Pretty sure it’s the screen making the battery life suck… I don’t think Garmin will be banking on selling many replacement batteries
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Has the 1050 got the new screen?
What phone are you using? Sounds like some background process isn’t running that should be.
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Yes, it does
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Garmin, like Apple makes one pay up to have the latest and greatest.
I think the 530 came out at $399. I bought mine for $250 during some sale well after release date.
Not HSA/FSA, but my employer gives us a $x,xxxx fund to use on anything fitness/wellness related. This would fall under it for me. I might just scour the depths of marketplace hell for a used 530 or 540. Though my 500 won’t die and just keeps going.
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That’s a really good point that rarely gets discussed. Head units seem to last forever. Sure, they degrade over time, and companies stop updating them, but how often do you hear someone say “it stopped holding a charge completely” or “it just died”?
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I agree, but that’s exactly the place I’m at with my Bolt v1. It’s just decided that sometimes it won’t load a route that it previously loaded fine. The courses I’ve ridden this year have been pretty well marked, but there were two stages of OTGG that I rode without navigation as a result, adding an extra degree of stress. Wahoo support was unable to resolve the issue, so now I’m shopping.
My Bolt V1 would lose the route, and then never be able to re-find me and get me back on the route, even after a reboot. That lead to me turning around and praying I recognized some landmarks to get back to the car more than once… and I was done with Wahoo head units. Having said that, I have never heard anyone else say they had the same issue, and that is an 8 year old model at this point.
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The user replaceable batteries is a great feature.
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Especially as some 3rd party is sure to produce a higher capacity battery at some point
10 hours seems like weirdly low battery life. Not enough to finish Unbound 200?
I got the 840 on sale as well. Nice evolution from the 530. Although I didn’t really have many complaints about the 530.
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Not unless you are a pro or really fast amateur. I guess you can always add the base that doubles as an extended battery, but that’s not something I’d like to do. A teammate had the new 550 on our ride yesterday. The screen looks nice, but the screen is not as viewable in the bright sun as the old 540 screen. I don’t need a screen with the color/resolution to watch movies on my bike computer, particularly when it’s harder to see in the sun and draws more power. Maybe some of the new features are cool (I like the idea of having radar to follow rain/storms), but the screen is a big step backwards in my opinion.
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I found the 1050 to be a little harder to see in sun than the 1030 too. I complained about it at first, but I’ve adjusted and it’s fine when you’re not comparing side by side. I never notice it any more. It is a step backward, but not a BIG one, imo. The battery life, otoh (which is due to the screen) IS a big deal.
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Yeah, I honestly never understood the need for color on a bike computer. The screen on my 510 seemed sharper than the one on my 530.
I guess for actually GPS mapping, color would help. But I still don’t think it’s that helpful.
for maps colour is definitely important and better is better.
however i think the benefit of maps on a bike computer is limited - most people have a smartphone with them most times they would use maps and that has far better screen/mapping and interface. the bike computer is useful for following turn directions but not full mapping - what would be great is to be able to work out your route on the phone and then immediately send it to the computer - as far as i am aware that is still a bit of a process.
garmin’s problem is they are running out of real features to motivate upgrades. the fancy screen will do that for some, with the added benefit that it reduces battery life to such an extent that the unit will be a brick before too long so at the least they’ll be able to sell a new battery (which they’ll probably price high enough to make you consider a full upgrade instead).
meanwhile, the 840 will be good for everyone who wants a proper battery life, but it will get minimal support so will also become a brick soon, forcing upgrade
I don’t know. I was really happy with my 530 until I realized it didn’t support the bonus buttons on my new SRAM e1 shifters. So, Garmin got me to upgrade to the 840 to get that feature. I think I’ve had one Garmin head unit develop issues to the point that I upgraded due to problems. Every other time, it’s been me wanting new features. And I only use a small percentage of what these things can do, so I’m not really a demanding user or that curious about the latest/greatest stuff. In the 850, the radar/weather/wind stuff would be somewhat valuable to me, but nothing else seems too exciting. And it would take some pretty spectacular new features to offset the poor battery life for me.
Garmin stops doing updates, but in my experience the devices keep working. I’ve got 2 Edge 500’s that are ~ 15 years old and still work OK the last time I tried them. I wouldn’t want to use them in a race that required navigation or extended battery life, but they are fine for riding/training and capturing power, distance, elevation, etc. Maybe some people replace their devices when they fail, but I bet most people are still driven by new features. My teammate who had the 850 on the ride yesterday was ringing his bell constantly, so clearly he was into it. It’s tech, there are always people who will pay the premium to be early adopters.
For me, the pinnacle was the 830. I have a 1030+ which I also think is great, but if I were to go back to having one device, I would choose the 830. I picked up a 540 on sale a little while back which I use for my MTB and commute, but it doesn’t do anything better than the 30 series.
The replaceable battery probably added cost. You can thank the EU for requiring the battery, and probably a fraction of the cost increase.
I really don’t have an interest in the fancy screens. I don’t even need color.
You can make a route in RWGPS, Strava, Garmin Connect, and TrailForks on your phone and immediately send it to the headunit effectively instantaneously. Hell, I’ve even downloaded a gpx, uploaded it to Strava, and pushed it to my headunit all on my phone while standing in a parking lot.
If I get pushed on a detour or confused at a trail junction, I like to look at my headunit map instead of pulling out my phone. I usually just need a general idea of what’s going on. I also end up doing a fair amount of riding in places where I don’t get cell reception, so the backup is nice.
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