 6mm larger. Perhaps I can chalk some of that invisibility up to the fact that I can get a much tighter fit from the Instinct’s smaller body and the more natural curve of its built-in silicone band.

Of course, longtime Instinct fans will remember that Garmin boasted about the potential for limitless battery life on the previous generation thanks to a solar charging ring. Essentially, the idea was that if you were getting outside and being active enough with your watch, the solar intake would out-pace the battery drain from the GPS tracking and Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) display. So, for the latest Instinct to adopt an AMOLED face, you might be worried that those limitless battery days are a thing of the past. Well, fear not, as there are now two Instinct models to choose from.

Yes, I may be reviewing the AMOLED version, but Garmin also offers an Instinct 3 Solar in 45mm and 50mm case sizes if you’re hoping for limitless battery life (assuming you spend enough time in the sun). You’ll have to trade the special Neo Tropic color for a Twilight version, but the rest of the features are pretty much the same as far as buttons, health tracking, and display sizes go. Perhaps the main decision you’ll face is whether or not you think the MiP display is bright enough for use in strong sunlight.

Although it doesn’t have unlimited battery life, the Instinct 3 AMOLED is no slouch. Garmin claims that its smaller 45mm version is good for 18 days between charges, while the larger 50mm model should hit 24 days before you’re searching for your proprietary cable. Actual usage is often slightly lower, so let’s move on to activity tracking.

Activity tracking remains second to none

Although my last two Garmin reviews came during beautifully busy parts of the year (marathon season for yours truly), the Instinct 3 AMOLED arrived at a different moment: The middle of a frigid, snowy winter. And, on the one hand, that’s great — I still like to pretend I’m young enough to sled down the hills of Baltimore’s Patterson Park — but it’s made the rest of my winter workouts just a bit tougher. Oh, and the problems I mentioned with pressing the five buttons around the Instinct 3 don’t exactly go away when I’m trying to do so in thick gloves.

Cold weather aside, when it comes right down to it, the Instinct 3 AMOLED is still a reliable, action-packed Garmin GPS watch. Despite my protestations as I pull on a third shirt or a second pair of tights to head out into the ten-degree morning (that’s Fahrenheit, not Celsius), my watch is ready to go when I press the button to start my run. And, since I’m not currently training for a marathon — though I’m training for a different type of race that I’ll touch on in a second —I’ve had no problem with the Instinct 3 lasting through all of my runs, both while I was at the CES 2025 trade show recently (where we gave this same watch an award) and since I’ve returned home.

They’ve been shorter runs of between three and nine miles, but I’ve logged eleven and a half hours worth of activity and only had to find the proprietary USB-C charger that came with the Instinct 3 as I sat down to write this review. While that might not sound terribly impressive if I’d received my Instinct 3 AMOLED for review with a fully charged battery, I unboxed it in Las Vegas at around an 80% charge and opted to plug it in with about 9% of its battery remaining.

While my watch charges — which should only take about 90 minutes — let’s look at one of the longer runs I logged while home. I decided to test both the watch and myself, heading out for a run on a knee that felt less than perfect after a training run in Harper’s Ferry. Despite expecting quite a bit of discomfort as I trucked around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, my knee and the Instinct 3 spurred me to keep going. I followed the watch’s recommendation for the day, which was an hour and fifteen minutes of running between an 8:10 and 8:30 pace per mile, working out to right around nine miles.

Of course, nothing so far has come as a surprise to me. I’ve already used Garmin’s training plans to prepare for half marathons, and I’m used to the always-excellent battery life that I can expect from a GPS watch that’s not truly attempting to be a smartwatch. But, with the Instinct 3 AMOLED sporting the previous fourth-generation Elevate heart rate sensor rather than the fifth-generation sensor that I’ve used on more recent wearables, I was curious if I’d notice any change in its reliability. At a glance, the answer to that question seems to be both yes and no.

The reason that I say both yes and no to the reliability of the fourth-generation Elevate sensor is pretty much because of what you see above. Although there are no odd or wayward spikes — the peaks and valleys seem to follow the elevation of my running route — the tiny little spikes surprised me. It looks as though the Instinct 3 AMOLED struggled to make up its mind on a per-beat basis, especially where it looks like saw teeth for the minute or so that I spent at 160 beats per minute. On the other hand, most of my recent runs with a fifth-generation Elevate sensor seem to sit at a steady heart rate for longer, moving gently up and down rather than spiking.

Interestingly, though, Garmin’s record of my elevation tells the opposite story, holding me slightly flatter at certain points before stair-stepping me up or down. I don’t necessarily think that this makes the elevation readout inaccurate — I’d be surprised if I had fluctuated more than six meters while heading around the harbor. Still, it suggests that Garmin’s slightly older hardware might not record as many data points as the newer sensors.

On the bright side, the Instinct 3 AMOLED largely nailed my pathway through the tall buildings of Harbor East. This is often a spot I’ll pick out when testing a fitness tracker through Baltimore, simply because most wearables have a habit of tossing me into the side of a building or pushing me out into the harbor. While there’s a little bit of that — notice the stretch right near Maritime Park — Garmin’s mapping largely kept me out on the roads and sidewalks I’ve learned to trust.

And, for those days when I’d rather not contribute too heavily to my weekly load of running laundry, the Instinct 3 AMOLED is an excellent bouldering companion. I mentioned how much I appreciate its compact size in the section above, but it comes in handy again when I’m trying to navigate plastic holds and swing for dynamic moves. I’ve yet to clatter the Instinct 3 AMOLED against anything in my home gym, which is especially impressive given the battle scars that both my Fenix 8 AMOLED and Enduro 3 bear. Like those other wearables, bouldering hardly makes a dent in the battery life of the Instinct 3 AMOLED, so I could easily spend all day at the gym and not sweat the remaining charge — at least, if my arms held up that long. Of course, if I do smack the Instinct 3 AMOLED against a hold, a volume, or anything else, I’m not sure how well its plastic body would respond. Hopefully, I don’t find out.

And yet, I’m trapped on familiar trails

Unfortunately, it’s time for the other shoe to drop — we have to talk about what’s missing from the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED. As I mentioned above, I’m not currently training for a road marathon or anything like that, but I am instead training for a looped, five-hour trail race. And, with a race like that, I need to spend a lot more of my time training on trails than on roads. Without getting into the tiniest of trail-running details, it takes a whole different set of muscles when you leave the pavement behind (read: I’m very sore).

But, part of training on trails means learning how to navigate trails, which can be done in one of two ways. First, you can set up every run as an out-and-back, running in a straight line until you decide it’s time to turn around. Out-and-backs are pretty straightforward, you’re making it impossible to take a wrong turn. Unfortunately, they don’t work well when running in a twisting, turning state park where everything is designed to be a loop or a series of loops. And when that happens, your best bet is to download a GPX map to your watch so that you can follow turn-by-turn directions. The only problem is that the Instinct 3 AMOLED doesn’t allow you to do that.

No, despite looking and feeling like a watch meant for hiking and adventuring, the feature that Garmin decided to cut to keep the price of the Instinct 3 series in check is mapping. Technically, you can make a breadcrumb trail to retrace your steps back to the start, but then you’re right back to the out-and-back that I described above. Also, I’m running a looped race, so I’d certainly like a watch with mapping support to guide my way — at least for the first trip around the circuit.

And yes, I know that Garmin had to make some sacrifices to keep the Instinct 3 priced at about half of what the Fenix or Enduro costs, but I can’t help feeling like it made the wrong call. I’m not sure what the right one would have been — the older heart rate sensor and non-removable watch band also feel like logical calls — but taking downloadable maps out of the equation feels like relegating the Instinct 3 AMOLED to light adventures only. Maybe the Instinct 3 series would have been better served by skipping the built-in flashlight or sticking with a MiP-only display, but then again, I like having an easy-to-access light on my wrist, and the AMOLED panel is a significant upgrade over the MiP face in bright conditions.

Thankfully, other everyday features like Garmin Pay, the Body Battery, and sleep tracking with a Morning Report have also been spared from the axe, so it’s not all bad, head-scratching news.

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED review: Oh, so close

At this point, I think I’m stuck. I want to love the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED — I do love about 90% of the watch — but I’m struggling to look past its major omission because of my own needs. I still think I’m perfectly happy to trust Garmin’s mid-priced GPS watch on familiar trails, weekly miles around the city, and trips to the climbing gym when I can’t be bothered to go outside, but that lack of mapping really gives me pause. For a watch that looks and feels so ready for adventure, if you’re a seasoned off-trail explorer, it can occasionally feel like a lifted Jeep that you can only take to the grocery store.

And yet, that will be more than enough for most people. If you’re just after a rugged-looking watch that comes without the sky-high price tag of something like Garmin’s Enduro 3 or Fenix 8, then the Instinct 3 AMOLED will be perfect for you. Besides, it still has the everyday features you’d want when you park your Jeep at the grocery store — like Garmin Pay — you’ll just have to follow a friend with a higher-spec watch when the trail gets dicey. You’ll still get Garmin’s excellent sleep tracking, women’s health metrics, and battery life that lasts weeks, too.

Oh, and if you do spring for the Instinct 3 AMOLED — in either the 45mm or 50mm case — I’d highly recommend the Neo Tropic colorway. It’s turned heads the entire time I’ve had it on my wrist and stands out among a sea of otherwise mostly black fitness trackers on my desk. Then again, there’s always the Instinct 3 Solar ($399.99 at Amazon), which offers the same base experience but rewards you considerably for spending time outdoors.

Of course, if you’re serious about trekking the trails and as bored by the idea of an out-and-back run as I am, then the Instinct 3 AMOLED is a bit tougher to recommend. Sure, you could keep a map on your phone or carry a dedicated GPS for your workouts, but then you’re adding weight to your setup and ultimately slowing yourself down to pull out your phone and glance at a map. So, if that’s the boat you find yourself in, it’s time to get creative with some alternatives.

Garmin’s Fenix 8 AMOLED ($999.99 at Amazon) and Enduro 3 ($899.99 at Amazon) are excellent, but they’re also twice as expensive as the Instinct 3 AMOLED and much larger. While you’ll get extra goodies like optional titanium bezels and battery life that goes all month long, you might be put off by the idea of a watch as large as Captain America’s shield on your wrist. I still think the 47mm Fenix 8 AMOLED is the best GPS watch I’ve ever used, but I also know that $1,000 is a steep price to pay if you’re not on an adventure almost every day. Also, the Enduro 3 will push you back to an older MiP display, but it’s hard to argue with a whole month of battery life.

Instead, I think the best map-toting alternatives to the Instinct 3 AMOLED meet somewhere in the middle. First is Garmin’s own Forerunner 965 ($599.99 at Garmin) — a road-running watch. It’s slightly larger than the Instinct and a bit more expensive, but it adds a larger case (47mm), a titanium bezel, and interchangeable watch bands to the setup. If not for access to Garmin’s more recent adventure watches, the road-centric Forerunner 965 would probably still be on my wrist. One other option to consider, though, is the Coros Pace Pro ($349 at Amazon). In short, it’s like Coros’s version of the Forerunner 965, pairing an AMOLED face with three weeks of battery life and downloadable maps. However, the Pace Pro is more affordable than its Garmin counterparts, mainly because it skips creature comforts like an NFC chip for wireless payments.