Just hoping it / they aren’t a dumpster fire like the new Varia radar
Ditto to what Peter said but I’d like to add a bigger screen size for the 1040 akin to what Apple offer. Mini-540, Pro-840 and Pro Max-1040. The less time focusing on a small data rich screen to take in the information I need the more time spent focusing on what matters most i.e. the road, the wheel, vehicles etc.
I like the minimap and the elevation profile. If the screen is better, processor faster and navigation improved I might upgrade.
I don’t understand why they don’t add buttons on top of the unit if the screen covers only 70% anyway.
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My 820 is getting long in the tooth. June 1st would be just perfect as it co-insides with my move to a new state where I don’t know any of the roads and would make extensive use of route mapping.
I hope the price would come it at around $699.
That 1040 looks sweet, although I’ll be holding out for the 830 replacement. Good to see they’re transitioning to USB-C with the new Varia RCT715.
Battery life really is amazing on the 1030+. Just did an 8h45min ride in bright sunlight (Canary Islands) with navigation, HR and power and it had 81% left at the end. So 35h doesn’t seem like a stretch for the 1040.
That said I wish live segments worked reliably while navigating. Definitely won’t work when loading courses through the integrated Strava/Komoot apps.
Also a wahoo-like setup via the phone would be awesome.
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I’m curious how the release time frame will pan out since the 1030 is on sale through 6/18.
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The battery is quite good until you start adding sensors. Then battery usage accelerates. My power meter, speed sensor, heart rate monitor and radar seemed to eat battery 
Bought my 530 about 2.5 years ago, and recently did a 7+ hour ride with:
- full navigation
- always recording
- power meter
- eTap (gears)
- HR monitor logging both HR and HRV
- radar
- front/rear TyreWiz tire pressure monitors (that requires a Connect IQ widget/app).
- screen brightness set to 30%
- backlight always on
- GPS recording at 1-sec intervals
Temps ranging from a low of 55F to a high of 91F.
A lot of radar alerts from riders passing me on the climbs. And cars between the two climbs.
So that’s a fair amount of sensors and data - the 1.6MB file is the biggest 530 data file I have (along with a similar length ride from February).
Battery started at 89% and ended at 45% after a little over 7 hours (7.15 hours) recording. Again full nav and a bunch of sensors. Assuming I can extrapolate, that would give me 14+ hours of full recording while using navigation. Garmin specs are “up to 20 hours” for both the 530 and 830, and I’m guessing that likely would be smart GPS recording enabled along with some other settings that save battery. I think that is pretty darn good battery life after 2.5 years.
I don’t have an 830, but am considering the 840 when it launches.
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Better battery life and faster processor would allow more data analysis during the ride. For example the alpha 1 data field is great but on long rides the battery doesn’t really last long enough. Having the battery life to do higher cpu intensive connect iq fields could open the door to more possibilities cause even if you cut the battery life in half it would still be long enough for most people. (Think graphical fields, not just data calculation)
Plus if they get enough computer power for text to speech it could improve navigation like normal car GPS units
A slightly higher resolution screen could allow more detail on the map not for things you’d pay attention to while riding, but more for when you need to look more carefully. Plus it could allow the labels on data fields to be smaller as the text could still be readable allowing the actual data to take up more space on the screen. Don’t want too high a resolution as they don’t work as well in sunlight and take more battery power.
The radar in particular had been very frustrating to me as a battery hog, to the extent that I got rid of my 520+ and got a 530 in the quest for a head unit that would reliably last a 10 hour ride.
Then I discovered that the real culprit was the backlight settings. Each time the radar detected a car passing, it counted as an alert on the head unit, and would activate the backlight. In daylight, this was not noticeable, and in even moderate traffic, results in the backlight being on a considerable amount of time.
I shortened the backlight timeout down to 4s, and turned down the backlight intensity, and this has dramatically improved the head unit backlight with a radar running.
The impact of the other sensors should be pretty small in terms of battery life.
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I had forgotten about that as well. That is what I did to extend battery life.
Updated my stats above, backlight was set to 30% and timeout set to always on. I had a lot of radar alerts on that 7 hour ride with ~45% battery drop on the 530.
Timeout of 4s is not an option. Next ride I’ll try a timeout of 15s, but 30% brightness with no timeout has very good battery usage.
Has anyone heard anything regarding a release date? Currently using a 510 but heading overseas with a bike for a trip in mid june and in desperate need of an upgrade primarily for the maps (but also for improved outdoor workout experience) don’t want to have to whip out the phone at every turn…Would happily buy an 540/840 if it came out prior - not too keen on buying an 830 when it may be superseded very soon.
Not 840 specific, but some industry friends told me most of the new garmin’s are delayed still due to chip shortages. I’ve been waiting to get whatever the new version of the 530 is and was told to just get what i can now.
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Ill use my phone and garmin 945 for now. I went from a 1030 to a 130 plus. It was a decent computer but I actually tried it for a back country bikepacking race and the navigation was useless. The 130 plus was a stop gap while waiting for the x40 series.
Also GP lamas review of the new varia radar camera hinted that something may be coming out soon. He was very vague so I am hoping and assuming it is the x40 series.
latest rumor on 1040 was posted above
and I’ll post the link again in a way that makes it more obvious:
I’m hoping the X40’s are pretty dope so I can buy one of your 530’s!
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The running watches are hinted to come soon (955, etc) too
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