Copyright derryjournal
It's fair to say I was something of an early adopter when it came to switching to a smartwatch. I leapt on the trend in 2012 with an alarmingly basic Sony device, and I've been keeping up with the innovations since then. And, as a consumer journalist, I get to test various makes and models. But I've got a friend who's obsessed with Garmin watches, and he frequently pesters me to try one out. Partly to shut him up, I took the nice people at Garmin up on an invitation recently to try out a watch from their latest launches, and a shiny new Instinct Crossover AMOLED arrived at my desk. It's part of the rugged range and, at a rather hefty £519.99, it's not one of their cheapest options. But, remarkably, it's by no means one of their most expensive either. It's actually possible to spend three times that amount on a Garmin watch. And I thought my trusty Huawei Ultimate was an indulgence. On that note, moving over from a long spell wearing a Chinese smartwatch to a Garmin device has been an interesting journey. Where the Huawei Ultimate is heavy and hewn from gorgeous metals, the Instinct Crossover AMOLED is more dainty, more akin to the Casio models I cycled through before my smartwatch days. That's not to say it's not robust though, far from it. It's a chunky watch by any measure, but it contours beautifully around the wrist, even my unusually thin wrists. It straps on with a precisely-fitting rubber strap and it feels lightweight and comfortable. The display, being AMOLED, is bright and easy to read in any light, while the buttons, of which there are many, are nicely weighted and easy to find in the dark. The word "Crossover" in the name, refers to this watch's trump card, because it has a pair of analogue watch hands. These give it a classic look, but they also serve a host of other purposes, because they move dynamically. So, for example, if you open a menu, or you receive a notification, they instantly open up flat, like a soldier standing to attention, to ensure they're not in the way. Engage the built-in compass and they line up to serve as a direct arrow moving around the compass points as you change direction. Especially with their configurable lights built in, they're rather exquisite, and they add an air of sophistication, at the same time as serving as a dumb watch function when the screen is off. It might sound like that's the cleverest thing this watch does and, in a sense, it is, but this being a Garmin, it's got so much more to offer beyond a fancy pair of hands. Among the headline features on offer with the Instinct Crossover AMOLED are multi-band GNSS with SatIQ for stronger, more reliable positioning, a built-in LED flashlight, countless sensors, including heart rate and SpO₂ measurement, HRV status and body battery energy monitoring. There's an NFC payment system, smart notifications, an array of watch faces, and a battery that can last for over two weeks. In practice, everything works well. Really well. Battery life, for me, with everything setup the way I like it, is more like a week than two weeks, but that's still impressive. And the sensors are superb. The health insights you can access in the Garmin Connect app are quite remarkable, and the way you can track your workouts, rest periods, sleep patterns, and general health indicators is pretty much unrivalled. I've lived with smartwatches from the likes of FitBit, Apple, Samsung, and plenty of Chinese brands, and they all do a decent job of health tracking, but Garmin takes it to another level. It also syncs up beautifully with third-party systems like Strava, and you can link it up to heart monitors, bike computers, and other devices in the Garmin ecosystem. And it's this phenomenal range of capabilities that gives it the trait I least like about it. It is fiercely complicated. Spend enough time getting to know what each button does, and what each menu, sub-menu, and section of the app does, and you'll start to get your head around it all. But I've honestly never known such a steep learning curve with smartwatch. I've actually spent longer setting this watch up than I have some smartphones I've used. I do think Garmin could simplify its Connect app a bit, and the watch's layout is quite intuitive, but there's so much to learn and, because there's no touch-screen, mastering the five-button layout really does take some time and it's always quite fiddly compared to the capacitive displays we're now so used to. But I do think that's as far as I can go in criticisms of the Instinct Crossover AMOLED. I've been blown away by how clever it is, and the extent to which you can fine-tune it to be the perfect on-wrist health tracker. I'm by no means a fitness fanatic, but I do like to keep track of my goals, and I've always been aware that most true fitness fanatics choose to wear a Garmin. I can certainly see why now. And even for couch potatoes like me, it's a device I'll find it hard to give back. I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
