I tried the Garmin Instinct 3 at CES 2025, a new smartwatch with a 24-day battery

CES 2025

Read and watch our complete CES coverage here

Updated less than 14 minutes ago

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

What’s new with the Garmin Instinct 3?

More than just a new display

Garmin Instinct 3 price and availability

Garmin is well known for an incredibly diverse array of devices — many of which make up the best fitness trackers and best smartwatches — and the company has just added to its lineup with the new Instinct 3 series. The Instinct lineup has always been known for excellent battery life, and the new Garmin Instinct 3 continues that but also offers an upgraded display for the first time.

Three years after the Instinct 2 was first launched, the Instinct 3 brings a few new features, but the headline feature is an upgraded AMOLED display. Like the Garmin Instinct 2, there is also still an option for a lower-resolution solar model equipped with a monochrome MIP display.

Recommended Videos

I spent a few minutes with the Instinct 3 series at Garmin’s media preview in Las Vegas at CES 2025, and here’s everything you need to know.

Related

  • The new Lenovo Legion Tab is the Nexus 7 replacement I’ve waited years for

  • Anker announced a power bank at CES 2025 unlike any I’ve seen before

  • Garmin just launched two new smartwatches to take on the Apple Watch Ultra

What’s new with the Garmin Instinct 3?

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

The Garmin Instinct 3 brings a few iconic Garmin features to the rugged Incite lineup. Like the Garmin Fenix 8, there’s a built-in flashlight (for the first time on an Instinct watch), which is brighter than ever and accessible via a double press of a button. It comes with variable intensities and also features a strobe mode, which is ideal when you need a quick burst of light, whether in a deep cave or just rummaging through a bag.

The Instinct 3 is designed to be your rugged smartwatch companion, but Garmin recognized that some people don’t just want a monochrome smartwatch; they want a full-color display. This is where the new AMOLED option comes in, and like the rest of the Incite lineup, it promises long battery life, with Garmin saying it should last 24 days on a single charge.

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

The solar version, meanwhile, is designed to never need a charge, with Garmin saying it has an unlimited battery life. In reality, however, this is if you spend your time outdoors and live in a place with good sunlight, but even if you are perpetually indoors, the low-res monochrome display means it should last around 50 days on a single charge. The upgraded solar capabilities mean the Instinct 3 gets up to five times the battery life of the Instinct 2 when tracking an outdoor run with GPS.

More than just a new display

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Like the rest of Garmin’s lineup, the Instinct 3 can display notifications from your phone and track your workouts/runs with integrated sensors, including an accelerometer and multi-band GPS.

The Instinct 3 series also comes with a metal-reinforced bezel that promises better durability, and it’s protected against thermal and shock resistance to the MIL-STD-810 standard. There’s also water resistance up to 100 meters, although there’s no specific rating for scuba and deep sea diving.

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

If you’ve used a Garmin product before, you’ll be used to the suite of health features on the Instinct 3, which includes tracking steps, continuous heart rate monitoring, and advanced sleep monitoring. Each morning, you’ll also get a report on the previous day, including your activities and sleep HRV (heart rate variability), as well as a look ahead to your calendar that day.

Garmin Instinct 3 price and availability


Previous


Next

1 of 4

Morning report on the Garmin Instinct 3

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Arm training routine on the Garmin Instinct 3

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

VO2 Max screen on the Garmin Instinct 3

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Activities menu on the Garmin Instinct 3

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Both models of the Instinct 3 come in two sizes — 45mm and 50mm — as well as a host of colorways. If you want something that doesn’t stand out and blends into your daily life, there are the black and black/Charcoal models, but my favorites are the other two colors.

Part of the limited-edition Tropical collection, the blue and light green colorways are unique and different. In particular, the latter has a gorgeous bronze metal frame underneath that is striking and different. Garmin said it plans to sell these straps separately as well, although there’s a limited amount of each colorway being made available.

The Instinct 3 starts at $400 for the 45mm solar model, with the larger size costing $50 more. The AMOLED version starts at $450, with the same premium for the larger size. Both models will be available to order from January 10, but Garmin hasn’t revealed exactly when they’ll ship to customers.

Editors’ Recommendations

  • This CES 2025 power bank doubles as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and I love it

  • Satechi brought new Qi2 chargers to CES 2025, and they look great

  • I tested the battery life of 3 popular smartwatches, and the results surprised me

  • The new Garmin Lily 2 isn’t like other smartwatches

  • Garmin’s Instinct 2X Solar smartwatch never needs charging




Related posts

Latest posts

Apple’s Vision Pro is getting the M5 chip, but that’s not what it really needs

Apple’s M5 chip is coming to the Vision Pro, but that’s not the change the headset really needs. Instead, Apple should be prioritizing a more affordable model.

This music app is doing something different in the Apple App Store

A new music app called Practice Pro has decided against the popular freemium model, and gone in a different direction to attract downloads.

The U.K. wants unchecked access to all iPhones worldwide

Using an infamous legal provision, the UK government has reportedly ordered Apple to let it access encrypted cloud data of all iPhone users across the globe.

This One UI 7 update just made my Galaxy S25 Ultra way more fun

Good Lock's updated Home Up module brings new ways to experiement with your home screen on the Galaxy S25 series, and I'm hooked.

Your smartwatch will soon be able to detect signs of heart failure

Fresh research details a method than can detect congestive heart failure (CHF) using smartwatch ECG data with an impressive 90% accuracy in patients.

This Acer Predator gaming PC with RTX 4070 Ti Super is $350 off

The Acer Predator Orion 5000 gaming PC, featuring the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super graphics card and 32GB of RAM, is on sale from Best Buy at $350 off.

New iPad Air incoming? There’s a low stock warning

The next iPad Air could be revealed in just a few weeks.

Samsung might return to all-Exynos for its Galaxy S26 lineup

Samsung has seen successful early yields with the Exynos 2600, its in-house chip slated for use with the Galaxy S26.

Google Messages might let you unsend awkward messages in RCS chats

Google Messages could receive a "delete for everyone" feature, allowing you to recall messages, but only in RCS enabled chats.

Grab this Lenovo Legion gaming PC while it’s under $1,000

The Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 8 gaming PC with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 processor, AMD Radeon RX 7600 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM is a steal for under $1,000,