Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Features, Performance, and Battery Life Explained

Bandletic’s Verdict

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED has been fully upgraded in terms of display, design, and functionality, making it ideal for both outdoor adventures and everyday wear. It features a bright AMOLED display, precise GPS, and a built-in LED flashlight, while supporting multiple sports modes and comprehensive health monitoring. Additionally, it includes practical functions such as Garmin Connect and mobile payments. 

With outstanding battery life, it strikes a perfect balance between functionality and durability, making it an excellent choice for professional athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. You can also the Garmin Instinct 3 review to know more information.

Pros:

• Bright AMOLED display
• Excellent battery life (especially in the solar version)
• Built-in LED flashlight
• Rugged and durable design, suitable for harsh environments
• Accurate multi-frequency GPS and breadcrumb navigation
• Extensive sports modes with advanced training and recovery features
• Comprehensive health tracking (sleep, HRV, performance readiness, etc.)

Cons:

• No offline map navigation
• No touchscreen (including the AMOLED version)
• AMOLED version consumes more power

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Specifications

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Design

The Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED has undergone a comprehensive design upgrade, featuring a reinforced metal bezel that enhances durability while giving the watch a sleek and modern look. The new design blends the minimalist aesthetics of the Instinct 2 with the screw-tightened structure of the Instinct 2X, delivering a perfect balance of professionalism and ruggedness. The watch comes with a variety of official strap color options to suit different styles.

If you're looking for more choices in materials and designs, you can consider the Bandletic. Bandletic, a sport watch bands brand, specializes in high-quality smartwatch wrist bands, such as Apple Watch bands, Garmin Watch bands,  Samsung Watch bands, and Fitbit Watch bands, offering durable and stylish options designed specifically for challenging outdoor adventures. With a wide range of styles and excellent value for money, Bandletic ensures you can find the perfect Garmin Instinct Watch bands that matches your needs. Whether for outdoor exploration or everyday wear, this watch strikes the perfect balance between functionality and fashion.

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Display

The Instinct 3 AMOLED features an AMOLED display that offers superior clarity, vibrant colors, and excellent contrast. Compared to traditional LCD screens, the AMOLED panel delivers deeper blacks and richer colors, ensuring a sharper and more detailed viewing experience for time, notifications, health data, and more.

The redesigned UI retains the Instinct series' signature circular data fields but integrates them seamlessly through software optimization, making the interface cleaner, more intuitive, and capable of displaying more information at once. Additionally, the Instinct 3 AMOLED includes a night vision red light mode, which reduces screen brightness in low-light environments to minimize eye strain while keeping information clearly visible. Whether you're embarking on an outdoor adventure or using it in everyday life, this smartwatch delivers an outstanding display experience with smooth and user-friendly interactions.

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Versatile LED Flashlight for Outdoor Safety

The Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED features a built-in LED flashlight with dual light sources - white and red - to adapt to various outdoor lighting needs. The high-brightness white light provides excellent illumination for nighttime exploration, while the soft red light minimizes disruption to the environment, making it ideal for night activities requiring low brightness.

A key highlight is the strobe mode, offering multiple flashing patterns, including long flash, short flash, and SOS signal light, which can be crucial for emergencies or signaling others. The adjustable brightness settings include four levels for white light and one for red light, with quick activation and deactivation via a double press of the Light button.

With its dual light sources, customizable strobe functions, and smart brightness control, the Instinct 3 AMOLED’s LED flashlight enhances visibility, safety, and convenience for outdoor adventurers.

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Sports and Health Features

The Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED excels in sports and health monitoring, making it ideal for active users and outdoor adventurers.

Multiple Sports Modes

It includes various sports modes such as hiking, MTB mountain biking, skiing, and surfing, with real-time data tracking like exercise time, distance, speed, and heart rate. After the activity, a detailed data card is generated to assess performance. It syncs with the Garmin Connect App to generate reports and optimize training plans.

All-day Health Monitoring

Real-time monitoring of key health metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen, with alerts for abnormalities. The Health Snapshot feature provides a comprehensive health report in just two minutes, ideal for busy users.

Sleep and Stress Tracking

Includes advanced sleep tracking and heart rate variability (HRV) monitoring. The "Good Morning" feature provides sleep and HRV reports, helping users plan their daily activities.

Accurate Navigation and Positioning

Supports multi-frequency GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo) for precise positioning even in challenging environments. It includes TracBack and elevation data, ensuring you don't get lost during outdoor activities.

100+ Sports Modes

With over 100 sports modes, including HIIT training, strength training, and yoga, it meets various exercise needs.

Professional Health Data

Offers real-time heart rate monitoring, VO2 Max analysis, training load assessment, and Pulse Ox (blood oxygen) for high-altitude use, helping to optimize training and recovery.

The Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED is a feature-rich smartwatch that combines sports tracking and health monitoring, making it perfect for all types of sports and outdoor activities.

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Smart Features for Everyday Use

The Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED has been extensively upgraded in terms of smart features, offering more than just outdoor and sports functionalities, and enhancing the overall daily user experience.

NFC Payment for Convenience

The watch supports WeChat Pay, Alipay, and Alipay transportation codes, allowing users to make payments without needing cash or cards. Whether shopping, dining, or using public transportation, users can complete payments with just a tap of the watch, making transactions more efficient and convenient.

Garmin Connect, Efficient Data Sharing

With Bluetooth wireless transmission, users can easily share courses, routes, and waypoints between compatible devices. This ensures that outdoor adventurers stay in sync with teammates, enhancing the overall experience while exploring.

Smart Notifications, Always Stay Connected

Compatible with both iOS and Android devices, the Instinct 3 AMOLED supports WeChat, email, and call notifications, ensuring you stay updated with important information even during activities or outdoor adventures.

Music Storage, Enjoy Music Anytime

The watch supports Spotify and other music services, allowing users to store songs and listen through Bluetooth headphones, adding rhythm to your workout.

Garmin Pay for Contactless Payments

Built-in Garmin Pay offers offline payments and NFC transit card functionality, making it easy to leave your wallet behind while exercising or commuting.

With powerful smart features and convenient payment capabilities, the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED proves to be an excellent assistant for both sports and everyday life.

Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED Review - Battery Life

The Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED excels in battery life. In smart mode, the battery lasts up to 24 days; in GPS mode, it lasts approximately 40 hours, and in multi-satellite and multi-frequency multi-satellite modes, it lasts about 32 hours and 30 hours, respectively. In the most power-efficient GPS mode, the battery can last up to 86 hours.

The battery life of this smartwatch not only meets daily use needs but also provides ample power for outdoor adventures. In real-world usage, the battery consumption remains stable, even with multiple features enabled, ensuring users don't need to worry about running out of power.