Video for the 850. The things that stood out to me were that the new display nerfed the battery life and it has side buttons, so you don’t HAVE to scroll like you do with the 1050.
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Once again you can’t have it all.
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I’m was so looking forward to the 850. Then the price killed my excitement. I’ll probably get an 840 when it goes on sale again.
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the price and battery life. this is getting ridiculous. 
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I could stomach the price, but just as reviewers have pointed out (I’ve watched DC Rainmaker’s and GPLama’s videos on YouTube) the battery life is a concern. 12.hours is enough for pretty much any ride I’m likely to do, and I don’t mind charging overnight. However (a) I’ve become used to my 1040, and getting back from a ride and seeing >90% left so knowing that it largely just doesn’t matter whether I charge it or not - I can do it some other time, and (b) previous Garmins (like my 500, 520, 820) all started out with adequate battery life, but as they aged it dropped right off. My 820 will only do 3 or 4 hours now. So if I bought an 850, would that 10-12 hours be more like 5-6 in a few years? Maybe the screws mean ‘easy’ battery replacement, but we don’t know that for sure. Maybe the answer is to say “OK, 10 hours in ‘OMG SO LOVELY AND BRIGHT’ auto setting is fine for normal use, and I’ll accept that for really long rides and / or longish rides in 3 years time, I’ll dial the brightness down to ~30% and still be fine.”
An obvious future development would be to mirror the Fenix 8 Pro’s connectivity features, especially in the largest units (1060?). Currently I’d quite like emergency satellite features on an Edge, but that’s at least partly because my phone doesn’t have that. Many new phones do (especially those bought my 10x0 buyers), so maybe it’s just not needed on an Edge - I imagine that fewer cyclists want to leave their phone behind, compared with runners, and for serious days out a small battery pack is an easy way to guard against your phone running out of power at the wrong time. Would be kind of cool to have Edge incident detection able to summon help by satellite in extreme scenarios, but in practice not very likely to be a massive selling point with watches and phones doing almost the same thing. If we skip a few generations then maybe Edge units will have cellular and satellite connectivity, and micro LED screens that can be lovely and bright and low power (unlike the Fenix 8 Pro).
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Also, what a porker, at what point will they stop getting heavier for no reason?
The price hikes are rather substantial, it makes the new Wahoo head units are significantly more competitive.
And that’s the battery life when the battery is new. My v1 Bolt’s battery is getting quite long in the tooth, and doesn’t last nowhere near as long as it did when the device was new.
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I’m not saying the 850 is cheap by any means, but…In Ray’s video he says something like, and I’m paraphrasing, the Karoo is $75 more than the Bolt, as it should be, and the Edge is $75 more than the Karoo, as it should be. If you agree that you get a lot more out of the Edge, then I think it’s easy to justify the extra $75-$150. If you think it’s full of junk you don’t need and all you want is more battery life, it probably seems ridiculously expensive. I love my 1050, but I would definitely like to have the buttons like the 850.
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As we know from the previous releases from Garmin, the new Edge software will be full of bugs (see forums.garmin.com for current status). I have no experience of Karoo or Bolt, so I don’t know it it is the case with them too. IMO the premium price of Edge computers should be backed with fully tested products.
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I love the form factor and size .. just right, slightly longer than the 830 I once had. Happy with my Roam v2 though, not so sure id want to lose a load of battery life. Have they made maps easier to follow yet ? Could never understand my 1040.
>>>As we know from the previous releases from Garmin, the new Edge software will be full of bugs<<<
I would normally fervently agree, but since the ‘40 series, Garmin has gone to unifying software and updates among the different units in a series, like the 540, 840, and 1040, and now the ‘50 series. What they’ve learned and fixed (and broken) in the the 1050 should almost all apply to the 550 and 850. Still, there will be plenty of bugs and hiccups as always with Edge units.
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Really dont think Garmin deserves this rep nowadays - 5 years ago maybe - but today I dont think they are the worst offenders.
As for 850 though - I’m currently rocking my 830 and it’s absolutely fine other than I notice that the battery doesnt last quite as long as it used to - but it still lasts longer than this new 850 
If they did a lighter version with a worse display that lasted longer I’d be throwing money at them.
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The issue is that the Karoo and the Roam aren’t the only competitors to the 850, it is also Garmin’s own 840. Is the 850 worth the extra $150ish over the 840? If I were in Garmin’s ecosystem, I’d think very long and hard whether I’d want to spend the extra money for an 850.
If the better screen came at no battery life penalty, I, personally, would tend to the 850. But 12 hours is not a lot, especially once you subtract 25–30 % to account for battery wear after a few years.
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Loved my 530. Unfortunately broke the screen twice, received replacement for like $130, and my last one fell off the roof of my car a month ago on the highway. Whoops.
Back to my trusty 500 and I haven’t had to charge the battery in over a week. This thing is 12 years old and won’t die. I may look for a 540 once they go on sale or people selling for low on marketplace.
I couldnt get past the size of the bezzles on the 840 - I feel like the 840 suffered because they wanted to keep the same screen size as the solar version - they could have fit a bigger screen on the 840 no problem.
I’ll be on my 830 until the battery life on it is worse than a new 850 - so another 5 years maybe?
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I quite often don’t get sound on my old 1030 (circa late 2018), it’ll sporadically comeback for a few weeks then vanish again. But I got 12h moving (15 hours elapsed but sleeping during cafe stops) out of the 7 year old 1030 and still had 12% battery mode. Despite the sound problem I don’t feel the urge to downgrade to a model that only has 12h battery when new.
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Yeah, I’d never upgrade anything from one generation to the next either. I did upgrade from a 1030 to a 1050 though because I got a great deal on it and I’m very happy with the upgrade, but, my longest rides are 100 miles at the very most, and I have to plug in my lights anyway, so I just plug the 1050 in too.
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A 42% increase from last year for less battery time and a heavier unit…? Do i have that right? No thanks.
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Have you got a decent battery with the 1050? Its probably worth it for the Bell alone 
My mate’s 1030 done similar to mine (becoming sporadic with sound) so he upgraded to the 1050 
feeling very happy I picked up an 840 for $350 on sale earlier this year from REI, these new prices are insane.
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