Garmin update restores solar charging on smartwatches for unlimited battery life

Long-time readers may recall this: While Garmin has been offering beta software versions for its smartwatches for quite some time, they haven't delivered via convenient over-the-air (OTA) updates even before the beta program existed. Instead, users had to connect their Garmin smartwatch to a computer as a mass storage device and then transfer a ZIP file to the watch, after which the installation would run automatically. Though not particularly complicated, this semi-manual update method does require access to a PC.

Garmin has now rolled out a new beta software version as a manual update for the following Instinct models: the Garmin Instinct 2, Instinct 2 Solar, (available on Amazon) Instinct 2S, Instinct 2S Solar, Instinct 2X, and Instinct Crossover. A separate file is available for each watch. The changelog is extremely short, covering just a single bug fix for an issue that could prevent solar charging.

Despite including only one change, this update to software version 17.11 may be significant. The solar-charging capability, coupled with low power consumption, is likely a key selling point of the solar-enabled Instinct 2 models, allowing them to achieve virtually unlimited battery life depending on usage – provided users aren’t constantly tracking activities while using GNSS mode at full capacity.