No UI awards to Garmin, but they are straightforward and a LOT easier to learn than the driver UI in a no-cost upgrade to Mercedes SUV they gave me in Palm Springs.
My personal 530 favorites are the real-time power graphs and other workout stuff. Wanted to upgrade to a touchscreen but also wanted buttons, looking forward to my 840 (non-solar) arriving in 3 days.
I vaguely recall that DCRainmaker posted more impressive solar charging on the 1040, but his results on the 840 it means plugging in after all those 2 hour rides I do. And the solar screen is a little dull. Pretty much a slam dunk for me to save money and buy the non-solar 840.
I think leaving the solar versions lying around on the windowsill after the ride means that you’d only have to charge them very infrequently. The constant charging of all sorts of devices gets on my nerves a bit, so that’d be neat.
I’m not in the market for one, but I do like that feature.
Doesn’t seem wise to go from touch to just buttons. Long time button-pushing 520 and 530 user, and I’m looking forward to having both touch & buttons. Thanks for the historical pricing!
It depends how its executed. The touchscreen on the 1030 is annoying. When its locked it still goes from page to page :-/ If its not locked a drop of rain, etc can send it crazy, Quite often I’ve got to avoid unlocking it to save until I am home in the dry. Its maybe my fingers but it’ll sometimes fail to activate also unless I take my gloves off and even then its not fast. I picked my self up a 130+ in the sales last week and unless I’m navigating its becoming my favourite :-/
I’ve also seen the same from watching IG stories from the likes of Payson Mcelveen. Impressively responsive touch screen in wet conditions and with gloves
They’ve hopefully sorted it, given that Ray hasn’t mentioned it but etc means a drop of sweat, snot indoors or out, a very light shower that catches you out (you’re way is probably less spontaneous than the UK there), etc, they just got it way wrong with the 1030.
That’s a big step-up for the non-solar basic version with huge bezels.
Speaking of bezels, I can’t remember where I read an interview asking someone from Garmin why the presence of those bezels.
Essentially he was saying they are harder to remove on those devices than smartphones (but can’t remember why exactly).
I think it is not that straightforward. With electronics the new product should always be more powerful/have better screen/etc. compared to the old version. In Garmin 540/840 case the hardware is basically the same as in the older model. Correct me if I am wrong but I think the 1040 is the only x40 device with upgraded hardware.
I thought @gpl’s review of ClimbPro was great. To see a direct comparison of how the maps look and function on the Karoo unit compared to the 840. What really stood out to me is how much better and clearer the maps are on the Karoo unit. I really wish Garmin could have spent a bit of time improving the usability of their maps.
I covered it briefly in my written review, but somehow forgot to insert the footage in my video review. Sigh.
Still, I’ve just grabbed that footage and stuck it in a very short video. This shows standard Dutch weather, uncut, using the Edge 840 touchscreen, and then I show it again with gloves.
Inflation aside, I personally think that bike computers are kind of expensive. You can buy an unlocked Motorola phone for $100 or any number of laptops for $500.
But, I certainly understand that the market for high end bike computers is orders of magnitude smaller than the cell phone market and Garmin only has a couple of competitors.
The great thing is that these devices tend to last a long time. My 510 still works fine and my 530 might easily last another 5-10 years.
Go with non solar. I fell for the marketing and Garmin saying they charge up when left in the sun, and bought a 1040 solar. They don’t charge up, you could leave it in the sun for hours and the battery level will still be the same.
My original 305 (circa 2007) failed just out of warranty, tbf to Garmin they said it was a common problem and the free replacement lasted till around 2012.
It was replaced by an 800 which I think died in 2015 after a soaking on the LBL (it had been problematic for months refusing to switch on without a hard wire usb straight to the mains, not pc before dying permanently).
That was replaced by a refurbed 1000 and I think it ran well for years until a user error wrecked it (throwing it under a dumper truck wasn’t the best idea, but tbf Garmin gave me a discount on a refurb)
The replacement 1000 refurb and that lasted to just over a year before failing just outside of refurb warranty the power button crumbled and was replaced by another refurbed which again failed in just over a year. That was replaced by garmin with a 1030 refurb/upgrade in 2021 and whilst it has mostly been good the sound chip over the last 6month has got erratic but whilst everything else is still working at that cost I’m not in a hurry to fix it I think thats 7 since 2007 (one failure was completely my fault though ) and they have seen reasonable mileage, circa 155,000miles.
One of my mates though has still got his original 500
Thanks for a great review 
I think thats 7 since 2007 (one failure was completely my fault though