I only ride outside on the weekends, so maybe 6 hours a week. I get two weeks without charging no problem, but to be honest, don’t pay a lot of attention. What I really like are all the ease of use and integration with my Epix type stuff, but I think the 1040 had most, if not all, of that too. I actually don’t like the bell and especially the hazard reporting. It’s a pita to click through the menus (I don’t have blips), and no one EVER reacts to the bell, so I assume they don’t hear it and have gone back to yelling.
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We joked about it being ‘worth it for the bell’ but tbh I dont think its ever been used to alert folk 
According to one site the 1050 gets 20hours and the 1040 35hours from the battery. If I ever upgrade I’ll be getting one of them rather than the 850 with 12 hours battery.
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i might buy an 840 for $350 today from biketiresdirect
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I might upgrade just to get rid of Virtual Partner 
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Recently upgraded from 530 to 840 ($350 on sale) knowing the 850 was around the corner and likely to have the new screen and shorter battery life. I’m not a power user and don’t use many of the garmin features on the 840, but battery life is really important.
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I think you can disable the virtual partner on the x40 units with the new firmware https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W0S48Z_FR30 Not sure about older devices though
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I’m on a 1030+ a few as far as I can tell, I’m stuck with it. Thanks for the link!
battery life is the big issue here, rather the lack thereof which makes this a no-go for me. even if 10 hours is acceptable, you won’t get that for long as the battery degrades with constant charging and the price is too high to be a short term purchase.
you can to some extent work around it by forcing a low brightness - DCR says at 30% you get ~20 hours and garmin 850 30% is better than wahoo roam 3 100%. however you then can’t read your screen in sunlight and we all prefer to ride in the sun (and don’t want to have to adjust brightness whenever the sun comes and goes). i’m not clear what conditions DCR verified the 10 hours under but it was consistent across multiple rides which presumably included a mix of sun and cloud
it sounds like garmin have just configured auto mode to be too bright - if they were to add a function to set your auto mode preferred visibility standard you could probably get it to achieve close to that 20 hours by using on average close to 30% brightness while still bumping it up when in direct bright sun. but no, garmin know best and have never offered such a function.
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Hr in Europe is Karoo for 370€ on tradeinn and the Garmin 850 is 550€. That is a big difference i think.
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I agree with the core of your post.
Although at a certain points you are comparing apples and oranges. I’d judge the battery life of both units at the settings which you would encounter in real life. A head unit that I can’t read is not that useful.
In a sense the great-to-insane battery life of their x40-series headunits exacerbates the issue. Going from 15 to 12 hours is one thing. [The 840 solar had 25–40 hours IRL](Garmin Edge 840 Cycling GPS In-Depth Review | DC Rainmaker), and 12 hours is less than half! Personally, if Garmin had cracked 18–20 hours, I reckon it’d be more than good enough. The 840 was a no-brainer to recommend whereas the x50-series head units come with asterisks.
That’d help mitigate the issue, but IMHO the issue still remains. We rightfully criticized Wahoo for its overly optimistic battery life estimates for the v3 Roam and Bolt, which you can only achieve if you use settings that degrade user experience.
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Has anyone in the US tried using HSA/FSA funds for a Garmin Edge? Might take the sting out of the extra cost a bit… 
I don’t believe they are eligible. This is what Garmin shows when you follow their FSA/HSA link.
Smart Scales & Heart Rate Monitors | Garmin Smart Scales & Heart Rate Monitors | Garmin
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I sought out the solar 540 specifically when it came out because I needed the longer battery life. It was the only device that has been up to the task. Sad to see the battery life seemingly take a back seat.
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My 1050 still won’t auto upload ever, I’ve gone through so much troubleshooting and still have to manually open/close/open the connect app and then hit sync for it to upload.
I’ll be trying the Karoo next, auto upload not being flawless is unacceptable. These new units being more expensive and poor battery life just makes the decision easier.
I’m curious, what do you mean by it won’t auto upload? Upload what? To GC? Something else?
Either way, that sucks. Sorry. I’d be pissed too.
Yes rides won’t auto upload to garmin connect, always manual work to get the ride off the head unit.
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Wow. Thats wild. I’ve not had that issue, but would sure be frustrated!
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Confirmation here that replacing the battery should be simple (once batteries are available):
This is quite a big deal - makes me markedly more willing to contemplate getting one.
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I could be wrong but I suspect that is why Garmin made the battery life shorter, so they’d degrade faster and they could sell more batteries if units are serviceable and lasting longer.