Garmin instinct 2 vs Garmin Vivoactive 4, both these watches are great for sports and other outdoor activities. They are in many ways alike, yet there are still plenty of differences and surely one will be a better fit for your needs than the other.
Which one is right for you?
Let’s start with a quick summary so you get the fastest possible answer to the question which one of these watches is right for you.
The Garmin instinct 2 has a better battery life and is more rugged. The Vivoactive 4 on the other hand is cheaper and comes with a better display.
The Instinct 2 is perfect for multiday hikers, hunters, adventurers… with a focus on people who tend to be away on adventures for longer than 1 day.
Alright, that’s a super short summary and we will get a lot more in-depth later in this article, but in my opinion, these are the biggest differences. The key decision making factor here would be battery life vs display quality and price.
For people who don’t want to charge their watch every day (when using it in GPS or tracking mode) the Garmin Instinct 2 should be the obvious pick (multiday hiking, cycling, etc). However, if you don’t care too much about the battery life, the comparison becomes a lot harder.
If you don’t care much about the extreme ruggedness of the Garmin Instinct 2 (the Vivoactive is still pretty robust) and you don’t care about the difference in battery life, the Vivoactive 4 might be the right choice.
Prices can also change dramatically over time, so I would recommend checking the price on amazon before deciding anything. A good deal might be the perfect tie-breaker.
Features – Instinct 2 vs Vivoactive 4
The features are pretty similar between the vivoactive 4 and the Instinct 2, they both support a ton of different activity tracking modes, they can both connect to Garmin IQ (Garmin’s app store).
However you can’t store any music on the Garmin Instinct 2, you don’t have wifi, there is no touchscreen and you cannot use garmin pay on the base edition of the garmin instinct 2. Note that garmin pay is available if you buy the solar edition of the Instinct.
All these features are available on the Vivoactive 4, if you really care about some of these features, that might be the deciding factor.
They both have other major features like GPS, optical heart rate sensor, Accelerometer, Barometric altimer, thermometer, 24×7 tracking of steps, stairs, calories, distance and sleep. Also, you can receive notifications from iOS/Android.
In terms of features the Garmin Instinct 2 has improved a lot in comparison with his older brother the Instinct 1. However, the Vivoactive is still the winner when we are talking about features.
Battery life – Instinct 2 vs Vivoactive 4
As stated before, the Garmin instinct 2 has a far better battery life than the vivoactive 4.
The instinct 2 comes in many editions, but mainly the solar edition has a lot of impact on the battery life.
To make it as easy as possible to compare the 2 watches I created a visual that makes it easy to compare the battery life.
As you can see, you will almost never have to charge the Garmin Instinct 2 in Smartwatch mode (especially when you have the solar edition).
Also, there is a big difference in how long you can use the GPS on the Instinct 2 in comparison to the Vivoactive 4: 30/48 hours vs 18 hours. On top of that, the Instinct 2 provides different GPS modes to make the GPS functionality work longer. Especially when you combine that with the solar edition, it will take a very long usage before your watch runs out of power, even when you are using GPS (limited).
By looking at this chart it becomes clear that the instinct 2 is more suited for the true adventurer., whereas the Vivoactive 4 trades battery life for a better user experience (more features, better display, etc).
Ps: I did an in-depth Garmin battery life comparison, in case you want to have a better idea of how good the battery life of these watches are. Spoiler, the garmin instinct 2 has one of the best battery lives out there!
Specifications – Instinct 2 vs Vivoactive 4
Display
With a 260 x 260px resolution, the Vivoactive 4 has a better resolution than that of the Instinct 2, which is only 176 x 176px.
Weight
The Instinct 2 is slightly heavier than the Vivoactive 4 with 52g vs 50.5g. The difference is actually surprisingly small, I would have thought that the Instinct 2 was quite a bit heavier.
Size
The Instinct 2 is also a bit thicker with 14.5mm in comparison to the 12.8mm of the Vivoactive 4. The other dimensions are pretty much comparable.
Note that the Instinct 2 does come with a smaller version, the 2S edition. If you feel like the regular one is a bit too heavy/large, it might be worth taking a look at this one.
Conclusion
Both watches are solid sports/outdoors watches and when in the Garmin Instinct 2 vs Vivoactive 4 comparison, there isn’t a clear winner.
However, there is a pretty clear conclusion.
The Garmin Instinct 2, is a bit more basic and has less luxury. However, it does make up for that with a very robust design, but more importantly an extremely good battery life. It’s perfectly suited for the adventurous type that can’t always rely on a power source every night. I’m think about tru-hikers, bikepackers, or really anybody who likes going on multiday adventures.
The Vivoactive 4 is a bit more convenient and has a better user experience. This watch has a better display and a bit more features. The watch seems more suited for single day sport activities. However, even if you don’t do any multiday adventures, you might simply not care about the additional feature/luxury and prefer the longer battery life.
As always, personal preference also comes into play.
If you still haven’t found what you are looking for, I do have plenty of resources about watches on my website. Actually the previous version of the Garmin Instinct 2 has always been my favourite budget watch for hikers. If you like the idea of a cheaper (but still high quality) watch, you might want to check out my other article: Best cheap hiking watches.
Or if you are more interested in finding the best garmin watch for hiking: Best garmin watches for hikers.