Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED Review

Design and screen

• Available in two colours
• Features AMOLED and analogue hands
• Waterproof up to 100 metres

The Instinct series in general does conjure up thoughts of Casio’s G-Shock series of watches. Especially the bezel-dominating look offering extra display protection. The 46mm-sized case gives it a similar stature to the 47mm-sized Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and the 47mm version of Garmin’s Fenix 9 Pro. 

The polymer and stainless bezel give the Crossover a different feel from other outdoor smartwatches. Then you get to the display. You’ve got a 1.2-inch, 390 x 390 AMOLED screen, which, unlike other AMOLED-packing Garmin watches, isn’t a touchscreen one. That means using the pretty grippy array of physical buttons to navigate menu screens and data screens.

On top of that AMOLED panel are a set of analogue hands. When they’re not telling the time in a traditional analogue watch fashion, they’ll dynamically get out of the way to still let you view notifications or your real-time data.

My overall feeling about the analogue addition is that, most of the time, it’s not a nuisance. But do I think it’s adding massive value to using it over other watches? Not really. I like that the hands illuminate at night and can be turned into a compass. Beyond that, I wish Garmin came up with some more inventive ways to embrace those physical hands.

Elsewhere, you’re getting a removable 22mm strap that does rely on a slightly trickier QuickFit band mechanism. Around the back is Garmin’s Gen 4 Elevate optical heart rate sensor, so that’s not its latest sensor technology. It’s also where you’ll find the same charging port found on pretty much all Garmin watches.

At the top of the case you’ll spy an LED flashlight, which I did find more useful. You can adjust the brightness and switch to a red light mode, for a more penetrative source of light. I’ve used it for a fair few nighttime outings and generally around my flat, and it’s certainly bright enough to be a useful source of light.

If you care about waterproofing, the Crossover does offer a strong level of protection. A 10ATM-rated design means it can be submerged in water up to 100 metres depth. Add in the sapphire crystal protecting the glass against scratches and a design tested to military standards of durability, and you can be pretty content with just how rugged this watch is.

Performance and software

• Runs on Garmin’s own operating system
• Works with Android and iOS 
• Lacks some newer smartwatch features

Garmin keeps its watch software in-house and usually keeps the experience pretty consistent across its watches. That said, the Crossover isn’t your standard AMOLED watch – mainly because of those added analogue watch hands.

It does mean this isn’t exactly the same software you’ll find on other Garmin watches, with elements of the interface tweaked to compensate for those added hands.

That said, you can still find your widget stream from the main watch face screen, while holding down the top physical button gets you to the quick settings menu, so it’s not an entirely new experience. You also still have the ability to change watch faces as well as adjust the highlight colour used on the watch hands.

Outside of that, this is a watch you can view notifications on and access Garmin’s Connect IQ Store to add more apps. I found some apps weren’t fully optimised for the Crossover’s more unique screen design, and not having the touchscreen functionality slows the process of searching the storefront as well. There’s also only 4GB of memory compared to the larger 64GB of storage you get on other Instinct Crossover models.

There is support for Garmin’s Pay contactless payments, though you miss out on features like a music player and some of Garmin’s more recent voice-powered smarts. That includes Bluetooth calls, the ability to record voice memos and accessing your smartphone’s smart assistant. 

There’s enough of a smartwatch here without all of those extras. You just need to get used to the design quirk that can at times feel like a hindrance. 

Tracking and features

• Daily suggested workouts and animated workouts 
• Features multiband GPS technology
• Breadcrumb navigation, no full colour maps 

As its rugged build suggests, the Instinct Crossover is designed to mostly live outside. It also has the sensors and features to be a useful workout companion indoors as well. 

It’s got you covered for core sports (running, cycling and swimming), with a dedicated mode for golf also included. You’ll also find a host of profiles for activities including strength training, skiing, team sports like football, and it even has a mode for tracking snowmobile rides.

A big addition from previous Instinct Crossover models is multi-band GPS, giving you access to Garmin’s most accurate positioning tracking technology, which in turn demands more battery than other GPS modes. I’ve been using the Crossover against great-performing dual-band smartwatches like the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and watches from Suunto. The performance across the board has been very good.

One thing the Instinct Crossover disappointingly lacks is access to full colour maps. Especially as you can find it on cheaper, albeit slightly older AMOLED watches like the Garmin Forerunner 965. It remains a key differentiator between buying an Instinct watch and a Fenix.

You can still upload routes, but you’ll instead have to make use of Garmin’s simpler breadcrumb navigation. It still provides an effective way of staying on the right path, but the missing touchscreen support makes scrolling and navigating routes a bit less slick.

Swap the great outdoors for staying inside, and you’ll find plenty of features to tap into, like the ability to build and follow workouts, including HIIT-style ones. Many of those workouts feature animated prompts to make sure you’re doing the correct movements.

I synced some of Garmin’s own workouts to the watch, though not all were fully compatible with the watch.

Before you get moving, you’ll get to see the parts of the body your workout will focus on getting into better shape. Then the analogue hands move to the 3 and 9 clock positions to make room for the animations presented at the top of the screen. While not having the animations entirely fill up the screen wasn’t problematic, it did make reminding myself of the movement a less glanceable thing to do. 

From a training perspective, there’s a lot of the good Garmin stuff most will be happy to see. Like Training Readiness scores, useful suggested workouts, access to Garmin Coach or features like Garmin’s Body Battery energy monitor. Basically, there are features here that can help to make sure you’re making more informed decisions about your exercise, sleep and everything else in between, and that’s a positive.

Heart rate is always a good gauge of your effort during workouts, even if Garmin does include its older Gen 4 heart rate sensor technology. That means you miss out on support for ECG heart rate measurements and the ability to monitor skin temperature.

For day-to-day monitoring, the heart rate sensor performs reliably in spite of its slightly hulking body. During exercise, particularly high-intensity efforts like interval training, the Crossover shows a bit more of a struggle. It’s not a horror show performance though, and I was able to swiftly pair external heart rate sensors both from Garmin and MyZone to get a more accurate hit of heart rate data.

If you’re happy to take the Crossover to bed, it can monitor sleep and will also track naps as well as let you set up smart alarms to gently rouse you in the morning. I’ve found Garmin’s sleep tracking one of its poorer qualities, however, especially when it comes to accurately recognising when you’ve fallen asleep and woken up the following morning.

That said, there are signs that things are improving. I’ve been wearing it to bed alongside the Oura Ring 5 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, and for data like sleep duration, it generally matched up. It rarely matched up with the sleep stages data from the other devices, though that’s not to say the Oura and Apple were more accurate. I just know, based on my experience, that they generally seem to tell a pretty reliable story of that sleep time.

• Up to 14 days battery life in smartwatch mode
• Up to 5 days with always-on display mode
• 18 hours-12 days GPS battery life

The Instinct Crossover AMOLED has the capability to last two weeks when you’re mainly using its smartwatch features, though it’s going to be less than that when you put the GPS and sensors like heart rate to regular daily use. The overall battery numbers are also shorter than Garmin’s memory-in-pixel-display-packing Instinct Crossover. 

What you do get is a smartwatch that isn’t going to leave you with minimal battery even after a day of heavy usage. If you’re planning to go away for a few days and you’re not planning on packing the charger, you’ll likely be fine. If you decide to track outdoor workouts with the most accurate GPS mode, however, the difference in battery is essentially halved. A two-hour trail run saw battery drop by 20%

You can make it track for up to 53 hours if you switch it to the more restrictive expedition mode, and it can last for up to 12 days when you’re using the most basic GPS mode. I never felt massively shortchanged with the battery life, though you can get AMOLED outdoor watches that can go longer for less money than the cost of the Instinct Crossover AMOLED.

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Should you buy it?