I share the hope but probably @dcrainmaker is right. Maybe if a super solid and cheap competitor unit enters the market, then Garmin could rethink the strategy…but even then it’s not clear because just look at the smart trainers…only premium Neo despite super solid cheap alternatives at 1/3 of the price.
I’ll await detailed reports on this from Shane, plus the anecdotal stuff, but I’ll be impressed if they’ve got this working decently. I wonder what technique they’re using for this?
I’m on a 510 that still works fine for me - battery life isn’t really an issue - but same speed detection working decently would be a worthwhile upgrade for me at some point. Sure, the price is high, but I’d be paying with Cycling Tokens that don’t directly translate to other currencies & real world expenditure, which Garmin knows full well… 
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Anyone looking at this radar needs to watch GPLama’s review. There’s an interesting bug for ANT+ connections, plus the lane data is worse than useless for most people. Also, yay replaceable battery and tether.
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Great bug capture by Shane there 
Based on what I’ve seen, and once that bug is fixed, this is looking good for my use case of pairing to a Wahoo Bolt over ANT+ (where the multi-lane stuff’s irrelevant). The same speed vehicle detection appears to be (much!) better than I expected, and looks like it could be a truly useful upgrade. Overall, there’s enough there for me to warrant a Cycling Tokens disbursement in a few months time…
I also like those blue skies and sunshine the 820 guarantees for every ride 
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I hope that @angryasian is correct in his n-1 comments and the rv820 is not a replacement of rtl515. I would really like to see a rv520 that just upgrades the basic features and excludes the extra features of rv820.
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I don’t think there is much room between the existing rtl515 and this new radar for a new product with intermediate features and price.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the rtl515 stays in production though…. maybe with usb c….
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How much difference is there between an Edge 850 and a 550? Not much.
A Varia 520 could stick with the 24 GHz radar from the 515 instead of 60 GHz used in the 820. That would mean no lane detection, no size detection, no same speed detection and shorter range, narrower field of view. But it could have better battery life, brighter light, USB-C, replaceable battery, tether, new button.
That’s a compelling upgrade over the 515 but still enough gap on paper for marketing to convince some people that the 820 is worth it.
I would actually prefer my hypothetical 520 to the 820 at the same price since “advantage” of the 820 is actually a negative to me, except for the same speed vehicle detection. I don’t want more range (too much notice), wider angle (cars detected on adjacent roads), lane detection (sacrifice screen real estate to show a side where cars will never be), or even size detection as it’s working now.
If they changed the size detection to only distinguish extra long vehicles (commercial vehicles, trailers) AND give a unique alert for them (which requires coordination with the GPS unit) AND improved the reliability of it, then I would use it. But since the current implementation has low accuracy and requires way too much focus to even notice if a big vehicle is detected, it’s useless to me (I’d have it turned off).
Another review. I am liking the lane change feature. Could have used it today.
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Just noticed the RV820 StVZO is already available to order from Rosebikes for 260€.
This is the German version with one light mode and the power output limited to 5 lumens.
While Garmin has a long history of keeping things in production for long periods of time after newer products release, they have an equally long history of stock-piling the crap out of units.
Stockpiles for some of their watch lines as of earlier in the year were nearly a year in expected duration (already imported), and some of their trainers are stockpiled at years in duration when I visited the distribution facility a year ago.
As for switching the RTL-515 to USB-C and keeping the name? Zero chance (had long talks about that with them).
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Went on a ride yesterday and my buddy had the new 820, I have the 515.
The features on the 820 are great but have to say that it felt a bit overly sensitive. We did a gravel ride, largely side by side, and any time I fell about 2/3 a bike length back, it’d pick me up like I was a motorcycle.
For solo riding, it definitely seemed like a big upgrade with autos. For group rides, the jury is still out.
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One review pointed this out as a feature that I hadn’t even thought about. It can be a tool to help keep track of someone who’s drafting you, showing when they’re drifting too far off the back.
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I think an issue for me would be if I have audio alerts on (because I don’t want to miss a vehicle detection), it could soon get pretty annoying if it triggers each time one of my buddies drops a fraction behind. I’d have to experience it in practice to be sure.
If Garmin could isolate this specific scenario, then maybe there could be a special audio alert for it whereby the 820 shouts out “Gap!” or “Easy!” instead of beeping?
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Or if you have the profile set as “Race” it should shout out “Attack” or “You got the gap, don’t let up” 
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Better battery runtime, a brake light, and USB-C is all I wanted from an RT515 upgrade.
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Too bad it’s not for sale in the US!
(Though there’s ways to obtain it of course)
I don’t like it when a vehicle following at a similar-speed (something which happens a lot on the narrower roads I use) drops off the radar. The RECO seems to perform worse than the 515, as captured here at 8:03.
…and the 820 is next-level in this respect, with it’s same-speed detection ability, comparison here at 12:40.
The RECO looks very good other than that though. For the same speed capability that matters to me, I think I’ll probably pony up for an 820 eventually.