If you’re looking for new Garmin cycling products – there’s no bigger day than today. The company has just dropped three new products: The Edge 830 (this review), the less expensive Edge 530 (review here), and a set of new dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart Speed & Cadence sensors (review coming up momentarily). While it’d be easy to assume the two new Edge units are merely incremental updates, the reality seems to be quite different. Sure, the user interface shares a number of similarities – but under the covers there’s simply a boatload of new features.
The new units dive deep into both the road bike realm and mountain bike territory with new functions that I suspect both crowds will find useful. For mountain bikers there’s new metrics to capture everything from how well you ride a downhill trail to how far your jumps are. Meanwhile, on-road riders will likely be more inclined to take advantage of the deeper training features and functions like heat and altitude acclimation tracking. But so many of the features cross-over between both camps that it’s somewhat silly to try and definitively assign target audiences to all of them.
As always, I aim to detail the good, bad, and ugly about a given device. Note that this unit is a media loaner/test device and will very shortly go back to Garmin, like all other loaners. I do not accept any money (or even permit advertising) from any company I review. If you find this review useful, hit up the links at the end of the post to support the site.
If you’re sitting here trying to determine how many cups of coffee you’ll need to get through all three in-depth reviews, you’ll find comfort in knowing that the Edge 530 and 830 are incredibly similar, with only a couple of unique features. So you can likely read one review fully, and then just skim the other one.
What’s new:
Time to jump straight into all the newness on the Edge 830. And this time around I’ve got 18 new things on the Edge 830 (compared to the Edge 820 primarily), which outlines each of these features in as efficient a manner as I can possibly explain them – complete with pretty bike footage.
But if you’re more of a metro-textual person, then I’ve put together the below list of words. Note that there are other tidbits that I probably haven’t accounted for here – for example in certain menus or such where tiny things may have changed, but the below consolidates everything into one cohesive list of things you care about. For this listing I’m using the Edge 820 as the baseline for what’s considered changed.
– Increased display size 13% from 2.3” to 2.6”
– Increased battery life from 15 to 20 hours, and to 48 hours in battery saver mode
– Significantly increased processor speed: Results in much faster route calculation (see videos)
– Added Garmin Heatmaps: This follows what Edge 1030 had, included in maps routing on unit
– Added ClimbPro: Automatically shows how much distance/elevation remains for each climb on route
– Added Mountain Bike Metrics: Shows Grit, Flow, and Jump details on both unit and Garmin Connect
– Added Trailforks maps to unit: Added global Trailforks data/maps to baked-in data on unit (no downloads required)
– Added ForkSight: Automatically shows mountain bike trail options when you pause at fork in trail
– Added Heat Acclimation: Will automatically take into account heat/humidity for performance/recovery metrics
– Added Altitude Acclimation: Will automatically take into account (high) elevation for performance/recovery metrics
– Added Training Plan API support: This includes a redesigned structured workout execution page
– Added Hydration/Nutrition Smart Alerts: When using a course/route, it’ll automatically figure out how much water/calories you should be taking
– Added Hydration/Nutrition Tracking: It allows you to record this data in ride summary screens and log it on Garmin Connect
– Added Edge Battery Pack Support: You can now attach the Garmin integrated battery pack to the Edge (you can still use generic USB power too)
– Added Bluetooth Smart sensor support: You can now pair Bluetooth Smart sensors like heart rate, power, and cadence
– Added Performance Power Curve: This shows you your mean maximal power over different durations/time frames (like many training sites)
– Added Bike Alarm Feature: Used for cafes/bathroom stops, emits loud alarm if bike is moved
– Added ‘Find my Edge’ feature: Automatically record exact GPS location on your phone if Edge is disconnected (in case unit pops off)
– Added Training Plan Weather/Gear Tips: Basically tells you to HTFU when it’s cold out
– Changed user interface bits: Tweaked user interface, which might take some people a few rides to get used to (or just myself)
Got all that? Good. Now usually I do include any ‘negative’ new things (such as features removed), but I haven’t found any downsides to the new unit yet, or anything that’s been removed. It’s fairly rare for Garmin to remove features from unit to unit, though sometimes we see unintended consequences of other additions. Either way, I haven’t found any of those yet in my riding (or asking lots of questions). Of course, that’s separate from GPS/Altimeter/etc accuracy, which I cover in a separate section below.
So what are the key differences to the Edge 530 you might ask (since this costs $100 more)? No problem, here ya go:
– Edge 530 doesn’t have a touchscreen
– Edge 530 can’t do address-specific routing, whereas on the Edge 830 you can enter a street address
– Edge 530 doesn’t have a searchable point of interest database (hotels/food/train stations/etc), though some of these POI’s do appear on the map (but not as many in my experience)
– Edge 530 has four additional buttons on it since it has no touchscreen
Ultimately, it really comes down to the touchscreen, and then some user interface bits in using touch screen versus buttons. Feature-wise, the biggie is that the Edge 830 can route to a specific address whereas the Edge 530 you have to drag the cursor over that point. Both support pre-planned routes/courses equally. Personally, I’d struggle to remember even 2-3 times in the last 5-8 years where I’ve routed to a specific address or POI on the Edge series. Virtually everything I do is course or point driven.
With everything new and different all outlined, let’s dive into actually using the darn thing.
Oh wait – one final thingy – a good thingy! Got an Edge 1030 already? You’ll get almost every new feature you see above via firmware update to your Edge 1030. The only notable exception being that the pre-loaded mountain bike Trailforks maps are not there, due to licensing reasons (as Garmin licenses that from Trailforks). However, Garmin says the remaining features will show up in a firmware update over the coming months.
Size & Weight Comparisons:
Before we dive into all the details (or even the basics), let’s just do a quick size check. Here’s a disastrously big lineup of mostly current bike computers, all aligned on their base to a chunk of wood:
From left to right: Garmin Edge 130, Garmin Edge 520/520Plus/820 (identical case size), Polar M460, Wahoo BOLT, Garmin 530/830 (identical case size), Wahoo ELEMNT, Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM, Hammerhead Karoo, Garmin Edge 1030, Sigma ROX 12
The same order is below as well:
And then, just to zoom in on some of the more applicable units close up. Left to right: ELEMNT BOLT, Edge 530/830, ELEMNT, ELEMNT ROAM, and Hammerhead Karoo.
What’s that? You want weights too?!? Ok, out with the trusty scale:
Ok, your Brady Bunch moment is over. Now for realz, let’s get onto using it.
(Note: This comparison section was added after the Wahoo ROAM was released.)
The Basics:
First up I’ll walk through all the basics of the device itself. If you’re familiar with a Garmin Edge already, you’ll find things haven’t changed a ton here – depending on which version you’re coming from. You’re effectively seeing much of the user interface from the Edge 1030 brought down into this smaller form factor. In fact, I mostly struggle to find any reason to get the Edge 1030 now except larger screen size (which, is a perfectly fine reason).
On the Edge 830 you’ve got two main front buttons that are used for starting/stopping, and creating a lap. That’s the only thing these buttons are used for – allowing you to always press them no matter what wonky corner of the menus you might be in.
I know that some folks would have preferred Garmin shift these buttons to the top of the unit, since some out-front mounts make it a tight fit for gloves. Unfortunately, they remain in the same place as past units. Personally, I’ve never had any issues myself with that placement – but it seems to vary a lot on which mounts your using and in some cases your bike setup as well.
Next, on the left side you’ve got a single button, which is primarily used for powering on/off the unit.
Of course, the screen itself is a full touchscreen. Garmin says they’ve learned from some of the troubles with the Edge 820 screen and that this should be improved, and indeed, I’ve had zero touch-screen specific issues on the Edge 830 (even in rain). Though, one has to keep in mind that the Edge 820 touchscreen issues were mostly manufacturing related, something Garmin solved over time (and even in earlier batches, it was unit to unit as to whether your unit was impacted). Still, with my sample size of two (which doesn’t mean much), I haven’t encountered anything in the last month (not a single instance of touch screen hell).
Back on the home menu, you’ll find things are roughly divided up into three camps: Navigation, Training, and ‘Everything else’ (pressing those three little lines).
This is one area where Garmin has spent a bit of time sorting things, but there’s still room for improvement. For example, the ‘Training’ section doesn’t contain the new ‘My Stats’ section, which in turn contains all the actual training load related bits. As the meme goes ‘You had one job!’, and in this case, it would be to put the training stats in the training section.
In any event, if you swipe down from the top you’ll get access to widgets as well as overall system status. This includes things like sensor status and GPS status. The Edge 830 joins the rest of Garmin’s 2019 devices in using Sony GPS chipsets in lieu of previous MediaTek chipsets. The reason here being to significantly increase battery life, a change almost the entire sports tech industry has made in the last 12 months (Polar, Suunto, COROS, and undoubtedly others). But more on GPS accuracy a bit later on. In Garmin’s implementation, they support both GPS+GLONASS as well as GPS+GALILEO, plus of course normal GPS. You can configure this differently on each activity profile you create/use.
Speaking of activity profiles, these are used to customize settings for a particular type of riding. For example you might have one for road riding and another for mountain biking. Or yet another for racing that’s slimmed down a bit. You can customize your various data pages in here, as well as automatic things like auto lap or alerts, plus nutrition/hydration info, Strava segment alerts, and so on. There’s no practical limit to the number of custom data pages you can have, and you can have up to 12 data fields per page. Here’s a sampler platter of some of the settings within a given activity profile (and you can make a boatload of profiles too):
I’m somewhat simplistic in that I’ve just got one for road ride, one for mountain biking, and one for racing. I never bother to delete the indoor one, but I also never use it either (it just automatically disables GPS).
As with all of Garmin’s recent devices, activity profiles don’t define sensors. Instead, those are done across the entire device and span all activity profiles. This is called the ‘sensor pool’, and basically means that you pair your sensor once to the device, and then it automatically connects to it when the sensor wakes up (such as spinning your wheel with a speed sensor on it, or spinning your crankset with a power meter on it). It works well, and continues to be the case here as well. The one major difference for the Edge 830 is that it supports Bluetooth Smart sensors (to match almost every other Garmin devices since 2017).
In total you can now pair all the following sensors on the Edge 830:
Cadence (ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart)
Edge Remote (ANT+)
eBike (ANT+)
Heart Rate (ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart)
Lights (ANT+)
Indoor Trainer (ANT+ FE-C, though paired in a different spot)
Radar (ANT+)
Power Meter (ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart)
Shifting (ANT+)
Shimano Di2 (ANT)
Speed/Cadence (ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart)
Speed (ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart)
Varia Vision (ANT+)
VIRB (ANT+)
Also, if you’ve got special sensors like aero sensors or tire pressure sensors, then individual Connect IQ apps can take care of those as well – adding even more craziness than you can log. In my case I’ve paired a blend of sensors, mostly ANT+ power meters/trainers, cadence sensors, speed sensors, and both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart heart rate straps.
With everything all setup, you’re ready to start riding. To do so simply tap the main ‘Ride’ button on the home screen, which gets you to your data pages where you can press the start button to start the ride (recording):
If you forget to press start, don’t worry, the unit will warn you that you’re moving but not recording (since it’ll still show your data). But once it is recording you can swipe through the data pages using the touch screen (or auto-scroll if you want to do it automatically). Here’s a quick collection of some of the screens:
You can also configure Live Tracking, which will share your location with friends/family/social media networks per whoever you’ve selected:
This is also leveraged for Group Tracking, which enables you to follow friends on a given group ride, and then send quick messages to those friends mid-ride. Regrettably, I lack any friends to test this feature out.
Note that there’s also incident detection on both the Edge 530 and Edge 830, in case you crash. That doesn’t depend on Live Tracking, but does depend on authorizing certain friends/family to receive notifications in case you crash. If it does trigger, you have a number of seconds to disable the notification (in the event of a false positive). I haven’t had any false-positive events on either the Edge 530 or Edge 830 units.
To create manual laps you’ll press the lower left ‘lap’ button, which in turn marks a manual lap for both the lap summary screen as well as in the file that Garmin Connect and 3rd party apps can access later, which is ideal for doing any sort of analysis.
Finally, once done you’ll press the ‘Stop’ button on the right corner, which pauses the recording. Then press Save to save it. You’ll then get ride summary data:
Once you’ve saved the ride it’s near immediately synced via Bluetooth to your phone, as well as via WiFi if in range of WiFi networks that you’ve configured. The data is sent to Garmin Connect (online), and then onwards to any 3rd party platforms you’ve configured such as Strava, Xert or Training Peaks. You can also view the stats of your ride on the Garmin Connect Mobile app as well:
Lastly there’s Garmin’s new Bike Alarm feature. This is in addition to the ‘Find my Edge’ function that I talk about within the mountain biking section. But since we just finished a ride, I’ll explain ‘Bike Alarm’ here, which is designed primarily for post-ride café settings, as well as parking your bike outside a bathroom somewhere. The goal being that you leave your Edge device on your bike and then if someone moves/touches it, it sounds an alarm. It uses the internal accelerometers to do so.
The setup for the feature is buried super deep in the menus. But once you’ve got it set up, you don’t have to configure it each time. Instead, you’ll access it from the widget menu up top, plus a few swipes depending on which widget page you started on. Personally, I actually prefer the Edge 530 method of just long-holding the left button. In any case, here’s that menu on the Edge 830:
Once you’ve armed it, you’ll get a 5-second count-down, and then it notifies you that it’s armed. If you touch the bike, the alarm triggers, which…sounds hideous (in a good attention-drawing way).
Additionally, if your phone is within range (and it probably is), you’ll get a notification there which would also show up on any smartwatches you might have on. You’ll get a notification when you arm it, when it’s triggered, and when it’s disarmed:
I demo the whole thing as part of the video up above in the ‘What’s new’ section.
Admittedly when I first heard of the feature (without specific context on how to use it), I thought it was pretty stupid. But now that I’ve seen how it works and the exact use case, it actually makes a ton of sense. There’s been countless times in the last 3-4 months (especially on group rides) where I’ll stop at a café with my bike just barely visible. Given the goal is to enjoy being with friends, you might not always be paying attention. Between the audible alert and smartphone/watch notification – I would know immediately. Works great, I like it.
And at that point, we’ve got the basics covered and are ready to dive into all the cool newness – divided up into the various areas.
Mountain Bike Features:
It was a year ago that Garmin announced their partnership with Trailforks, primarily visible through a Connect IQ app that was preloaded on certain Garmin units. But anytime Garmin preloads Connect IQ apps on devices – it’s a sign of a much deeper partnership. And the result of that becomes more clear with the new Edge 530/830. Not only is there deeper integration with Trailforks (substantially so), but also a pile of new metrics atop that.
Specifically, here’s what’ new:
Trailforks maps are baked into the Edge 830: This includes about 130,000 mountain bike trails, alongside trail ratings Mountain Bike Dynamics: These metrics show how hard a trail was that you rode, as well as how well you rode it ForkSight: This trail chooser screen automatically appears when you pause at a trail intersection Find my Edge: While not absolute to mountain riding, this helps you find your bike computer if it flies off the mount on the trail Trail Planning: You can ask the Edge to pick a trail of a certain rating, and it’ll find you something to ride
You’ll want to keep around the previous Trailforks Connect IQ app, since that has better tie-ins with your actual Trailforks account on their platform, so you can save your routes quickly and pull them into the Edge. So that’s not going anywhere.
Let’s start by talking metrics – of which three are basically three new ones – grouped under something called ‘Mountain Bike Dynamics’:
Grit: This calculates a difficulty score for each route, using elevation and GPS data. So kinda like a trail rating. If two riders ride the same exact trail, they should get the same Grit score. The higher the number the harder the course. Flow: This is your specific rating for how well you rode the route. It’s focused on the momentum of the ride, so things like braking impact hurt your score. A lower number is a better score. Thus, two riders could ride the exact same route and get totally different Flow scores. Jumps: This will count how many jumps, and for each jump will include distance and hang time. Additionally, during the ride you’ll get jump notifications in real-time with distance/hang time.
Looking at some of these in real-time, first we’ve got the jump metric. In my case, I suck at jumping (look, I’m a road cyclist/triathlete – you’re just lucky I managed to ride a mountain bike at all). So while I got some jumps in my rides, my ability to capture those jumps while also taking a photo was not happening. So, here’s a photo from Des that shows that:
Next, there’s the Grit and Flow scores, which you can add as data fields to your unit. Further, you can also see these as per-lap fields. So for example in downhill mountain biking if you created a lap at the top of each descent, you’d be able to see how these scores compared lap after lap.
Afterwards, these scores show up on Garmin Connect (website). First, they actually show up on the map, color-coding your route – which is cool and something I wish Garmin did for other aspects of the map (like gradient % for road riding data).
Next, down below in the charts section they show up there too, also color coded:
And finally, down in the stats section you’ve got the new Mountain Bike Dynamics, including any jumps (or, lack thereof in my case):
You should be able to see these on Garmin Connect Mobile as well, though my app isn’t showing them yet due to some bug, however, others that I know are seeing them just fine. So this appears to be a me-specific bug. The story of my life.
Next, there’s the increased Trailforks integration. While Garmin hasn’t quite bought out Trailforks yet, I’d be really surprised if we just don’t see that happen. With the Edge 530/830 they’ve baked in all of the Trailforks trail data onto the unit itself. You will need to authorize that briefly the first time you use the unit, but it only takes a second. The existing Trailforks app is still there, since that takes care of better integration with Trailforks as a platform in terms of pulling your routes from your account and so-on.
The most obvious way the new Trailforks data manifests itself is a feature called ‘ForkSight’, which automatically pops up anytime you pause at an intersection of trails (or, more appropriately – a fork in the trail). It’s at this point it’ll show you the trail options and difficulty grades/distances for each one:
You can then select any of the options shown to get more information about that specific trail. It’s super cool in real-life, and helps you figure out the implications of each option you have. That said, sometimes it can be a little confusing to figure out which trail is which if they aren’t labeled at the trailhead. But for the most part you can figure it out.
Note: Above/below ForkSight photos on the Edge 530, since my Edge 830 somehow photos came out too fuzzy. It’s identical functions, except that you use your finger to tap instead of the buttons.
Next, there’s ‘Find my Edge’, while not only for mountain biking, the reality is that most people will probably use it for mountain biking. This feature will instantly and automatically mark the exact GPS location where your unit disconnects from your phone (assuming the Garmin Connect Mobile app is on in the background). Then, on your phone you’ll get an alert that allows you to open up the exact GPS coordinates with the mapping app of your choice (for example, the Google Maps app).
In addition, within the device options on Garmin Connect Mobile, it has two further options: ‘Find my Edge’ and ‘Last Known Location’. If you select ‘Last Known Location’, it’ll open up the default mapping app on your phone and then the exact GPS coordinates it last saw your Edge devices at:
Whereas if you select ‘Find my Edge’, it’ll try and connect to your Edge 830 and start an alarm sound. Which is basically just a constant beeper. It’s not crazy loud, but loud enough that you should be able to find it. And here’s what it looks like on the unit itself – saying ‘Edge found’. The fact that it’s on a map screen is just random coincidence. It’ll show on whatever page you’re on.
Note that this last little bit requires you be within Bluetooth Smart range. Outdoors that’s roughly tens of meters, whereas indoors it’s a crapshoot. Generally speaking though your GPS accuracy is within a few meters, so that gets you close enough to then use the beeper to find your Edge sitting in the bush. Roughly akin to how I found my GoPro mountain biking earlier this year..
Cool stuff, huh (especially my limited camera work)?
Oh, and as for the mountain bike bundle, in case you’re looking at that, it comes with the following:
– Edge 830
– Mountain Bike Mount
– Silicone Case
– Edge Remote
– Dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart Speed Sensor
While I’ve personally never bothered with the silicone case, if you’re looking at picking up any of the other accessories, it probably makes sense to just get the bundle price-wise at that point.
Navigation:
Like the Edge 820 before it, the Edge 830 contains a complete mapset for the region you bought it in. So if you’ve bought it in North America, then you’ll get North American maps (but not European). However, unlike the Edge 820, the Edge 830 now adds popularity routing data to that mapset. That’s basically their heat map data from Garmin Connect (and the hundreds of millions of activities there), the goal of which being to give you better routing data. most of the time, it works.
The key difference when it comes to navigation between the Edge 830 and the Edge 530 though is that the Edge 830 contains the ability to route to a specific address (I.e. 321 Main Street), whereas the Edge 530 doesn’t. Further, the Edge 830 allows you to browser points of interest around you (such as restaurants, hotels, monuments), whereas the Edge 530 only shows a subset nearest you. And lastly, given the Edge 830 contains a touchscreen, you can navigate a bit faster through the map by just swiping/moving around.
But perhaps the most important feature on the entire new Edge 530/830 units is the significantly faster processor. I, alongside the entire internet have complained how darn slow Garmin’s previous Edge series processors are. Which isn’t to say I actually care about the processor specifically, but rather the end-resultant: Route calculation time. It would previously take numerous minutes for each just a short route to calculate. That was unacceptable, and thankfully, now it’s a heck of a lot better. So much faster.
Now, there are slight differences depending on what exactly you’re doing. I’ve found loading a saved route is the fastest of the bunch. So something like some 60KM routes from Strava that I’ve loaded are taking about just a few seconds depending on the locale. Whereas picking a point a distance away and letting it come up with a brand new route takes a few more seconds (like 10-20 seconds, not minutes). That’s understandable since the first is just drawing a route, whereas the second is coming up with one. And yet it also seems to vary based on exactly where I am. Routes in Mallorca and California were silly quick (1-5 seconds), whereas here in crazy bike route density Amsterdam the routing takes a bit longer (5-15 seconds).
Now, again, there are three umbrella ways to route on the Edge 830:
1) Downloading a route (or opening a route file)
2) Routing to a specific point of interest or address
3) Just using the map to browse to a random cow field and route to it
I’ll start first with just already having a predefined route (the most common thing I do). This can be something from Garmin Connect or a 3rd party site. It could be an individual route file you’ve downloaded, or it could be from a site like Strava via the Strava Routes Connect IQ app. In my case, I’m mostly using Strava routes (since I can use them on all my devices – acting like the Switzerland of routing). So we’ll start there, grabbing that route from the pre-loaded Strava Routes CIQ app:
Next, it’ll show me the route details:
And finally, I can select to ride it. Within about 2-3 seconds, the route generation is complete and I’m ready to press start on my unit.
Now, when out on the road, I’ll get turn by turn directions as I approach any turn. I’ve found these directions timely (unlike the Edge 520 Plus and sometimes the Edge 820), and in plenty of time to take action on them. Again, there does seem to be some slight variances in responsiveness based on where in the world I am, but none of the differences affected my ability to have boatloads of time.
In addition, if I ignored a route, it’d automatically recalculate the route (including street names). Depending on the scenario, it’d either explain how to turn around and re-join the route, or in some cases cut a corner to catch-up down the road. I did however see one quirk in Amsterdam on a very short automatically generated route where it continued to try and go via some non-direct roads. After Garmin analyzed it they found a routing/mapping related bug that they say should be included in the next firmware update.
Note that the recalculation behavior is very different than that of a Wahoo BOLT/ELEMNT, which don’t have a street-level map on them. Thus, they just point you back (compass-style) to the route itself, rather than giving you turn by turn directions. For many folks, that’s perfectly fine, but I wanted to make that clear. Whereas the Garmin method matches that of Hammerhead’s Karoo and Sigma’s ROX 12 in terms of proper on-street routing data.
The next routing option is if you want to go to a specific address. You’ll enter that in starting with the country, and then from there it depends on the exact country as to which data piece it asks for next. In my case in the Netherlands it asks for postal code next (since that actually gives you the exact street name too).
Meanwhile, if you want to route to a specific point of interest you can go to the POI’s and choose something that looks interesting. Perhaps that’s a nightclub, or BBQ. Though, based on my experience here in the last year – I’ve struggled with finding any BBQ place I’d recommend eating at. Bike shops yes, BBQ…no.
No matter what you end up choosing, the routing is the same. It’ll simply calculate a route to that location and off you go. No interweb connectivity is required at any point here.
Next, what if you wanted to go somewhere unplanned? The Edge 830 can do that as well, you can simply pull open the ‘Browse Map’ option and then just stumble around using the touchscreen. You can zoom in/out, or just move the map around with your fingers. Once you’ve decided on a spot and selected it, it’ll go off and calculate a route there.
Again, the exact same as the other methods in terms of the ‘getting there’ part of routing – it all acts the same.
Finally, note that the unit in conjunction with your phone via the Garmin Connect Mobile app can also do some route planning. You can create round-trip routes whereby it goes and creates a route of a given distance for you automatically, as well as create manual routes connecting points together.
This new manual route creation bit is actually brand new – introduced in the last week or two (to everyone, not just Edge 530/830 peoples), and frankly, it sucks. I don’t know how it could be so bad, but it really is. Having come from the Easy Route app world, where I just tappity-tap my way through a route, the Garmin Connect Mobile experience is just super clunky and imprecise, crazily zooming in and out like a drunk kid with a camera for the first time. Yes, you can get the job done, but it’ll take you way longer.
Hopefully though since it’s a brand new feature it’ll improve over time – maybe once someone buys a bulk pack of 40-grit sandpaper and goes to town on it.
Still, new app option aside – the rest of routing works great (finally). The processing time is what I’d expect from a unit of this price point, and the route calculation to match it. I know some folks still want phone-like speeds, but the reality is that this device is designed to last 20 hours (with screen-on, while connected to sensors and your phone), whereas a phone isn’t. It’s just two fundamentally different use cases with different processor choices and battery drain impacts.
That said, I would like to see Garmin integrate Strava routes directly though, as I find the Strava Routes app clunky compared to Wahoo’s integrated Strava Routes capability. Also, I’d prefer to see Garmin allow easy loading of maps from other regions like Wahoo, rather than having to rely on 3rd party site downloads (or paying a bunch of cash).
Still, once you get the route/maps loaded, then Garmin’s routing engine is leagues ahead of what Wahoo has. I suppose doing it for a decade longer will get you that experience.
Finally, note that if there’s one thing I know about routing is that there are always edge cases in certain areas. In my case I’ve tested routing quite a bit in three core locations: Mallorca (Spain), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Monterey (California, USA). This has included both on-road and off-road routes. However, there are always quirks in weird places that I might not have encountered, though for the most part the underlying mapping/routing data here should match that of the Edge 1030 – which people seem pretty happy with.
Training & Performance Metrics:
In many ways the Edge 530/830 launch has ‘equalized’ all of the training/load metrics across all of Garmin’s higher end units. Previously there was one set for the Edge 1030, another for the Edge 820, and yet another for the Edge 520 Plus. And that’s before we even factored in Fenix and Forerunner product lines. So consumers that used more than one device (like a Fenix 5 along with an Edge 820 for cycling), ended up with inconsistent experiences. That should no longer be the case (at least going forward).
The Edge 830 (and the Edge 530) come with a slew of training and performance-related metrics, virtually all of which are new to this Edge price point (or in some cases Garmin products in general). And we’re going to start with ClimbPro, which is hands-down my favorite feature on the Edge 530/830.
This feature automatically slices and dices your planned routes climbs, and generates detailed climb charts for each climb as you ride them. The feature actually originated from the Fenix 5 Plus wearables last year, but really shines here on the larger screen of the Edge series as a cycling focused function. It requires that you have some route/course loaded, so it knows where you’re going. Once you’ve got that, you can see the list of climbs within the ClimbPro summary screen on the route planning page:
Then while you’re riding it’ll automatically show the ClimbPro page for each climb once you enter it. Kinda like Strava Segments for climbs, minus the racing aspect. The climb page shows the distance remaining on the climb, the ascent remaining, the average grade remaining, and then two customizable fields at the bottom. By default, these are heading and elevation, but you can change them as you see fit.
The Edge 830 will color-code the pain of the climb segments on the ClimbPro page based on gradient as seen above. These are bucketed into:
0-3%: Green
3-6%: Yellow
6-9%: Orange
9-12%: Red
12%+: Please make it stop dark red
Having ridden with this feature last month on Mallorca it was super cool. Not only for major climbs like Sa Calobra, but actually for some of the smaller ones before and after it. For example, after you finish the famed Sa Calobra and continue out of that area you’ve actually still got another minor climb to do before you descend one of a few routes back to the remainder of the island. Having ClimbPro on my screen was super handy to know how much suck was left, since mentally you sorta forgot about these minor climbs you’ve still gotta do in comparison to the big one you just knocked out.
Even on the hills around Sea Otter two weeks ago while mountain biking it was handy for some of the shorter but also painful routes. And again, what’s cool is that this will show up anytime you load up a course or trail, automatically (no interwebs required).
Garmin notes that they expect to tweak the definition of a climb based on feedback over the next month or two. Specifically, whether or not something triggers a climb on ClimbPro (since this is calculated on the unit itself when a route is loaded). Obviously, there’s no international definition when it comes to what’s a cycling climb and what’s not. Still, the definition they’re using as of today is as follows:
Total value must be 3,500 or higher where: Distance of climb in meters (min 500 meters) * Gradient (min average 3%)
So, doing some samples here to help understand:
Climb A: 1,000 meters long at 4% = 1,000*4 = 4,000: Yes, qualifies as a climb
Climb B: 5,000 meters long at 2% = 5,000*2 = 10,000: No, doesn’t meet 3% threshold
Climb C: 500 meters long at 8% = 500*8 = 4,000: Yes, qualifies as a climb
Make sense? Again, simply calculate distance in meters by incline/gradient and see if it’s above 3,500. Also, ensure average gradient is 3%. As I said above – I think it’s probably the coolest feature on the Edge 530/830.
Next, speaking of elevation, there’s two new features coupled together – heat and altitude acclimation. Both of these are actually quietly present on the Garmin MARQ series as well. The goal behind both of these are post-workout calculations tied to figuring out whether or not you’re acclimated to a given temperature or altitude. Obviously, both can significantly impact performance. Starting with heat acclimation, the function leverages nearby weather stations. So your unit has to have connected to Garmin Connect Mobile within 3 hours of starting your ride in order to receive that weather data (it doesn’t use on-device temperature).
Then, for heat acclimation it applies a heat correction factor for rides above 71°F/22°C, using a percentage based amount from published studies (humidity is also factored into this as well). This is then shown in the training status widget. Garmin says they assume full acclimation takes a minimum of 4 days, and acclimation/adaptation to a given high temperature will automatically decay after 3 days of skipped training within that heat levels.
Altitude acclimation/adaption is roughly similar (also seen above). The minimum threshold is at altitudes above 850m/2,788ft, and tops out at 4,000m/13,123ft (Garmin doesn’t calculate above that for cycling, sorry folks). Garmin says that they divide up training vs living altitudes, just as typical studies would. The company says that adaptation algorithms within the Edge 530/830 assume total adaptation after 21 days, and that adaptation is faster at the beginning of altitude exposure. Additionally, adaptation will decay within 21-28 days depending on acclimation level. Because I haven’t had any high altitude rides lately, I’m deferring you to Mr. DesFit, who has, and kindly lent me his high altitude shot:
What the feature shows is your current altitude adaptation level. In other words, if I go from living at sea level (as I do) to moving to the French Alps, each day it’ll show what my body has acclimated to. This essentially automates/charts the exact same process that many elite athletes take when preparing for races. In fact, a pro triathlete friend of mine wrote a guest post here on that very topic some 8 years ago. For the rest of us, we can just use this as a post-ride pub excuse for why we climbed so poorly on our week-long vacation in the Alps. Obviously, we weren’t acclimated.
Also of note is that if the Edge 530/830 are put into ‘sleep’ mode (as opposed to powered full off), it’ll actually do a check each night at midnight of where it is altitude wise, and account for that – just like the MARQ series watch does every night at midnight. Effectively giving you credit for sleeping at high altitude.
Next, there’s new hydration/nutrition alerts and record keeping. These alerts will appear mid-ride anytime you’ve loaded a pre-planned course/route into the Edge, and are based on your profile (gender/weight). Effectively, it’s trying to help you remember to eat and drink – a chronic problem for most longer-distance cyclists and triathletes. Or, at least me. These alerts automatically show up seemingly based on caloric intake variables, and will give you Garmin’s recommendations for fluid and calories, impacted by the current temperature/humidity as well. Garmin did note that these are capped though to account for maximum hydration intake limits of the human body.
In other words, they know that in some super hot/humid scenarios you could lose more hydration than you could possibly consume/absorb in the same timeframe, so they shouldn’t be giving you crazy recommendations like drinking three full bottles per hour. I haven’t hit that kinda weather yet, so it’s hard to tell for sure.
Then, afterwards you’ve got new hydration/nutrition tracking These pages are shown for any rides longer than 90 minutes, where it’ll ask you how much you drank and ate. It’s here over the last few months that I’ve realized the answer is always ‘not enough’.
This data is then shown on Garmin Connect (but oddly not Garmin Connect Mobile):
In addition to the post-ride nutrition stats, there’s your total training status stats. These stats are a step above what you’ve historically gotten on the Edge series, and are in line to match that of MARQ (and a step above the Fenix 5 Plus). Note that some of these stats require a power meter (like FTP). Here’s the overview ‘My Stats’ page (though, much of this is also shown post-ride on the summary screens):
First, there’s Training Status, which is showing you Training Load over the last 7 days. Note that this includes non-riding activities as well, if they’ve synced from other Garmin wearable devices.
Next, there’s Training Load Focus, which is showing you the breakouts of your training types over the last four weeks. It then shows you in the dotted line the optimal (aka balanced) training load bucketing. Obviously, I ignore anything that’s optimal or balanced.
Then there’s Recovery Time, which is load-based and includes time from other devices as well. This is telling you how many hours you should wait until your next hard workout:
After that there’s VO2Max and FTP, both of which are calculated (FTP calculation requires a power meter). And finally, one of the newer metrics not seen on any other Garmin device is Power Curve. This is basically just a mean-max power graph, and loosely mirrors what we’ve had on various training platforms for more than a decade.
The time duration is selectable as three choices – one month, three months, and twelve months. It does appear to pull in data from Garmin Connect as well, which is a good thing and shows tighter integration there than we’ve previously seen for Personal Records on other Garmin devices. On the downside, if you’ve got bad power meter data mixed in there (as I do apparently), it skews some of the numbers.
Last but not least, there’s on-device training plans. You could previously see all of this on Garmin Connect, but it wasn’t super visible on the Edge itself. Now, if you’ve got a training plan loaded (including those from TrainingPeaks and soon also TrainerRoad), those will appear here. This also applies to the host of free training plans that Garmin has on Garmin Connect.
Once you load a workout up, you’ll get similar step by step instructions on the Edge as before, but now with a bit better overview metrics and showing exactly how that workout should look:
Additionally, there’s now a new ‘Gear’ and ‘Weather’ option. The weather simply shows the weather for that day of the week that the workout is scheduled. Whereas the gear option aims to give you tips on what kind of gear you should have that day (for example, if it’s cold and miserable to bring gloves). Garmin says that they’re trying to provide tips for cyclists that may not be as experienced. The rest of us know that it’s simply better to stay indoors and Zwift instead.
As usual, once you’ve completed these workouts, they’ll sync up to Garmin Connect and the various 3rd party platforms they might have come from.
Ultimately, the goal behind all these metrics is that they’re across the board with your other Garmin devices. So if you’ve got a Garmin wearable that supports these metrics (or some portion of them), then everything should match. Understanding that I’m a bit of an edge case due to how many Garmin devices I’m using at once for testing, that concept roughly pans out – though there’s still some cracks here and there where physiological data from one device doesn’t match another. Still, for the normal person that doesn’t ride with 12 devices at once, it’s nice to see some of this glue finally hardening.
GPS & Elevation Accuracy:
There’s likely no topic that stirs as much discussion and passion as GPS accuracy. A watch could fall apart and give you dire electrical shocks while doing so, but if it shows you on the wrong side of the road? Oh hell no, bring on the fury of the internet!
GPS accuracy can be looked at in a number of different ways, but I prefer to look at it using a number of devices in real-world scenarios across a vast number of activities. I use 2-6 other devices at once, trying to get a clear picture of how a given set of devices handles conditions on a certain day. Conditions include everything from tree/building cover to weather.
Over the years I’ve continued to tweak my GPS testing methodology. For example, for watches I try to not place two units next to each other on my wrists, as that can impact signal. If I do so, I’ll put a thin fabric spacer of about 1”/3cm between them (I didn’t do that for any workouts here). But often I’ll simply carry other units by the straps, or attach them to the shoulder straps of my hydration backpack. Plus, wearing multiple watches on the same wrist is well known to impact optical HR accuracy. For cycling units, I arrange them on my handlebars using standard mounts – usually one on either side of the step, often a bit separated from each other.
Next, as noted, I use just my daily training routes. Using a single route over and over again isn’t really indicative of real-world conditions, it’s just indicative of one trail. The workouts you see here are just my normal daily workouts. I’ve had a fair bit of variety of terrain within the time period of testing Garmin Edge units. This has included workouts in: Amsterdam (city, countryside) and Mallorca (mountains, ocean, countryside), California (off-road, hills, forests, seaside).
We’re gonna look at a few different rides in different parts of the world. First, we’ll start with the famed Sa Calobra in Mallorca. I rode this nearly a month ago, so while this firmware was slightly older, it still shows pretty solid GPS performance. Here is the data set compared to the Garmin MARQ watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active.
This super twisty-turny route is incredibly difficult from a GPS performance standpoint. There are rock tunnels, huge cliffs next to you, and plenty of GPS-blocking goodness to hose up units (as we see the Samsung illustrate).
I’m going to zoom into one of the more difficult points here:
Of course, with the trees it’s hard to see what’s going on. But I just wanted to show you first the density of trees. In fact, you can see the Samsung straight-up gave up on life half-way through this and just cut the corner entirely. So we’ll ignore it.
The other units tracks are actually very close. There’s a few bottles of the Garmin MARQ at one point where the cave is (the green text you see). That’s this thing:
But most importantly, the two Edge 530/830 units tracked through that just fine and dandy. Perhaps by skill, or perhaps by dumb luck. They did it both directions though.
Now I had a quick lunch at the bottom before heading up. GPS-wise, units were fine here. I left them recording on my bike while I ate.
Though I did see some elevation issues here were it showed me quite a bit higher in elevation than I really was (300ft higher than the sea I was sitting next to). Garmin isn’t super clear on why this happened, though I haven’t seen it happen again. And again, that was a month ago on older firmware.
And in fact, if we look at route elevation for the next day, you’ll see the two Edge 530/830 units nail the elevation without any issues, super clean and consistent. The Samsung…is…well…yeah.
Next we’ve got a ride in Monterey, California from two weeks ago. This was a nice coastal ride that also went through some gigantic tree forests. Plus it had a couple of rollers and a solid climb mid-way through. For this, I’ve got both Edge 530/830 units, as well as the Garmin MARQ watch and the Polar Vantage V GPS watch. Here’s the high-level overview of the GPS from that set:
We’ll go ahead and zoom into some sections, starting with early on. It’s here we see the Edge 530 is a bit offset from the rest. Why you ask? It was in my back jersey pocket. I needed to photograph the Edge 830 solo-cup:
However, once we turned the corner I then got it on my handlebars and it was clean sailing:
I know, it’s hard to see the lines above. But how could I not go to satellite view with scenery like that? Ok, I’ll go back to boring map view for the next ones.
Oh, back in the pocket it went for a climb to get other photos. Why bother including this you ask? Well two reason. First, in case you’re browsing the files and wondering why it went all sideways, and second, because I actually see a surprising number of people that stick GPS devices in their back pockets. This shows you what can happen.
This is back in the forests and back on the handlebars:
It was at least pretty consistent in that when it went into my pocket it went a bit sideways. This ride unfortunately had a lot of that, as we were filming other videos for things that were published prior to this review (and thus prior to this embargo). Though interestingly the Edge 830 seemed to handle the pocketing better than the Edge 530 on this ride. No idea why.
Here’s another section with all of them out – nice and clean. And this is actually in the trees a fair bit alongside a highway.
As for altitude? Pretty similar overall, however the Edge 830 did seem offset about 18 meters throughout the entire ride. I suspect it got a weird initial fix which is used to then calibrate the barometer.
As for the couple of spikes in there – I haven’t seen those on any other rides, and thus I suspect that’s due to the pocketing. I didn’t see it on numerous rides in Mallorca on legit climbs, nor any mountain bike rides elsewhere in California.
Next, we’ve got a ride I did this past weekend from Amsterdam one-way, down south through the Tulip fields. For this ride I’ve got it compared against the Polar Vantage V GPS watch, as well as actually also have the new magnetless speed sensor in fully standalone mode (meaning, it was just recording to itself). You won’t see a GPS track from the standalone sensor, but it does show us speed and distance. Here’s what things looked like in that data set:
Ok, at a high level that’s pretty boring. Nobody does anything stupid, so all the tracks look fine from 30,000ft. Let’s zoom in a bunch to some corners and such. Note that all of these units are recording at 1-second intervals.
Here’s a crossing of a bridge and the lead-up to it. You’ll see that the Polar Vantage V overshoots the turn the most (heading into an ice cream shop, which I suppose is a good idea), though once on the other side of the water, all of them are quite close together near the path. Note that where it says ‘Real Estate Agency’ you might think that the units cut the corner of the roadway, but in reality, that’s where the bike path goes.
The thing with analyzing road bike GPS files, is that they very rarely fail. Seriously, super rarely do units screw it up. That said, time and time again I found the Polar Vantage V off in the water, as seen here. Mind you, this is the exact same GPS chipset between these three units (all Sony, and all likely using the same chipset).
The difference though is in the modes and power delivery. In this case I’ve got both Edge units configured for GPS+Galileo, a mode the Polar Vantage V doesn’t support. Not only that, but the Edge can deliver far more power to the Sony chipset and has more space for the antenna than a wearable.
It’s hard to find many Edge 530/830 screw-ups in this file. The closest we get is this intersection where I turn, and we see the Edge 530/830 separate a bit on their plotted tracks, about one lane difference while crossing the bridge. There was a tall building to the right there, but that’s it.
The second mistake is on this bend in the road, all three units undercut the corner – the Garmin’s more so than the Polar. Though again, if you scroll through the actual data set, you’ll find that the Polar cuts every corner.
Oh, and altitude on this one? Pay attention to the scale, it’s only a shift of about 10 meters for any given file over the course of the ride. The green is the Polar Vantage V, brown the Edge 830, and purple the Edge 530. It looks like we see a bit of a variation around the 90-minute marker going over a small bridge, but again, keep in mind we’re really only talking a variance of about 5 meters at that moment. Welcome to the Netherlands.
In any event, overall, from a GPS accuracy standpoint I’m not yet seeing anything of concern. Even in off-road conditions the tracks are essentially the same that I’ve seen from past Garmin Edge devices. While I’ve had concern about the new Sony chipset based on the implementations by other companies, those concerns don’t seem to be carrying over to the Garmin line. Or at least, the Edge lineup specifically. Again as I noted earlier this is likely more to do with the fact that Garmin has enabled additional GPS modes (Galileo), as well as simply has more power it can throw at the GPS chipset than a wearable can. Plus, bike computers have much more room for better antenna design.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy portions were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Product Comparison:
I’ve added the Edge 830 (as well as Edge 530) into the product comparison calculator so you can see how it compares to other units on the market. To keep things simple for below, I’ve compared it against the Edge 820 (previous generation), Wahoo BOLT, and Edge 530. Of course, there are plenty more units in the product comparison calculator, so you can make your own charts here as well. In the meantime, here’s how things line-up below:
The Edge 830 is a solid little unit, it works well and the touchscreen also works equally as well. It’s probably what the Edge 820 should have been, though, hindsight is always 20/20. The new features on the Edge 830, especially ClimbPro, are legit useful. And heck, if nothing else I can now use the altitude and heat acclimation features to justify my slow performance.
The challenge for the Edge 830 isn’t that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s that the Edge 530 is so good, yet $100 less. The only features missing on the Edge 530 are address-specific navigation, round-trip routing (which you can send from Garmin Connect Mobile instantly anyway), and POI routing (which I rarely if ever use). Of course, you don’t get the touchscreen on the Edge 530 – though I’ve never found that a deal-breaker for me. So it’s not that I’ve got anything meaningfully negative to say about the Edge 830 – it’s just that Edge 530 is such a good deal (comparatively or otherwise).
What I do think you’re seeing with the Edge 830 though is Garmin telling all other mostly new bike computer companies that keep trying to attack the $399 price point, to take a flying leap. It’s going to be incredibly hard to compete at not just $399, but now even $299. Wahoo stirred the hornet’s nest two years ago with their Wahoo BOLT, and now we’re seeing Garmin’s development engine really kicking into gear. Whether or not Garmin has any stumbles as production expands though remains to be seen over time.
In the meantime, if you’re looking at either of the new units released today, you won’t go wrong.
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Hopefully you found this review useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
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And finally, here’s a handy list of accessories that work well with this unit (and some that I showed in the review). Given the unit pairs with ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart sensors, you can use just about anything though.
This magnetless Garmin Cadence Sensor attached to your crank arm and transmits cadence over both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart to apps, watches, or bike computers.
This is a set of Garmin magnetless speed and cadence sensors. Both transmits over ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, but the speed sensor also can record rides without a bike computer - perfect for using on a commuter bike.
The Garmin Varia radar alerts you to cars coming up behind you, well before you see them. It's awesome for quieter roads (country roads/mountains), especially on longer rides. It's less useful for city riding.
The Garmin Varia radar alerts you to cars coming up behind you, well before you see them. It's awesome for quieter roads (country roads/mountains), especially on longer rides. It's less useful for city riding. The RVR315 skips the light.
The Edge remote allows you to control functions (like data pages/screens, and laps) wirelessly right from your handlebars/drops. Super handy for mountain biking where taking your hands off the bars might be a bad idea.
If you need to go *REALLY* long with a Garmin Edge device, this snap-on/under weatherproof battery pack basically gets you double your battery life. It snaps under your existing Edge with an included mount. It can also be used as a standard USB battery back too (for your phone/etc...).
This wifi-connected scale will track your weight and related metrics both on the scale display and in Garmin Connect (plus 3rd party apps like TrainingPeaks). It'll also then sync your weight to your watch/bike computer, to ensure accurate calorie data.
The HRM-DUAL strap transmits not only concurrently on ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, but actually has two Bluetooth channels, making it perfect for pairing to Zwift at the same time you also have it paired to another device/app via Bluetooth.
The HRM-PRO Plus is Garmin's top-end chest strap. It transmits dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, but also transmits Running Dynamics & Running Pace/Distance metrics, stores HR data during a swim, and can be used without a watch for other sports. Also, it can transmit XC Skiing Dynamics as well.
And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Quarantine Corner video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!
Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Thanks for the review Ray. Do you know if the 530/830/1030 have the same hardware. I kinda like the size of the 1030 but if its going to run super slow with the new features when they release that firmware then the 830 is a better option.
I suspect the 530/830 have identical hardware internally. The Edge 1030…we know it has the older GPS chipset (MediaTek), and I suspect it has a slower processor than the Edge 530/830 – but Garmin typically doesn’t release process specs (the fact that they claimed 2x faster this time around is a huge rarity for them).
I don’t think you’re going to see an impact to slowness on the Edge 1030 with new features, since by and large features are only loaded when used.
Thanks for the review Ray. In the sensor compatibility table, you have “NO” for eBike connectivity, but in the text, you have a comment that you can now pair eBike ANT+ sensors on the Edge 830.
Could you please clarify?
I’m especially interested to replace default Shimano display with this unit (as such option was announced last summer from both companies), but didn’t see it in real life yet.
Thanks.
Ray, can you please run the IQ “Tree Benchmark” on 530 and 830? So we better can evaluate the new processor performance compared to other devices. link to apps.garmin.com
That app isn’t listed as Edge 530/830 compatible, so it won’t let me install it.
I found the ‘Connect IQ Benchmark’ test though, and tried it on the Edge 530. It scores a CPU at 21.3, and a Pips at 166.7. The app doesn’t show up for the Edge 830 for some reason.
Oh, and I believe my current unit has dev logging enabled (in case I have any crashes they can investigate). As such, there’s some amount of overhead there.
Based on those figures the new units are twice as fast as the 1030 and 8-10 times as fast as the 520/820. They really took that performance criticism to heart.
That hydration stuff looks like it can be a little annoying. Can it be turned off? I don’t know how many oz (or ml) I drink. I take three swigs from my (large size) bottle every 15 minutes on the road, and a little more from the 2.5 l bladder on my back in the mountains. So measuring in “bottles” isn’t that useful for me. I’m not going to carry measuring cups or a flow meter with me.
I’m still on the Edge 1000. Any idea if the 1000 is getting the same updates? I basically stopped using my 1000, except when I need big maps, since it doesn’t count towards training status, intensity minutes, etc. and I have the Forerunner 935.
Question about altitude: how does it calibrate? Does it still have the “if I’m close enough to a POI with an altitude tag, use that” mode first introduced in the 705? Can it use the onboard DEM to set altitude? Or is it just using GPS to calibrate (which, in my experience, doesn’t really work)?
Based on what I’m seeing, it’s using GPS first to calibrate. Else, there were some scenarios that I think it’d have gone more closely to the DEM data. But I’ll check and see.
That’s a deal breaker if true. I have it sitting in my CT cart (and the VIP discount works!), but if it’s going to GPS first or only, I’ll stick with my 1000.
Setting Your Elevation
If you have accurate elevation data for your present location,
you can manually calibrate the altimeter on your device.
1 Select Navigation > > Set Elevation.
2 Enter the elevation, and select .
Yeah, but I don’t want to do that every time I ride. What the 705, 800, and 1000 do is to check to see if there’s a POI “nearby” with altitude information and use that automatically. So I have a POI for my driveway, and the altitude is automatically calibrated every time. At least I know that at one point in my ride the altitude is accurate (there are drifts, of course, and Garmin doesn’t seem to temperature correct its altitude model so in the summer altitudes in the mountains are always low). With GPS calibration I have no idea, and judging from my VIRB Elite, 360, and my Epix it just doesn’t work that well. (The Elite once calibrated 1500 ft too high.)
Fenix 3 and 5 do the same thing, but as far as the Garmin forum hive mind could see, it wasn’t documented anywhere, though between us we had a fair idea how it was working.
DEM is the first thing that’s looked like improving on that…
All edge units have the capability to save locations, set the elevation for that location, then the unit will calibrate the baro to the elevation if timer is started within 30 feet of that location. This includes the 530/830. I just tested it and it works flawlessly.
All Edge unit have the ability to save elevation set points. Basically you mark a waypoint (Location) under Navigation, then edit the waypoint to the known elevation for that location, and when you start an activity within 30 feet of that location, it will automatically calibrate the baro. I just tested this on the Edge 530 and it works flawlessly.
Thoughts on battery life? I think most people found the old 820 to get nowhere near 15 hours, more like 5-9 IRL. Should we expect 10 hours on the 830/530 based on Garmin’s 20 hr claim?
Hard to know for absolute certain. I’m looking to do some longer battery life tests once things simmer down (since it’s hard to set it aside for 20-40hrs prior to review). That said, Garmin did make a point of noting that they’ve changed how they make battery life claims and they feel pretty confident with the specifications I noted above in terms of sensor/screen settings/connectivity/etc… We’ll see…
i predict they’ll drop the climb threshold to 350 or 400 ft or make it specifiable. Vast majority of things around Seattle short of mountains are ~400 ft
Hi Ray. I really enjoy your reviews. Thank you. While navigating on my Garmin 800, I can press the road name text along the top of the unit and that will take me to a cue sheet for the rest of the ride. Is this feature available on the 830 and 530? Thanks.
I remember that the responsiveness of the 820 touchscreen was quite poor. I have the 1030 today and thou it’s quite acceptable I still find I’d prefer the touchscreen to track my instructions better (it’s not that rare that the touchscreen doesn’t capture my touch or tracks it wrong).
Is this new touchscreen perfect just like in a top level smartphone, or do you still see some indecisions from the unit to track immediately and correctly each tap?
There’s no meaningful indecision at this point. It’s not Google Maps on an iPhone X fast, but it shows me some 500ft before a turn that a turn is coming. Plenty of time.
i was not really talking about responsiveness in navigation, I was talking about the responsiveness of the touchscreen to the inputs. With the 820 it happens a significant number of times (that I’d roughly rate around 50%) that I had to re-input my instruction (say it is to save the track rather than swiping to another data-screen or whatever) before it got my request. Few times I had to do it even more than 2 times.
It’s much better than the Edge 820 in that respect. Once i get beyond the next day or two, I’m going to circle back and put together a side by side video showing the two touchscreens together and responsiveness, water, etc…
Just a bit slammed for the next 48 hours or so.
I’d say the Edge 830 is like 95% of the way there, meaning, for every 20 touches, maybe one it won’t catch – and if someone was grading me on using it, they’d probably say I missed the ‘button’ with my figure in that 1 case…and, they’d probably be right about half the time. I think in my Edge 830 video you can see one case where I just totally missed the button (or thought a menu existed but didn’t).
Hi Ray,
I just bought an Edge 1030 and am still in the period where I can return it. Would you advise returning it and getting the 830 or would you just stick with the 1030?
If you’re a mountain biker, you may want to consider how much the Trailforks map data means to you. Else, you’ll get a firmware update with everything else.
In the beginning of the training and performance section you have “incontinent experiences” instead of what I hope should be “inconsistent experiences.”
Did you happen to catch any photos of the redesigned structured workout execution page? That page/function is currently one of my nits to pick on my 820. Specifically interaction with a smart trainer. I can’t easily switch between erg and resistance mode. Did that get an update here?
Thanks!
Tyler
Yeah, there’s actually photos above on it, but the workouts I had showing it were crappy. I’ve gotta find some prettier workouts to re-do those photos.
“(So consumers that used more than one device (like a Fenix 5 along with an Edge 820 for cycling), ended up with incontinent experiences. That should no longer be the case (at least going forward).“
I also missed information about that.
And about the weight, size, side by side comparison with other devices, views from all sides, unboxing, happiness about the color, …
Maybe a followup post when battery life tests are also ready.
Internal storage is ~15.5GB of addressable space. However, about half of that is taken up by the onboard maps, depending on which region you’re in.
As for side by sides, yeah, I shot those and will add them in tomorrow. The clock sorta ran out on adding more things in, so just didn’t have a chance to do that.
Hi Ray
How much space do the Euro maps take up? Looking at buying either the 1030 or the 830. I like the screen size of my 1000, and I can add a micro SD card. I.e. will I be able to fit the Euro maps as well as the Aus maps?
Hi Ray, was wondering, do you think some of the new 830 features will be shown later on an Edge 820, 1000 or Edge explorer 1000 or Edge 1030 or the Edge Explorer based on 1030?
I am realy interested in the hight profile feature but as I already have for every bike an Garmin Ege computer starting from Edge 520, 820, 1000, 1000 explorer, Edge 1030, 2x Edge Explorer i don’t wan’t to spend again 300€
Looking forward to order one so I can be a beta tester for the next year or so, I have seen my share of bugs with 1030 and vector3 the last two years that I am not convinced that garmin can execute a production ready unit well.
Note that the 520 computers also had the same screen size as the 820 (which shrank a bit in screen size from the 810 IIRC, but had better resolution).
FWIW, after a very frustrating experience with the 820 touchscreen, I upgraded to the 1030 which has a great touchscreen; reconfiguring display fields on-the-fly is a game changer.
Thanks for the detailed review (been looking forward to this ever since the first rumors of the 830 popped up a couple of weeks ago).
1. Is the screen technology (lamination etc.) the same as on the 820? It’s obviously too early to tell, but I wonder if the 830 will also suffer from the “blue halo” issue that has plagued the 820 (and the 1030). I have an almost new 820, but I’m dreading the potential appearance of the blue halo (hope it will be during the warranty period still, or even better, not appear at all–fingers crossed).
2. How did you find the gradient field update speed? My 820 has been rather disappointing compared to my old 810: while the latter constantly updates the grade (every second, I’d guess), the 820 sometimes takes too long (not to mention steep climbs during mountain biking in the woods, where it often shows 0 on double-digit inclines). I’ve had to resort instead to a ConnectIQ gradient app data field, which is comparable to the 810 in this regards.
The Blue Halo, is that what it is ! I have had that on my 820 since I bought it a couple of years ago. First time I have heard of someone mentioning it. Its sort of a wide blue border around the edge of the display. I couldn’t be bothered taking it back and complaining about it. It doesn’t seem to affect the operation of the screen or anything.
I paid €560 for my Edge 1030 and had my first halo six months later, only to happen twice later with replaced units. It DOES affect the operation of the screen (as in “reduced visibility”), and I expect better when paying so much.
Besides that, since Garmin knows they are selling defective units, the “halo problem” is nothing short of consumer fraud.
More talks are needed on the subject, so Garmin will probably notice an access problem. Many people know what is important for the map to have speed, HR, cadence, distance (power). He does not take up the topic, however.
It contains 4 columns:
1. current speed, average speed, current time.
2. current cadence, average cadence, timer.
3. current power, average power, distance.
4. current heart rate, average heart rate, altitude.
Garmin maps aren’t just useless line art. They show actual context (POIs, names, etc.) I personally don’t want any more than 2 fields (and could live with zero) on my map page since the map page is for maps and I want the map big enough to see the context. I can always auto or manual scroll to other pages filled with data. I have two pages with 8-10 fields on my Edge 1000 in addition to the map and the altitude profile page. The Roam may be different, but I found it interesting that none of Ray’s photos in his review of the Roam show any street names on the maps themselves. Garmin should steal the chevrons from Wahoo (they already use them on their automotive GPS’s), but they have little to learn otherwise.
understand that each one goes differently. I like to have a map page all the time. therefore it needs a minimum of 4 fields. I will not change pages every time I race. For programmers, garmin is a minute of work. the customer chooses what suits him. in this case, I choose wahoo.
Do we still have to set up all of the data screens with the unit itself? I was hoping design on iPhone and implement to device would be here by now. That aside, the 530 looks like a good unit, I just need one of my other devices to break so I can justify it 🙂
One of the differences between the 520 and 820 was the available memory and thus the number of connectIQ fields/apps that can be used in a given profile. The 520 could take just a few. In my opinion this was a major difference between both models. Is this the case with 530/830?. The other major question is whether or not the screen is significantly improved. Not only talking about responsiveness, but also about the dreaded blue halo issues that still pest 820s 1030s.
Wonderful as always Ray… been waiting for the 830 for a loooonnnnnggggg time :), I prefer the size of it over the 1030, thankyou Garmin for listening, whoever did the 820 screen should of been fired a long time ago, for me the 820 was great apart from the screen and the speed, both look to of been resolved… I feel an upgrade on the way, and some of the new features are awesome, but maybe I’ll go 530 instead of 830.
The 820 was able to do that with my Fenix 5x (broadcast heart rate). But don’t expect the Fenix to send consistent data, with all the vibrations of the watch during a ride.
I use the 735xt to broadcast the heart rate to the edge. It doesn´t eat much battery. And it works fine if you put the wristband tight enough. But you have to control it sometimes. If you climb up a hill and the heart rate is still resting on your edge, your wristband has probably skewed a little bit.
Dear Ray,
thanks for your in depth review. Much appreciated. I’m very focused on training with power meter and at a certain rpm. I would like to ask you if the “training view” of the 830 is now including the RPM, too, or if it is changeable.
Thank you
Hi Ray, this is not 830 specific, as I have a 1030.
When using a power meter, do you suggest using a 1 second recording interval or “smart?” I use ANT+ for all of my sensors. I’d like to get as much data as possible, so if Smart can result in <1 second samples, that sounds good to me. But I haven't seen a detailed description of what Smart does.
You want to set it to 1 second. Using smart means you will have multiple seconds between recorded data points (how many will depend on when the device thinks it is time to record another one). If you pair a power meter it will automatically set itself to 1 second recording. These devices can’t record in intervals of less than 1 second.
Can you charge/run the 830 using a USB cable and external battery pack ? I couldn’t see in the review anything about where you plug in a cable or if there is one. I do Everesting rides which can take many hours and so often use an external battery. I don’t see any need to buy the specialist Garmin external battery if you can just plug in any external battery. I have the 820 and its battery life is now about 5 hours with battery save mode activated ! I don’t think it was ever the claimed 15 hours, the smaller case compared to the 810 meant that the battery was just too small. I think Garmin just invented battery save mode to make the battery life bearable. The rubber cover over the USB port on my 820 fell off after a couple of weeks so I hope the 830 has something better. The bike shop I got it from said Garmin couldn’t replace it so I was a bit upset about that. I have used a piece of tape to cover it up ever since it fell off. Great review as always Ray. 🙂
It would be good if Garmin (or a 3rd party) would produce an adapter to link the quarter turn power mount to a USB output. Then you could use any power pack (stored remotely in a bag) & also recharge from the mains without having to fiddle with a micro USB & associated rubber flap (or even unmount it from the bike).
Thanks Ray. I see that the micro USB port is now in the front which is great for charging while riding. On the 820 it was more awkward with the port underneath. I was also wondering if the electrodes underneath the 830 could lead to device damage if they are shorted out, say you place it on a metal surface for example. I also use my Edge 820 for running by putting it in my pocket so this is a concern for me. Something, even water, could short out the electrodes maybe. I could be completely wrong here, what do people reckon?
Excellent review. Are you aware of changes in the screen? I would hope the 830 doesn’t have the halo problem that all 820 and 1030 units have, such as my 1030, which had to be replaced already three times.
We understand the concerns about the halo issue some users experienced on their older Edges . We have resolved that issue and encourage any customers who have a halo on their device to reach out to our support team for further assistance.
Good to see that someone from Garmin admits that yes, there IS an issue. It would be good that Garmin made an official communication regarding it.
I understand the “solution” involves a new, halo-less screen. Is there a way to know whether the units received (I had mine replaced less than a month ago) have the right screen?
By the way, I don’t think 1030 is an “older” Edge, being the current top of the line.
Ray, great review as always. However, I almost peed myself when I saw this typo, “ended up with incontinent experiences.”
Reminds me of an e-mail a coworker sent years ago after an IT system outage where he apologized for “any incontinence that the users might have experienced”.
I reached out to them. The answer is no. Those of us with the Edge 1030 do not get the integrated Trailforks data, aside from using ConnectIQ or the Donation version 3rd party basemaps.
So this explains, why Edge 820 was on sale for the last weeks. Amazon UK had it for 140 GBP for a few days, and price never went above 175 GBP for over a month now.
Too bad, that my one month return period ended last week already. Not sure though, if the MTB metrics are reason enough to justify a new purchase right away. 400 EUR MSRP is quite a lot of money (and at 300 EUR the 530 isn’t exactly a bargain either).
Any info, if the 820 will receive some of the new functionalities as well? Or is it just the 1030 that will get improved firmware?
As the new anti-theft feature seems to include a real speaker with volume that can be heard outside a quiet room, is it possible the alerts from the Varia radar tail lights can heard now?
I had a 1000 and now have a 1030, and the Varia alerts are a lot louder with the 1030 than they ever were with the 1000. Loud enough that other people on rides ask what it is. I know that this isn’t exactly the comparison that you are looking for, but it is a good indication that the newer units have a louder speaker.
Also, the mount you use has an effect on volume. The speaker is in the mount itself. A mount should have some openings in it so that the speaker noise can get past the plastic/metal in the mount.
Thanks, Josh. I’ve debated getting the 1030 for just that reason, but I wasn’t sure the difference in alert volume was noticeable and I didn’t want to fork out all that cash only to find it wasn’t worth it. The 830 appears to have a lot more bang for the buck, so maybe it’s time to retire the 1000 and grab the 830.
The Varia radar alert got noticeably louder in a recent 1030 update, enough so that some are complaining in the Garmin forums that it’s too loud while others (including me) prefer the louder version. I bring this up because a Garminite posted that they are possibly looking into making the volume configurable.
I think the audible alerts on the 530/830 for theft are more to cause the thief to think twice when shift the bike, than it is for someone across a cafe to hear it. Instead, that’s what the Bluetooth Smartphone notifications are for.
I have a Varia 810TL and Edge 1030. The alert volume and tone aren’t clear and/or loud enough for someone with some high frequency hearing loss. The only hearing related problem I have in my daily life is not being able to hear my Varia alerts at speeds above 15-18 or when their is any traffic noise.
Same for me. I’m not deaf by any means, but I do have a high frequency loss. I can only hear the beeps from my Edge 1000 if I’m in a quiet room. Plus the road surfaces around my area are quite coarse, so even tire noise is enough to drown out the beeps.
My 820 got noticeably louder for Varia alerts with the last update too. The beep sequence is different as well. Check to be sure you’re running the latest version.
We’re now starting to see sales on the 1030. One U.S. online retailer had it for $470 on Apr. 25 and then $510 on Apr. 26 with $51 in store credit. Maybe this is just the usual spring fitness device discounting, but may indicate Black Friday price cuts this fall and a successor in 2020.
Do you know why ordering newly released devices from Garmin’s own website is commonly delayed 3-5 weeks after a new product release?
Do they favor supplying their retailers before themselves?
I get a small discount by ordering thru Garmin because of a company partnership.
I can’t even add the items to my cart, to see what the discount might be.
Yes, it’s on purpose, and is to protect retailers.
In fact, this time around you’ll notice that not even Amazon has the units – apparently for 30 days. Part of a strategy Garmin is doing to focus on specialty retailers.
So, to get one of the new units in Germany (without waiting too many weeks for availibility) one of this speciality retailers would be Clever Training Europe from UK?
Hi Olly,
Where did you see that. Is it a generic status that has changed to end of May or can you see that against your order somewhere.
I’ve preordered from CT USA
I talked to CT UK today after seeing the expected delivery had changed and I’m not sure even they know what the status is.
They told me that those who ordered when it said “early may” would be getting them in early may – but they also said they wouldn’t be shipping any units until mid may and they weren’t sure they are getting enough units to cover all who ordered early on.
Maybe Garmin is having production issues or underestimated the demand.
Another great review Ray. Will the 530 show overlapping Strava segments like the Wahoo Bolt does? IMO, that is the only advantage the Bold/Elemnt has over the 520.
Oh dear….am I going to feel like an even bigger dumdum for switching from an Edge 1030 to an 820 12 months ago ‘just’ because it didn’t fit on my integrated mount (and looked way too big)? I am not sure I can justify the cost of switch up to an 830 now even though the better uploading speed would be VERY welcome. Perhaps I should go down to a 530?
Can I move a course (route) onto the Garmin by just pinning the course in Ride with GPS? Or do I still have to go through the “connect Garmin to computer via USB and then move tcx file to New Files”.
Is this unit using the same basic platform as the 820?
I know you like the Garmin navigation, but I’ve found the Bolt so much more reliable and with much better battery life than any of the Garmins I’ve owned (the last one was the 820) that the Bolt effectively performs better. Navigation is of no use if the unit mysteriously crashes/stops tracking the map/runs out of battery a few hours into a long ride.
If Garmin has come up with a new software platform that proves more reliable, I’d take another look. Otherwise, hard pass.
After years of suffering thru Garmin 1000 idiosyncrasies, I bought a Bolt. When it comes to mapping, the Bolt is years ahead of the Garmin. Unfortunately, the “beep” on the Bolt that I received from REI was almost inaudible. Others have reported that the beep was loud enough to make your ears bleed. Go figure. Anyway, back it went to REI.
Hmm, I’ve honestly never had an Edge 820 crash while navigating (or ever). Any chance you’ve just got something amiss with yours?
Mapping-wise, there really is a substantial difference in terms of what Wahoo does versus Garmin. In basic course-following scenarios, it’s not as obvious (depending on where you created the route). Whereas when you do things like pull routes from Strava, or try to do something ad-hoc, it becomes more apparent.
Ray, can you comment a little more on the workout implementation: does it show target range for power and cadence like you can input on training peaks? Also do you know if it shows a 3sec power on that page instead of the instantaneous power like the 820 currently shows and which is useless?
Also can you comment on how the screen brightness/readability compares to the Stages Dash units “soon” to be released?
Hi. I saw in earlier comments the question on battery life. Yes, please do some extended testing. I just sold my 820 to buy a Wahoo next week. But I now learned about the 830. I loved the 820, but the max 5hr battery life when riding long gravelrides that require precise navigation made it useless for me. So I wanted to switch to Wahoo.
Would love to see the battery life when navigating with map on display.
I for one am disappointed by the fact the 830 i still the same size factor as the 500 series. Please bring back the old 800 unit size! The current form factor is too small to work well with touch screen and show maps well, and numbers are too small.
The Edge 1030 is too big of a unit, and the newer font Garmin is using is not as legible as the more square but bigger fonts my Edge 810 had. Bring back the old font too! I could read the values easier on the smaller 810 unit.
I really REALLY wish I had the Edge 810 form factor and screen functionality, but with the newer Garmin features (varia support, BT, live strava segments, etc).
Can I flip through the screens, using my di2 shifters on the Edge 530 in the same way I can on my 820? Is the battery life the same on the Edge 530 and Edge 830?
Nice that the 830 “road” bundle includes the updated ANT+/Bluetooth speed and cadence sensors (from the new
sensor review):
“The good news here is that like the HRM-DUAL a few months back, these sensors become the baseline for new sensors included in various Garmin bundles. For example the new Edge 530 and Edge 830 units released today have these dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart sensors in their bundled variants.”
Question about the start/stop button. You mention, “Finally, once done you’ll press the ‘Stop’ button on the right corner, which pauses the recording. Press it again to save it. You’ll then get ride summary data…”. That’s contrary to the current 820 setup. Now, if you press the start/stop button it’ll pause the ride and pressing it again will restart recording. If what you say is true, how do you restart a ride if you’ve pressed the start/stop button? Or, are you saying there’s a button on the display to press?
Does anyone know of an easy way to transfer a route from ridewithgps to a garmin unit. I had a 1030 and really liked everything about it except the size and how hard it was to get a ridewithgps file on it without a computer. I really like how I can push a route to my Wahoo Bolt from my phone if I forget to sync it before I leave the house.
You can do this easily using the paired Android/CIQ apps gimporter & gexporter. Simply need to pull the gpx to your phone (using ridewithgps on through a browser) and then using the apps to export.
Ray – when you view the map with Trailforks Data, does this still include the OSM trail data previously found on Garmin Units (as some of those trails haven’t made it to trailforks yet?)
The reason I ask is because the Trailforks Basemaps I’ve downloaded – do not contain those trails as it doesn’t pull in all the OpenStreetMaps data.
I’m hoping this includes (both).
Bufff, that’s strange, if I activate the trailforks map I can’t see any osm data, just the trailforks tracks. I don’t know if there are some hierarchy system and I need to order the layers, but in my 830 I need to deactivate the trailforks map in order to see the preloaded maps….
Do you know what version of Bluetooth this and the new 530 has? Do you know if it’s 5.0? I ask primarily because of the increased battery performance and extended range.
Ray, you talk about the Find My Edge and Last Known Location features on the 830, but you don’t mention that the unit comes with a tether, so that you are less likely to have your Edge separate from the bike in the first place!
I use the tether with my 1030, and recommend it to my friends.
The new features are still nice, though, and as always, I enjoy your reviews. I started when I got a 705 (I didn’t know about your reviews yet), and have used them ever since to decide when or whether to buy new Garmin devices. I have Vector 1 & 2 pedals, Varia lights, the Edge 1030, and the battery pack currently.
Ray, great review. Could you please start including alert tones and volume controls in your evals. The volume should range from obnoxious to subtle. The tone should have options for high, medium, and low pitch.There are lots of people who have now or will have some form of hearing loss. Garmin has been aware of problems with Varia alerts being heard for over a year. The 830 should have addressed this.
Looking at the comparison of features between the 1030 and 830, it seems like the only thing that 1030 has over the 830 is screen size. Do you see any reason to get a 1030 over a 830?
Hello Ray, can you tell me how turn by turn notifications work on garmin edge 830? Is it like the 820, where you just get a notification with street name and distance, or is it more like 800/810, where it will automatically change to map screen regardless what page you are using?
On the 820 this is configurable – you can set it to just show the direction and text or to pop up a map view. I have it do the latter, and run it in battery save mode because like many others, my 820 battery life is ridiculous otherwise. Garmin support think it’s probably a firmware issue, but are sending me a replacement unit in case that helps. I had to threaten to take them to court to change their initial response of “we probably broke it, we don’t know if or when we’ll fix it, you can pay for a replacement or else go jump” though!
Ray, maybe you would know – On official Garmin site for Edge 830 Mountain Bike Bundle, there is also a new speed sensor on the image (as it would be included) – link to buy.garmin.com
What kind of charge cable does this use? I’m one photo it looked like the interface/charging pins were on the 1/4 turn mount. That would make charging on the go difficult, right?
The pins you are seeing on the quarter turn mount are for the bespoke (optional) Edge Battery Pack. The normal charging port is behind a little door between the start/stop and lap buttons (facing you as you ride).
Ray, great review as always. However, I almost peed myself when I saw this typo, “ended up with incontinent experiences.”
Reminds me of an e-mail a coworker sent years ago after an IT system outage where he apologized for “any incontinence that the users might have experienced”.
My 810 screen worked with pretty much any glove. My 820 screen works when it feels like with 1 or 2 gloves… What’s the technology of the 830 screen? Like the 810 or the 820?
Thanks for the review! I smashed my 810 racing last weekend so this is perfect timing.
From what I am reading on the sites to purchase (CleverTraining, Garmin, etc) – I would have to buy the Mountain bike bundle in order to get trailfork data?
(I already have a remote, plenty of mounts, and speed / cadence sensors and don’t need anymore). – Just wanting to confirm I am not mis-reading this – as it looks like the stand-alone unit will *not* come with this.
Also, your review sounds like the processing power is much better than the 820. Do you think the 830 will be faster than the 1030? (I find the 1030 VERRRRY sluggish in looking around the maps and navigating menus).
Thanks Ray. I was actually in chat with support earlier and I’m not sure if they are clear on it. I asked if the bundle is needed to access TrailForks data and this is the reply below. This doesn’t make much sense, as it implies that the stand-alone device somehow requires a user to log into an app? I’m thinking this was just wrong info that they were unaware of, or they possibly gave you the MTB version?
————–
Support: Both would have the trailforks maps. The difference would be the device only would need you to sign into a trailforks account to access them. The bundle, you don’t have to sign in.
—
Me: so they both appear in the basemap without having to download them as ‘routes’ ?
—
Support: Thanks for waiting, yes – you don’t have to download them as routes. They should be pre-loaded
—
Me: ok, thanks. So neither would require logging in or connectivity to use?
—
Support: The device only will require a trailforks account sign in. The bundles don’t require a sign in.
————–
Ahh, so interesting. I just dug through some docs I have on it.
Yeah, there’s an authorization bit I had heard of, but I thought it was both units, looks like the authorization is only base units. It’s a one-time item that pop-ups the first time you setup the device. No paid membership/etc is required, but you need a Trailforks account to validate once. Basically, it’s how Trailforks knows how much to charge Garmin, like turning in tickets at a bake sale.
I’ll add that in somewhere. Like I said, just a one-time thing that registers your device to use the data. It doesn’t require any further internet connectivity.
You must have a lot of contacts within Garmin. Since there are more than 10 replies about this topic in this thread alone, apparently it’s really something people are asking for. Perhaps you could make the suggestion once more to one of your contacts at Garmin, on behalf of the entire community. And just maybe they’ll listen. I’m not a programmer, but it’s hard to image this would take more than a day or so to implement.
Hi ray,
two questions regarding the touchscreen
1) how does it respond when you’re wearing full-finger gloves?
2) how does it behave when wet (e.g. during the rain)?
The touch screen replaces the tedium of spelunking through the menus with the four buttons. I’ve had a 500, 510, and 520 and after using the 1030 for the past ~1.5 years, I’d never go back to a button-based Garmin computer. Especially nice to be able to switch data fields with a long press. YMMV.
thanks for the review. A few questions remain for me:
– will the unit still work with OSM maps (e.g. from garmin.openstreetmap.nl)?
– are the units still Linux compatible and mounts as USB drive where you can copy maps, activities and track to and from the device? Or did something change here?
The device looks very tempting, just waiting for the Elemnt Roam and then I will decide between the two units.
Beware the Edge 830 with firmware 5.10 . Mine is unable to mount as a mass storage device.
I’ve never had a problem mounting my ancient Garmin’s microSD card or my recently purchased Garmin Instinct as a mass storage device with a Linux PC. “Activities” come off of the Instinct easily. OSM maps (South Australia and Victoria) were easily loaded onto my encient Garmin’s microSD card.
Now I purchase an Edge 830 with no provision for microSD cards, necessitating that the device itself may be mounted as a mass storage device.
ALAS! Resets, OFF/ON sequences and following Garmin directions FAIL to mount the Edge 830.
Mine’s running 5.10 and it’s been mounting just fine on macOS 10.12. I’ve found all along that it works best with the cable it came with, but other cables usually work. (Sometimes it just doesn’t mount, and I have to unplug it and try again.) I just tried plugging it into a RaspberryPi (latest rev) running Linux and it mounted just fine. So it’s not a general problem, it’s probably specific to your 830 or to whatever you’re plugging it into. Try different cables and different machines if you can.
What about the charging port and the battery pack. In looking at the battery pack it has a unique coupling system that looks like garmin changed away from micro-USB. Please say that is so. I have had to send back my 820 4 times for the Micro-USB port failure.
Great review! Ray, since the pre-loaded maps are OSM based what is the reason for Garmin’s unwillingness to make other region’s pre-loaded maps available to swap in when traveling? Seems like it would be a feature and not detrimental to sales.
*For some reason the comment form wouldn’t let me click on the check boxes. Chrome Version 74.0.3729.108 (Official Build) (64-bit)
I’ve never got a good reason there. One of my biggest gripes.
To me it’s silly, because the incremental revenue for map sales there is so small for them, yet the upside is so much bigger as a feature to allow easy movement between regions. Note, I’m just talking general maps. If they want to charge for some of the specialty stuff (like Birdseye or whatever else), sure, I don’t care. But for general OSM+Trendline popularity, I should be able to follow a procedure just like Sigma or Wahoo.
Hi Ray. In the Garmin video ad I saw the device flashing red left and right edges along the screen. I also saw that feature represented on the 4th image on the Clever Training page. On that image I see some dots on the right side. They seem almost Wahoo-like. Can you explain those features? Thanks
They don’t have a date yet. Definitely not a next week type thing. I suspect we’re probably talking June or so, just a swag. I also suspect we’ll see things come in waves, some features in one firmware update, others in another.
Right now the Edge engineering resources were/are focused on the Edge 530/830, so once things settle down there we’ll see them shift some of those to backporting.
And how does it compare against a much cheaper galaxy entry level phone? Also has ant+, ip67, much bigger display. Longer battery Life (off line mode keeps GPS working). Allow music playback, ….
The challenge with phone comparisons, is honestly the app side of things (battery too, but for most people it’s actually the apps).
With a phone you’re basically using a collection of apps to achieve the same thing. One app for recording, perhaps another for Strava Segments, yet another for mapping with proper offline maps, another for structured workouts and so on. I’ve found that there’s not really a single good app that does it all. Some come really close – like Cycle Meter for example, but none really nail all the features I use day to day.
It’s funny, because for the last 10 years or so, some have said phones would end up killing bike computers, but I think we’ve mostly seen the opposite. As phone prices have risen and carriers no longer subside the unit costs in most countries, people are even less and less inclined to stick them on their handlebars.
Yes, though actually, Garmin devices support it today, it’s just that you have to have sent the route from Strava Routes and not Garmin Connect. Also, segments you want need to be starred. Strava basically stuffs that into the route, and then Garmin can read it properly.
So it appears you can run overlapping segments if you load a route first containing those segments first. I wonder if I create a “super-route” containing all my local Road and/or MTB trails the 530 would act like the Bolt.
I want to get the 830, but don’t want to give up all my sub-segments popping up on rides.
Hi – anyone tested this further? The ability to flick between overlapping strava live segments on the Wahoo is great, and it can do that whether you’re following a loaded route or just crusing around without navigation. So a bit irritating if this is only possible on the 830 if you’ve loaded and are navigating a route – i rarely navigate a route on local roads.
I was trying to see if and when bike theft alarm feature would be available on 1030. Following my chat with Garmin rep Antonio I learned it will NOT be available on anything but new units and he also said
Antonio:
And the Edge 530/830 are mainly for Mountain biking..
He also provided me with link to comment back to garmin and the link came up error 404.
Note quite happy generally with Garmin and my 1030 but this new feature would have been nice!
I’m using the Edge 820 and 1000 on our mountain bike. Most of the time we follow tracks, which I had uploaded to the devices. In the woods a turn-by-turn-navigation is not nessecary, we just follow the displayed track. A beeping from the devices warns us when we are leaving the track.
Unfortunately on the 820 you cannot disable routing function directly, but you have to disable the topo map, then start the treck, then enable the map again. This is quite annoying.
On the Edge 1000 routing function fpr tracks can be disabled, so you start the track, follow the line on the map and everything is fine.
Finally here is my question: what does the Edge 830 do? Can routing be disabled?
Ok, the first Garmin Edge computers since a loooong time that indeed raises an eyebrow again from a user that was and still is very happy to have his Wahoo Elemnt computers which allowed him to escape from the many facepalm moments with Garmins opinions of the needs of cyclists, how routing should function and how basic / bad of a user experience and battery life one could come away with.
But – although there are some nice and hope nourishing features like promised battery life, better / faster processor, nearly the same feature list between 530 and 830 and therefore user choice just between preferred means of operation (buttons or touch) and not features (oh so close, though – that POI think could be a deal breaker – why oh why, Garmin) – all is moot when the core functionality of navigation still don’t addresses one of the most basic needs:
Can I finally choose the width and the color of the track line? When you have routing active (and I shudder on the thought) you get this nice fat pink line. Not to be missed even on the most of convoluted screens with several different road markings. But if you don’t trust / don’t want having the routing active but rather want / absolutely must follow your preplanned track you are stuck with that thin line you all to easily mistake with one of the many colored road lines. And you still have no clue in which direction your track is running (which Wahoo very clever and unmistakably shows via their chevron markings).
So again: Can I finally change the display width and color of the track line?
I don’t see any method to change the color or thickness. However, there are some options crazy-deep down around removing clutter from the screen if you want. So you can remove text from certain things like points/streets/etc…
You can also turn off guide display text and such too if you want, as well as turn off re-calculation.
On my “trusty” (it doesn’t crash ONLY if activities file is kept pretty empty…) 810 under courses (select a course), settings, map display- you can change the color of any course and if it is always displayed whether or not you’re following it. Previous track will still be the blue, no way to tweak line size.
I’ll be really annoyed if they pulled that feature out as the 830 looks like a good replacement for my 810. I use it a lot to follow courses in the woods since the navigation on my 810 has a habit of killing the battery with constant warnings about every single turn and twist in the road ahead.
Question…does the 830 support Physio TrueUp the way the 1030 does? Garmin’s website says no, but your review seems to suggest yes. I run with a 935 and would like my training data to sync regardless of which device I’m using.
Thanks again!
Love the incontinent typo btw, totally agree you should leave it. 🙂
I’m new to these bike computers, but surely there must be an app for iPhone and/or Android that duplicates the features of this device. I have an old iPhone SE that I don’t use anymore which would mount nicely on handlebars and has a good touchscreen.
There are apps that duplication portions, but it’s the full picture that falls apart. For example, you end up with an app for Strava segments, and app for structured workouts, an app for offline maps/navigation, one for trail riding, one for general road riding, etc… CycleMeter is about the closest you can get.
HI Ray,
I am still using the 800, because I like how the calories are calculated with my New Leaf info. Can you tell me is the newer models are as accurate and if it is possible to view fat calories burned?
Did you notice the better resolution on the Edge 530 compared to the Edge 830. The resolution is nearly 50% higher on the Edge 530 which is quiet a bit just by the numbers. Is the display of the 530 noticeably better (for example in terms of map details) than the 830?
Both screens are definitely 100% the same (or, within 1mm or so, about the closest I can measure). Whether or not they have different resolutions…I’m going to get some clarity.
From my eyes standpoint, I’m not seeing any difference for resolution. Though, the user interface doesn’t exactly lend itself to requiring extreme resolution detail. So it’s hard to know.
1. Are they integral to the region Garmin map the unit comes with or do they work with OSM’s added for other regions? If the latter I’d probably try to buy from a different region to my home region.
2. Unlike Strava heat maps is there a way for road cyclists to filter out MTB uploads from heat maps to avoid unexpected off road routing.
1) They’re baked into the data for the region it comes with.
2) It’s based on which ride type you choose (i.e. road versus trail). I’ve never had it route me across trails when using road. I’m sure some people have, but I think that’s likely happening less and less now that Garmin has properly categorized which type of riding you’ve done when you finish a workout (so more people are choosing trail if they’re actually trail, which means the data is more likely to be correct).
That’s interesting. Being “heat maps” you’d think they’d want them kept more or less up to date. If people started avoiding a road because of a big construction project or something, it’d be nice if their routing would take that into account.
I wonder if it would be possible for Garmin to update the software of the older units like the 800 or 810, so users of these units can benefit also instead of buying a new unit.
It really just depends on Garmin shipping them out the door. Like all US distribution, it flows via Olathe first, and then is shipped to Clever Training. Typically for new releases CT will pay the extra to get units overnighted from Garmin to them, and then turns them around same day.
I suspect we’ll start seeing units flowing out late next week, or at worst early the next week. I know CT placed pretty significant pre-orders to hopefully be able to accommodate all initial demand.
Hi Ray, nice review. I’m in doubt about choosing 530 or 830.
I was wondering if you pause your ride and shut down the 530 or 830, will you be able to continue your ride after a lunch break when you restart the device?
At the moment on my 520 I just leave the device on and put it in my back pocket but with the touch screen I’m a bit scared I’ll push the “discard ride” by accident.
What is your opinion about swiping to another data fields screen rather then pushing the buttons like on the 520/530?
You can pause (stop the timer with the start/stop button) an activity and sleep the unit (long-press the power button and hit “sleep”), or even just power it off. The unit will pick up where it left off when you wake it back up.
You could also just lock the touchscreen, but unless you pause the activity the GPS would continue to track you walking around the coffee shop, pub, etc.
The prompts will prevent inadvertently deleting an activity when paused, but it *is* possible to absent-mindedly end the activity if you aren’t paying attention (fitfiletools.com will let you stitch two files back together into one activity; ask me how I know).
IMO, it wouldn’t hurt to practice this a few times before a big race or randonneur.
Ray – Thanks for all your answers, this is the most detailed page on the product as other sites seem to be copy/paste of each other for the most part.
I’m about to pull the trigger on an 830 pre-order (unit only).
However it still makes me nervous…
The wording on Garmin’s own sale page:
mountain biking model has integrated Trailforks data
The wording on CleverTraining’s sale page:
All Versions: MTB dynamics (no mention of Trailforks) .
Bundle Only: mountain biking model has integrated Trailforks data, including trail difficulty ratings
Mountain Bike Bundle Only: integrated Trailforks data includes trail difficulty ratings
—
I’ve found 3rd party sites with the manual but it doesn’t cover anything about the MTB maps.
But from Ray’s experience it sounds as tho:
Any Edge (even older models) with ConnectIQ can download Routes through Trailforks app, but won’t get the Basemap cooked in pretty color coded trails.
The 830 and 530 MTB bundles come with Trailforks ready to go in the base maps (no Trailforks sign in needed).
The 830 and 530 NON-BUNDLE – has the Trailforks data in the basemaps already, but requires a user to just log into the Trailforks ConnectIQ app just once to unlock it (this isn’t just the same Trailforks route downloadable data you can get on older edge models, but is the nice color/difficulty coded maps like you’d see on the mobile app).
I must say, it sounds a bit odd that the data would already be built into the Garmin Basemap, but it requires a ConnectIQ app to somehow let you render those layers of the basemap that are pre-loaded.
I was hoping someone from Garmin could officially say this is the case and that the base unit does contain 100% of all features in the bundle – but it sounds like this is in fact the case, at least based on the model Ray tested.
This still leaves some concerns.
…If one buys the Base unit and unlocks the maps, is that unit then tied to that Trailforks userID? Like, if you then sell your device a year later and do a system reset, would another person still have access to the Trailforks maps, or does the one-time unlock no longer have to be done after system resets… This would need someone from Garmin to answer but I feel like it’s kind of important to know. They should realllllly clarify on their sales page and to their resellers these details as well, because the product details are kind of all over the place on different store-fronts.
I know Sharn@Garmin sometimes chimes in here, maybe he could help.
So yeah, the wording is confusing (by all parties). Here’s the super-quick version because I have to run to pickup kids:
A) Trailforks CIQ App (same one as last year) – remains as the core way to get info from *your account* to the device
B) The Mountain Bike Dynamic Metrics are available on all units as-is (530/830, bundle/no-bundle)
C) The Trailforks trail/map data are available on all units (530/830, bundle/no-bundle)
D) *However*, on the non-bundle Edge 530/830 you have to do a one-time ‘unlock’ by simply signing in once with a Trailforks account (free, throwaway one is fine). It’s done once, and there’s no visible tie on the unit itself. My guess is that this is how Garmin knows how much to pay Trailforks on a per-device basis.
I agree, I think Garmin needs to make it more clear on some public site how it all works.
I currently use me cell phone (Samsung so +) mounted on my road bike and mostly use ride with gps. I’m considering a Garmin. What is your opinion of the 1030? I’m mostly interested in the quality of the GPA and mapping vs. all of the training detail. I do rides 50-80 miles, mostly in the Northeast of the US.
Thanks
Bruce
I’ve seen a few questions on the screen size, as Garmin’s site oddly lists it as 2.3″, when it’s very much 2.6″ (as measured diagonally like all screens).
Attached photo, fancy measuring thing, set to the two corners of the inset screen (shadows made this a bit tough to show easily). Note that if measured WxH, the screen is 2″ high and ~1.56″ wide. I don’t know where the 2.3″ figure is coming from. Both Edge 530 and Edge 830 are identical. I’ll follow up with someone.
hi thanks for the great review. I have an Edge 1030 and im disappointed by the screen. the screen type is somewhat like the fenix watches i was hoping for edge 1000 style which is more vibrant . From your 830 video, it seems like the screen is different than 1030, can you confirm it ?
on a side note, does the 830/1030 supports horizontal view now ?
I assume the calculate route option will avoid highways ? Is there a way to have it not ? That is, let’s say I want to use my 830 on my motorcycle or in a car..
Yes, there’s a bunch of things you’d want to do for that scenario. First, create a new activity profile called ‘Motorcycle’.
Then, under the navigation settings in that activity profile:
A) Set routing mode to ‘Motorcycle Driving’
B) In avoidance, toggle major highways to off, and then on for things like narrow trails and such
C) I’d also recommend turning off popularity routing, since I suspect that’s going to keep suggesting quieter roads.
I haven’t tried these myself, so YMMV, but it’s all options in there.
Thanks. Interesting. The motorcycle GPS’s from Garmin are quite expensive. When I saw that the 830 would have navigable waypoints, I wondered if Garmin would neuter it to not eat their own GPS Motorcycle GPS market.. It appears not.
Unfortunately even though the routing options are available the most recent Garmin maps in Europe don’t allow you to use any or the motorised routing modes. The route fails to calculate & a popup tells you that the maps don’t allow the selected mode as they don’t contain data to allow routing for motorised transport. They do however work with 3rd party OSM maps
Does VO2 on the 830 require an actual heart rate strap (in addition to a power meter), or will an optical HR strap like the Scosche or Tickr Fit work? If an HR strap is needed, will the 4iiii HR strap work in place of the Garmin strap?
Easy enough for me, though honestly it might depend on your mount. I suspect if you’ve got a mount designed for some of the older units that are smaller units, it might be a tight fit. One nuanced thing I didn’t mention (I don’t think), is that the Edge 530/830 front edge (where the buttons are), is actually very slightly tapered in, so it’s not a completely vertical button wall, but tapered a little bit to improve access.
It’s one of those tiny things you’d probably never realize as to why it’s slightly easier to hit the buttons than on previous units with totally vertical-wall buttons.
Hello, I want to buy a Garmin. Have no one now (except Oregon 450).
Doing a road bikung, so the question is, spare some money and buy in a sale a Edge 820 or buy a Edge 830 with new features?
Thanks for reply.
The Edge 830 will get firmware updates and tweaks long after support for the 820 ends. Also, the (much) faster processor in the 830 should make it relevant longer as well. As always, YMMV.
Great review! What has pushed me from Garmin to Wahoo recently is the day to day functionality of the units. Especially with my 820, it could sometimes take multiple manual pushes and failed syncs to get a ride uploaded via my iPhone, and the Wahoo just works. I also loved the 820 touch screen on roads but as soon as the full finger MTB gloves came out I was disappointed. How did the 830 fare in this realm? Did it play nicely syncing rides etc?
Also, re:ClimbPro: do you need to be riding a preset route for that to activate, or would it kick in if I turn onto an uphill trail?
I’d also be curious to know if the Forksight feature worked as advertised. I may have missed that in the review but I didn’t see any real-world comments.
And with Trailforks, is there any functionality for updates to the maps? I’m fortunate to live in a place where new trails seem to pop up every building season.
Thanks again for a great review. I ride mostly MTB and have gone to Wahoo because it just works, but all these new MTB-friendly bells and whistles are tempting me to try Garmin again.
On garmin website, when comparing the Edge 1030 vs Edge 830.
The only feature that the 830 does not have vs the 1030 is the: “integrated in-ride power capable”, but I cannot seem to find a reference on what this feature does.
My hunch would be that they were trying to talk about e-bike integration capabilities, but that’s equal as far as I can tell. There’s definitely no power meter magically built into either (nor would Garmin have a reason to do such a thing, nor have I ever heard of them even remotely suggest such an idea). I think this is mostly just copy/paste gone wrong.
Awesome review! Very detailed and objective. I have a question to you (or any other reader). If say 30% of the usage would be dedicated to navigation, would you prefer the 1030 for the larger screen or the 830 for the processor and other new features?
You can technically do it from the same exact units of the same exact firmware…but there’s always a chance something might go wrong. Sorta like jumping off of a moving train at 2MPH. More than likely you’ll be fine, but…yeah.
I may have missed it. How many sensors can the “senor pool” hold ? Ive filled my 820 up and have been forced to dig out my old 510. (510 screen works much better)
Fantastic review – THANKS
I ride bike parks a lot, new parks are very stressful for me as I always get lost.. (So I stop pull out my phone and use trailforks)
Is the Gramin Trailforks (baked in) at a level to navigate with? (I have a 520+ and it not.)
100% able to navigate with it. I used it for the trails of Sea Otter for navigation, which is an area that while I roughly know where I am directionally, the trails helped me figure out which way to go.
Is there anything you can tell us about an upcoming Edge 1030 Plus? Now that the 830 has a significantly faster processor, it puts me on the fence about buying a 1030 (I like the form factor for nav).
I don’t expect anything else cycling related anytime soon. The first priority is adding in all those features to the Edge 1030, which I suspect will take a number of months.
Note how all the units now align: Edge 130, Edge 530, Edge 830, Edge 1030
Occasionally, Garmin does things that are logical. 😉
When running the unit with GPS enabled and sensors enabled, does the battery drain indicate that it will actually give the claimed 20 hours? (depending on if backlight is off / auto…)
Real-world – how much do you miss the screen size from a 1030 when moving to 830?
2.6 vs 3.5″
246 x 322 vs 282 x 470
Roughly 3/4 vs 3/5
I’m planning to get this for the Trailforks data, even tho I’ve already picked up the donationware Garmin base-maps from Trailforks, so I can avoid layering so many maps and getting multiple lines of text.
I was going to hang onto the 1030 (just in case) the data ever comes over, or in case I don’t like the smaller screen. However, this is my assumption:
The 1030 probably isn’t terribly wider, but has a lot more height on the screen. I always ride with North pointing UP. So I don’t really take advantage of extra screen height when mapping.
I also put my important data fields that I want instant access to – into the Varia Vision (power, heart rate).
Based on this (mainly keeping North up on maps) – I’m thinking the screen size difference may not be a huge issue seeing how it’s mostly in the proportions.
Sidenote for other trail riders in case it’s helpful –
The standard Garmin Edge maps on previous models contain OSM, which does hold MOST of the mountain bike trails I’ve come accross. But they are rendered as thin lines and tend to blend in with hiking and non-biking trails.
Downloadable Trailforks Base-maps work great, but are usually missing old-school trails (think national forests, paths less traveled). Those trails mostly are, however, in OSM maps, but again tend to blend in with hiking trails if in a crowded area.
GPSFileDepot has a basemap called ‘MyTrails’ that a user put in a TON of work that has most every bike, hike, etc trail rendered as a red line. They are not differentiated, but it’s worth downloading, as when I’ve gone into national forests, this helps to stand out from streems, contour lines, etc.
I’ve also spent money on 3rd party apps to create my own maps, but it’s a lot of time and work and I’m hoping this ultimately just puts MOST of what I want into a better, cleaner map and I’ll just use the Trailforks app to pull in sections of trail that aren’t yet in the basemaps.
1) If you change maps to use free OSM, did you still get the climb functionality?
2) If you use the heatmaps re routing functionality, does it differentiate road from offroad or could you potentially be rerouted on gravel/offroad with a road bike?
Would there be, in your opinion, any reason – from a touring cyclist perspective – to choose the Edge 830 over the Edge Explore? I am specifically referring to the GPS accuracy and the speed of routing and/or rerouting. The screen size is the same as my current touring plus (fine for me), but I am looking for something a bit quicker and more reliable though. The touring quits navigating in the middle of a tour a bit too often for my liking.
Thanks!
Ray, have you tested the 830 touch screen with a number of different gloves (including non smartphone compatible gloves)?
This may be the dealbreaker between going for the 530 and 830 for me, only really want the touch screen if it will genuinely make life easier navigation through menus and screens.
Dude, SO love your blog! Stumbled upon it researching the new Garmin products (thanks Google). The time you spend & thoroughness of reviews are to be seriously commended…from one OCD-researcher (I suspect) to another! I’m having my cycling rebirth so to speak…was on a bike almost every day as a kid in a rural area & then got distracted w life. FF to now as a 40-ish year-old guy accomplished in career but a tad flabby (mind you…just a tad, lol). So, good news in that you do NOT forget how to ride & getting back is super easy. I’m a proud owner of a Specialized Diverge Sport (hope that meets your approval) and can say your site & product reviews are exactly the distillation of what I’ve need to help me get back in the saddle with great things. Can’t TY enough!
Ha Ray, How about the screen? I have an Edge 820, and sent it two times back to Garmin the past two years because the screen showing HALO ‘s. Do you think the 530/830 has a newly designed screen?
I am not really sure if I need this or if this would provide any real advantage, in my conditions
I explain myself. I own a fenix 5X and edge 520; I use the fenix 5x for everything (activity monitor including sleep tracking, hiking, walking, running and cycling) and the edge 520 only for cycling extended display/backup purposes/Varia traffic warnings (ride is discarded afterwards if everything works fine with the fenix)
I am getting all the metrix, including firstbeat calculations, with the fenix and GC. I dont mind at all wearing my fenix during my rides and for that purpose I have bought a new set of different colored bands. If the watch broke tomorrow and were out of warranty, I would buy another right away; I am that much satisfied
Question:
would there be a real advantage incorporating the new 830 to my setup? The high altitude acclimatization sounds good but I only go once a year to the mountains of Georgia for the 6gap event, so I do not see its use
Hi Ray
thanks for the great review.
I have the edge1030 and I’m thinking of changing it with the edge830 because it’s more suitable for mountain biking.
However I train almost exclusively with structured workouts, I am a trainig peaks premiun user and I use the Wahoo Elemnt bolt for these workouts.
The structured training page of Garmin is painful, it is not possible to see the power on 3 seconds, it is not possible to see the cadence or the cadence range, also the bar graph of the exercise is missing, very useful to understand at what point there it is found when so many are repeated.
Do you know if Garmin intends to implement the structured training page?
Or do you know if Trainingpeaks is planning to develop a better appIQ to perform structured workouts?
Now that the Garmin API’s have been opened to developers it shouldn’t be hard to do.
Thank you.
Hi Lívio,
I have been using edge 1000 and recently edge 1030 for structured workout downloaded from Today’s Plan. I am happ how it works, there is enough info to follow the workout, reps total, reps to do, power goal, graph and other counters. I never used wahoo, sou I can’t say how much better it is compared with garmin, but I am happy with garmin.
I have gone back and forth. Garmin and now Wahoo Bolt. I have read the review and apparently I need it in “Reviews for Dummies” language. The primary reason I bought my Bolt was the ability to upload routes created by others in Ride With GPS without connecting to a PC. Can I do this with the 530? Does it take an app to accomplish this other than Garmin Connect?
Short version: It’s way easier to get RideWithGPS routes to a Wahoo product than a Garmin product. It happens automagically on Wahoo product, on a Garmin product you’ll need to either plug it in, or do some sort of hoola-hoops with copying routes on your phone to other apps to open it up. Wonky.
On Garmin device you can use a mobile phone to download the file and then upload it to the Garmin using the app Connect… it will appear in Train Routes.
On a Garmin it’s not super-slick, but it can be done without hoola-hoops using this Connect IQ app: link to apps.garmin.com
Once it’s all set up, then you can just pull down the routes that you want. Works pretty nicely on my Edge 820 – I haven’t transferred a route over cable for ages, and faffing about downloading a file onto my phone and then pushing it into Garmin Connect is not cool either.
I very well may have missed it at some point in the last few months, but what is the latest with Garmin and displaying/logging the advanced cycling dynamics from Pioneer PMs?
Do the profiles support individual odometers, and can you input new odometer readings? I like to track the annual mileage on both my road and mountain bikes. To do that I now have a simple non-GPS computer mounted on each bike. To that I add either a Garmin watch for extra data or a Garmin 800 when I need navigation. That’s four computers, and two on most rides. I’d like to get to one computer for both bikes.
I don’t really get this feature, why would you even leave your Garmin on your bike? Surely someone could twist the garmin off and leg it before you’ve put your Cappuccino down, regardless whether it has an alarm?
So you’re adding an alarm to a bike at the risk of losing your Garmin!?
Since the bike almost certainly costs more than the Garmin, this doesn’t sound crazy to me. The Edge should wail if it’s being moved around, so at least you’ll know. But maybe locking mounts will become a thing.
It could also act as a deterrent – if the noise is loud enough, maybe they panic and leave the bike (& Garmin) too? And as mentioned, if the bike is seriously expensive then losing the Bike+Garmin doesn’t change much, but may prevent the bike being taken in the first place.
Personally I think it’s a great idea.
Hmm can’t say I agree. Imagine you take a cafe lock with you, light easy. You stop at a cafe, lock your bike. Now, the cafe lock is going to stop the opportunist, no need for the alarm there. So, are you going to leave your Garmin on the bike at this situation? The bike’s not going anywhere (unless there’s a serious thief around) yet your shiny new Edge 530/830 can be gone in two seconds while your still scoffing your apple strudel?
If I didn’t have even a cafe lock with me, there’s no chance I’m leaving my bike out of sight.
RE: Timeframes – no idea yet from Garmin for 1030 updates
RE: Purpose
I see this more useful for the outdoor cafe type setting where people are outside sitting at tables and your bike is perhaps 3-10 meters from you. Roughly in sight, but not watching constantly – no bike lock, just leaned up against the wall like everyone elses bike. This isn’t about protecting your Garmin, it’s about protecting your bike when someone isn’t paying attention.
If you see an alarm trigger and someone tries to go somewhere, you can bet that all your friends will jump on their bikes and give chase. And there’s approximately a 0% chance that anyone will successfully ride away from a group of angry cyclists hell bent on chasing down a thief. History has more than proven that one out. It never ends well for the thief.
I’m just curious, the new 830/530 looks like a dark screen when powered off compared to the 1030 (gray). Does it more or less look the same as the 1030 regarding various lighting situations? Or is the color contrast better indoors / low light?
My main gripe with 1030 is that it’s tough to read trails in the woods with heavy tree cover, where black levels didn’t exist and non primary colors were hard to tell apart. The known trade-off is that it looked fantastic under daylight with no need for the backlight.
Just curious if this darker looking screen might be a different screen-type or have more contrast in the dark.
Actually on the same concern, does the 830/530 do as well as a 1030 under daylight? I got the impression the 1030 did well under daylight because of the gray background when the unit was powered off (meaning it didn’t have to light up to display “white” colors….)
Not a very good comparison but I only have access to MS Paint at the moment. XD
The angles are a bit off and might skew the sizes a little, but I was curious what the 830 screen looks like over that of the 1030.
Hello, I’m currently using an Edge 820 with a K-Edge Garmin mount, but looking to get an 830… do you know if the 830 will also fit this mount or will I need to replace it with an XL? If you could measure the distance between the centre of the Garmin 1/4 turn bit and the end of the casing, I could work it out 🙂
perhaps I missed it in the review and this comment thread but what about charging?
1) is there now in ‘in mount’ charging feature with what looks like contacts on the twist mount (you mentioned in the 530 review that there is a battery booster pack available)
2) is it the micro USB of the 520?
3) are there any changes to the charging socket cover from the 520? (all my 500 series Garmin headhunts have died because either the USB socket busted, common, or the socket cover ripped / deteriorated / generally became degraded and useless. the Varia rear light seems to actually have a decent cover, have they improved the one on the head unit?)
great review and timely as I hover between Garmin and Wahoo ecosystems on fitness kit (as with everyone I didn’t realise I needed a rear radar till I got one!)
1) Correct, exact same battery pack. No idea why I apparently brain-farted on including the pics I took and some detail on it in this review. But identical. […and, adding to my to-do list to add in.]
2) Yes, micro-USB unfortunately
3) It’s more of a plastic socket cover now. I’ve killed some past Edge units as well on micro-USB. Wish they had done USB-C here.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for the fantastic review.
I had a couple of questions especially now that I’ve also read your review on the new Wahoo Roam.
Here goes.
The Roam has a few nifty navigation features like back to start, get me started and back on track and retrace route.
Are there any similar functions in the Edge 830?
I’d love to understand the differences in navigational features between the edge 830 and the Wahoo Roam.
I ride roads in India and finding roads along a preplanned route that doesn’t actually exist or has been shut down is quite common.
Also, trailforks etc is of almost no use in India as these kind of planned bile trails don’t exist.
Also should love to know the differences in the two head units even it comes to controlling the Kickr especially when using Zwift for example.
I just recently bought an Elemnt and the current navigational skills of the unit have almost left me in tears.
I definitely intend to upgrade but am now wondering which of the two new head units would work best for me.
In terms of sensors I have the wahoo Blue SC speed and cadence sensor and the TickrX HRM.
I assume that the new b Garmin will play nicely with these and not need any of their new sensors to fully find all of their metrics.
I am from Slovakia / EU
Equipment purchased at Clever Training europe beta ,,has the same maps as bought in slovakia??
My wahoo speed and wahoo tickr x hr sensors recognize
thanks
Does the Nutrition/hydration part let you specify specific needs?`
Doing my first ironman in August, and i dont know if the Garmin/(firstbeat?) recommended nutrition would be enough. Could i put in a certain caloric/hour need? (doing a gran fondo would probably calculate differently then doing a Triathlon where i would have to run after as well?
After a lot of back and forth I’ve decided to stick with my 1030 for now and keep a close eye on this device, as I basically want this on the bigger screen. If I were on the market I’d go for this. But I just really prefer the screen size of the 1030 for navigation purposes. I’ve not seen many screenshots of the Trailforks usage, but it looks like it’s most likely a separate IMG map file overlaid on top of the standard Garmin OSM map, which is what I’ve been doing recently (manually). -I could be wrong on this, but it seems to be how it works as I saw one screenshot on pinkbike where it looks like the TF lines were running ‘mostly’ on top of the OSM trails, but you could see them both there.
In doing this on the 1030, I’ll make the assumption that I won’t get the fancy fork split details and profiles, which would be SUPER nice. I guess we’ll have to see what all actually makes its way over. In the meantime I’ll be recommending this to friends.
It will be interesting to see how the MTB metrics work out. I don’t really get the concept of how it will accurately measure a jump length. Weather using GPS / accelerometer or a wheel sensor, I can’t grasp how it will know the exact speed at the time of lift-off to landing to measure. If it is accurate that’s going to be a really cool feature.
Since a bunch of us will likely get the 530/830 it’s that dreaded programming the screens time again.
Since we still don’t have a mobile app to make this less painful; I updated my spreadsheet for building screens based on the data in the 830 manual.
Warning that xls has macros in it (aka vba junk code). The only harm it will cause is saving you a couple hours thinking over what fields go where.
It works, it’s not robust because it doesn’t have to be; if you break it start over with a fresh copy. If you are really stuck ask and if I have time I’ll try and explain.
I haven’t seen a 530/830 so the field layout might not be completely right, those were based on a 1030
No unfortunately not at this time, that would mean writing a binary FIT file and that’s outside the scope of time I have. What it does do is give you a single piece of paper you can print and then sit at the device and do the programming. The goal is to avoid have to dig through all the fields on the device trying to figure out what you want. It’s just faster to plan on a computer. With the print out I can program a garmin with 8 data screen in about 10 minutes with confident. It also makes a great way to record what you have before you try new setups only to decide you want back what you had and can’t remember.
If you ever want to put more time into this the fit sdk comes with a java utility that converts between a csv file and a fit file. Could be a relatively easy way to get a fit file for your needs.
Thanks! I just got my 1030 (those airline miles finally was worth something!) and was looking for an easy way to configure screens. This will come handy..
Me and my cyclingbuddy talked about the 830 and 530 and it is a difficult pick. The pricedifference is big but also the functionalities on those 830/530 in your very usefull comparisson table!
Hi Ray, great article as always. Sorry for stating the obvious but is the 830 screen size bigger than the 530? I own a 1000 and the battery is starting to die and now I’m in my 50’s my eyesight isn’t so good. I am not keen however on the size of my edge 1000 so hopefully I will get on with the new edge 830.
Cheers,
Andy.
Just preordered one using the CT link. This is like the goldilocks Garmin for me – the 1030 is full-featured but a bit big, the 820 was compact but slow.
Hi
I am planning to buy my first bike computer. I like the Edge 830, but like the idea of a bigger screen, like the Edge 1030. Since the Edge 830 is a newer device, does it include everything a Edge 1030 has to offer? If the Edge 830 has got more features than the Edge 1030, will the Edge 1030 get those new features in subsequent updates?
yes, sold my wahoo bolt too early and now waiting…. borrowed a edge 800 from a friend until the 830 will ship. Lot’s of progress has been made is all I can say 🙂
Any update on the smartphone notifications that show up on the device? E.g. call notifications on my 520 are more of an FYI thing, but I’d at least like the optuon to reject a call from my unit…
Seems like the ship date keeps getting pushed back more and more. Amazon now shows mid June to mid July for the unit, and late July – early August for the road bundle. Is this accurate across all online realtors, or do those who put in an early order still have them shipping now?
Ray mentioned somewhere that Garmin is targeting their partner retailers first before general market and places like amazon. Most of the sites I’ve seen just say early May, but Biketiresdirect.com is now showing May 16th. We’ll see…
I advanced from Edge 800 to Edge 1000 mainly due to the interactions with WKO4, but was disappointed. This mainly due to the utilization of the screen, letters/numbers vs. empty space as well as use of colours (lack of saturation). Out riding I need to see the figures on the screen in a glance. I shall admit i need reading glasses, but how many have the eyesight of an 18 year old? Particularly the “Workouts” page is a good example – it’s illegible when out on the road – mostly empty space with the “Next” step well hidden in the top of the screen.
Would you say the Edge 1030 is better related to screen utilization?
You may never get this information sadly. I was looking for the same info about the 520 plus. I ended up having to buy the device to find out that it still has the silly 100 segment limit. 🙁
The device-only option (non-bundle) seems to be shipped without speed sensor.
How is speed then determined? Via GPS only?
Is that recommended?
With my current gps computer at low speeds and with bad satellite visibility (uphill forest or so) regularly runs into auto-stop which is kind of annoying.
Any thoughts/experience?
Thanks!
If there’s no speed sensor, then it’s GPS only. You won’t notice the difference usually, but it looks like you ride in challenging GPS conditions, so having the sensor helps. (I have one on all of my bikes.) Any ANT+ or Bluetooth speed sensor will do; you don’t need the bundle version. Garmin sells them separately.
Hi, I just received the 830 yesterday. I had a 1030 and sold it because I didnt really need the sd slot and the bigger screen. I have noticed that the screen looks a bit blurry at certain angles versus the 1030. Has anyone noticed this? Maybe its just my eyes.
I will try will full finger gloves tonight for you. My fingers had no issues. It was just as responsive as the 1030. It does boot up very fast and already did a firmware update. I am going on my first ride tonight and will let you know. The screen looks great on the bike but when you hold it in your hand i swear it looks a bit blurry. Again I was used to the 1030 which does have a better screen. It seems the resolution is a bit compressed on the 830 so the text is not as sharp as the 1030.
Oh dude ditch that 520. I will let you know how the battery life goes. I actually got the 1030 because my 520 was turning off after 6 hours because of the battery being old. The 1030 was amazing. I did a 12 hour 170 mile ride last Saturday and i did have like 45% left or something. I sold the 1030 for the same price as buying the extended battery pack and the 830. I am a glass half full guy so I will nit pick a lot. Still debating if I made the right decision. The screen on the 1030 is better, but is it $100-150 better? Not sure
OK mate, thanks. I actually just got to exchange the 520 (battery lasting around 2 hours!!!) with a replacement demo model, so I have effectively got a pretty-much-brand-new 520. So now even more in two minds whether to upgrade! Maybe I’ll wait till the battery degrades again; however I do travel in Europe and do some long navigation based rides and to not have to worry about battery life would be a relief (assuming 830 would give this!)
Post ride report. I rode for about 1 hour 45 minutes. At the end of the ride I had 84% battery left. Connected to my phone running livetrack, and my quarq, and my heart rate monitor. I will do a longer test this weekend without livetrack running. The phone connection kills the battery. The screen looked great during the ride, not blurry, so it must just be a certain angle. If you hold it flat the screen isn’t blurry which is how it is on your bike. It did great other than thinking I crashed when i got to a stop sign quickly.
Gloves. It depends on the glove. If your glove fingertips are a bit rubbery like my burton ski gloves it works great. some gloves you have to find the rubberish part and use that. It worked great with the burton, not really good with my lobster gloves, and another pair it doesnt work because they dont have a rubberish finger. So maybe just get some gloves with a rubber finger or maybe put some tape on one finger that works with the screen.
Is the 530 / 830 body held together with bolts (old style) – or have they glued / fuzed this like the 1030? I liked that the old models could have new batteries installed by users, tho I suppose with this much battery life it would likely never matter even if it did go to half the life years from now.
That’s disappointing to hear that the screen doesn’t look as nice as the 1030 by one user.
—
I’m still on the fence. My Edge 1000 always froze, rebooted, corrupted files, and ultimately the power button collapsed.
My 1030 was a headache since day 1. I loved the screen size and battery life. I actually loved the 1030 as long as I DID NOT connect a mobile phone to it.
–But Garmin never fixed the Remote Control connection until just before releasing the 830 MTB bundle which comes with the remote. I almost get the impression they didn’t consider it a priority until bundling it with a new unit.
–The phone connectivity flat out sucks for a lot of users with 1030. I’d been through 3 phones, including iOS and Android. Even leaving the app open and locking the phone never kept it connected. It was a crap-shoot as to weather a ride would upload without plugging it into a PC first. The 1030 would generally shut down when it stayed connected long enough to actually receive an SMS. This was after system resets, etc.
This ultimately made the 1030 crash detection useless if connectivity is so spotty.
So having invested in the radar, the Vision, Remote, Wheel sensors, etc – I’ve finally become angry enough to ditch the 1030 after Firmware 7.3 didn’t resolve any of this.
Weather I go with Garmin 830 or Wahoo ROAM this time really depends on if they fix the phone connectivity issues on the 830. Until then I’m stuck pairing my power meter and heart rate to my phone and using Strava to record rides.
If anyone can report back on phone connectivity (good or bad) I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m still a bit steamed that even if (a big IF) the phone issues are fixed, I have to downsize the screen size from a 1030.
I had the 1030 so I know exactly what you are talking about how it would just randomly turn off during a ride when it was connected to a phone. Also how it would loose connection and get it back. I will report back how the 830 does tonight after my ride.
Nothing showed up on my screen from my phone today, so I can’t really say about the phone connectivity. I had trouble with my 1000 in that regard. The ride uploaded at the end, but it was probably using house WiFi rather than Bluetooth through the phone.
Does the 830 allow the auto lap alert notifications to be customized vs just showing the time completed for the lap? Just preordered mine, since it has more power (yeah for faster route calcs) and some upgrades vs my 820.
My 830 arrived from CT yesterday. After an hour or so of setting up the pages and pairing to various sensors yesterday, I took it for a mountain bike ride this morning. Of course, since I wanted to see ClimbPro work I loaded on the course I was going to ride. It consists of two loops connected by a short out-and-back. Unfortunately, I had neglected to check the course beforehand and as I discovered on the road the course had me riding the main loop in the opposite direction of the way I was actually going to ride, so a few miles in I was “off course”. (I eventually realized that I could turn off navigation via the pull down menu and I did that.) What little I did see of ClimbPro was a little strange, since they didn’t segment the climbs the way I would. As far as I’m concerned, this ride has two major climbs. ClimbPro also said two, but one was just a short few percent climb that I wouldn’t even bother about while the other included both major climbs, including the descent in between. Anyway, a few miles in I stopped navigation and ClimbPro ceased to be a concern.
GPS track (GPS+GLONASS) looks ok (fine on the pavement, a little ratty in the mountains), altimeter was spot on, visibility in the sun was fine. The only problem I had was when I stopped at an overlook (auto pause on) it zoomed the map page way out. On a gravel descent I attempted to zoom it in again, but eventually the map simply stopped showing anything but my track, even at my favorite zoom level of 800ft. All of the weird MTB metrics are showing up in Garmin Connect, as well as respiration rate (which looks right, but I’ll be damned if I know where it’s getting it from since I use an old Garmin hardshell HR belt).
Oh, and I forgot to mention: POI altitude calibration works as usual on the 830. Yesterday I set up my “Home” POI in my driveway and entered its altitude. This morning I saw the old familiar “Elevation calibrated to location” notice.
Ray, have you tried running battery life tests on the Edge units while running a course as well? A lot of us have wondered whether navigation cuts battery life.
I rode this weekend with the 830. I did a ride yesterday and today. Both were close to 6 hours, so 12.5 hours total without recharging. Yesterday I didn’t use the course but did have two sensors connected and it worked great. Rode for 6 hours and 108 miles. Today I rode for another 6.5 hours and had a course going for all 89 miles. The 830 has 49% battery left. That is pretty good for 12 hours of normal usage. My phone was connected also but I did not have a livetrack going.
You are welcome, It really has worked great. I think there is a bug with accident detection. I have stopped fast 2 times and it set itself off. Other than that pretty flawless. Phone connection is great unlike the 1030 which would disconnect all the time.
Thanks for chiming in on the phone connectivity. I think I’ll pick up the 830 based on your last comment – as that is the one thing that I’ve finally had it with Garmin on using the 1030 (I’ll have to adapt to the smaller screen).
Regarding incident detection – do *not* expect this to get better. Everyone I knew with a 1030 turned that off because of how many false alarms it was setting off. If cancelling them doesn’t bother you, it may be worth leaving on.
I currently use a Garmin Edge 820. It has a very annoying “feature” where the unit powers on when connected to power or disconnected from power. This is especially annoying if linked up to Bontrager lights as they also come on.
The most challenging part about this is the user must wait 5-10 seconds for the unit to boot up every time it is disconnected from power before the user can power down the unit to prevent the battery from dying between charging and riding.
I’m wondering if this problem has been solved on the Edge 830?
As for the lights though – you can solve that easily. On your Edge 820 go into the light network settings and change the power on option to be ‘On activity start’, as opposed to ‘on power up’. 🙂
Hi,
I have received my 830 just two days ago…..
I used to use 7xx, 8xx and as last 520. Then I jumped to Bolt. When Garmin announced 530/830 I did not even read the reviews. Then Wahoo announced their Roam and I thought it may be worth it to upgrade….. But then I red the review here. And I think it was negative. Very negative. And everybody was mentioning new Garmins, how better they are and how much better value for money it is compared to Roam. I started to think. Should I stick to Wahoo or give Garmin new chance. I listened to DCR. I am so sorry to say it: mistake.
1. Setting up the Edge is real pain. I was all the time thinking about Elemnt App on my iPhone. But I was convincing myself it is one-time excersise and it will be worth it.
2. Touchscreen is disaster. If DCR says it is much better than it was on 820, then it was no touchscreen most likely. On my 830 it is sometimes not responding at all, sometimes “too soon”. Maybe I am not used to this type of screen. I am convincing myself I do not need to work with the screen so often, configured my Di2 to move between screen, start/stop timer.
3. First ride, short (20km). GPS went mad when I entered the shop. It never locked back the satellites when I was outside again. It was saying it did, but on the map my position was about 5km off. I rode there and back the very same route, but according Garmin I finished… definitely not at my place.
@DCR: either you were given some super fine-tuned test device , or you were extremely lucky (or I unlucky) or….. I do not even want to think about the other option. Convincing myself that that would not be possible…..
I am not returing my 830, yet. Will try and hope for some improvements with next SW (currently 3.20). If Roam was so much worse than new Garmins, it must be complete s……
Regards
Marek
Setting up is a bit of a pain compared to the BOLT, but it’s just a one-time thing and you’re done. Like most new products.
As for the touch screen – I didn’t have any issues and honestly haven’t heard of anyone else with units saying they’ve had issues either. Same goes for GPS. Nobody has reported any GPS issues for either Edge 530 or 830.
I’d ring up Garmin support and see if they can get it swapped out. Maybe it just got dropped on it’s head or something.
I know it is “do it once”, that is why I was willing to go thru….
Please see the screenshot attached – as said, I just went there and back on the same road…
The Edge was indoors for about 5 mins and lost GPS, so I gues that is the reason, but not justification.
Today I did firtst indoor session with 830.
Tacx Neo 2 and TrainerRoad and 830 all connected via ANT+. Neo was controlled by the TR app, 830 used only to record the ride to have all Garmin metrics recorded.
Activity in TR seems normal, same on Strava (upload automatically from TR).
Garmin Connect shows insane numbers for the same ride (uploaded from 830).
I really pray for some SW updates pushed soon. As I wrote above, I left Garmin two years ago when I was geting some incorrect reading from previous Neo, when unit frozen while navigating (and I lost 100km+ rides etc). I was hoping this is all now fixed and I will be happy user, not beta tester.
Wow. Is it at all possible that your power meter was spiking and TrainerRoad cleaned it up? After the 1000 and 1030 nightmare I’m going to be watching these posts very closely before picking the 830 / ROAM.
I am not using PM on my indoor bike, just Tacx Neo 2. Maybe it was cleaned by TR, no way I can say…. I will try different apps (Zwift Sufferfest). I am not sure how it all works, but it is the app on my MacBook controlling the trainer and 830 is only recording the ride to upload it to Connect (to have all that Garmin metrics). Those spikes are strange. Or I am super strong (and I do not know about it).
Most sites have filters to basically make crazy power spikes like 30,000w just disappear – so you don’t know it’s there. Most sites put it at around 3,500w or so (well beyond any human effort). And I know Garmin has those filters in there, so I’m unsure why it would show a crazy spike like that. Undoubtedly TrainerRoad filtered out that spike (if it was real).
The tricky part of any power meter spike is figuring out where it was caused by. In 99.9% of cases, it’s legit transmitted by the device. However, there are some unique edge cases with timing where a head unit could misinterpret the timing and cause that. However, that shouldn’t happen with a trainer (based on the type of power meter it broadcasts as).
You could download the original TrainerRoad .FIT file and see if the spike is there, but it’s also likely they wouldn’t even record that spike either.
So today I tried Zwift…. same problem. Irregular power spikes.
The only thing I can think about is that I have connected Neo2 to 830 as Trainer (FE-C). So maybe there is some confusion (interference), because Zwift (and TrainerRoad before) control the Neo via the same type of connection. I tried to enable ANT+ broadcast via Tacx Utility App and connected Neo to 830 as normal PowerMeter and also removed it as FE-C trainer from 830. Will see next time if the readings are back to normal. I do not need to control the Neo from 830 so it would be Ok for me.
Makes sense. I could not find Neo as power sensor to connect it to 830, because the ANT+ broadcast was disabled via the Tacx Utility App (as recommended by Tacx). They mention Speed/Cadence sensor only, so I thought that there was no power broadcast at all. That is why I used FE-C. But after having the problems I went to Tacx App and enabled the ANT+ and “suddenly” 830 saw Power and Speed/Cadence broadcasted by Neo.
Hi, I ordered it from wiggle.co.uk – they probably had few pieces, shortly after I placed the order it was to pre-order again. VeloPlus claims to have it tomorrow….
Cheers
M.
Just got my 830 and did my first ride today. I found three bugs and I want to see if anyone had the same issue. I do have the latest firmware (3.20, upgraded from 2.40). I have a Quarq PM and I have the auto-calibrate prompt enabled. The 830 connects to the Quarq but it wouldn’t show the calibrate prompt. On the 520 the auto-calibrate prompt works flawlessly. The second bug has to with Di2 D-Fly. I use the gear combo field and it was showing garbage gearing data. I proceeded to the Di2 sensor page and see there’s an option for ‘automatic’ under gear setup and it was enabled. I disabled that option and reprogrammed my gearing manually. This method worked and it showed the correct gearing. On the 520 there’s no ‘automatic’ option and the gear combo always displays the correct gearing. The gearing info. for each bike is selected under eTube. I’m under the impression that the correct gearing info. is sent to the 830. On the 520 there’s a custom gearing setup but D-Fly gearing data will override any custom gearing you choose in the 520. If anyone can shed some light on how the D-Fly data is sent to the 830 that would be helpful. It seems to me that this is a bug in the 830 (i.e. when ‘automatic’ is enabled it shows garbage gearing data whereas the 520 shows the correct gearing). The last bug is pairing the 830 to the Garmin Connect app. on my iPhone. I couldn’t get it to work. Then I did a Google and found an old video that showed a trick when pairing on a 800. The trick is to turn off WiFi completely on the iPhone. Then power down both the iPhone and the 800 (or 830 in my case). With only LTE as the available network on the iPhone it allowed Garmin Connect to pair with the 830. This is so odd since Garmin allowed this bug to exist from an 800 to the 830. Amazing.
The next few things are my observations and not bugs. I noticed the 830 would use BLE to connect to the Quarq PM. There’s no option to choose BLE vs. ANT+. Is this normal? My 520 would use ANT+. I’m comfortable with ANT+ since I’ve never had any issues with ANT+ on the 520. Perhaps there’s a way to turn off BLE on my Quarq but I haven’t checked. Secondly, the two long edges on the 830 have a curve and a slippery plastic. I cannot hold the GPS securely. This isn’t a problem on the 520 as the 520 has a rubber and button on the two long edges. It’s very hard to hold the 830 securely. To mitigate the problem I used some friction black cotton tape (see the attached photo). This worked but it looks ugly. I suspect this issue is lessened on the 530 since there are buttons on the 530 to grab onto. The 830 lacks any buttons on the side. Another solution is to get the silicon case but it will add bulk and weight. Lastly the battery capacity on the 830 is amazing. Today I did a 44mi. ride, with an elapsed time of 2:43 and a moving time of 2:33, and the battery had 92% when I finished the ride (from 100% at the start). On the same ride the 520 showed 76% (from 100% at the start). I have two sensors enabled (D-Fly and Varia). No navigation but I do have the sharp bend warning enabled so perhaps it’s using the navigation to detect the sharp bends. Impressive!
I hope it is a good screen. I have sold already my 820.
I have another question i can not find in the review. Is there a place on the 830 to strap a cord that can be fixed to the handlebar so if you crash that the unit is not end up in a river but sticks to the bike?
For what it’s worth, I had no problem connecting my 830 to Garmin Connect on my iPhone XS running the iOS version Apple released this week. I had a little problem logging into Trailforks (couldn’t find where), but I found it eventually.
Hi Paul, good to know. Was your XS connected to a WiFi network at the time? Once I turned off WiFi it worked for me. My phone is a 6 Plus also running the latest iOS.
No, there’s no forcing to BLE on any units. In fact, somewhat the opposite. The Edge series will enumerate first the ANT+ power meters, and then will show you the BLE ones. If it sees both, it’ll say “Show bluetooth devices”.
I tested the Quarq AXS Force DZero power meter with both the Edge 530 and 830 while at Sea Otter, and it found it fine over ANT+ for me. I’d recommend going back into the pairing menu, waking up your Quarq with a few pedal strokes, and searching again. Perhaps it had started to fall asleep.
The reason you actually want to use ANT+ over BLE for power meter data, is that in your case you won’t get some of the pedaling metrics over BLE that you would over ANT+/
Thanks Ray. Yes, someone over at WeightWeenies gave me a tip of reinstalling the Quarq and use ANT+ as opposed to BLE. I removed the Quarq and did a new sensor search, and was able to connect to the Quarq using ANT+. An added bonus to using the ANT+ is that now the auto-calibrate prompt is working. Apparently with BLE the auto-calibrate prompt doesn’t show up despite having that option enabled. Don’t know if this is a bug or just a nuance of BLE vs. ANT+. The auto-calibrate prompt is a nice feature and a time-saver.
I did a ride today using a planned route. I’m impressed by the speed and accuracy of the GPS (GPS + Galileo) and navigation. The turn-by-turn navigation worked flawless for me.
I paired my AeroPod to my 830 today and BLE showed up first. I had to hit “add other” (? not exactly sure what it said) before the ANT+ channel showed up. Also had my first freeze just after when I started today’s route (made with Strave and transferred with the CiQ app) and the screen froze. Mashed the power button down and restarted and the 830 navigated and performed flawlessly during the actual ride. ClimbPro worked fine, although I wish that screen would disappear when there are no climbs left.
Hi,
Today I did race, two rounds (two very same rounds to be precise). the GPS of 830 is disaster. There was no “signal outage” – I mean not something like I did before taking the 830 into the shop for 5 minutes.
I have used GPS+GALILEO. So maybe it this configuration…? I am attaching the picture, you can see yourself….
Cheers
Definitely switch over to GPS+ GLONASS. Garmin has said that the majority of their optimizations have been on that configuration. I mostly used that, though did a few Galileo teats without any issue (on the Edge 530/830, less true on new Forerunners).
My GPS (GPS + Galileo) has also gone wonky. First two rides were perfect. Today on my third ride the GPS data turned into garbage. See the pic. below. Will be switching back to GPS + Glonass. I also mapped the same course with my 520 using GPS + Glonass and the 520 recorded 48.2 mi. vs. 48.0 on the 830. So GPS + Galileo definitely has a bug.
btw, nice area you live 🙂 Must be great to just turn left and head into the mountains.
Can you give me an idea on battery usage? Sold my 820 because of poor battery with maps full on display. Wanted to switch to Wahoo just because of that. Now waiting for good 830 reviews.
Yup, I was using that version for the review. It’s the one that was released last week to the public. Of course, like most companies (GoPro and Apple included), they make units head of final release assuming that upon launch you’ll update the firmware to current version. Most the time it works out…
Thanks, just trying to idetify potential root cause. I will definitely try to switch 830 as well as my 735 (back) to GLONASS and test if things get better. I would be Ok to live with the touch-screen as it is (even tho it does not meet my expectations) but GPS must work. I have quite some travel next week, so probably will only manage to test the settings next Saturday. Will post update here.
Cheers
Live and Ride :-)) Turn left is subjective; depending on whether you go to North or to South. I live closer to Alps in fact, yesterday I was riding closer to Jura – smaller mountains :-)). Speaking about it, there will be amazing sportive in September: https://www.zurich-zermatt.ch
Now back to 830: battery seems to be very good (I do not want to say “amazing” yet. I ride with GPS, HR, PM and Speed (all ANT+) and within 2 hours the battery dropped only few %; but I am not sure what level I had when starting the ride. I hope do some longer ride next Saturday so can give you update afterwards.
Cheers
As you probably know, all the recent releases use the new Sony GPS chipset, which by and large none of the major fitness companies have been leveraging Galileo on much till now. Hence why I suspect we’ll still see some rough patches there.
Whereas everyone has been using GLONASS (or at least the option of it), and Garmin itself admitted they’ve spent very little time working on optimization with Galileo versus boatloads on GLONASS.
Now, if you roll back to the FR735XT, that’s on the same GPS chipset as the FR935 (not the FR945). In my case, some of the best GPS tracks I’ve ever seen have come recently from the FR935 with Galileo enabled, mostly since the February enablement of the final Galileo satellites. I’d imagine the FR735XT would be in that same boat given it’s the same chipset.
Sorry, I made mistake…. I have FR935 and have been using setting GPS+GALILEO since it was enabled in FW. Never experienced anything strange, but to be fair I use the watch mainly as activity tracker and for skiing.
So you are saying on FR935 you would stick with GALILEO and on 830 go back to GLONASS (for now).
Cheers
I never had issues with Galileo on the 1030 (older GPS chip than 830 apparently). I was hoping to use Galielo on this for mapping out trails and trying to keep them as accurate as possible. Could this possibly be hardware related in the sense that it won’t get any better? If Garmin could step in and say that it’s software related and is (actively) being worked on, that’d at least help in a choosing a computer.
It’s a different chipset, so some of the optimization game has to start back over again. Garmin says they’re going to transition to optimizing the Galileo side from the GLONASS side, but that their first priority was GLONASS.
The good news there is that since all of Garmin’s 2019 devices now use this new chipset, they have good reason to do it, so I don’t think it’ll be long before we see those optimizations.
On the battery life, it has been amazing. Today I did the longest ride yet on the 830 (67.6mi., elapsed time 3hr 40min.) and the battery was showing 86% at the finish. I didn’t use navigation but had three sensors (Quarq, Varia, and D-Fly).
I’m very glad Garmin went bigger on the 530/830 as LiON battery doesn’t weigh a lot. And as these units are designed to not be easily serviceable the larger battery capacity will extend the life of these units considerably.
Hi Ray,
In your review you said the 830 allows up to 12 data fields. I can only go to 10 unless somehow one can add two more Connect IQ fields in addition to the 10? I’d love to have 12 non-Connect IQ data fields. Please let me know if you have a trick to get 12 on one screen. Thanks.
I rode around yesterday while setting my destination at home to see what options it gave me and it wanted me to take a dangerous main road that isn’t highlighted as popular on their heatmap. I’d doubt that it would take gravel into account if it doesn’t handle a busy non-bike friendly thoroughfare.
Card was charged this morning and got a notification it is shipping out USPS today. 830 only, no bundle. Wish they used UPS or Fedex since probably 1 out 4 USPS shipments to me out here in the middle of nowhere southwestern US get delayed by a few days.
Thank you for the review! Just received my 830 (upgrade from an 810). I’m surprised that there is no longer a bike profile. I have different bikes, does that mean I track the bike via Garmin Connect, Strava, etc?
Yes, correct. The profiles you use now in the Edge830 are for different routing options, different screens, etc…and the route type is also tagged according to the profile used in Garmin Connect. Sensors are pooled throughout all profiles.
Got mine on Monday (also an upgrade from the 810), still going through the boatload of options…
Thank you for the confirmation. I’ll be more diligent on Strava and Garmin Connect to ensure I select the correct bike but it’s not a big deal. I was up late last night going through the options. Wow!
Yesterday after I updated my 830 and did some setup settings, I tried to shutdown the device and it get stucked in the shutdown… it freezed with the shutdown signal in the display and it didn’t shutdown… Then I pushed the power and lap button (I´m not sure it was lap or start/stop button) button to shutdown the device… Didn’t happen again.
Does the heat and altitude acclimation piece sync with other Garmin devices? For instance, you say the acclimation decays in just several days, but what if you do a ride at elevation then run the next days. Will the Edge say you have lost acclimation?
Can someone who has this unit and has used the workouts feature comment on whether one can view target power range and cadence range on the same page and whether the power shown is instantaneous or 3sec average? Thanks
I have no 830, but have used the 1000 for a long time, and have now a 1030. On both you have pre-configured screens, and can in addition configure extra screens. I use the workout with and smart trainer with any fields I need. The power that is show is 3sec. I can in addition add instant power, but I do not think that it is very useful due to spikes…
I have just purchased the 830 after having the 1000. As I tour in Europe occasionally I would like to be able to add the European maps as I did with the 1000. Garmin has told me that there is not enough memory on the 830 and I would have to delete some map files before downloading the European maps. Do you know if this is indeed the case or if there is another option?
Does the unit beep at you before a turn (while using course navigation)? You (and other sources) use the word ‘alert’ constantly in reviews, but the reader is left to guess if it means a visual thing on the unit or if it is an audible alert.
Hi, so I got the new forerunner 945 and the Edge 830 (delivered hurrah) from clevertraining.
Thanks Ray.
Quick question. Is it possible (not that I want to specifically) but, if the watch detects the activity automatically and starts recording a cycling activity on both the 945 and i manually record on the 830 at the same time. And if so, which one takes precedence when uploading to Garmin Connect…
Hi Abhishek! Well, if you record the activity on both devices at the end both are synced to GC, there’s no precedence of one device over another. So either discard one activity when stopping it or delete the duplicate in GC afterwards. I don’t see a reason to record it twice, especially as with Physio True-Up your FR945 will know about your ride with Edge 830 and vice versa. I would be more concerned about how all the Firstbeat physiological indicators might get “confused” if you upload both.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Olly. that was helpful. Just a quick follow up question.
The reason i asked this is in case I start a ride on the edge 830, I’m assuming that the 945 will not do one of those “automatic workout detection” things like the apple or samsung watches and hence duplication.
So I just read up about the physio true up. Seems pretty good. So I guess even if both the devices record, it won’t allow duplication from what I see.
On another note, does the forerunner 945 allow for automatic workout detection?
Hi,
this is my first Garmin Device (Wahooligan who needs better Navigation capabilities). I am going to share the Edge with my wife. Are there any options to manage different userprofiles? I don’t want the device to upload my wife’s rides to my strava account 😉
Good question and I’d be interested to hear. However my assumption is ‘no’. I would assume a few issues.
1. I’ve not tried to have a device registered to two users at once…so (maybe) it could work?
2. The device will save both your rides and likely upload them to both your accounts (again I’ve not tried).
3. I think both your phones would fight for a connection if they both allowed you to register the device. The pairing process itself is a pain in the neck with the Edge 1030, but maybe this device is better and you could just unpair / repair as needed.
4. The device itself doesn’t have an option for multiple user profiles. I suppose you could do ‘ride’ type profiles and name them altho it might not help a lot.
That being said, I think you make a good point in that this would be nice for some people to have. I wouldn’t count on it ever happening tho. People have been asking for ‘bike’ profiles to return but that won’t happen. There’s actually no way to associate a bike to a ride until post-ride after uploading.
All things considered, you should probably just disable auto-upload on the Edge device, and use a USB cable to pull the ride and manually upload to each of your accounts. That would probably be the easiest solution.
Hi, Mike, I am a Wahooligan too. I am a Element bolt user. I am Happy with it but I need needs better Navigation. What do you think between Element Roam and Edge 830?. Do you think that despite the complexity of 830, is it worth it?. Tomy
Well, what I have heard from the roam is that it indeed has better navigation capabilities than the bolt and to be honest, for road cycling I would still prefer the bolt or roam. Its simple userface and simply working integrations to strava/rwgps/komoot,.. is FAR ahead from what I can see now with the 830!
But I will keep both – the wahoo for predefined routes for road cycling and the garmin for mountainbiking in uknown areas during vacations. The on-device navigation is really great here, also the rerouting if a road is closed.
You say that the 830 navigation is really great here, also the rerouting if a road is closed.
I would like to know if you have riding the mtb with the komoot in the phone and the bolt connected with phone by BT.
The Kommot alway recalculate the track (like the google maps in your car). For example last weekend two dogs with no-friendly face convince me to change the route 90º, and the komoot recalculate the route. Many times I download a track from wikiloc, and after I modify it on my phone, because or is too long or just because it start or finish in places that I dont like.
Is the 830 navigation so good and so simple as komoot?. My son of 6 , ( just playing with my phone), plan the routes for my and my friend very good.
Does this (partnership?) with Trailforks possibly have something to do with the lack of MTBProject integration with Garmin devices? Over a year ago, the MTBProject staff commented back to me on their forum that they were working with Garmin on an app and to keep my eyes open. This never happened and any time I ask them for an update, or if this was discontinued…and if it had anything to do with this, my questions on the forum now go unanswered. I think they’re both great services. I don’t like that MTBProject is now part of an REI storefront, but honestly both services have features that I like over the other. That being said, my state has more data in MTBProject and the *only* way to get it to a Garmin device is to load their page in a PC web browser, manually download each GPX and then use a 3rd party app (or cable) to get it to the Garmin. A real pain in the neck compared to Trailforks and the reason I’ve switched over to it. MTBProject even refuses to allow a download link to appear in their mobile web version. They’ve asked what ‘use-case’ this was for and then don’t really follow up after I explain. I sometimes wonder if they (or REI?) only want people viewing the data through their mobile app.
As a former user of 800/810/520/820 but with a Wahoo Bolt in between now back on a 830 (which is great!) I’m missing this possibilities from my Bolt;
– how can the unit auto power off? I know about sleep but that’s something else I think (still uses a little powerrrr)
– how can I get a message on my phone the battery of the 830 is low?
– how can I upload a course (navigation route) to the 830 through my connect app?
– can you change something in the workout page and/or take something from the IQstore?
I just received the 830, and it came with Firmware 2.4. I’ve tried to update to 3.20, but it never shows available. I tried first via WiFi from the unit itself, and it says “no update available”. In Garmin Connect web, it says “update available, use Garmin Express to update”. I tried that, and the only update it shows available is the map update. So, I tried going straight to the downloads page on Garmin for the device, and it says “no files available”. Did anyone else have this issue? Is it possible they pulled that firmware for some reason? See the screenshot below (can’t see the attempt from the device itself – but trust me it says nothing available).
Reboot the device and it will likely run the update. All my garmin devices do this. When you sync in the PC app, it throws the update file onto the Edge and doesn’t tell you, then it just says either it’s up to date or nothing is available, till you reboot it.
Disregard above! After about an hour of WiFi on, it prompted direct on the device to update, and I’m now at 3.2. Not sure why it wouldn’t do it initially, but it’s working!
Today rode 150km Gravel with the 530. Took me 6:30hrs. Brightness to 60%, GPS+Gloanass. Map view all the time and navigation active. Had 40% left in the end.
Anyone else having issues with sensors reconnecting after a stop mid-ride? I stopped for 15-20 minutes yesterday and both the power meter and heart strap didn’t reconnect. I noticed the power meter and only way to bring it back was to delete it and add it back. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the heart strap so I have a 4 hour ride where my heart rate appears to be exactly 101 bpm for three hours solid!
I’ve had surprisingly little trouble with my 830. Just as I got home from a ride a week ago I noticed the cadence sensor icon flashing, but if it did disconnect it was in my driveway since all of the cadence info was there. Yesterday I noticed the speed jumping around a little as if it were using GPS rather than my speed sensor, but I was riding mostly tree free so there’s no way of telling if it dropped contact without digging through the FIT file. My stops have never been as long as 20 minutes, at most 10 minutes, and have had no troubles like those you’re describing. The only recurring problem is that occasionally all of the map data will disappear, leaving only my track (well, briefly the map will flash as it auto scrolls to another screen) and when I stop occasionally the map page will zoom way back to show the entire course on screen. Oh, the close up turn direction screen will occasionally get stuck (the “me” icon moves but the distance to turn won’t update) and I need to tap the screen to get things working again. No crashes, no freezes, no lost data, which is much better than previous Garmin devices I’ve had.
I’ve seen two other reports now of the sensors not re-connecting after a mid-ride pit-stop. I suspect it’s tied to some specific/unique set of conditions that can cause it, since it doesn’t seem to happen to me on some of my stops (including some longer ones). Obviously there’s a bug there, the curious part is figuring out the repro steps.
Add me to the list. Both my heart rate and cadence dropped at the same time yesterday (Varia lights stayed connected)during a quick stop/regroup on a ride. I have the new cadence 2 and the HRM-Dual. The only way I could get them to re-connect was to delete and re-add. Also, at the end of the ride, my phone would not reconnect. I powered off the 830 and it seemed to be stuck at power off. It would not power off/back on until I held down for 10-15 seconds. It was only then my phone would re-connect.
I’ll see what happens tonight on my ride. I hope this isn’t normal, and if so, they get a fix out soon.
FWIW, on my first ride with the 830, I was running FW 2.4. It didn’t happen with that FW. Yesterday was my second ride with the unit, and first with FW 3.2, and I had the issues above.
I have had the same issue where the sensors dropped for 15 min several times during the ride and I didn’t realize it until after I had uploaded my data to Garmin Connect. It was my power meter and Speed/Cadence sensors that dropped off when we had stopped.
It doesn’t take too long, and providing as much detail up-front is ideal (including perhaps links to these comments here showing other people are having the issue as well).
Oh – and to link to a specific comment (since comment numbers change here dynamically), just right click on the ‘date/time’ shown below someone’s comment. That gives a permanent URL to that comment.
Honestly, that won’t help any (just being frank). A distributor has no meaningful way to report incidents/tickets to Garmin except via sales channels – which almost never result in anything unless that distributor has enough scale to make Garmin hurt (which very few do). And even then, that assumes the distributor/retailers cares enough to try and make that happen (which most don’t, even the good ones). They’d rather give you a new unit – but that won’t really help here.
What happens when you open a Garmin support ticket/case?
Last time I tried to make a ticket and had no response.
I’ve called twice for my Vector pedals (hardware in that case), was in my case faster. (Country Belgium)
Thanks Ray. FYI, some people have also reported the same issue on a 530. I haven’t checked the comments on your 530 review but there is at least one thread on the Garmin 530 forum.
Just out of curiosity, did you people having the problem of dropping sensors first pair your sensors when running the firmware it came with (2.4?). I went back over my rides and saw no evidence (well, I didn’t delve into the FIT files, just looked at the plots on GC) of any sensor drops. (As I said, though, my longest stop during all of those rides was probably 10 minutes.) When I first got my 830 I plugged it into a computer and added and synced it, and the update to the current firmware (3.2?) happened immediately. Only after that did I pair sensors. Maybe 2.4 did something screwy with the sensor database?
My sensors were paired after it updated to 3.2. Only my HR dropped out and I did not make any significant stops. I saw a phone disconnected message at about the same time.
My first Edge 830 would lose most of its sensors (a seemingly random subset of them) within the first hour – Wahoo TICKR Run HR strap, PowerTap P1 pedals, Garmin new speed sensor, shimano di2. I got in touch with the Garmin support folks, they had me send the unit back & sent me a new one. I just had my first ride with the new one and it lost all the sensors within the first hour of a ride with it. This is with the 3.2 firmware version. I have a Cycliq Fly12CE 2-3cm below the 830, and I have a Schmidt SON dynamo hub wired to a Busch Mueller IQ-X dynamo light another 10cm below the Cycliq. I’m going to try riding without the Cycliq on the bike and see if that makes any difference? I don’t think it’s a hardware problem given that two units have had the same exact problem.
Also, once the unit is in this state, trying to shut it down (hold-press power button, select Shut Down) will never complete – it gets stuck on the shutting-down icon and you have to hold the power button for 6-10 seconds to force restart the device.
I’ve used an Edge 820 since it was released in the same location on the bike with the same sensors (well, the Garmin speed sensor is brand new) without ever seeing this..
Yeah, this is exactly the same problems I’ve been seeing with my 830 and the replacement from Garmin – mid-ride half the sensors (powertap p1, wahoo tickr run, shimano di2, garmin speed) will disappear, will not re-connect when I try to connect them. Trying to shut off the device hangs at the shutting-down icon and you have to hold the power button for 6-10 seconds to force the device to restart. At first I thought I had a bad unit but the replacement unit is doing exactly the same thing. Every time this has happened, it’s been mid-ride without any stops except, like, stoplights. Firmware 3.2.
I tried riding without the Cycliq and with the dynamo light turned off. It’s not interference from either of those; every ride I’ve done with an 830 running FW3.20 has resulted in all the sensors dropping out 10-50 minutes into a ride. It seems like such a brilliant device, but man, this is making me really glad I still have my 820.
I just had my fourth occurrence of my same issue above. My HR (HRM-Dual) and Cadence (New Garmin Cadence 2) drop out early/mid-ride. The only way I can get them to come back is delete and re-add. When I have this behavior, my 830 also will not power off normally.
I raised a case with Garmin and haven’t heard back. Anyone else have any luck? It appears to be a common issue, and firmware related (based on the fact others have received replacements and the issue isn’t fixed).
FWIW, there have been a few rides where the sensors don’t drop, but it’s about 50/50.
Curious for those having this problem, are you connecting by ANT+ or Bluetooth? I’m pretty sure all my sensors are connected to my 830 by ANT+ and I’ve not had this problem after several rides.
For those of you that have reported sensor drop issues please see the forum thread listed below. We would like to gather your feedback to help understand the issue. We understand your frustrations and are working on getting this resolved ASAP.
Louis, I just checked and all my sensors (speed, hr, power) were connecting through bluetooth. Interesting! When I added them I clicked on the sensor that popped up on the garmin screen but it looks like it was showing the BTLE one in each case. I re-added them all with ANT+ and we’ll see if that helps.
Thanks Louis, I deleted the sensors from the Garmin, re-added them manually selecting the ANT+ protocol for each — it seems like the 830 was offering me a default of a BLE connection for them; I had to click on the ‘Show All’ button to see both the ANT+ and BLE connection (they’re not labeled, so you get to guess based on the name of the device which protocol it is). Using the ANT+ connections, I went on a 3 hour ride without any sensor problems at all. Awesome! I might even leave my old 820 at home instead of carrying it in my jersey pocket as an emergency backup device. 🙂
Hey Shawn, I can’t seem to get anyone’s attention at Garmin for this issue. I just got the 830 and the unit itself is great but the interval training page is still primitive and doesn’t reflect newer cycling coach techniques for prescribed workouts. Every recent coach I know prescribes an interval with a power range (or HR if not available) and a cadence range. When building workouts in TrainingPeaks these data fields are available but the workout page on my edge won’t show these fields….and worse yet, the power is an instantaneous power rather than the much more useable 3sec average power. Any plans for this to be implemented?
Would much rather have this very basic feature be right than have my unit remind me to drink, haha.
For what? I’ve tried it. Single map only. On the Bolt map could me only zoomed not moved (On Roam you can, but just by key).
So you need to specific what you are talking about and your thoughts behind.
If you are just looking primarily for a sports device with some type of simple road bike navigation Wahoo is ok. But for that case there are a lot of alternatives.
If navigation is your primary feature and still looking for support for most sports aspects unfortunately Garmin seems to be more or less the only option.
I would prefer there would be alternative solutions.
Thanks for comparison of 530 and 830. But is there any reason to own a 1030 v 830 apart from screen size? With the deals available on 1030 the price difference is not that big now.
I went from a 1000 to an 830. I did not upgrade to the 1030 primarily because I thought it was getting too large. I really liked the 1000 form factor but it is getting long in the tooth and the battery life is not what I need. I am not at all disappointed with the 830. Screen size is fine for me (I do wear glasses) and the screen is sharp and bright. No regrets.
Upgraded from a Garmin Edge 520 and I realize how many annoyances I have been living with for way too long. If you have a TT bike then the touch screen is superb, much easier to change views by swiping and doesn’t send me off track when trying to push those sticky buttons on my old 520. It is very fast and the slightly bigger screen helps. The mapping and turn by turn directions are also great. And I love that Garmin asks you how much you drank and calories consumed at the end of a ride. I presume a lot of this you get with the 1030 but this is the perfect size.
The ClimbPro is very nice but it seemed to ignore some major climbs on my Strava route. And that is my question. Does it only pick up climbs for segments that Garmin has in its’ database?
I don’t think that’s it. It’s a little mystifying how it chooses climbs. It will include descents in a climb, and where it starts a climb is a little weird (on a climb I was on Saturday, I was climbing already when I hit the start of one of the two). Ray gives the rules above, and the choices make some sense in light of those rules, but as someone who things a climb begins when the road turns upward enough and ends when it turns downward enough, I’m still startled by some of its choices. I’d also like the “Upcoming Climbs” screen to disappear when there are no further climbs; it’s annoying to be told “No upcoming climbs” at the beginning of the last major climb and all the way up, not to mention on the minor climbs that don’t make the cut of a “climb”.
I just received my Edge 830 in the US, and I noticed a couple of things on the back that seem different:
1) On my unit, there are 2 speaker holes above the serial number sticker, and I noticed in many photos online, there are 2 additional holes to the right of these. Mine does not have these extra holes. Could Ray and/or others please check to see if your unit has the extra holes?
2) My unit has what looks like a black sharpie marker line drawn on the back, where I drew an arrow on the photo. Maybe it had a flaw that was reworked manually?
3) The alarm does not seem very loud. Could it have to do with the lack of extra holes?
Any guidance from this group is greatly appreciated. Thank you! Jeff
I tested the alarm in my living room. Real world, if I were at a crowded coffee shop with a lot of talking and the bike wasn’t right by me, I don’t think there is any way I’d hear it otherwise.
Thanks so far for the replies. I’m fine with the manual rework on the finish, I’m just wondering if there are other variants out there with the extra holes as pictures, and if so, why!
My Garmin has also 2 holes.
The left Garmin has also a different back then the left. In the middle on the left and right is a little difference. The right has a surface without any lines.
Hi Ray, I’m riding with friends a lot: some of us have the Wahoo, others have Garmin 820 and 830 and I’m in doubt what to buy. Mostly, on Whatsapp we discuss distance + to ride against the wind first and so we agree on a course. Then somebody has to create that course, either in Wahoo-app, or Garmin, or download some GPX-file. We’d like that everybody in the group has the same future ride loaded into his Wahoo/Garmin, so everyone can ride on top and navigate correct. I have 3 questions:
1. is it possible for Garmin 830 owners, that they create a course and share it with friends, for example via Whatsapp?
2. is it possible for Garmin 830 owners, to load a course that has been created by Wahoo-owners and shared, for example by Whatsapp?
3. do you have any other good solution/advice for us?
Thanks in advance!
Both Wahoo and Garmin support the ability to open route files up via their smartphone apps, and then send them to the devices. Each one supports a different format though, so that’s a minor wrinkle. Both support the ability to pull from Strava Routes (Wahoo a bit cleaner, but Garmin’s usually works too).
I can’t think of a great way to have a shared route store or something. We almost need some ability to have shared routes by teams or something. Like, you could join a team on Strava, and then have those routes automatically added into your account. Then again, that’d require Strava to add a feature to their platform – which…yeah.
I’m seriously looking to replace my old 800 with and 830 but there is one really useful feature on the 800 I’d like to keep. The 800 has a micro-SD card slot and I can add Ordnance Survey maps (such as 1:25,000 scale) via this and then use the device for walking too.
Can you tell us if the new 830 has the same slot available?
Great review – I have the 1030, and really love it. You mention Trailforks being included on the new devices, but won’t be in the update for the 1030. You can still download Trailforks to the 1030 via Garmin IQ and it works perfectly. Unless you mean I will lose this after I update when it becomes available???
Dang. I wish mine would just ship. Amazon is saying June 3-July3 as projected ship date. How did you guys get yours so fast? And hoping whatever ships comes with updated firmware regarding sensor drops, etc.
Hi ray , we are 3 friends all three with bought the new garmin 830 bundle and all three have iPhone X with up to date software , also for the garmin connect app . When we have finished a ride and we go to garmin connect app and request details the have the respiration frequency indicated ( see foto ) and I don’t see that …. any idea ? And furthermore which sensor measures this ?
Hi ray , me and 2 friends bought the garmin 830 bundle , all three have iPhones x and updated garmin connect app ( so 3 identical cases ) after finishing a ride and checking the details of that ride in garmin connect they have a respiration frequency number whilst I don’t see that. Contacted garmin support and they don’t even know what I’m talking about …. see photo … any idea ? And how do they measure this ?
It comes from a chest strap. I don’t know off-hand if that requires a Garmin strap, or just requires specific information be sent via ANT+ correctly. My guess is the second, but I haven’t poked/tested a bunch. I know it does show up on the HRM-DUAL, fwiw.
Seems to be related to whether the belt is sending valid HRV. Amazingly my ancient Garmin hard shell chest belt gives whatever it is (I’m just guessing HRV) that the 830 uses to compute respiration. My Scosche Rhythm24 does not, and I don’t get respiration when I use it.
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The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds! It’s a nice break from the day to day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
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Thanks for the review Ray. Do you know if the 530/830/1030 have the same hardware. I kinda like the size of the 1030 but if its going to run super slow with the new features when they release that firmware then the 830 is a better option.
I suspect the 530/830 have identical hardware internally. The Edge 1030…we know it has the older GPS chipset (MediaTek), and I suspect it has a slower processor than the Edge 530/830 – but Garmin typically doesn’t release process specs (the fact that they claimed 2x faster this time around is a huge rarity for them).
I don’t think you’re going to see an impact to slowness on the Edge 1030 with new features, since by and large features are only loaded when used.
Thanks for the review Ray. In the sensor compatibility table, you have “NO” for eBike connectivity, but in the text, you have a comment that you can now pair eBike ANT+ sensors on the Edge 830.
Could you please clarify?
I’m especially interested to replace default Shimano display with this unit (as such option was announced last summer from both companies), but didn’t see it in real life yet.
Thanks.
They both support eBikes. Just fixed the database. Thanks!
Ray, can you please run the IQ “Tree Benchmark” on 530 and 830? So we better can evaluate the new processor performance compared to other devices.
link to apps.garmin.com
That app isn’t listed as Edge 530/830 compatible, so it won’t let me install it.
I found the ‘Connect IQ Benchmark’ test though, and tried it on the Edge 530. It scores a CPU at 21.3, and a Pips at 166.7. The app doesn’t show up for the Edge 830 for some reason.
Oh, and I believe my current unit has dev logging enabled (in case I have any crashes they can investigate). As such, there’s some amount of overhead there.
Based on those figures the new units are twice as fast as the 1030 and 8-10 times as fast as the 520/820. They really took that performance criticism to heart.
No Netflix? I’m disappointed…
Only Hulu.
Damn, no DC Universe? Watching Doom Patrol on Friday mornings while riding would save me a bunch of time.
That hydration stuff looks like it can be a little annoying. Can it be turned off? I don’t know how many oz (or ml) I drink. I take three swigs from my (large size) bottle every 15 minutes on the road, and a little more from the 2.5 l bladder on my back in the mountains. So measuring in “bottles” isn’t that useful for me. I’m not going to carry measuring cups or a flow meter with me.
Yes, you can turn it off (individually for hydration vs nutrition).
The bottles measurement is something you define. So you could actually just define your CamelBak size if you wanted to.
I’m still on the Edge 1000. Any idea if the 1000 is getting the same updates? I basically stopped using my 1000, except when I need big maps, since it doesn’t count towards training status, intensity minutes, etc. and I have the Forerunner 935.
No further feature updates planned for the Edge 1000.
Question about altitude: how does it calibrate? Does it still have the “if I’m close enough to a POI with an altitude tag, use that” mode first introduced in the 705? Can it use the onboard DEM to set altitude? Or is it just using GPS to calibrate (which, in my experience, doesn’t really work)?
Based on what I’m seeing, it’s using GPS first to calibrate. Else, there were some scenarios that I think it’d have gone more closely to the DEM data. But I’ll check and see.
That’s a deal breaker if true. I have it sitting in my CT cart (and the VIP discount works!), but if it’s going to GPS first or only, I’ll stick with my 1000.
I read the instructions and it said you can manually calibrate the altitude. Have a google search and someone posted the PDF for the 830 and 530.
here you go.. link to appelmoessite.wordpress.com
(click download for the PDF)
Setting Your Elevation
If you have accurate elevation data for your present location,
you can manually calibrate the altimeter on your device.
1 Select Navigation > > Set Elevation.
2 Enter the elevation, and select .
Yeah, but I don’t want to do that every time I ride. What the 705, 800, and 1000 do is to check to see if there’s a POI “nearby” with altitude information and use that automatically. So I have a POI for my driveway, and the altitude is automatically calibrated every time. At least I know that at one point in my ride the altitude is accurate (there are drifts, of course, and Garmin doesn’t seem to temperature correct its altitude model so in the summer altitudes in the mountains are always low). With GPS calibration I have no idea, and judging from my VIRB Elite, 360, and my Epix it just doesn’t work that well. (The Elite once calibrated 1500 ft too high.)
Fenix 3 and 5 do the same thing, but as far as the Garmin forum hive mind could see, it wasn’t documented anywhere, though between us we had a fair idea how it was working.
DEM is the first thing that’s looked like improving on that…
Yeah, DEM would be fine. GPS just isn’t. When I saw Ray’s 18 m offset above, that smells like GPS calibration.
All edge units have the capability to save locations, set the elevation for that location, then the unit will calibrate the baro to the elevation if timer is started within 30 feet of that location. This includes the 530/830. I just tested it and it works flawlessly.
All Edge unit have the ability to save elevation set points. Basically you mark a waypoint (Location) under Navigation, then edit the waypoint to the known elevation for that location, and when you start an activity within 30 feet of that location, it will automatically calibrate the baro. I just tested this on the Edge 530 and it works flawlessly.
Thoughts on battery life? I think most people found the old 820 to get nowhere near 15 hours, more like 5-9 IRL. Should we expect 10 hours on the 830/530 based on Garmin’s 20 hr claim?
Hard to know for absolute certain. I’m looking to do some longer battery life tests once things simmer down (since it’s hard to set it aside for 20-40hrs prior to review). That said, Garmin did make a point of noting that they’ve changed how they make battery life claims and they feel pretty confident with the specifications I noted above in terms of sensor/screen settings/connectivity/etc… We’ll see…
Display Resolution / Display Size:
Edge 800/810: 160 x 240 (36 x 55 mm; 2,6″)
Edge 820: 200 x 265 (35 x 47 mm; 2,3″)
Edge 520: 200 x 265 (35 x 47 mm; 2,3″)
Edge Explore: 240 x 400 (39 x 65 mm; 3″)
Edge 1000: 240 x 400 (39 x 65 mm; 3″)
Edge 1030: 282 x 470
Ray, what about the display resolution? Can you please add the 530/830 to this table?
ok, I found it:
Edge 530/830: 246 x 322 (35 x 47 mm; 2,3″)
But in this specs are the display sizes of both device the same as the 820/520 (2,3″).
link to buy.garmin.com
Correct, both are identical.
But you wrote, that the display size has increased 13% from 2.3” to 2.6”.
Maybe is a typo on the specs site?
Typo – 5000 meters long at 3%. 2 * 5000 = No doesn’t match the 3% threshold.
This should be “5000 meters long at 2%”
Thanks, fixed a few minutes ago – but I suspect you’re still seeing the cache (which updates every 15 minutes). Thanks!!!
i predict they’ll drop the climb threshold to 350 or 400 ft or make it specifiable. Vast majority of things around Seattle short of mountains are ~400 ft
Hi Ray. I really enjoy your reviews. Thank you. While navigating on my Garmin 800, I can press the road name text along the top of the unit and that will take me to a cue sheet for the rest of the ride. Is this feature available on the 830 and 530? Thanks.
Hey Ray,
I remember that the responsiveness of the 820 touchscreen was quite poor. I have the 1030 today and thou it’s quite acceptable I still find I’d prefer the touchscreen to track my instructions better (it’s not that rare that the touchscreen doesn’t capture my touch or tracks it wrong).
Is this new touchscreen perfect just like in a top level smartphone, or do you still see some indecisions from the unit to track immediately and correctly each tap?
thanks
Luca
There’s no meaningful indecision at this point. It’s not Google Maps on an iPhone X fast, but it shows me some 500ft before a turn that a turn is coming. Plenty of time.
Hi Ray,
i was not really talking about responsiveness in navigation, I was talking about the responsiveness of the touchscreen to the inputs. With the 820 it happens a significant number of times (that I’d roughly rate around 50%) that I had to re-input my instruction (say it is to save the track rather than swiping to another data-screen or whatever) before it got my request. Few times I had to do it even more than 2 times.
It’s much better than the Edge 820 in that respect. Once i get beyond the next day or two, I’m going to circle back and put together a side by side video showing the two touchscreens together and responsiveness, water, etc…
Just a bit slammed for the next 48 hours or so.
I’d say the Edge 830 is like 95% of the way there, meaning, for every 20 touches, maybe one it won’t catch – and if someone was grading me on using it, they’d probably say I missed the ‘button’ with my figure in that 1 case…and, they’d probably be right about half the time. I think in my Edge 830 video you can see one case where I just totally missed the button (or thought a menu existed but didn’t).
Got it, thank you very much
Hi Ray,
I just bought an Edge 1030 and am still in the period where I can return it. Would you advise returning it and getting the 830 or would you just stick with the 1030?
If you’re a mountain biker, you may want to consider how much the Trailforks map data means to you. Else, you’ll get a firmware update with everything else.
or, you can save a few hundred bucks 🙂
In the beginning of the training and performance section you have “incontinent experiences” instead of what I hope should be “inconsistent experiences.”
I kinda want to leave it at this point. 🙂
I was going to comment on that but figured it was already spotted. Makes me REALLY glad I opted for the Fenix 5x / Edge 1030 combo instead!
Hi Ray,
Did you happen to catch any photos of the redesigned structured workout execution page? That page/function is currently one of my nits to pick on my 820. Specifically interaction with a smart trainer. I can’t easily switch between erg and resistance mode. Did that get an update here?
Thanks!
Tyler
Yeah, there’s actually photos above on it, but the workouts I had showing it were crappy. I’ve gotta find some prettier workouts to re-do those photos.
Best typo ever?
Incontinent instead of inconsistent.
“(So consumers that used more than one device (like a Fenix 5 along with an Edge 820 for cycling), ended up with incontinent experiences. That should no longer be the case (at least going forward).“
How big is the internal memory? Do I still need an external sd-card to store the maps?
I also missed information about that.
And about the weight, size, side by side comparison with other devices, views from all sides, unboxing, happiness about the color, …
Maybe a followup post when battery life tests are also ready.
Internal storage is ~15.5GB of addressable space. However, about half of that is taken up by the onboard maps, depending on which region you’re in.
As for side by sides, yeah, I shot those and will add them in tomorrow. The clock sorta ran out on adding more things in, so just didn’t have a chance to do that.
Nice, looking forward to it.
I imagine battery tests are quite time consuming too.
In addition to the internal memory, can a sd card be installed to add memory?
Hi Ray
How much space do the Euro maps take up? Looking at buying either the 1030 or the 830. I like the screen size of my 1000, and I can add a micro SD card. I.e. will I be able to fit the Euro maps as well as the Aus maps?
Jason, from memory Europe is a touch over 4 Gb and Australia is something like 1.5. There is more than enough room without a sd card
Edge1000: Maps Europe 2018.10 – Size: 9.7 GB
I don´t know the size of the actual maps. I guess they are a little bit bigger.
No SD card slots in the 830 or 530. That’s a 1030-only thing.
Hi Ray,
can I still use the ‘open fiets map’ maps? just copy-paste them on the internal memory?
Btw, nice routing the Butcher’s Tears…
Thanks,
Tobias
Yes, still works the same.
Hi Ray, was wondering, do you think some of the new 830 features will be shown later on an Edge 820, 1000 or Edge explorer 1000 or Edge 1030 or the Edge Explorer based on 1030?
I am realy interested in the hight profile feature but as I already have for every bike an Garmin Ege computer starting from Edge 520, 820, 1000, 1000 explorer, Edge 1030, 2x Edge Explorer i don’t wan’t to spend again 300€
thanks
Stefan
I think really only the Edge 1030.
Looking forward to order one so I can be a beta tester for the next year or so, I have seen my share of bugs with 1030 and vector3 the last two years that I am not convinced that garmin can execute a production ready unit well.
Both units really have the same screen size?
Yes, both share the same screen sizes.
Note that the 520 computers also had the same screen size as the 820 (which shrank a bit in screen size from the 810 IIRC, but had better resolution).
FWIW, after a very frustrating experience with the 820 touchscreen, I upgraded to the 1030 which has a great touchscreen; reconfiguring display fields on-the-fly is a game changer.
Thanks for the detailed review (been looking forward to this ever since the first rumors of the 830 popped up a couple of weeks ago).
1. Is the screen technology (lamination etc.) the same as on the 820? It’s obviously too early to tell, but I wonder if the 830 will also suffer from the “blue halo” issue that has plagued the 820 (and the 1030). I have an almost new 820, but I’m dreading the potential appearance of the blue halo (hope it will be during the warranty period still, or even better, not appear at all–fingers crossed).
2. How did you find the gradient field update speed? My 820 has been rather disappointing compared to my old 810: while the latter constantly updates the grade (every second, I’d guess), the 820 sometimes takes too long (not to mention steep climbs during mountain biking in the woods, where it often shows 0 on double-digit inclines). I’ve had to resort instead to a ConnectIQ gradient app data field, which is comparable to the 810 in this regards.
The Blue Halo, is that what it is ! I have had that on my 820 since I bought it a couple of years ago. First time I have heard of someone mentioning it. Its sort of a wide blue border around the edge of the display. I couldn’t be bothered taking it back and complaining about it. It doesn’t seem to affect the operation of the screen or anything.
I paid €560 for my Edge 1030 and had my first halo six months later, only to happen twice later with replaced units. It DOES affect the operation of the screen (as in “reduced visibility”), and I expect better when paying so much.
Besides that, since Garmin knows they are selling defective units, the “halo problem” is nothing short of consumer fraud.
Gradient update speed was fine for me in Mallorca and California. Here in the Netherlands, it’s a meaningless stat. 🙂
I’m happy with the 820 too on open roads (and not just in pancake flat areas like the Netherlands). The issue is with mountain biking in the woods. 🙂
When will the garmin finally add a map as a data field? !! Or a minimum of 4 data fields on the map page!
Thumbs up! That´s what im waiting for, too!
OH maaaan I so wish we could have that!!!!
Garmin Touch 35 is a function of 4 data fields. I do not understand why there is no such option in 830 and 1030
Sigma have it for a long time.
Yeah, I don’t really understand either.
More talks are needed on the subject, so Garmin will probably notice an access problem. Many people know what is important for the map to have speed, HR, cadence, distance (power). He does not take up the topic, however.
I’m saying I don’t understand why they don’t support more screens. Not that I don’t understand the need. I agree, it’s silly.
Couldn’t agree more!
You can use this free field. It contains all the most important data that you may need.
link to apps.garmin.com
It contains 4 columns:
1. current speed, average speed, current time.
2. current cadence, average cadence, timer.
3. current power, average power, distance.
4. current heart rate, average heart rate, altitude.
Krzysztof this app only 1030 no 830, 530.
Garmin look what Wahoo has. Why are you standing still. Previous wahoo had 4 fields now has 6 fields with data. Garmin is only two fields away.
Garmin maps aren’t just useless line art. They show actual context (POIs, names, etc.) I personally don’t want any more than 2 fields (and could live with zero) on my map page since the map page is for maps and I want the map big enough to see the context. I can always auto or manual scroll to other pages filled with data. I have two pages with 8-10 fields on my Edge 1000 in addition to the map and the altitude profile page. The Roam may be different, but I found it interesting that none of Ray’s photos in his review of the Roam show any street names on the maps themselves. Garmin should steal the chevrons from Wahoo (they already use them on their automotive GPS’s), but they have little to learn otherwise.
understand that each one goes differently. I like to have a map page all the time. therefore it needs a minimum of 4 fields. I will not change pages every time I race. For programmers, garmin is a minute of work. the customer chooses what suits him. in this case, I choose wahoo.
Do we still have to set up all of the data screens with the unit itself? I was hoping design on iPhone and implement to device would be here by now. That aside, the 530 looks like a good unit, I just need one of my other devices to break so I can justify it 🙂
Yup, same-same there.
One of the differences between the 520 and 820 was the available memory and thus the number of connectIQ fields/apps that can be used in a given profile. The 520 could take just a few. In my opinion this was a major difference between both models. Is this the case with 530/830?. The other major question is whether or not the screen is significantly improved. Not only talking about responsiveness, but also about the dreaded blue halo issues that still pest 820s 1030s.
Wonderful as always Ray… been waiting for the 830 for a loooonnnnnggggg time :), I prefer the size of it over the 1030, thankyou Garmin for listening, whoever did the 820 screen should of been fired a long time ago, for me the 820 was great apart from the screen and the speed, both look to of been resolved… I feel an upgrade on the way, and some of the new features are awesome, but maybe I’ll go 530 instead of 830.
Ray, one more question – can this be somehow paired to Fenix watch to get the hear-rate readings?
The 820 was able to do that with my Fenix 5x (broadcast heart rate). But don’t expect the Fenix to send consistent data, with all the vibrations of the watch during a ride.
John nailed it.
I use the 735xt to broadcast the heart rate to the edge. It doesn´t eat much battery. And it works fine if you put the wristband tight enough. But you have to control it sometimes. If you climb up a hill and the heart rate is still resting on your edge, your wristband has probably skewed a little bit.
Thanks a lot, guys 🙂 Clicked on Clever Training > add to card > order > submit… and now counting the days
Thanks for the support Petucky!
Dear Ray,
thanks for your in depth review. Much appreciated. I’m very focused on training with power meter and at a certain rpm. I would like to ask you if the “training view” of the 830 is now including the RPM, too, or if it is changeable.
Thank you
Hi Ray, this is not 830 specific, as I have a 1030.
When using a power meter, do you suggest using a 1 second recording interval or “smart?” I use ANT+ for all of my sensors. I’d like to get as much data as possible, so if Smart can result in <1 second samples, that sounds good to me. But I haven't seen a detailed description of what Smart does.
You want to set it to 1 second. Using smart means you will have multiple seconds between recorded data points (how many will depend on when the device thinks it is time to record another one). If you pair a power meter it will automatically set itself to 1 second recording. These devices can’t record in intervals of less than 1 second.
By default, all Garmin devices (ever) will hard-set 1-second recording when a power meter is connected (even if you have it set for smart recording).
Can you charge/run the 830 using a USB cable and external battery pack ? I couldn’t see in the review anything about where you plug in a cable or if there is one. I do Everesting rides which can take many hours and so often use an external battery. I don’t see any need to buy the specialist Garmin external battery if you can just plug in any external battery. I have the 820 and its battery life is now about 5 hours with battery save mode activated ! I don’t think it was ever the claimed 15 hours, the smaller case compared to the 810 meant that the battery was just too small. I think Garmin just invented battery save mode to make the battery life bearable. The rubber cover over the USB port on my 820 fell off after a couple of weeks so I hope the 830 has something better. The bike shop I got it from said Garmin couldn’t replace it so I was a bit upset about that. I have used a piece of tape to cover it up ever since it fell off. Great review as always Ray. 🙂
In the review of the 530 is written that you can, so I would think that it’s also possible on the 830
Yup, you can do that.
It would be good if Garmin (or a 3rd party) would produce an adapter to link the quarter turn power mount to a USB output. Then you could use any power pack (stored remotely in a bag) & also recharge from the mains without having to fiddle with a micro USB & associated rubber flap (or even unmount it from the bike).
Andrew, if you ever lose (or tear off the USB port cover like I did), contact Garmin directly. They sent me a replacement, no charge.
Thanks Ray. I see that the micro USB port is now in the front which is great for charging while riding. On the 820 it was more awkward with the port underneath. I was also wondering if the electrodes underneath the 830 could lead to device damage if they are shorted out, say you place it on a metal surface for example. I also use my Edge 820 for running by putting it in my pocket so this is a concern for me. Something, even water, could short out the electrodes maybe. I could be completely wrong here, what do people reckon?
Thanks Ken, I might try contacting them directly then ! 🙂
Adding for posterity: link to www8.garmin.com
One more question: are the included maps topographic? (You probably won’t be able to tell in the Netherlands :-))
DEM data is included.
Excellent review. Are you aware of changes in the screen? I would hope the 830 doesn’t have the halo problem that all 820 and 1030 units have, such as my 1030, which had to be replaced already three times.
Sorry, I meant *in the screen technology* not just the screen per-se.
I don’t know. Garmin typically won’t release that kind of information. :-/
We understand the concerns about the halo issue some users experienced on their older Edges . We have resolved that issue and encourage any customers who have a halo on their device to reach out to our support team for further assistance.
Good to see that someone from Garmin admits that yes, there IS an issue. It would be good that Garmin made an official communication regarding it.
I understand the “solution” involves a new, halo-less screen. Is there a way to know whether the units received (I had mine replaced less than a month ago) have the right screen?
By the way, I don’t think 1030 is an “older” Edge, being the current top of the line.
Ray, great review as always. However, I almost peed myself when I saw this typo, “ended up with incontinent experiences.”
Reminds me of an e-mail a coworker sent years ago after an IT system outage where he apologized for “any incontinence that the users might have experienced”.
🙂
I kinda like it that way. I might just leave it.
Ray, would you have any insight as to weather or not Garmin will allow us 1030 users to purchase the Trailforks maps?
I reached out to them. The answer is no. Those of us with the Edge 1030 do not get the integrated Trailforks data, aside from using ConnectIQ or the Donation version 3rd party basemaps.
Yeah. I’d wager that Garmin will buy Trailforks at some point in the next year, if there’s good uptick from mountain bikers with the new features.
Do you think Garmin will continue with the Explore models ? These new models seem to be covering most of the ground that the Edge Explore does.
I think so.
So this explains, why Edge 820 was on sale for the last weeks. Amazon UK had it for 140 GBP for a few days, and price never went above 175 GBP for over a month now.
Too bad, that my one month return period ended last week already. Not sure though, if the MTB metrics are reason enough to justify a new purchase right away. 400 EUR MSRP is quite a lot of money (and at 300 EUR the 530 isn’t exactly a bargain either).
Any info, if the 820 will receive some of the new functionalities as well? Or is it just the 1030 that will get improved firmware?
No Edge 820 feature plans/hints that I’ve heard of.
Awesome review as always.
As the new anti-theft feature seems to include a real speaker with volume that can be heard outside a quiet room, is it possible the alerts from the Varia radar tail lights can heard now?
I had a 1000 and now have a 1030, and the Varia alerts are a lot louder with the 1030 than they ever were with the 1000. Loud enough that other people on rides ask what it is. I know that this isn’t exactly the comparison that you are looking for, but it is a good indication that the newer units have a louder speaker.
Also, the mount you use has an effect on volume. The speaker is in the mount itself. A mount should have some openings in it so that the speaker noise can get past the plastic/metal in the mount.
Thanks, Josh. I’ve debated getting the 1030 for just that reason, but I wasn’t sure the difference in alert volume was noticeable and I didn’t want to fork out all that cash only to find it wasn’t worth it. The 830 appears to have a lot more bang for the buck, so maybe it’s time to retire the 1000 and grab the 830.
The Varia radar alert got noticeably louder in a recent 1030 update, enough so that some are complaining in the Garmin forums that it’s too loud while others (including me) prefer the louder version. I bring this up because a Garminite posted that they are possibly looking into making the volume configurable.
I think the audible alerts on the 530/830 for theft are more to cause the thief to think twice when shift the bike, than it is for someone across a cafe to hear it. Instead, that’s what the Bluetooth Smartphone notifications are for.
I have a Varia 810TL and Edge 1030. The alert volume and tone aren’t clear and/or loud enough for someone with some high frequency hearing loss. The only hearing related problem I have in my daily life is not being able to hear my Varia alerts at speeds above 15-18 or when their is any traffic noise.
Same for me. I’m not deaf by any means, but I do have a high frequency loss. I can only hear the beeps from my Edge 1000 if I’m in a quiet room. Plus the road surfaces around my area are quite coarse, so even tire noise is enough to drown out the beeps.
My 820 got noticeably louder for Varia alerts with the last update too. The beep sequence is different as well. Check to be sure you’re running the latest version.
Any idea when the 1030 will be refreshed or replaced?
I don’t expect soon.
We’re now starting to see sales on the 1030. One U.S. online retailer had it for $470 on Apr. 25 and then $510 on Apr. 26 with $51 in store credit. Maybe this is just the usual spring fitness device discounting, but may indicate Black Friday price cuts this fall and a successor in 2020.
“ended up with incontinent experiences”… bloody hell I never realised using sports tech could do this to you LOL
My suggestion would be to stay far away from triathletes. ?
Ray-
Do you know why ordering newly released devices from Garmin’s own website is commonly delayed 3-5 weeks after a new product release?
Do they favor supplying their retailers before themselves?
I get a small discount by ordering thru Garmin because of a company partnership.
I can’t even add the items to my cart, to see what the discount might be.
Yes, it’s on purpose, and is to protect retailers.
In fact, this time around you’ll notice that not even Amazon has the units – apparently for 30 days. Part of a strategy Garmin is doing to focus on specialty retailers.
Ah, makes sense.
Thanks!
So, to get one of the new units in Germany (without waiting too many weeks for availibility) one of this speciality retailers would be Clever Training Europe from UK?
I hope so, preordered mine from CT UK 😉
Just checked by CT status, item had been postponed to end of May 🙁
Hi Olly,
Where did you see that. Is it a generic status that has changed to end of May or can you see that against your order somewhere.
I’ve preordered from CT USA
I talked to CT UK today after seeing the expected delivery had changed and I’m not sure even they know what the status is.
They told me that those who ordered when it said “early may” would be getting them in early may – but they also said they wouldn’t be shipping any units until mid may and they weren’t sure they are getting enough units to cover all who ordered early on.
Maybe Garmin is having production issues or underestimated the demand.
Another great review Ray. Will the 530 show overlapping Strava segments like the Wahoo Bolt does? IMO, that is the only advantage the Bold/Elemnt has over the 520.
It does, as long as the route is sent from Strava (and the segments starred there). But if you’re using a course from Garmin Connect, then no. :-/
Oh dear….am I going to feel like an even bigger dumdum for switching from an Edge 1030 to an 820 12 months ago ‘just’ because it didn’t fit on my integrated mount (and looked way too big)? I am not sure I can justify the cost of switch up to an 830 now even though the better uploading speed would be VERY welcome. Perhaps I should go down to a 530?
Can I move a course (route) onto the Garmin by just pinning the course in Ride with GPS? Or do I still have to go through the “connect Garmin to computer via USB and then move tcx file to New Files”.
Is this unit using the same basic platform as the 820?
I know you like the Garmin navigation, but I’ve found the Bolt so much more reliable and with much better battery life than any of the Garmins I’ve owned (the last one was the 820) that the Bolt effectively performs better. Navigation is of no use if the unit mysteriously crashes/stops tracking the map/runs out of battery a few hours into a long ride.
If Garmin has come up with a new software platform that proves more reliable, I’d take another look. Otherwise, hard pass.
After years of suffering thru Garmin 1000 idiosyncrasies, I bought a Bolt. When it comes to mapping, the Bolt is years ahead of the Garmin. Unfortunately, the “beep” on the Bolt that I received from REI was almost inaudible. Others have reported that the beep was loud enough to make your ears bleed. Go figure. Anyway, back it went to REI.
Hmm, I’ve honestly never had an Edge 820 crash while navigating (or ever). Any chance you’ve just got something amiss with yours?
Mapping-wise, there really is a substantial difference in terms of what Wahoo does versus Garmin. In basic course-following scenarios, it’s not as obvious (depending on where you created the route). Whereas when you do things like pull routes from Strava, or try to do something ad-hoc, it becomes more apparent.
Ray, can you comment a little more on the workout implementation: does it show target range for power and cadence like you can input on training peaks? Also do you know if it shows a 3sec power on that page instead of the instantaneous power like the 820 currently shows and which is useless?
Also can you comment on how the screen brightness/readability compares to the Stages Dash units “soon” to be released?
Thanks for your excellent reviews.
Jan
Yup, will add a bit more on that.
Are you going to add to the review about this issue or just add to the comments? Not sure where to look for your further comments. Thanks.
Hi. I saw in earlier comments the question on battery life. Yes, please do some extended testing. I just sold my 820 to buy a Wahoo next week. But I now learned about the 830. I loved the 820, but the max 5hr battery life when riding long gravelrides that require precise navigation made it useless for me. So I wanted to switch to Wahoo.
Would love to see the battery life when navigating with map on display.
Minor point – missing WiFi from feature list, though you cover in story fine. I just noticed it since I started with 520 review.
Thanks for getting out the reviews so quickly
My own typo, “530” review, not 520!
Ahh. So I list it in the comparison table, but didn’t include it in the ‘new things’ list since it wasn’t new from the Edge 820 (as it had it).
Fair enough.
I for one am disappointed by the fact the 830 i still the same size factor as the 500 series. Please bring back the old 800 unit size! The current form factor is too small to work well with touch screen and show maps well, and numbers are too small.
The Edge 1030 is too big of a unit, and the newer font Garmin is using is not as legible as the more square but bigger fonts my Edge 810 had. Bring back the old font too! I could read the values easier on the smaller 810 unit.
I really REALLY wish I had the Edge 810 form factor and screen functionality, but with the newer Garmin features (varia support, BT, live strava segments, etc).
Garmin 810 screen size: 2,6in
Garmin 830 screen size: 2,6in
Hi,
do you know, if there is also an activity for running to select?
There is not, though, you can change it after the fact (and I think I’ve seen some Connect IQ data fields that will show pace as well).
Can I flip through the screens, using my di2 shifters on the Edge 530 in the same way I can on my 820? Is the battery life the same on the Edge 530 and Edge 830?
Yes for Di2 (though I haven’t set it up myself on my bike), and battery life is identical on Edge 530/830.
Nice that the 830 “road” bundle includes the updated ANT+/Bluetooth speed and cadence sensors (from the new
sensor review):
“The good news here is that like the HRM-DUAL a few months back, these sensors become the baseline for new sensors included in various Garmin bundles. For example the new Edge 530 and Edge 830 units released today have these dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart sensors in their bundled variants.”
Question about the start/stop button. You mention, “Finally, once done you’ll press the ‘Stop’ button on the right corner, which pauses the recording. Press it again to save it. You’ll then get ride summary data…”. That’s contrary to the current 820 setup. Now, if you press the start/stop button it’ll pause the ride and pressing it again will restart recording. If what you say is true, how do you restart a ride if you’ve pressed the start/stop button? Or, are you saying there’s a button on the display to press?
“Press it again to save it.”
Sorry, should say ‘Press save to save it’.
Does anyone know of an easy way to transfer a route from ridewithgps to a garmin unit. I had a 1030 and really liked everything about it except the size and how hard it was to get a ridewithgps file on it without a computer. I really like how I can push a route to my Wahoo Bolt from my phone if I forget to sync it before I leave the house.
You can do this easily using the paired Android/CIQ apps gimporter & gexporter. Simply need to pull the gpx to your phone (using ridewithgps on through a browser) and then using the apps to export.
Look at the routeCourse Connect IQ App (link to apps.garmin.com).
Once configured it will automatically sync the Garmin device with RWGPS via your connected phone.
-marc
Ray – when you view the map with Trailforks Data, does this still include the OSM trail data previously found on Garmin Units (as some of those trails haven’t made it to trailforks yet?)
The reason I ask is because the Trailforks Basemaps I’ve downloaded – do not contain those trails as it doesn’t pull in all the OpenStreetMaps data.
I’m hoping this includes (both).
Yes it does. It’s like a merge.
Good to know, thanks!
Bufff, that’s strange, if I activate the trailforks map I can’t see any osm data, just the trailforks tracks. I don’t know if there are some hierarchy system and I need to order the layers, but in my 830 I need to deactivate the trailforks map in order to see the preloaded maps….
I have the same problem now, but it wasn’t that way at the beginning. In order to see the Garmin map, I have to turn off Trailforks.
Hey Ray,
Do you know what version of Bluetooth this and the new 530 has? Do you know if it’s 5.0? I ask primarily because of the increased battery performance and extended range.
sorry for the double posting here and on youtube.
thanks for the great review!
I don’t know if it’s BT5.0, though, most of the battery savings are coming from the GPS side of the house.
No thanks Garmin.
Never again will I be suckered into buying Garmin’s cycling lineup of garbage devices.
Nice review though, Ray.
Ray, you talk about the Find My Edge and Last Known Location features on the 830, but you don’t mention that the unit comes with a tether, so that you are less likely to have your Edge separate from the bike in the first place!
I use the tether with my 1030, and recommend it to my friends.
The new features are still nice, though, and as always, I enjoy your reviews. I started when I got a 705 (I didn’t know about your reviews yet), and have used them ever since to decide when or whether to buy new Garmin devices. I have Vector 1 & 2 pedals, Varia lights, the Edge 1030, and the battery pack currently.
True, string always solves everything! Thanks!
Ray, great review. Could you please start including alert tones and volume controls in your evals. The volume should range from obnoxious to subtle. The tone should have options for high, medium, and low pitch.There are lots of people who have now or will have some form of hearing loss. Garmin has been aware of problems with Varia alerts being heard for over a year. The 830 should have addressed this.
Looking at the comparison of features between the 1030 and 830, it seems like the only thing that 1030 has over the 830 is screen size. Do you see any reason to get a 1030 over a 830?
link to dcrainmaker.com
Hello Ray, can you tell me how turn by turn notifications work on garmin edge 830? Is it like the 820, where you just get a notification with street name and distance, or is it more like 800/810, where it will automatically change to map screen regardless what page you are using?
Thanks
On the 820 this is configurable – you can set it to just show the direction and text or to pop up a map view. I have it do the latter, and run it in battery save mode because like many others, my 820 battery life is ridiculous otherwise. Garmin support think it’s probably a firmware issue, but are sending me a replacement unit in case that helps. I had to threaten to take them to court to change their initial response of “we probably broke it, we don’t know if or when we’ll fix it, you can pay for a replacement or else go jump” though!
Ray, maybe you would know – On official Garmin site for Edge 830 Mountain Bike Bundle, there is also a new speed sensor on the image (as it would be included) – link to buy.garmin.com
But it’s not in the ‘In the Box’ list.
Is it just a mistake on the image?
What kind of charge cable does this use? I’m one photo it looked like the interface/charging pins were on the 1/4 turn mount. That would make charging on the go difficult, right?
Micro-USB. Yeah, charge direction makes it challenging for smaller mounts.
The pins you are seeing on the quarter turn mount are for the bespoke (optional) Edge Battery Pack. The normal charging port is behind a little door between the start/stop and lap buttons (facing you as you ride).
Ray, great review as always. However, I almost peed myself when I saw this typo, “ended up with incontinent experiences.”
Reminds me of an e-mail a coworker sent years ago after an IT system outage where he apologized for “any incontinence that the users might have experienced”.
Will the 830 have “real time Strava segments” like the 1030?
My 810 screen worked with pretty much any glove. My 820 screen works when it feels like with 1 or 2 gloves… What’s the technology of the 830 screen? Like the 810 or the 820?
Thanks for the review! I smashed my 810 racing last weekend so this is perfect timing.
Unlikely that Garmin or anyone else goes back to resistive touch screens.
From what I am reading on the sites to purchase (CleverTraining, Garmin, etc) – I would have to buy the Mountain bike bundle in order to get trailfork data?
(I already have a remote, plenty of mounts, and speed / cadence sensors and don’t need anymore). – Just wanting to confirm I am not mis-reading this – as it looks like the stand-alone unit will *not* come with this.
Also, your review sounds like the processing power is much better than the 820. Do you think the 830 will be faster than the 1030? (I find the 1030 VERRRRY sluggish in looking around the maps and navigating menus).
All units come with it, no bundle is required.
Thanks Ray. I was actually in chat with support earlier and I’m not sure if they are clear on it. I asked if the bundle is needed to access TrailForks data and this is the reply below. This doesn’t make much sense, as it implies that the stand-alone device somehow requires a user to log into an app? I’m thinking this was just wrong info that they were unaware of, or they possibly gave you the MTB version?
————–
Support: Both would have the trailforks maps. The difference would be the device only would need you to sign into a trailforks account to access them. The bundle, you don’t have to sign in.
—
Me: so they both appear in the basemap without having to download them as ‘routes’ ?
—
Support: Thanks for waiting, yes – you don’t have to download them as routes. They should be pre-loaded
—
Me: ok, thanks. So neither would require logging in or connectivity to use?
—
Support: The device only will require a trailforks account sign in. The bundles don’t require a sign in.
————–
Ahh, so interesting. I just dug through some docs I have on it.
Yeah, there’s an authorization bit I had heard of, but I thought it was both units, looks like the authorization is only base units. It’s a one-time item that pop-ups the first time you setup the device. No paid membership/etc is required, but you need a Trailforks account to validate once. Basically, it’s how Trailforks knows how much to charge Garmin, like turning in tickets at a bake sale.
I’ll add that in somewhere. Like I said, just a one-time thing that registers your device to use the data. It doesn’t require any further internet connectivity.
You forgot the most important part of a Garmin review…What buttons do you hold down to reset it when it crashes/freezes?
Does the new Garmin Dual Heartrate belt do HRV R-R and is it compatible with elitehrv.com app?
How many data fields in Map screen?
Two data field is too few. I want to refer Speed, Gradient, Distance to a point, and Altitude.
Sadly, still 2.
It looks like the Climb feature shows distance to the summit and remaining gradient, but I would still like to see speed, cadence, and 3second power.
Come on Garmin, at least the 1030 should have enough screen real estate to show the map and four data fields!
You must have a lot of contacts within Garmin. Since there are more than 10 replies about this topic in this thread alone, apparently it’s really something people are asking for. Perhaps you could make the suggestion once more to one of your contacts at Garmin, on behalf of the entire community. And just maybe they’ll listen. I’m not a programmer, but it’s hard to image this would take more than a day or so to implement.
CIQ fields to extend it? Mini Dashboard from Peter Decker. And I know another one not yet compatible with 530/830.
Ray,
Great reviews as always on the 530/830. How does the 830 compare to the Edge Explore? What are the main differences?
Nick
Hi ray,
two questions regarding the touchscreen
1) how does it respond when you’re wearing full-finger gloves?
2) how does it behave when wet (e.g. during the rain)?
Jason, from memory Europe is a touch over 4 Gb and Australia is something like 1.5. There is more than enough room without a sd card
thanks Pete. so it’s just what screen size i want.
Why again 830 there are no keys like 530 + touch screen. I do not understand this.
The touch screen replaces the tedium of spelunking through the menus with the four buttons. I’ve had a 500, 510, and 520 and after using the 1030 for the past ~1.5 years, I’d never go back to a button-based Garmin computer. Especially nice to be able to switch data fields with a long press. YMMV.
A new Garmin to be frustrated with when trying to pair with Garmin Mobile App.
I wonder if the MTB stuff like jumps will work on the 1030. I imagine it uses some sensors of the 530 and 830
Hello,
thanks for the review. A few questions remain for me:
– will the unit still work with OSM maps (e.g. from garmin.openstreetmap.nl)?
– are the units still Linux compatible and mounts as USB drive where you can copy maps, activities and track to and from the device? Or did something change here?
The device looks very tempting, just waiting for the Elemnt Roam and then I will decide between the two units.
Greetings,
Stefan
Yes OSM maps, as well as standard USB mountable drive.
Great, thanks!
Beware the Edge 830 with firmware 5.10 . Mine is unable to mount as a mass storage device.
I’ve never had a problem mounting my ancient Garmin’s microSD card or my recently purchased Garmin Instinct as a mass storage device with a Linux PC. “Activities” come off of the Instinct easily. OSM maps (South Australia and Victoria) were easily loaded onto my encient Garmin’s microSD card.
Now I purchase an Edge 830 with no provision for microSD cards, necessitating that the device itself may be mounted as a mass storage device.
ALAS! Resets, OFF/ON sequences and following Garmin directions FAIL to mount the Edge 830.
Mine’s running 5.10 and it’s been mounting just fine on macOS 10.12. I’ve found all along that it works best with the cable it came with, but other cables usually work. (Sometimes it just doesn’t mount, and I have to unplug it and try again.) I just tried plugging it into a RaspberryPi (latest rev) running Linux and it mounted just fine. So it’s not a general problem, it’s probably specific to your 830 or to whatever you’re plugging it into. Try different cables and different machines if you can.
What about the charging port and the battery pack. In looking at the battery pack it has a unique coupling system that looks like garmin changed away from micro-USB. Please say that is so. I have had to send back my 820 4 times for the Micro-USB port failure.
Sadly still micro-USB.
The charging connection point on the bottom is for the charging pack, so it has a weather-friendly charging dock system while riding.
Hope there will be 3rd party stem-mounts with the possibility to connect standard USB powerbanks.
Great review! Ray, since the pre-loaded maps are OSM based what is the reason for Garmin’s unwillingness to make other region’s pre-loaded maps available to swap in when traveling? Seems like it would be a feature and not detrimental to sales.
*For some reason the comment form wouldn’t let me click on the check boxes. Chrome Version 74.0.3729.108 (Official Build) (64-bit)
I’ve never got a good reason there. One of my biggest gripes.
To me it’s silly, because the incremental revenue for map sales there is so small for them, yet the upside is so much bigger as a feature to allow easy movement between regions. Note, I’m just talking general maps. If they want to charge for some of the specialty stuff (like Birdseye or whatever else), sure, I don’t care. But for general OSM+Trendline popularity, I should be able to follow a procedure just like Sigma or Wahoo.
It’s something that you can easily do yourself using garmin’s own basecamp software. Velomap & OpenMTB are much better for cycling than OSM anyway.
Hi Ray. In the Garmin video ad I saw the device flashing red left and right edges along the screen. I also saw that feature represented on the 4th image on the Clever Training page. On that image I see some dots on the right side. They seem almost Wahoo-like. Can you explain those features? Thanks
Yup, that’s Varia Radar integration: link to dcrainmaker.com
Ray, do you know when the firmware update will be out for the 1030?
Thanks
-marc
They don’t have a date yet. Definitely not a next week type thing. I suspect we’re probably talking June or so, just a swag. I also suspect we’ll see things come in waves, some features in one firmware update, others in another.
Right now the Edge engineering resources were/are focused on the Edge 530/830, so once things settle down there we’ll see them shift some of those to backporting.
That is disappointing.
Great review as always, thanks Ray! I just ordered myself a unit, that is probably just in time for the majority of my riding!
And how does it compare against a much cheaper galaxy entry level phone? Also has ant+, ip67, much bigger display. Longer battery Life (off line mode keeps GPS working). Allow music playback, ….
The challenge with phone comparisons, is honestly the app side of things (battery too, but for most people it’s actually the apps).
With a phone you’re basically using a collection of apps to achieve the same thing. One app for recording, perhaps another for Strava Segments, yet another for mapping with proper offline maps, another for structured workouts and so on. I’ve found that there’s not really a single good app that does it all. Some come really close – like Cycle Meter for example, but none really nail all the features I use day to day.
It’s funny, because for the last 10 years or so, some have said phones would end up killing bike computers, but I think we’ve mostly seen the opposite. As phone prices have risen and carriers no longer subside the unit costs in most countries, people are even less and less inclined to stick them on their handlebars.
So, just to be clear, is the Edge 830 able to follow overlapping Strava segments? This was an important feature missing from Garmin devices….
Yes, though actually, Garmin devices support it today, it’s just that you have to have sent the route from Strava Routes and not Garmin Connect. Also, segments you want need to be starred. Strava basically stuffs that into the route, and then Garmin can read it properly.
Still, not as nice as the Wahoo implementation.
So it appears you can run overlapping segments if you load a route first containing those segments first. I wonder if I create a “super-route” containing all my local Road and/or MTB trails the 530 would act like the Bolt.
I want to get the 830, but don’t want to give up all my sub-segments popping up on rides.
Hi – anyone tested this further? The ability to flick between overlapping strava live segments on the Wahoo is great, and it can do that whether you’re following a loaded route or just crusing around without navigation. So a bit irritating if this is only possible on the 830 if you’ve loaded and are navigating a route – i rarely navigate a route on local roads.
Unfortunately there’s not much more to test. It’s sorta a ‘is what it is’ thing. :-/
I was trying to see if and when bike theft alarm feature would be available on 1030. Following my chat with Garmin rep Antonio I learned it will NOT be available on anything but new units and he also said
Antonio:
And the Edge 530/830 are mainly for Mountain biking..
He also provided me with link to comment back to garmin and the link came up error 404.
Note quite happy generally with Garmin and my 1030 but this new feature would have been nice!
Hi,
I’m using the Edge 820 and 1000 on our mountain bike. Most of the time we follow tracks, which I had uploaded to the devices. In the woods a turn-by-turn-navigation is not nessecary, we just follow the displayed track. A beeping from the devices warns us when we are leaving the track.
Unfortunately on the 820 you cannot disable routing function directly, but you have to disable the topo map, then start the treck, then enable the map again. This is quite annoying.
On the Edge 1000 routing function fpr tracks can be disabled, so you start the track, follow the line on the map and everything is fine.
Finally here is my question: what does the Edge 830 do? Can routing be disabled?
Thanks for reading this comment!
Detlef
Hmm… same price as a Karoo at their “intro” price but with tons more features — all of which work out of the box.
Oh, and it makes noise too. 😉
Unless you’re a Garmin hater it appears they’ll remain KOM leader in more ways than one.
I like the new features, but n this day and age I am not buying a device that still uses micro-USB.
My 820 will have to suffice for a while longer I guess, until Garmin sees the light (or Wahoo, I’m not married to Garmin)
I do agree that micro USB isn’t perfect, but of all the reasons *not* to buy a unit, that seems pretty bizarre!
Thanks for the write up. FYI, the link to the 530 review from your comparison table points to your 520+ review.
Ok, the first Garmin Edge computers since a loooong time that indeed raises an eyebrow again from a user that was and still is very happy to have his Wahoo Elemnt computers which allowed him to escape from the many facepalm moments with Garmins opinions of the needs of cyclists, how routing should function and how basic / bad of a user experience and battery life one could come away with.
But – although there are some nice and hope nourishing features like promised battery life, better / faster processor, nearly the same feature list between 530 and 830 and therefore user choice just between preferred means of operation (buttons or touch) and not features (oh so close, though – that POI think could be a deal breaker – why oh why, Garmin) – all is moot when the core functionality of navigation still don’t addresses one of the most basic needs:
Can I finally choose the width and the color of the track line? When you have routing active (and I shudder on the thought) you get this nice fat pink line. Not to be missed even on the most of convoluted screens with several different road markings. But if you don’t trust / don’t want having the routing active but rather want / absolutely must follow your preplanned track you are stuck with that thin line you all to easily mistake with one of the many colored road lines. And you still have no clue in which direction your track is running (which Wahoo very clever and unmistakably shows via their chevron markings).
So again: Can I finally change the display width and color of the track line?
Cheers,
Torsten
Good question Torsten
I don’t see any method to change the color or thickness. However, there are some options crazy-deep down around removing clutter from the screen if you want. So you can remove text from certain things like points/streets/etc…
You can also turn off guide display text and such too if you want, as well as turn off re-calculation.
On my “trusty” (it doesn’t crash ONLY if activities file is kept pretty empty…) 810 under courses (select a course), settings, map display- you can change the color of any course and if it is always displayed whether or not you’re following it. Previous track will still be the blue, no way to tweak line size.
I’ll be really annoyed if they pulled that feature out as the 830 looks like a good replacement for my 810. I use it a lot to follow courses in the woods since the navigation on my 810 has a habit of killing the battery with constant warnings about every single turn and twist in the road ahead.
Hi Ray,
Thanks a lot for your detailed reviews, but for me, is not clear about screen size, is it larger or not than 520/820?
You said is 2.6 inches, but Garmin shows a different specification in their web page. Your previous answer did not clarify it, please help me.
Best Regards
Great review as always Ray, much appreciated.
Question…does the 830 support Physio TrueUp the way the 1030 does? Garmin’s website says no, but your review seems to suggest yes. I run with a 935 and would like my training data to sync regardless of which device I’m using.
Thanks again!
Love the incontinent typo btw, totally agree you should leave it. 🙂
Any insight on physiology trueUp support?
I’m new to these bike computers, but surely there must be an app for iPhone and/or Android that duplicates the features of this device. I have an old iPhone SE that I don’t use anymore which would mount nicely on handlebars and has a good touchscreen.
There are apps that duplication portions, but it’s the full picture that falls apart. For example, you end up with an app for Strava segments, and app for structured workouts, an app for offline maps/navigation, one for trail riding, one for general road riding, etc… CycleMeter is about the closest you can get.
HI Ray,
I am still using the 800, because I like how the calories are calculated with my New Leaf info. Can you tell me is the newer models are as accurate and if it is possible to view fat calories burned?
Can anyone answer my question?
Hi
I may have missed it but what are the relative size, external dimensions of the 530 and 830 and the weight?
Many thanks – great review as always
50 x 82 x 20 mm. 76g vs 78g.
explore.garmin.com
Did you notice the better resolution on the Edge 530 compared to the Edge 830. The resolution is nearly 50% higher on the Edge 530 which is quiet a bit just by the numbers. Is the display of the 530 noticeably better (for example in terms of map details) than the 830?
The Garmin website says both the 830 and 530 have 2.6” screens with the same 246 x 322 pixel resolution.
Of course the first rule of Garmin.com is the website is always wrong, so…
Both screens are definitely 100% the same (or, within 1mm or so, about the closest I can measure). Whether or not they have different resolutions…I’m going to get some clarity.
From my eyes standpoint, I’m not seeing any difference for resolution. Though, the user interface doesn’t exactly lend itself to requiring extreme resolution detail. So it’s hard to know.
Can we get the obligatory size shot where you line the various units next to each other? 810, 820, 830/etc.
Pretty please?
& the 1030 😀
Two questions about heat maps…
1. Are they integral to the region Garmin map the unit comes with or do they work with OSM’s added for other regions? If the latter I’d probably try to buy from a different region to my home region.
2. Unlike Strava heat maps is there a way for road cyclists to filter out MTB uploads from heat maps to avoid unexpected off road routing.
Thanks
1) They’re baked into the data for the region it comes with.
2) It’s based on which ride type you choose (i.e. road versus trail). I’ve never had it route me across trails when using road. I’m sure some people have, but I think that’s likely happening less and less now that Garmin has properly categorized which type of riding you’ve done when you finish a workout (so more people are choosing trail if they’re actually trail, which means the data is more likely to be correct).
That’s interesting. Being “heat maps” you’d think they’d want them kept more or less up to date. If people started avoiding a road because of a big construction project or something, it’d be nice if their routing would take that into account.
I wonder if it would be possible for Garmin to update the software of the older units like the 800 or 810, so users of these units can benefit also instead of buying a new unit.
Any word from Garmin about when the new firmware that will include the enhancements (i.e. climb pro) will be available?
Do you have a more specific date when Clever Training will start to ship the Edge 830?
I’m counting the days. 🙂
Thanks.
It really just depends on Garmin shipping them out the door. Like all US distribution, it flows via Olathe first, and then is shipped to Clever Training. Typically for new releases CT will pay the extra to get units overnighted from Garmin to them, and then turns them around same day.
I suspect we’ll start seeing units flowing out late next week, or at worst early the next week. I know CT placed pretty significant pre-orders to hopefully be able to accommodate all initial demand.
So when do we think the 1030 will be upgraded to include some of the missing features in the firmware update? Trailforks etc…
Maybe Garmin will call it the 1040?!
Hi Ray, nice review. I’m in doubt about choosing 530 or 830.
I was wondering if you pause your ride and shut down the 530 or 830, will you be able to continue your ride after a lunch break when you restart the device?
At the moment on my 520 I just leave the device on and put it in my back pocket but with the touch screen I’m a bit scared I’ll push the “discard ride” by accident.
What is your opinion about swiping to another data fields screen rather then pushing the buttons like on the 520/530?
You can pause (stop the timer with the start/stop button) an activity and sleep the unit (long-press the power button and hit “sleep”), or even just power it off. The unit will pick up where it left off when you wake it back up.
You could also just lock the touchscreen, but unless you pause the activity the GPS would continue to track you walking around the coffee shop, pub, etc.
The prompts will prevent inadvertently deleting an activity when paused, but it *is* possible to absent-mindedly end the activity if you aren’t paying attention (fitfiletools.com will let you stitch two files back together into one activity; ask me how I know).
IMO, it wouldn’t hurt to practice this a few times before a big race or randonneur.
Thanks John
How well does the touch screen work with gloves? I currently have a 520, but have been thinking about moving to the touch screen.
Thanks
Ray – Thanks for all your answers, this is the most detailed page on the product as other sites seem to be copy/paste of each other for the most part.
I’m about to pull the trigger on an 830 pre-order (unit only).
However it still makes me nervous…
The wording on Garmin’s own sale page:
mountain biking model has integrated Trailforks data
The wording on CleverTraining’s sale page:
All Versions: MTB dynamics (no mention of Trailforks) .
Bundle Only: mountain biking model has integrated Trailforks data, including trail difficulty ratings
Mountain Bike Bundle Only: integrated Trailforks data includes trail difficulty ratings
—
I’ve found 3rd party sites with the manual but it doesn’t cover anything about the MTB maps.
But from Ray’s experience it sounds as tho:
Any Edge (even older models) with ConnectIQ can download Routes through Trailforks app, but won’t get the Basemap cooked in pretty color coded trails.
The 830 and 530 MTB bundles come with Trailforks ready to go in the base maps (no Trailforks sign in needed).
The 830 and 530 NON-BUNDLE – has the Trailforks data in the basemaps already, but requires a user to just log into the Trailforks ConnectIQ app just once to unlock it (this isn’t just the same Trailforks route downloadable data you can get on older edge models, but is the nice color/difficulty coded maps like you’d see on the mobile app).
I must say, it sounds a bit odd that the data would already be built into the Garmin Basemap, but it requires a ConnectIQ app to somehow let you render those layers of the basemap that are pre-loaded.
I was hoping someone from Garmin could officially say this is the case and that the base unit does contain 100% of all features in the bundle – but it sounds like this is in fact the case, at least based on the model Ray tested.
This still leaves some concerns.
…If one buys the Base unit and unlocks the maps, is that unit then tied to that Trailforks userID? Like, if you then sell your device a year later and do a system reset, would another person still have access to the Trailforks maps, or does the one-time unlock no longer have to be done after system resets… This would need someone from Garmin to answer but I feel like it’s kind of important to know. They should realllllly clarify on their sales page and to their resellers these details as well, because the product details are kind of all over the place on different store-fronts.
I know Sharn@Garmin sometimes chimes in here, maybe he could help.
So yeah, the wording is confusing (by all parties). Here’s the super-quick version because I have to run to pickup kids:
A) Trailforks CIQ App (same one as last year) – remains as the core way to get info from *your account* to the device
B) The Mountain Bike Dynamic Metrics are available on all units as-is (530/830, bundle/no-bundle)
C) The Trailforks trail/map data are available on all units (530/830, bundle/no-bundle)
D) *However*, on the non-bundle Edge 530/830 you have to do a one-time ‘unlock’ by simply signing in once with a Trailforks account (free, throwaway one is fine). It’s done once, and there’s no visible tie on the unit itself. My guess is that this is how Garmin knows how much to pay Trailforks on a per-device basis.
I agree, I think Garmin needs to make it more clear on some public site how it all works.
I currently use me cell phone (Samsung so +) mounted on my road bike and mostly use ride with gps. I’m considering a Garmin. What is your opinion of the 1030? I’m mostly interested in the quality of the GPA and mapping vs. all of the training detail. I do rides 50-80 miles, mostly in the Northeast of the US.
Thanks
Bruce
I’ve seen a few questions on the screen size, as Garmin’s site oddly lists it as 2.3″, when it’s very much 2.6″ (as measured diagonally like all screens).
Attached photo, fancy measuring thing, set to the two corners of the inset screen (shadows made this a bit tough to show easily). Note that if measured WxH, the screen is 2″ high and ~1.56″ wide. I don’t know where the 2.3″ figure is coming from. Both Edge 530 and Edge 830 are identical. I’ll follow up with someone.
hi thanks for the great review. I have an Edge 1030 and im disappointed by the screen. the screen type is somewhat like the fenix watches i was hoping for edge 1000 style which is more vibrant . From your 830 video, it seems like the screen is different than 1030, can you confirm it ?
on a side note, does the 830/1030 supports horizontal view now ?
thank you
Nope, horizontal view on Edge computers has gone the way of the dodo bird.
I assume the calculate route option will avoid highways ? Is there a way to have it not ? That is, let’s say I want to use my 830 on my motorcycle or in a car..
Yes, there’s a bunch of things you’d want to do for that scenario. First, create a new activity profile called ‘Motorcycle’.
Then, under the navigation settings in that activity profile:
A) Set routing mode to ‘Motorcycle Driving’
B) In avoidance, toggle major highways to off, and then on for things like narrow trails and such
C) I’d also recommend turning off popularity routing, since I suspect that’s going to keep suggesting quieter roads.
I haven’t tried these myself, so YMMV, but it’s all options in there.
Thanks. Interesting. The motorcycle GPS’s from Garmin are quite expensive. When I saw that the 830 would have navigable waypoints, I wondered if Garmin would neuter it to not eat their own GPS Motorcycle GPS market.. It appears not.
Unfortunately even though the routing options are available the most recent Garmin maps in Europe don’t allow you to use any or the motorised routing modes. The route fails to calculate & a popup tells you that the maps don’t allow the selected mode as they don’t contain data to allow routing for motorised transport. They do however work with 3rd party OSM maps
Does VO2 on the 830 require an actual heart rate strap (in addition to a power meter), or will an optical HR strap like the Scosche or Tickr Fit work? If an HR strap is needed, will the 4iiii HR strap work in place of the Garmin strap?
Yet another great review, thank you, but my delema is that I currently have the edge 820, is it actually worth upgrading to the 830? Thanks in advance
Are the buttons on the bottom of the unit easy enough to access on an out front mount?
Easy enough for me, though honestly it might depend on your mount. I suspect if you’ve got a mount designed for some of the older units that are smaller units, it might be a tight fit. One nuanced thing I didn’t mention (I don’t think), is that the Edge 530/830 front edge (where the buttons are), is actually very slightly tapered in, so it’s not a completely vertical button wall, but tapered a little bit to improve access.
It’s one of those tiny things you’d probably never realize as to why it’s slightly easier to hit the buttons than on previous units with totally vertical-wall buttons.
Hello, I want to buy a Garmin. Have no one now (except Oregon 450).
Doing a road bikung, so the question is, spare some money and buy in a sale a Edge 820 or buy a Edge 830 with new features?
Thanks for reply.
The Edge 830 will get firmware updates and tweaks long after support for the 820 ends. Also, the (much) faster processor in the 830 should make it relevant longer as well. As always, YMMV.
.
Great review! What has pushed me from Garmin to Wahoo recently is the day to day functionality of the units. Especially with my 820, it could sometimes take multiple manual pushes and failed syncs to get a ride uploaded via my iPhone, and the Wahoo just works. I also loved the 820 touch screen on roads but as soon as the full finger MTB gloves came out I was disappointed. How did the 830 fare in this realm? Did it play nicely syncing rides etc?
Also, re:ClimbPro: do you need to be riding a preset route for that to activate, or would it kick in if I turn onto an uphill trail?
I’d also be curious to know if the Forksight feature worked as advertised. I may have missed that in the review but I didn’t see any real-world comments.
And with Trailforks, is there any functionality for updates to the maps? I’m fortunate to live in a place where new trails seem to pop up every building season.
Thanks again for a great review. I ride mostly MTB and have gone to Wahoo because it just works, but all these new MTB-friendly bells and whistles are tempting me to try Garmin again.
Sync is much better these days. But I still get issues compared to wahoo.
ClimbPro requires a route
I suspect touch screen with gloves will be sub optimal
Is there a link that explains what is: integrated in-ride power capable which seems to be only available on the Edge 1030 and not on 830. Thanks
Hmm, I may not be following. Where do you see “integrated in-ride power capable”? Just trying to decode it. Sorry!
On garmin website, when comparing the Edge 1030 vs Edge 830.
The only feature that the 830 does not have vs the 1030 is the: “integrated in-ride power capable”, but I cannot seem to find a reference on what this feature does.
Ok, found it. Absolutely no idea. 🙂
My hunch would be that they were trying to talk about e-bike integration capabilities, but that’s equal as far as I can tell. There’s definitely no power meter magically built into either (nor would Garmin have a reason to do such a thing, nor have I ever heard of them even remotely suggest such an idea). I think this is mostly just copy/paste gone wrong.
Awesome review! Very detailed and objective. I have a question to you (or any other reader). If say 30% of the usage would be dedicated to navigation, would you prefer the 1030 for the larger screen or the 830 for the processor and other new features?
Thanks in advance!
That’s tough. I still really like the Edge 1030, I just think at this point it’s a bit pricey (well, it was always pricey, but now it’s more pricey).
Can you save your profiles and settings from the, then install them on a new 830?
I’ve done this in the past by copying certain files on the old device, then dropping them into the new files folder of the new device.
Thanks
You can technically do it from the same exact units of the same exact firmware…but there’s always a chance something might go wrong. Sorta like jumping off of a moving train at 2MPH. More than likely you’ll be fine, but…yeah.
Hi Ray,
Great review as always!
Do you know if the garmin would work with a Wahoo kickr? (As in when reriding a route saved to the device)
Thanks
Yes, works fine.
I may have missed it. How many sensors can the “senor pool” hold ? Ive filled my 820 up and have been forced to dig out my old 510. (510 screen works much better)
I believe it’s roughly 20 sensors. It’s not unlimited, but I haven’t hit the limit myself yet (I usually do eventually, even on the Edge 1030).
Does the 1030 hold more sensors ?
Fantastic review – THANKS
I ride bike parks a lot, new parks are very stressful for me as I always get lost.. (So I stop pull out my phone and use trailforks)
Is the Gramin Trailforks (baked in) at a level to navigate with? (I have a 520+ and it not.)
100% able to navigate with it. I used it for the trails of Sea Otter for navigation, which is an area that while I roughly know where I am directionally, the trails helped me figure out which way to go.
Hey Ray, as always, great review.
Is there anything you can tell us about an upcoming Edge 1030 Plus? Now that the 830 has a significantly faster processor, it puts me on the fence about buying a 1030 (I like the form factor for nav).
Cheers from Hamburg, Ryan
I don’t expect anything else cycling related anytime soon. The first priority is adding in all those features to the Edge 1030, which I suspect will take a number of months.
Note how all the units now align: Edge 130, Edge 530, Edge 830, Edge 1030
Occasionally, Garmin does things that are logical. 😉
Cheers.
Just one question, can I use touch screen with gloves ? Or is it same as iPhone.
Thanks
When running the unit with GPS enabled and sensors enabled, does the battery drain indicate that it will actually give the claimed 20 hours? (depending on if backlight is off / auto…)
Real-world – how much do you miss the screen size from a 1030 when moving to 830?
2.6 vs 3.5″
246 x 322 vs 282 x 470
Roughly 3/4 vs 3/5
I’m planning to get this for the Trailforks data, even tho I’ve already picked up the donationware Garmin base-maps from Trailforks, so I can avoid layering so many maps and getting multiple lines of text.
I was going to hang onto the 1030 (just in case) the data ever comes over, or in case I don’t like the smaller screen. However, this is my assumption:
The 1030 probably isn’t terribly wider, but has a lot more height on the screen. I always ride with North pointing UP. So I don’t really take advantage of extra screen height when mapping.
I also put my important data fields that I want instant access to – into the Varia Vision (power, heart rate).
Based on this (mainly keeping North up on maps) – I’m thinking the screen size difference may not be a huge issue seeing how it’s mostly in the proportions.
Sidenote for other trail riders in case it’s helpful –
The standard Garmin Edge maps on previous models contain OSM, which does hold MOST of the mountain bike trails I’ve come accross. But they are rendered as thin lines and tend to blend in with hiking and non-biking trails.
Downloadable Trailforks Base-maps work great, but are usually missing old-school trails (think national forests, paths less traveled). Those trails mostly are, however, in OSM maps, but again tend to blend in with hiking trails if in a crowded area.
GPSFileDepot has a basemap called ‘MyTrails’ that a user put in a TON of work that has most every bike, hike, etc trail rendered as a red line. They are not differentiated, but it’s worth downloading, as when I’ve gone into national forests, this helps to stand out from streems, contour lines, etc.
I’ve also spent money on 3rd party apps to create my own maps, but it’s a lot of time and work and I’m hoping this ultimately just puts MOST of what I want into a better, cleaner map and I’ll just use the Trailforks app to pull in sections of trail that aren’t yet in the basemaps.
Hey Ray
Couple of Qs:
1) If you change maps to use free OSM, did you still get the climb functionality?
2) If you use the heatmaps re routing functionality, does it differentiate road from offroad or could you potentially be rerouted on gravel/offroad with a road bike?
Cheers
Would there be, in your opinion, any reason – from a touring cyclist perspective – to choose the Edge 830 over the Edge Explore? I am specifically referring to the GPS accuracy and the speed of routing and/or rerouting. The screen size is the same as my current touring plus (fine for me), but I am looking for something a bit quicker and more reliable though. The touring quits navigating in the middle of a tour a bit too often for my liking.
Thanks!
Ray, have you tested the 830 touch screen with a number of different gloves (including non smartphone compatible gloves)?
This may be the dealbreaker between going for the 530 and 830 for me, only really want the touch screen if it will genuinely make life easier navigation through menus and screens.
Dude, SO love your blog! Stumbled upon it researching the new Garmin products (thanks Google). The time you spend & thoroughness of reviews are to be seriously commended…from one OCD-researcher (I suspect) to another! I’m having my cycling rebirth so to speak…was on a bike almost every day as a kid in a rural area & then got distracted w life. FF to now as a 40-ish year-old guy accomplished in career but a tad flabby (mind you…just a tad, lol). So, good news in that you do NOT forget how to ride & getting back is super easy. I’m a proud owner of a Specialized Diverge Sport (hope that meets your approval) and can say your site & product reviews are exactly the distillation of what I’ve need to help me get back in the saddle with great things. Can’t TY enough!
Possibly the best review of a device I have come across. Hats off. Which links do we click to support you?
Brilliant review as always. The best review site by a long way and always my ‘go to’ when buying a new piece of tech.
Thank you !
Ha Ray, How about the screen? I have an Edge 820, and sent it two times back to Garmin the past two years because the screen showing HALO ‘s. Do you think the 530/830 has a newly designed screen?
Excellent review as usual.
I am not really sure if I need this or if this would provide any real advantage, in my conditions
I explain myself. I own a fenix 5X and edge 520; I use the fenix 5x for everything (activity monitor including sleep tracking, hiking, walking, running and cycling) and the edge 520 only for cycling extended display/backup purposes/Varia traffic warnings (ride is discarded afterwards if everything works fine with the fenix)
I am getting all the metrix, including firstbeat calculations, with the fenix and GC. I dont mind at all wearing my fenix during my rides and for that purpose I have bought a new set of different colored bands. If the watch broke tomorrow and were out of warranty, I would buy another right away; I am that much satisfied
Question:
would there be a real advantage incorporating the new 830 to my setup? The high altitude acclimatization sounds good but I only go once a year to the mountains of Georgia for the 6gap event, so I do not see its use
Hi Ray
thanks for the great review.
I have the edge1030 and I’m thinking of changing it with the edge830 because it’s more suitable for mountain biking.
However I train almost exclusively with structured workouts, I am a trainig peaks premiun user and I use the Wahoo Elemnt bolt for these workouts.
The structured training page of Garmin is painful, it is not possible to see the power on 3 seconds, it is not possible to see the cadence or the cadence range, also the bar graph of the exercise is missing, very useful to understand at what point there it is found when so many are repeated.
Do you know if Garmin intends to implement the structured training page?
Or do you know if Trainingpeaks is planning to develop a better appIQ to perform structured workouts?
Now that the Garmin API’s have been opened to developers it shouldn’t be hard to do.
Thank you.
Hi Lívio,
I have been using edge 1000 and recently edge 1030 for structured workout downloaded from Today’s Plan. I am happ how it works, there is enough info to follow the workout, reps total, reps to do, power goal, graph and other counters. I never used wahoo, sou I can’t say how much better it is compared with garmin, but I am happy with garmin.
I have gone back and forth. Garmin and now Wahoo Bolt. I have read the review and apparently I need it in “Reviews for Dummies” language. The primary reason I bought my Bolt was the ability to upload routes created by others in Ride With GPS without connecting to a PC. Can I do this with the 530? Does it take an app to accomplish this other than Garmin Connect?
Short version: It’s way easier to get RideWithGPS routes to a Wahoo product than a Garmin product. It happens automagically on Wahoo product, on a Garmin product you’ll need to either plug it in, or do some sort of hoola-hoops with copying routes on your phone to other apps to open it up. Wonky.
On Garmin device you can use a mobile phone to download the file and then upload it to the Garmin using the app Connect… it will appear in Train Routes.
On a Garmin it’s not super-slick, but it can be done without hoola-hoops using this Connect IQ app: link to apps.garmin.com
Once it’s all set up, then you can just pull down the routes that you want. Works pretty nicely on my Edge 820 – I haven’t transferred a route over cable for ages, and faffing about downloading a file onto my phone and then pushing it into Garmin Connect is not cool either.
Was first brought to my attention here:
link to dcrainmaker.com
I very well may have missed it at some point in the last few months, but what is the latest with Garmin and displaying/logging the advanced cycling dynamics from Pioneer PMs?
Anybody?
Do the profiles support individual odometers, and can you input new odometer readings? I like to track the annual mileage on both my road and mountain bikes. To do that I now have a simple non-GPS computer mounted on each bike. To that I add either a Garmin watch for extra data or a Garmin 800 when I need navigation. That’s four computers, and two on most rides. I’d like to get to one computer for both bikes.
Any idea when the Bike Alarm feature will be available on the Edge 1030?
I don’t really get this feature, why would you even leave your Garmin on your bike? Surely someone could twist the garmin off and leg it before you’ve put your Cappuccino down, regardless whether it has an alarm?
So you’re adding an alarm to a bike at the risk of losing your Garmin!?
Since the bike almost certainly costs more than the Garmin, this doesn’t sound crazy to me. The Edge should wail if it’s being moved around, so at least you’ll know. But maybe locking mounts will become a thing.
It could also act as a deterrent – if the noise is loud enough, maybe they panic and leave the bike (& Garmin) too? And as mentioned, if the bike is seriously expensive then losing the Bike+Garmin doesn’t change much, but may prevent the bike being taken in the first place.
Personally I think it’s a great idea.
Hmm can’t say I agree. Imagine you take a cafe lock with you, light easy. You stop at a cafe, lock your bike. Now, the cafe lock is going to stop the opportunist, no need for the alarm there. So, are you going to leave your Garmin on the bike at this situation? The bike’s not going anywhere (unless there’s a serious thief around) yet your shiny new Edge 530/830 can be gone in two seconds while your still scoffing your apple strudel?
If I didn’t have even a cafe lock with me, there’s no chance I’m leaving my bike out of sight.
RE: Timeframes – no idea yet from Garmin for 1030 updates
RE: Purpose
I see this more useful for the outdoor cafe type setting where people are outside sitting at tables and your bike is perhaps 3-10 meters from you. Roughly in sight, but not watching constantly – no bike lock, just leaned up against the wall like everyone elses bike. This isn’t about protecting your Garmin, it’s about protecting your bike when someone isn’t paying attention.
If you see an alarm trigger and someone tries to go somewhere, you can bet that all your friends will jump on their bikes and give chase. And there’s approximately a 0% chance that anyone will successfully ride away from a group of angry cyclists hell bent on chasing down a thief. History has more than proven that one out. It never ends well for the thief.
Would make sense if there was a simple lock on the Garmin/mount as with the Bolt, different story then
I’m just curious, the new 830/530 looks like a dark screen when powered off compared to the 1030 (gray). Does it more or less look the same as the 1030 regarding various lighting situations? Or is the color contrast better indoors / low light?
My main gripe with 1030 is that it’s tough to read trails in the woods with heavy tree cover, where black levels didn’t exist and non primary colors were hard to tell apart. The known trade-off is that it looked fantastic under daylight with no need for the backlight.
Just curious if this darker looking screen might be a different screen-type or have more contrast in the dark.
Actually on the same concern, does the 830/530 do as well as a 1030 under daylight? I got the impression the 1030 did well under daylight because of the gray background when the unit was powered off (meaning it didn’t have to light up to display “white” colors….)
Not a very good comparison but I only have access to MS Paint at the moment. XD
The angles are a bit off and might skew the sizes a little, but I was curious what the 830 screen looks like over that of the 1030.
Hello, I’m currently using an Edge 820 with a K-Edge Garmin mount, but looking to get an 830… do you know if the 830 will also fit this mount or will I need to replace it with an XL? If you could measure the distance between the centre of the Garmin 1/4 turn bit and the end of the casing, I could work it out 🙂
Richard
perhaps I missed it in the review and this comment thread but what about charging?
1) is there now in ‘in mount’ charging feature with what looks like contacts on the twist mount (you mentioned in the 530 review that there is a battery booster pack available)
2) is it the micro USB of the 520?
3) are there any changes to the charging socket cover from the 520? (all my 500 series Garmin headhunts have died because either the USB socket busted, common, or the socket cover ripped / deteriorated / generally became degraded and useless. the Varia rear light seems to actually have a decent cover, have they improved the one on the head unit?)
great review and timely as I hover between Garmin and Wahoo ecosystems on fitness kit (as with everyone I didn’t realise I needed a rear radar till I got one!)
1) Correct, exact same battery pack. No idea why I apparently brain-farted on including the pics I took and some detail on it in this review. But identical. […and, adding to my to-do list to add in.]
2) Yes, micro-USB unfortunately
3) It’s more of a plastic socket cover now. I’ve killed some past Edge units as well on micro-USB. Wish they had done USB-C here.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for the fantastic review.
I had a couple of questions especially now that I’ve also read your review on the new Wahoo Roam.
Here goes.
The Roam has a few nifty navigation features like back to start, get me started and back on track and retrace route.
Are there any similar functions in the Edge 830?
I’d love to understand the differences in navigational features between the edge 830 and the Wahoo Roam.
I ride roads in India and finding roads along a preplanned route that doesn’t actually exist or has been shut down is quite common.
Also, trailforks etc is of almost no use in India as these kind of planned bile trails don’t exist.
Also should love to know the differences in the two head units even it comes to controlling the Kickr especially when using Zwift for example.
I just recently bought an Elemnt and the current navigational skills of the unit have almost left me in tears.
I definitely intend to upgrade but am now wondering which of the two new head units would work best for me.
In terms of sensors I have the wahoo Blue SC speed and cadence sensor and the TickrX HRM.
I assume that the new b Garmin will play nicely with these and not need any of their new sensors to fully find all of their metrics.
Thanks a lot in advance for youre answers.
Cheers
I am from Slovakia / EU
Equipment purchased at Clever Training europe beta ,,has the same maps as bought in slovakia??
My wahoo speed and wahoo tickr x hr sensors recognize
thanks
It includes European maps, which covers Slovakia in it.
Oh, and yes, both those sensors will work just fine.
Thanks for the support via CT!
Does the Nutrition/hydration part let you specify specific needs?`
Doing my first ironman in August, and i dont know if the Garmin/(firstbeat?) recommended nutrition would be enough. Could i put in a certain caloric/hour need? (doing a gran fondo would probably calculate differently then doing a Triathlon where i would have to run after as well?
Thanks Ray!
After a lot of back and forth I’ve decided to stick with my 1030 for now and keep a close eye on this device, as I basically want this on the bigger screen. If I were on the market I’d go for this. But I just really prefer the screen size of the 1030 for navigation purposes. I’ve not seen many screenshots of the Trailforks usage, but it looks like it’s most likely a separate IMG map file overlaid on top of the standard Garmin OSM map, which is what I’ve been doing recently (manually). -I could be wrong on this, but it seems to be how it works as I saw one screenshot on pinkbike where it looks like the TF lines were running ‘mostly’ on top of the OSM trails, but you could see them both there.
In doing this on the 1030, I’ll make the assumption that I won’t get the fancy fork split details and profiles, which would be SUPER nice. I guess we’ll have to see what all actually makes its way over. In the meantime I’ll be recommending this to friends.
It will be interesting to see how the MTB metrics work out. I don’t really get the concept of how it will accurately measure a jump length. Weather using GPS / accelerometer or a wheel sensor, I can’t grasp how it will know the exact speed at the time of lift-off to landing to measure. If it is accurate that’s going to be a really cool feature.
Since a bunch of us will likely get the 530/830 it’s that dreaded programming the screens time again.
Since we still don’t have a mobile app to make this less painful; I updated my spreadsheet for building screens based on the data in the 830 manual.
Warning that xls has macros in it (aka vba junk code). The only harm it will cause is saving you a couple hours thinking over what fields go where.
link to dropbox.com
It works, it’s not robust because it doesn’t have to be; if you break it start over with a fresh copy. If you are really stuck ask and if I have time I’ll try and explain.
I haven’t seen a 530/830 so the field layout might not be completely right, those were based on a 1030
Bob-
This is neat. Do you eventually upload something to garmin to pick the screens?
Very nice! Thanks!
Now that’s a handy spreadsheet, thanks!
Hi 3G,
No unfortunately not at this time, that would mean writing a binary FIT file and that’s outside the scope of time I have. What it does do is give you a single piece of paper you can print and then sit at the device and do the programming. The goal is to avoid have to dig through all the fields on the device trying to figure out what you want. It’s just faster to plan on a computer. With the print out I can program a garmin with 8 data screen in about 10 minutes with confident. It also makes a great way to record what you have before you try new setups only to decide you want back what you had and can’t remember.
If you ever want to put more time into this the fit sdk comes with a java utility that converts between a csv file and a fit file. Could be a relatively easy way to get a fit file for your needs.
Got it. Thanks for this! It’s pretty awesome!
Bob,
Thanks! I just got my 1030 (those airline miles finally was worth something!) and was looking for an easy way to configure screens. This will come handy..
Ihsan
Me and my cyclingbuddy talked about the 830 and 530 and it is a difficult pick. The pricedifference is big but also the functionalities on those 830/530 in your very usefull comparisson table!
Hi Ray, great article as always. Sorry for stating the obvious but is the 830 screen size bigger than the 530? I own a 1000 and the battery is starting to die and now I’m in my 50’s my eyesight isn’t so good. I am not keen however on the size of my edge 1000 so hopefully I will get on with the new edge 830.
Cheers,
Andy.
Just preordered one using the CT link. This is like the goldilocks Garmin for me – the 1030 is full-featured but a bit big, the 820 was compact but slow.
Hi Ray. As always a great review!
Did they do anything to make the 530/830 easier to control a VIRB?
Anyone knows if Garmin offers some kind of discount on the 830 for those with a “sreen halo” on their just out of warrenty 820 !?
Tried to contact Garmin via their support side, but got no response.
They should replace it with a refurb. I just had my 2nd 1030 replaced due to halo, and I asked about this. They don’t offer a discount toward the 830.
Well that’s very disappointing 🙁
Thank you
Hi
I am planning to buy my first bike computer. I like the Edge 830, but like the idea of a bigger screen, like the Edge 1030. Since the Edge 830 is a newer device, does it include everything a Edge 1030 has to offer? If the Edge 830 has got more features than the Edge 1030, will the Edge 1030 get those new features in subsequent updates?
Thanks
Himanshu
Shipping estimates on all the sites just slipped from early/mid May to late May. Just had to pull my 1030 off eBay
yes, sold my wahoo bolt too early and now waiting…. borrowed a edge 800 from a friend until the 830 will ship. Lot’s of progress has been made is all I can say 🙂
820 with 8GB can only hold one map. 830 with ~16 should be very helpful. Too bad I bought my 820 2 months ago.
Any update on the smartphone notifications that show up on the device? E.g. call notifications on my 520 are more of an FYI thing, but I’d at least like the optuon to reject a call from my unit…
Seems like the ship date keeps getting pushed back more and more. Amazon now shows mid June to mid July for the unit, and late July – early August for the road bundle. Is this accurate across all online realtors, or do those who put in an early order still have them shipping now?
Ray mentioned somewhere that Garmin is targeting their partner retailers first before general market and places like amazon. Most of the sites I’ve seen just say early May, but Biketiresdirect.com is now showing May 16th. We’ll see…
When routes are displayed on the unit, is there an option to sort by proximity like the Wahoo units have?
I advanced from Edge 800 to Edge 1000 mainly due to the interactions with WKO4, but was disappointed. This mainly due to the utilization of the screen, letters/numbers vs. empty space as well as use of colours (lack of saturation). Out riding I need to see the figures on the screen in a glance. I shall admit i need reading glasses, but how many have the eyesight of an 18 year old? Particularly the “Workouts” page is a good example – it’s illegible when out on the road – mostly empty space with the “Next” step well hidden in the top of the screen.
Would you say the Edge 1030 is better related to screen utilization?
Is there still the useless 100-segments-Limit on the new garmin series?
I would love to know the answer to this too. Information on this seems to be impossible to come by.
Still have no News on this
You may never get this information sadly. I was looking for the same info about the 520 plus. I ended up having to buy the device to find out that it still has the silly 100 segment limit. 🙁
Still waiting for CT news regarding shipment date for my 830… if I knew that Wiggle would be faster…
The device-only option (non-bundle) seems to be shipped without speed sensor.
How is speed then determined? Via GPS only?
Is that recommended?
With my current gps computer at low speeds and with bad satellite visibility (uphill forest or so) regularly runs into auto-stop which is kind of annoying.
Any thoughts/experience?
Thanks!
If there’s no speed sensor, then it’s GPS only. You won’t notice the difference usually, but it looks like you ride in challenging GPS conditions, so having the sensor helps. (I have one on all of my bikes.) Any ANT+ or Bluetooth speed sensor will do; you don’t need the bundle version. Garmin sells them separately.
Do any other mounts besides Garmin’s support the Edge Battery Pack? I have some funky aero handlebars and some more mount options be helpful.
Only the Garmin one to my knowledge.
Hi, I just received the 830 yesterday. I had a 1030 and sold it because I didnt really need the sd slot and the bigger screen. I have noticed that the screen looks a bit blurry at certain angles versus the 1030. Has anyone noticed this? Maybe its just my eyes.
How is the touch screen responsiveness? Have you tried with full finger gloves?
I will try will full finger gloves tonight for you. My fingers had no issues. It was just as responsive as the 1030. It does boot up very fast and already did a firmware update. I am going on my first ride tonight and will let you know. The screen looks great on the bike but when you hold it in your hand i swear it looks a bit blurry. Again I was used to the 1030 which does have a better screen. It seems the resolution is a bit compressed on the 830 so the text is not as sharp as the 1030.
Cheers Mike, on the fence whether to upgrade from 520 for extra battery life, storage and screen real estate. Look forward to your post. Enjoy!
Oh dude ditch that 520. I will let you know how the battery life goes. I actually got the 1030 because my 520 was turning off after 6 hours because of the battery being old. The 1030 was amazing. I did a 12 hour 170 mile ride last Saturday and i did have like 45% left or something. I sold the 1030 for the same price as buying the extended battery pack and the 830. I am a glass half full guy so I will nit pick a lot. Still debating if I made the right decision. The screen on the 1030 is better, but is it $100-150 better? Not sure
OK mate, thanks. I actually just got to exchange the 520 (battery lasting around 2 hours!!!) with a replacement demo model, so I have effectively got a pretty-much-brand-new 520. So now even more in two minds whether to upgrade! Maybe I’ll wait till the battery degrades again; however I do travel in Europe and do some long navigation based rides and to not have to worry about battery life would be a relief (assuming 830 would give this!)
Hello,
Post ride report. I rode for about 1 hour 45 minutes. At the end of the ride I had 84% battery left. Connected to my phone running livetrack, and my quarq, and my heart rate monitor. I will do a longer test this weekend without livetrack running. The phone connection kills the battery. The screen looked great during the ride, not blurry, so it must just be a certain angle. If you hold it flat the screen isn’t blurry which is how it is on your bike. It did great other than thinking I crashed when i got to a stop sign quickly.
Gloves. It depends on the glove. If your glove fingertips are a bit rubbery like my burton ski gloves it works great. some gloves you have to find the rubberish part and use that. It worked great with the burton, not really good with my lobster gloves, and another pair it doesnt work because they dont have a rubberish finger. So maybe just get some gloves with a rubber finger or maybe put some tape on one finger that works with the screen.
Overall good first ride.
Is the 530 / 830 body held together with bolts (old style) – or have they glued / fuzed this like the 1030? I liked that the old models could have new batteries installed by users, tho I suppose with this much battery life it would likely never matter even if it did go to half the life years from now.
That’s disappointing to hear that the screen doesn’t look as nice as the 1030 by one user.
—
I’m still on the fence. My Edge 1000 always froze, rebooted, corrupted files, and ultimately the power button collapsed.
My 1030 was a headache since day 1. I loved the screen size and battery life. I actually loved the 1030 as long as I DID NOT connect a mobile phone to it.
–But Garmin never fixed the Remote Control connection until just before releasing the 830 MTB bundle which comes with the remote. I almost get the impression they didn’t consider it a priority until bundling it with a new unit.
–The phone connectivity flat out sucks for a lot of users with 1030. I’d been through 3 phones, including iOS and Android. Even leaving the app open and locking the phone never kept it connected. It was a crap-shoot as to weather a ride would upload without plugging it into a PC first. The 1030 would generally shut down when it stayed connected long enough to actually receive an SMS. This was after system resets, etc.
This ultimately made the 1030 crash detection useless if connectivity is so spotty.
So having invested in the radar, the Vision, Remote, Wheel sensors, etc – I’ve finally become angry enough to ditch the 1030 after Firmware 7.3 didn’t resolve any of this.
Weather I go with Garmin 830 or Wahoo ROAM this time really depends on if they fix the phone connectivity issues on the 830. Until then I’m stuck pairing my power meter and heart rate to my phone and using Strava to record rides.
If anyone can report back on phone connectivity (good or bad) I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m still a bit steamed that even if (a big IF) the phone issues are fixed, I have to downsize the screen size from a 1030.
I meant to ask if it’s held together by screws, not bolts. 😀
I had the 1030 so I know exactly what you are talking about how it would just randomly turn off during a ride when it was connected to a phone. Also how it would loose connection and get it back. I will report back how the 830 does tonight after my ride.
I don’t see any screws. Probably glued.
Nothing showed up on my screen from my phone today, so I can’t really say about the phone connectivity. I had trouble with my 1000 in that regard. The ride uploaded at the end, but it was probably using house WiFi rather than Bluetooth through the phone.
it worked great with my phone tonight, no issues for 1 hour 45 minutes. Livetrack worked and it uploaded my ride at the end.
You can replace the battery on the “glued” units. More work than the old screwed together ones though. link to youtube.com
Does the 830 allow the auto lap alert notifications to be customized vs just showing the time completed for the lap? Just preordered mine, since it has more power (yeah for faster route calcs) and some upgrades vs my 820.
To answer my own question, yes auto lap alerts now have customizable fields. I just got the Edge 830, so was able to set up the fields I wanted.
My 830 arrived from CT yesterday. After an hour or so of setting up the pages and pairing to various sensors yesterday, I took it for a mountain bike ride this morning. Of course, since I wanted to see ClimbPro work I loaded on the course I was going to ride. It consists of two loops connected by a short out-and-back. Unfortunately, I had neglected to check the course beforehand and as I discovered on the road the course had me riding the main loop in the opposite direction of the way I was actually going to ride, so a few miles in I was “off course”. (I eventually realized that I could turn off navigation via the pull down menu and I did that.) What little I did see of ClimbPro was a little strange, since they didn’t segment the climbs the way I would. As far as I’m concerned, this ride has two major climbs. ClimbPro also said two, but one was just a short few percent climb that I wouldn’t even bother about while the other included both major climbs, including the descent in between. Anyway, a few miles in I stopped navigation and ClimbPro ceased to be a concern.
GPS track (GPS+GLONASS) looks ok (fine on the pavement, a little ratty in the mountains), altimeter was spot on, visibility in the sun was fine. The only problem I had was when I stopped at an overlook (auto pause on) it zoomed the map page way out. On a gravel descent I attempted to zoom it in again, but eventually the map simply stopped showing anything but my track, even at my favorite zoom level of 800ft. All of the weird MTB metrics are showing up in Garmin Connect, as well as respiration rate (which looks right, but I’ll be damned if I know where it’s getting it from since I use an old Garmin hardshell HR belt).
Oh, and I forgot to mention: POI altitude calibration works as usual on the 830. Yesterday I set up my “Home” POI in my driveway and entered its altitude. This morning I saw the old familiar “Elevation calibrated to location” notice.
Ray, have you tried running battery life tests on the Edge units while running a course as well? A lot of us have wondered whether navigation cuts battery life.
thx!
Yes, very curious on this.
Nothing formal. I’ll note the exact battery levels on my next longer ride with navigation. usually on weekends.
Hi,
I rode this weekend with the 830. I did a ride yesterday and today. Both were close to 6 hours, so 12.5 hours total without recharging. Yesterday I didn’t use the course but did have two sensors connected and it worked great. Rode for 6 hours and 108 miles. Today I rode for another 6.5 hours and had a course going for all 89 miles. The 830 has 49% battery left. That is pretty good for 12 hours of normal usage. My phone was connected also but I did not have a livetrack going.
That is awesome. You just made me buy the 530 (or 830). Thanks for the info!
You are welcome, It really has worked great. I think there is a bug with accident detection. I have stopped fast 2 times and it set itself off. Other than that pretty flawless. Phone connection is great unlike the 1030 which would disconnect all the time.
Thanks for chiming in on the phone connectivity. I think I’ll pick up the 830 based on your last comment – as that is the one thing that I’ve finally had it with Garmin on using the 1030 (I’ll have to adapt to the smaller screen).
Regarding incident detection – do *not* expect this to get better. Everyone I knew with a 1030 turned that off because of how many false alarms it was setting off. If cancelling them doesn’t bother you, it may be worth leaving on.
I currently use a Garmin Edge 820. It has a very annoying “feature” where the unit powers on when connected to power or disconnected from power. This is especially annoying if linked up to Bontrager lights as they also come on.
The most challenging part about this is the user must wait 5-10 seconds for the unit to boot up every time it is disconnected from power before the user can power down the unit to prevent the battery from dying between charging and riding.
I’m wondering if this problem has been solved on the Edge 830?
Same on these units.
As for the lights though – you can solve that easily. On your Edge 820 go into the light network settings and change the power on option to be ‘On activity start’, as opposed to ‘on power up’. 🙂
Thanks for the info and advice.
Hi,
I have received my 830 just two days ago…..
I used to use 7xx, 8xx and as last 520. Then I jumped to Bolt. When Garmin announced 530/830 I did not even read the reviews. Then Wahoo announced their Roam and I thought it may be worth it to upgrade….. But then I red the review here. And I think it was negative. Very negative. And everybody was mentioning new Garmins, how better they are and how much better value for money it is compared to Roam. I started to think. Should I stick to Wahoo or give Garmin new chance. I listened to DCR. I am so sorry to say it: mistake.
1. Setting up the Edge is real pain. I was all the time thinking about Elemnt App on my iPhone. But I was convincing myself it is one-time excersise and it will be worth it.
2. Touchscreen is disaster. If DCR says it is much better than it was on 820, then it was no touchscreen most likely. On my 830 it is sometimes not responding at all, sometimes “too soon”. Maybe I am not used to this type of screen. I am convincing myself I do not need to work with the screen so often, configured my Di2 to move between screen, start/stop timer.
3. First ride, short (20km). GPS went mad when I entered the shop. It never locked back the satellites when I was outside again. It was saying it did, but on the map my position was about 5km off. I rode there and back the very same route, but according Garmin I finished… definitely not at my place.
@DCR: either you were given some super fine-tuned test device , or you were extremely lucky (or I unlucky) or….. I do not even want to think about the other option. Convincing myself that that would not be possible…..
I am not returing my 830, yet. Will try and hope for some improvements with next SW (currently 3.20). If Roam was so much worse than new Garmins, it must be complete s……
Regards
Marek
HI Marek-
Setting up is a bit of a pain compared to the BOLT, but it’s just a one-time thing and you’re done. Like most new products.
As for the touch screen – I didn’t have any issues and honestly haven’t heard of anyone else with units saying they’ve had issues either. Same goes for GPS. Nobody has reported any GPS issues for either Edge 530 or 830.
I’d ring up Garmin support and see if they can get it swapped out. Maybe it just got dropped on it’s head or something.
I know it is “do it once”, that is why I was willing to go thru….
Please see the screenshot attached – as said, I just went there and back on the same road…
The Edge was indoors for about 5 mins and lost GPS, so I gues that is the reason, but not justification.
Today I did firtst indoor session with 830.
Tacx Neo 2 and TrainerRoad and 830 all connected via ANT+. Neo was controlled by the TR app, 830 used only to record the ride to have all Garmin metrics recorded.
Activity in TR seems normal, same on Strava (upload automatically from TR).
Garmin Connect shows insane numbers for the same ride (uploaded from 830).
I really pray for some SW updates pushed soon. As I wrote above, I left Garmin two years ago when I was geting some incorrect reading from previous Neo, when unit frozen while navigating (and I lost 100km+ rides etc). I was hoping this is all now fixed and I will be happy user, not beta tester.
Wow. Is it at all possible that your power meter was spiking and TrainerRoad cleaned it up? After the 1000 and 1030 nightmare I’m going to be watching these posts very closely before picking the 830 / ROAM.
I am not using PM on my indoor bike, just Tacx Neo 2. Maybe it was cleaned by TR, no way I can say…. I will try different apps (Zwift Sufferfest). I am not sure how it all works, but it is the app on my MacBook controlling the trainer and 830 is only recording the ride to upload it to Connect (to have all that Garmin metrics). Those spikes are strange. Or I am super strong (and I do not know about it).
Most sites have filters to basically make crazy power spikes like 30,000w just disappear – so you don’t know it’s there. Most sites put it at around 3,500w or so (well beyond any human effort). And I know Garmin has those filters in there, so I’m unsure why it would show a crazy spike like that. Undoubtedly TrainerRoad filtered out that spike (if it was real).
The tricky part of any power meter spike is figuring out where it was caused by. In 99.9% of cases, it’s legit transmitted by the device. However, there are some unique edge cases with timing where a head unit could misinterpret the timing and cause that. However, that shouldn’t happen with a trainer (based on the type of power meter it broadcasts as).
You could download the original TrainerRoad .FIT file and see if the spike is there, but it’s also likely they wouldn’t even record that spike either.
Re: Power Spikes
So today I tried Zwift…. same problem. Irregular power spikes.
The only thing I can think about is that I have connected Neo2 to 830 as Trainer (FE-C). So maybe there is some confusion (interference), because Zwift (and TrainerRoad before) control the Neo via the same type of connection. I tried to enable ANT+ broadcast via Tacx Utility App and connected Neo to 830 as normal PowerMeter and also removed it as FE-C trainer from 830. Will see next time if the readings are back to normal. I do not need to control the Neo from 830 so it would be Ok for me.
Ohh…yeah, you definitely don’t want two devices paired concurrently as an FE-C unit. That’s playing tug of war.
Instead, as you found, go with the Edge 830 using it as a normal power meter.
Makes sense. I could not find Neo as power sensor to connect it to 830, because the ANT+ broadcast was disabled via the Tacx Utility App (as recommended by Tacx). They mention Speed/Cadence sensor only, so I thought that there was no power broadcast at all. That is why I used FE-C. But after having the problems I went to Tacx App and enabled the ANT+ and “suddenly” 830 saw Power and Speed/Cadence broadcasted by Neo.
Hi MarekBNS,
where did you get the 830 in Switzerland? sold my bolt a few weeks ago and looking for a place to get an 830…
thanks,
Fabien
Re: Where to get 830 in CH
Hi, I ordered it from wiggle.co.uk – they probably had few pieces, shortly after I placed the order it was to pre-order again. VeloPlus claims to have it tomorrow….
Cheers
M.
Thanks, should arrive tomorrow ? saved my weekend… etape du tour recon on Saturday ?
Just got my 830 and did my first ride today. I found three bugs and I want to see if anyone had the same issue. I do have the latest firmware (3.20, upgraded from 2.40). I have a Quarq PM and I have the auto-calibrate prompt enabled. The 830 connects to the Quarq but it wouldn’t show the calibrate prompt. On the 520 the auto-calibrate prompt works flawlessly. The second bug has to with Di2 D-Fly. I use the gear combo field and it was showing garbage gearing data. I proceeded to the Di2 sensor page and see there’s an option for ‘automatic’ under gear setup and it was enabled. I disabled that option and reprogrammed my gearing manually. This method worked and it showed the correct gearing. On the 520 there’s no ‘automatic’ option and the gear combo always displays the correct gearing. The gearing info. for each bike is selected under eTube. I’m under the impression that the correct gearing info. is sent to the 830. On the 520 there’s a custom gearing setup but D-Fly gearing data will override any custom gearing you choose in the 520. If anyone can shed some light on how the D-Fly data is sent to the 830 that would be helpful. It seems to me that this is a bug in the 830 (i.e. when ‘automatic’ is enabled it shows garbage gearing data whereas the 520 shows the correct gearing). The last bug is pairing the 830 to the Garmin Connect app. on my iPhone. I couldn’t get it to work. Then I did a Google and found an old video that showed a trick when pairing on a 800. The trick is to turn off WiFi completely on the iPhone. Then power down both the iPhone and the 800 (or 830 in my case). With only LTE as the available network on the iPhone it allowed Garmin Connect to pair with the 830. This is so odd since Garmin allowed this bug to exist from an 800 to the 830. Amazing.
The next few things are my observations and not bugs. I noticed the 830 would use BLE to connect to the Quarq PM. There’s no option to choose BLE vs. ANT+. Is this normal? My 520 would use ANT+. I’m comfortable with ANT+ since I’ve never had any issues with ANT+ on the 520. Perhaps there’s a way to turn off BLE on my Quarq but I haven’t checked. Secondly, the two long edges on the 830 have a curve and a slippery plastic. I cannot hold the GPS securely. This isn’t a problem on the 520 as the 520 has a rubber and button on the two long edges. It’s very hard to hold the 830 securely. To mitigate the problem I used some friction black cotton tape (see the attached photo). This worked but it looks ugly. I suspect this issue is lessened on the 530 since there are buttons on the 530 to grab onto. The 830 lacks any buttons on the side. Another solution is to get the silicon case but it will add bulk and weight. Lastly the battery capacity on the 830 is amazing. Today I did a 44mi. ride, with an elapsed time of 2:43 and a moving time of 2:33, and the battery had 92% when I finished the ride (from 100% at the start). On the same ride the 520 showed 76% (from 100% at the start). I have two sensors enabled (D-Fly and Varia). No navigation but I do have the sharp bend warning enabled so perhaps it’s using the navigation to detect the sharp bends. Impressive!
I hope it is a good screen. I have sold already my 820.
I have another question i can not find in the review. Is there a place on the 830 to strap a cord that can be fixed to the handlebar so if you crash that the unit is not end up in a river but sticks to the bike?
Thanks
Yes. It’s at the front of the unit. A lanyard is also included in the box.
For what it’s worth, I had no problem connecting my 830 to Garmin Connect on my iPhone XS running the iOS version Apple released this week. I had a little problem logging into Trailforks (couldn’t find where), but I found it eventually.
Hi Paul, good to know. Was your XS connected to a WiFi network at the time? Once I turned off WiFi it worked for me. My phone is a 6 Plus also running the latest iOS.
Yes, it was. Everything was on. WiFi and Bluetooth connected to my Apple Watch and maybe at the time my cheap headphones.
Thanks for youre answer. I have to wait till my unit will be shipped..
RE: Quarq bits
No, there’s no forcing to BLE on any units. In fact, somewhat the opposite. The Edge series will enumerate first the ANT+ power meters, and then will show you the BLE ones. If it sees both, it’ll say “Show bluetooth devices”.
I tested the Quarq AXS Force DZero power meter with both the Edge 530 and 830 while at Sea Otter, and it found it fine over ANT+ for me. I’d recommend going back into the pairing menu, waking up your Quarq with a few pedal strokes, and searching again. Perhaps it had started to fall asleep.
The reason you actually want to use ANT+ over BLE for power meter data, is that in your case you won’t get some of the pedaling metrics over BLE that you would over ANT+/
Thanks Ray. Yes, someone over at WeightWeenies gave me a tip of reinstalling the Quarq and use ANT+ as opposed to BLE. I removed the Quarq and did a new sensor search, and was able to connect to the Quarq using ANT+. An added bonus to using the ANT+ is that now the auto-calibrate prompt is working. Apparently with BLE the auto-calibrate prompt doesn’t show up despite having that option enabled. Don’t know if this is a bug or just a nuance of BLE vs. ANT+. The auto-calibrate prompt is a nice feature and a time-saver.
I did a ride today using a planned route. I’m impressed by the speed and accuracy of the GPS (GPS + Galileo) and navigation. The turn-by-turn navigation worked flawless for me.
I paired my AeroPod to my 830 today and BLE showed up first. I had to hit “add other” (? not exactly sure what it said) before the ANT+ channel showed up. Also had my first freeze just after when I started today’s route (made with Strave and transferred with the CiQ app) and the screen froze. Mashed the power button down and restarted and the 830 navigated and performed flawlessly during the actual ride. ClimbPro worked fine, although I wish that screen would disappear when there are no climbs left.
thanks, should arrive tomorrow 🙂 saved my weekend… etape du tour recon on Saturday 🙂
Hello! Fantastic reviews! A question to decide to make the reservation using your discount.
Is the Edge 8030 model of the Clever Training UK store, exactly the same as you would buy in a store, for example, in Spain?
Thanks!!
I’m sorry, I wanted to say “830”
Yes and mine is on its way
Yup, it’s got the full European maps. Cheers!
Hi,
Today I did race, two rounds (two very same rounds to be precise). the GPS of 830 is disaster. There was no “signal outage” – I mean not something like I did before taking the 830 into the shop for 5 minutes.
I have used GPS+GALILEO. So maybe it this configuration…? I am attaching the picture, you can see yourself….
Cheers
Ick.
Definitely switch over to GPS+ GLONASS. Garmin has said that the majority of their optimizations have been on that configuration. I mostly used that, though did a few Galileo teats without any issue (on the Edge 530/830, less true on new Forerunners).
My GPS (GPS + Galileo) has also gone wonky. First two rides were perfect. Today on my third ride the GPS data turned into garbage. See the pic. below. Will be switching back to GPS + Glonass. I also mapped the same course with my 520 using GPS + Glonass and the 520 recorded 48.2 mi. vs. 48.0 on the 830. So GPS + Galileo definitely has a bug.
Is Galileo fully operational yet?
To my knowledge yes. The reason why I wanted Galileo is the higher accuracy (1m) vs. 3-7m. for GLONASS.
Same here…. It was supposed to be more precise as per my understanding.
@DCR: on which FW were you doing the review? Did oyu already have the 3.20?
btw, nice area you live 🙂 Must be great to just turn left and head into the mountains.
Can you give me an idea on battery usage? Sold my 820 because of poor battery with maps full on display. Wanted to switch to Wahoo just because of that. Now waiting for good 830 reviews.
Yup, I was using that version for the review. It’s the one that was released last week to the public. Of course, like most companies (GoPro and Apple included), they make units head of final release assuming that upon launch you’ll update the firmware to current version. Most the time it works out…
Thanks, just trying to idetify potential root cause. I will definitely try to switch 830 as well as my 735 (back) to GLONASS and test if things get better. I would be Ok to live with the touch-screen as it is (even tho it does not meet my expectations) but GPS must work. I have quite some travel next week, so probably will only manage to test the settings next Saturday. Will post update here.
Cheers
Live and Ride :-)) Turn left is subjective; depending on whether you go to North or to South. I live closer to Alps in fact, yesterday I was riding closer to Jura – smaller mountains :-)). Speaking about it, there will be amazing sportive in September: https://www.zurich-zermatt.ch
Now back to 830: battery seems to be very good (I do not want to say “amazing” yet. I ride with GPS, HR, PM and Speed (all ANT+) and within 2 hours the battery dropped only few %; but I am not sure what level I had when starting the ride. I hope do some longer ride next Saturday so can give you update afterwards.
Cheers
RE: Galileo vs GLONASS
As you probably know, all the recent releases use the new Sony GPS chipset, which by and large none of the major fitness companies have been leveraging Galileo on much till now. Hence why I suspect we’ll still see some rough patches there.
Whereas everyone has been using GLONASS (or at least the option of it), and Garmin itself admitted they’ve spent very little time working on optimization with Galileo versus boatloads on GLONASS.
Now, if you roll back to the FR735XT, that’s on the same GPS chipset as the FR935 (not the FR945). In my case, some of the best GPS tracks I’ve ever seen have come recently from the FR935 with Galileo enabled, mostly since the February enablement of the final Galileo satellites. I’d imagine the FR735XT would be in that same boat given it’s the same chipset.
RE: Galileo vs GLONASS
Sorry, I made mistake…. I have FR935 and have been using setting GPS+GALILEO since it was enabled in FW. Never experienced anything strange, but to be fair I use the watch mainly as activity tracker and for skiing.
So you are saying on FR935 you would stick with GALILEO and on 830 go back to GLONASS (for now).
Cheers
Yup, exactly – that’s the dualing configuration I have with really good results. Enjoy!
I never had issues with Galileo on the 1030 (older GPS chip than 830 apparently). I was hoping to use Galielo on this for mapping out trails and trying to keep them as accurate as possible. Could this possibly be hardware related in the sense that it won’t get any better? If Garmin could step in and say that it’s software related and is (actively) being worked on, that’d at least help in a choosing a computer.
It’s a different chipset, so some of the optimization game has to start back over again. Garmin says they’re going to transition to optimizing the Galileo side from the GLONASS side, but that their first priority was GLONASS.
The good news there is that since all of Garmin’s 2019 devices now use this new chipset, they have good reason to do it, so I don’t think it’ll be long before we see those optimizations.
On the battery life, it has been amazing. Today I did the longest ride yet on the 830 (67.6mi., elapsed time 3hr 40min.) and the battery was showing 86% at the finish. I didn’t use navigation but had three sensors (Quarq, Varia, and D-Fly).
I’m very glad Garmin went bigger on the 530/830 as LiON battery doesn’t weigh a lot. And as these units are designed to not be easily serviceable the larger battery capacity will extend the life of these units considerably.
Hi Ray,
In your review you said the 830 allows up to 12 data fields. I can only go to 10 unless somehow one can add two more Connect IQ fields in addition to the 10? I’d love to have 12 non-Connect IQ data fields. Please let me know if you have a trick to get 12 on one screen. Thanks.
Hi,
Doesn’t the Edge 830 (and 530) support Ant+ Muscle Oxygen natively, without Connect IQ apps/data fields?? My 2 year old Fenix 5 has those fields…
I rode around yesterday while setting my destination at home to see what options it gave me and it wanted me to take a dangerous main road that isn’t highlighted as popular on their heatmap. I’d doubt that it would take gravel into account if it doesn’t handle a busy non-bike friendly thoroughfare.
Apparently my comment got stripped from the post I was replying to. However my comment alone answers some other questions and brings up some others.
Has anyone received their 830 pre-orders from Clever Training US?
Early May came and go and my pre-order still on limbo.
I ordered mine on May 6th and have received shipment notification early this morning.
ETA on Wednesday EOD… hurrah
I got mine about a week ago.
Was that just the unit or the sensors bundle? Mine is a sensors bundle. My card was charged on the 7th but no shipment yet.
Just the unit itself. I already had all the sensors.
Card was charged this morning and got a notification it is shipping out USPS today. 830 only, no bundle. Wish they used UPS or Fedex since probably 1 out 4 USPS shipments to me out here in the middle of nowhere southwestern US get delayed by a few days.
Received my 830 (no bundle) last wednesday.
I canceled the bundle and ordered just the unit. CT told me they have standalone units ready to ship but the bundle will take a bit more.
Just the unit. No bundle
I received my 830 from Clever Training UK today. 🙂
Many thanks Ray.
Thank you for the review! Just received my 830 (upgrade from an 810). I’m surprised that there is no longer a bike profile. I have different bikes, does that mean I track the bike via Garmin Connect, Strava, etc?
Yes, correct. The profiles you use now in the Edge830 are for different routing options, different screens, etc…and the route type is also tagged according to the profile used in Garmin Connect. Sensors are pooled throughout all profiles.
Got mine on Monday (also an upgrade from the 810), still going through the boatload of options…
Thank you for the confirmation. I’ll be more diligent on Strava and Garmin Connect to ensure I select the correct bike but it’s not a big deal. I was up late last night going through the options. Wow!
Yesterday after I updated my 830 and did some setup settings, I tried to shutdown the device and it get stucked in the shutdown… it freezed with the shutdown signal in the display and it didn’t shutdown… Then I pushed the power and lap button (I´m not sure it was lap or start/stop button) button to shutdown the device… Didn’t happen again.
Does the heat and altitude acclimation piece sync with other Garmin devices? For instance, you say the acclimation decays in just several days, but what if you do a ride at elevation then run the next days. Will the Edge say you have lost acclimation?
Yes it does.
Can someone who has this unit and has used the workouts feature comment on whether one can view target power range and cadence range on the same page and whether the power shown is instantaneous or 3sec average? Thanks
I have no 830, but have used the 1000 for a long time, and have now a 1030. On both you have pre-configured screens, and can in addition configure extra screens. I use the workout with and smart trainer with any fields I need. The power that is show is 3sec. I can in addition add instant power, but I do not think that it is very useful due to spikes…
I have just purchased the 830 after having the 1000. As I tour in Europe occasionally I would like to be able to add the European maps as I did with the 1000. Garmin has told me that there is not enough memory on the 830 and I would have to delete some map files before downloading the European maps. Do you know if this is indeed the case or if there is another option?
Does the unit beep at you before a turn (while using course navigation)? You (and other sources) use the word ‘alert’ constantly in reviews, but the reader is left to guess if it means a visual thing on the unit or if it is an audible alert.
Yes it does. It’s actually more than a ‘beep’. More like a series of beeps in rapid succession and it sounds just a loud single ‘beep’.
Hi, so I got the new forerunner 945 and the Edge 830 (delivered hurrah) from clevertraining.
Thanks Ray.
Quick question. Is it possible (not that I want to specifically) but, if the watch detects the activity automatically and starts recording a cycling activity on both the 945 and i manually record on the 830 at the same time. And if so, which one takes precedence when uploading to Garmin Connect…
Anyone has any answers to this?
Hi Abhishek! Well, if you record the activity on both devices at the end both are synced to GC, there’s no precedence of one device over another. So either discard one activity when stopping it or delete the duplicate in GC afterwards. I don’t see a reason to record it twice, especially as with Physio True-Up your FR945 will know about your ride with Edge 830 and vice versa. I would be more concerned about how all the Firstbeat physiological indicators might get “confused” if you upload both.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Olly. that was helpful. Just a quick follow up question.
The reason i asked this is in case I start a ride on the edge 830, I’m assuming that the 945 will not do one of those “automatic workout detection” things like the apple or samsung watches and hence duplication.
So I just read up about the physio true up. Seems pretty good. So I guess even if both the devices record, it won’t allow duplication from what I see.
On another note, does the forerunner 945 allow for automatic workout detection?
Thanks
Hi,
this is my first Garmin Device (Wahooligan who needs better Navigation capabilities). I am going to share the Edge with my wife. Are there any options to manage different userprofiles? I don’t want the device to upload my wife’s rides to my strava account 😉
Good question and I’d be interested to hear. However my assumption is ‘no’. I would assume a few issues.
1. I’ve not tried to have a device registered to two users at once…so (maybe) it could work?
2. The device will save both your rides and likely upload them to both your accounts (again I’ve not tried).
3. I think both your phones would fight for a connection if they both allowed you to register the device. The pairing process itself is a pain in the neck with the Edge 1030, but maybe this device is better and you could just unpair / repair as needed.
4. The device itself doesn’t have an option for multiple user profiles. I suppose you could do ‘ride’ type profiles and name them altho it might not help a lot.
That being said, I think you make a good point in that this would be nice for some people to have. I wouldn’t count on it ever happening tho. People have been asking for ‘bike’ profiles to return but that won’t happen. There’s actually no way to associate a bike to a ride until post-ride after uploading.
All things considered, you should probably just disable auto-upload on the Edge device, and use a USB cable to pull the ride and manually upload to each of your accounts. That would probably be the easiest solution.
Thanks, Zach.
I will give the phone synchronization a try!
Hi, Mike, I am a Wahooligan too. I am a Element bolt user. I am Happy with it but I need needs better Navigation. What do you think between Element Roam and Edge 830?. Do you think that despite the complexity of 830, is it worth it?. Tomy
Well, what I have heard from the roam is that it indeed has better navigation capabilities than the bolt and to be honest, for road cycling I would still prefer the bolt or roam. Its simple userface and simply working integrations to strava/rwgps/komoot,.. is FAR ahead from what I can see now with the 830!
But I will keep both – the wahoo for predefined routes for road cycling and the garmin for mountainbiking in uknown areas during vacations. The on-device navigation is really great here, also the rerouting if a road is closed.
You say that the 830 navigation is really great here, also the rerouting if a road is closed.
I would like to know if you have riding the mtb with the komoot in the phone and the bolt connected with phone by BT.
The Kommot alway recalculate the track (like the google maps in your car). For example last weekend two dogs with no-friendly face convince me to change the route 90º, and the komoot recalculate the route. Many times I download a track from wikiloc, and after I modify it on my phone, because or is too long or just because it start or finish in places that I dont like.
Is the 830 navigation so good and so simple as komoot?. My son of 6 , ( just playing with my phone), plan the routes for my and my friend very good.
Does this (partnership?) with Trailforks possibly have something to do with the lack of MTBProject integration with Garmin devices? Over a year ago, the MTBProject staff commented back to me on their forum that they were working with Garmin on an app and to keep my eyes open. This never happened and any time I ask them for an update, or if this was discontinued…and if it had anything to do with this, my questions on the forum now go unanswered. I think they’re both great services. I don’t like that MTBProject is now part of an REI storefront, but honestly both services have features that I like over the other. That being said, my state has more data in MTBProject and the *only* way to get it to a Garmin device is to load their page in a PC web browser, manually download each GPX and then use a 3rd party app (or cable) to get it to the Garmin. A real pain in the neck compared to Trailforks and the reason I’ve switched over to it. MTBProject even refuses to allow a download link to appear in their mobile web version. They’ve asked what ‘use-case’ this was for and then don’t really follow up after I explain. I sometimes wonder if they (or REI?) only want people viewing the data through their mobile app.
As a former user of 800/810/520/820 but with a Wahoo Bolt in between now back on a 830 (which is great!) I’m missing this possibilities from my Bolt;
– how can the unit auto power off? I know about sleep but that’s something else I think (still uses a little powerrrr)
– how can I get a message on my phone the battery of the 830 is low?
– how can I upload a course (navigation route) to the 830 through my connect app?
– can you change something in the workout page and/or take something from the IQstore?
I just received the 830, and it came with Firmware 2.4. I’ve tried to update to 3.20, but it never shows available. I tried first via WiFi from the unit itself, and it says “no update available”. In Garmin Connect web, it says “update available, use Garmin Express to update”. I tried that, and the only update it shows available is the map update. So, I tried going straight to the downloads page on Garmin for the device, and it says “no files available”. Did anyone else have this issue? Is it possible they pulled that firmware for some reason? See the screenshot below (can’t see the attempt from the device itself – but trust me it says nothing available).
Reboot the device and it will likely run the update. All my garmin devices do this. When you sync in the PC app, it throws the update file onto the Edge and doesn’t tell you, then it just says either it’s up to date or nothing is available, till you reboot it.
Disregard above! After about an hour of WiFi on, it prompted direct on the device to update, and I’m now at 3.2. Not sure why it wouldn’t do it initially, but it’s working!
Today rode 150km Gravel with the 530. Took me 6:30hrs. Brightness to 60%, GPS+Gloanass. Map view all the time and navigation active. Had 40% left in the end.
Anyone else having issues with sensors reconnecting after a stop mid-ride? I stopped for 15-20 minutes yesterday and both the power meter and heart strap didn’t reconnect. I noticed the power meter and only way to bring it back was to delete it and add it back. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the heart strap so I have a 4 hour ride where my heart rate appears to be exactly 101 bpm for three hours solid!
I’ve had surprisingly little trouble with my 830. Just as I got home from a ride a week ago I noticed the cadence sensor icon flashing, but if it did disconnect it was in my driveway since all of the cadence info was there. Yesterday I noticed the speed jumping around a little as if it were using GPS rather than my speed sensor, but I was riding mostly tree free so there’s no way of telling if it dropped contact without digging through the FIT file. My stops have never been as long as 20 minutes, at most 10 minutes, and have had no troubles like those you’re describing. The only recurring problem is that occasionally all of the map data will disappear, leaving only my track (well, briefly the map will flash as it auto scrolls to another screen) and when I stop occasionally the map page will zoom way back to show the entire course on screen. Oh, the close up turn direction screen will occasionally get stuck (the “me” icon moves but the distance to turn won’t update) and I need to tap the screen to get things working again. No crashes, no freezes, no lost data, which is much better than previous Garmin devices I’ve had.
I’ve seen two other reports now of the sensors not re-connecting after a mid-ride pit-stop. I suspect it’s tied to some specific/unique set of conditions that can cause it, since it doesn’t seem to happen to me on some of my stops (including some longer ones). Obviously there’s a bug there, the curious part is figuring out the repro steps.
Add me to the list. Both my heart rate and cadence dropped at the same time yesterday (Varia lights stayed connected)during a quick stop/regroup on a ride. I have the new cadence 2 and the HRM-Dual. The only way I could get them to re-connect was to delete and re-add. Also, at the end of the ride, my phone would not reconnect. I powered off the 830 and it seemed to be stuck at power off. It would not power off/back on until I held down for 10-15 seconds. It was only then my phone would re-connect.
I’ll see what happens tonight on my ride. I hope this isn’t normal, and if so, they get a fix out soon.
FWIW, on my first ride with the 830, I was running FW 2.4. It didn’t happen with that FW. Yesterday was my second ride with the unit, and first with FW 3.2, and I had the issues above.
I have had the same issue where the sensors dropped for 15 min several times during the ride and I didn’t realize it until after I had uploaded my data to Garmin Connect. It was my power meter and Speed/Cadence sensors that dropped off when we had stopped.
Same here.
Mid ride I lost my heart rate (WAHOO TICKR) and power meter (Garmin Vector 3). The EDGE 830 got stuck at power off.
Sensors removed and reinstalled, worked fine for 30minutes.
I’ve looked for software updates today but 3.2 is still the most recent one.
Can we report this to Garmin Support somewhere?
For the rest, super device, I come from an EDGE 1000 and the screen is almost the same size!
You can open a Garmin support ticket here: link to support.garmin.com
It doesn’t take too long, and providing as much detail up-front is ideal (including perhaps links to these comments here showing other people are having the issue as well).
Oh – and to link to a specific comment (since comment numbers change here dynamically), just right click on the ‘date/time’ shown below someone’s comment. That gives a permanent URL to that comment.
I’ve tried, it doesn’t seem to help.
I will contact my local distributor.
Honestly, that won’t help any (just being frank). A distributor has no meaningful way to report incidents/tickets to Garmin except via sales channels – which almost never result in anything unless that distributor has enough scale to make Garmin hurt (which very few do). And even then, that assumes the distributor/retailers cares enough to try and make that happen (which most don’t, even the good ones). They’d rather give you a new unit – but that won’t really help here.
What happens when you open a Garmin support ticket/case?
Last time I tried to make a ticket and had no response.
I’ve called twice for my Vector pedals (hardware in that case), was in my case faster. (Country Belgium)
It’s obvious that a new FW is in the making 😉
Oh. Belgium support. Ick.
Sorry, I dealt with Garmin Belgium support earlier this year. That was a useless mess.
Ok, I’ll raise it as a greater issue.
(I have nothing against Belgium as a country)
:,)
Thanks Ray. FYI, some people have also reported the same issue on a 530. I haven’t checked the comments on your 530 review but there is at least one thread on the Garmin 530 forum.
Just out of curiosity, did you people having the problem of dropping sensors first pair your sensors when running the firmware it came with (2.4?). I went back over my rides and saw no evidence (well, I didn’t delve into the FIT files, just looked at the plots on GC) of any sensor drops. (As I said, though, my longest stop during all of those rides was probably 10 minutes.) When I first got my 830 I plugged it into a computer and added and synced it, and the update to the current firmware (3.2?) happened immediately. Only after that did I pair sensors. Maybe 2.4 did something screwy with the sensor database?
My sensors were paired after it updated to 3.2. Only my HR dropped out and I did not make any significant stops. I saw a phone disconnected message at about the same time.
My first Edge 830 would lose most of its sensors (a seemingly random subset of them) within the first hour – Wahoo TICKR Run HR strap, PowerTap P1 pedals, Garmin new speed sensor, shimano di2. I got in touch with the Garmin support folks, they had me send the unit back & sent me a new one. I just had my first ride with the new one and it lost all the sensors within the first hour of a ride with it. This is with the 3.2 firmware version. I have a Cycliq Fly12CE 2-3cm below the 830, and I have a Schmidt SON dynamo hub wired to a Busch Mueller IQ-X dynamo light another 10cm below the Cycliq. I’m going to try riding without the Cycliq on the bike and see if that makes any difference? I don’t think it’s a hardware problem given that two units have had the same exact problem.
Also, once the unit is in this state, trying to shut it down (hold-press power button, select Shut Down) will never complete – it gets stuck on the shutting-down icon and you have to hold the power button for 6-10 seconds to force restart the device.
I’ve used an Edge 820 since it was released in the same location on the bike with the same sensors (well, the Garmin speed sensor is brand new) without ever seeing this..
Yeah, this is exactly the same problems I’ve been seeing with my 830 and the replacement from Garmin – mid-ride half the sensors (powertap p1, wahoo tickr run, shimano di2, garmin speed) will disappear, will not re-connect when I try to connect them. Trying to shut off the device hangs at the shutting-down icon and you have to hold the power button for 6-10 seconds to force the device to restart. At first I thought I had a bad unit but the replacement unit is doing exactly the same thing. Every time this has happened, it’s been mid-ride without any stops except, like, stoplights. Firmware 3.2.
Exact same thing happened to me today. Lost all sensors and wouldn’t power off. Had to hold the power button for 10 seconds to force a reset.
I tried riding without the Cycliq and with the dynamo light turned off. It’s not interference from either of those; every ride I’ve done with an 830 running FW3.20 has resulted in all the sensors dropping out 10-50 minutes into a ride. It seems like such a brilliant device, but man, this is making me really glad I still have my 820.
I just had my fourth occurrence of my same issue above. My HR (HRM-Dual) and Cadence (New Garmin Cadence 2) drop out early/mid-ride. The only way I can get them to come back is delete and re-add. When I have this behavior, my 830 also will not power off normally.
I raised a case with Garmin and haven’t heard back. Anyone else have any luck? It appears to be a common issue, and firmware related (based on the fact others have received replacements and the issue isn’t fixed).
FWIW, there have been a few rides where the sensors don’t drop, but it’s about 50/50.
Curious for those having this problem, are you connecting by ANT+ or Bluetooth? I’m pretty sure all my sensors are connected to my 830 by ANT+ and I’ve not had this problem after several rides.
For those of you that have reported sensor drop issues please see the forum thread listed below. We would like to gather your feedback to help understand the issue. We understand your frustrations and are working on getting this resolved ASAP.
link to forums.garmin.com
Louis, I just checked and all my sensors (speed, hr, power) were connecting through bluetooth. Interesting! When I added them I clicked on the sensor that popped up on the garmin screen but it looks like it was showing the BTLE one in each case. I re-added them all with ANT+ and we’ll see if that helps.
I’ve always found ANT+ to be more reliable. Let us know if this makes a difference.
Thanks Louis, I deleted the sensors from the Garmin, re-added them manually selecting the ANT+ protocol for each — it seems like the 830 was offering me a default of a BLE connection for them; I had to click on the ‘Show All’ button to see both the ANT+ and BLE connection (they’re not labeled, so you get to guess based on the name of the device which protocol it is). Using the ANT+ connections, I went on a 3 hour ride without any sensor problems at all. Awesome! I might even leave my old 820 at home instead of carrying it in my jersey pocket as an emergency backup device. 🙂
Hey Shawn, I can’t seem to get anyone’s attention at Garmin for this issue. I just got the 830 and the unit itself is great but the interval training page is still primitive and doesn’t reflect newer cycling coach techniques for prescribed workouts. Every recent coach I know prescribes an interval with a power range (or HR if not available) and a cadence range. When building workouts in TrainingPeaks these data fields are available but the workout page on my edge won’t show these fields….and worse yet, the power is an instantaneous power rather than the much more useable 3sec average power. Any plans for this to be implemented?
Would much rather have this very basic feature be right than have my unit remind me to drink, haha.
You have to buy a wahoo
Wahoo elemnt Bolt
For what? I’ve tried it. Single map only. On the Bolt map could me only zoomed not moved (On Roam you can, but just by key).
So you need to specific what you are talking about and your thoughts behind.
If you are just looking primarily for a sports device with some type of simple road bike navigation Wahoo is ok. But for that case there are a lot of alternatives.
If navigation is your primary feature and still looking for support for most sports aspects unfortunately Garmin seems to be more or less the only option.
I would prefer there would be alternative solutions.
Shawn, are you guys really not ever going to update this feature?
Thanks for comparison of 530 and 830. But is there any reason to own a 1030 v 830 apart from screen size? With the deals available on 1030 the price difference is not that big now.
I went from a 1000 to an 830. I did not upgrade to the 1030 primarily because I thought it was getting too large. I really liked the 1000 form factor but it is getting long in the tooth and the battery life is not what I need. I am not at all disappointed with the 830. Screen size is fine for me (I do wear glasses) and the screen is sharp and bright. No regrets.
Upgraded from a Garmin Edge 520 and I realize how many annoyances I have been living with for way too long. If you have a TT bike then the touch screen is superb, much easier to change views by swiping and doesn’t send me off track when trying to push those sticky buttons on my old 520. It is very fast and the slightly bigger screen helps. The mapping and turn by turn directions are also great. And I love that Garmin asks you how much you drank and calories consumed at the end of a ride. I presume a lot of this you get with the 1030 but this is the perfect size.
The ClimbPro is very nice but it seemed to ignore some major climbs on my Strava route. And that is my question. Does it only pick up climbs for segments that Garmin has in its’ database?
..Nick
I don’t think that’s it. It’s a little mystifying how it chooses climbs. It will include descents in a climb, and where it starts a climb is a little weird (on a climb I was on Saturday, I was climbing already when I hit the start of one of the two). Ray gives the rules above, and the choices make some sense in light of those rules, but as someone who things a climb begins when the road turns upward enough and ends when it turns downward enough, I’m still startled by some of its choices. I’d also like the “Upcoming Climbs” screen to disappear when there are no further climbs; it’s annoying to be told “No upcoming climbs” at the beginning of the last major climb and all the way up, not to mention on the minor climbs that don’t make the cut of a “climb”.
Same loss of heart rate and lockup at power off for me.
I just received my Edge 830 in the US, and I noticed a couple of things on the back that seem different:
1) On my unit, there are 2 speaker holes above the serial number sticker, and I noticed in many photos online, there are 2 additional holes to the right of these. Mine does not have these extra holes. Could Ray and/or others please check to see if your unit has the extra holes?
2) My unit has what looks like a black sharpie marker line drawn on the back, where I drew an arrow on the photo. Maybe it had a flaw that was reworked manually?
3) The alarm does not seem very loud. Could it have to do with the lack of extra holes?
Any guidance from this group is greatly appreciated. Thank you! Jeff
I meant to upload a photo with a side-by-side of a stock photo, showing the additional holes on the back. Here’s that photo. Thank you.
Mine looks like your, 2 holes. I can’t say that I’ve ever actually heard it make a sound, but my hearing isn’t what it once was.
I tested the alarm in my living room. Real world, if I were at a crowded coffee shop with a lot of talking and the bike wasn’t right by me, I don’t think there is any way I’d hear it otherwise.
Thanks so far for the replies. I’m fine with the manual rework on the finish, I’m just wondering if there are other variants out there with the extra holes as pictures, and if so, why!
My Garmin has also 2 holes.
The left Garmin has also a different back then the left. In the middle on the left and right is a little difference. The right has a surface without any lines.
Hi Ray, I’m riding with friends a lot: some of us have the Wahoo, others have Garmin 820 and 830 and I’m in doubt what to buy. Mostly, on Whatsapp we discuss distance + to ride against the wind first and so we agree on a course. Then somebody has to create that course, either in Wahoo-app, or Garmin, or download some GPX-file. We’d like that everybody in the group has the same future ride loaded into his Wahoo/Garmin, so everyone can ride on top and navigate correct. I have 3 questions:
1. is it possible for Garmin 830 owners, that they create a course and share it with friends, for example via Whatsapp?
2. is it possible for Garmin 830 owners, to load a course that has been created by Wahoo-owners and shared, for example by Whatsapp?
3. do you have any other good solution/advice for us?
Thanks in advance!
Both Wahoo and Garmin support the ability to open route files up via their smartphone apps, and then send them to the devices. Each one supports a different format though, so that’s a minor wrinkle. Both support the ability to pull from Strava Routes (Wahoo a bit cleaner, but Garmin’s usually works too).
I can’t think of a great way to have a shared route store or something. We almost need some ability to have shared routes by teams or something. Like, you could join a team on Strava, and then have those routes automatically added into your account. Then again, that’d require Strava to add a feature to their platform – which…yeah.
Hi,
Another great review thanks.
I’m seriously looking to replace my old 800 with and 830 but there is one really useful feature on the 800 I’d like to keep. The 800 has a micro-SD card slot and I can add Ordnance Survey maps (such as 1:25,000 scale) via this and then use the device for walking too.
Can you tell us if the new 830 has the same slot available?
Cheers
Greg
No it doesn’t have a MicroSD slot.
How does the Garmin 830 touch screen with screen saver?
Great review – I have the 1030, and really love it. You mention Trailforks being included on the new devices, but won’t be in the update for the 1030. You can still download Trailforks to the 1030 via Garmin IQ and it works perfectly. Unless you mean I will lose this after I update when it becomes available???
Ignore this comment – I just re-read the section of the review where you discuss this, and it is clear – not sure how I read it earlier!
Dang. I wish mine would just ship. Amazon is saying June 3-July3 as projected ship date. How did you guys get yours so fast? And hoping whatever ships comes with updated firmware regarding sensor drops, etc.
And now a new ship date: July 22nd or later (Amazon). Still hoping what arrives is updated from all the headaches listed here (crosses fingers).
Hi ray , we are 3 friends all three with bought the new garmin 830 bundle and all three have iPhone X with up to date software , also for the garmin connect app . When we have finished a ride and we go to garmin connect app and request details the have the respiration frequency indicated ( see foto ) and I don’t see that …. any idea ? And furthermore which sensor measures this ?
Hi ray , me and 2 friends bought the garmin 830 bundle , all three have iPhones x and updated garmin connect app ( so 3 identical cases ) after finishing a ride and checking the details of that ride in garmin connect they have a respiration frequency number whilst I don’t see that. Contacted garmin support and they don’t even know what I’m talking about …. see photo … any idea ? And how do they measure this ?
It comes from a chest strap. I don’t know off-hand if that requires a Garmin strap, or just requires specific information be sent via ANT+ correctly. My guess is the second, but I haven’t poked/tested a bunch. I know it does show up on the HRM-DUAL, fwiw.
FWIW I see respiration data in garmin connect with my 830 and I’m using a Wahoo TICKR Run hr strap.
I see also the respiration data and at the moment i use a Polar strap with bluetooth. Polar H7.
I also use the 830.
Seems to be related to whether the belt is sending valid HRV. Amazingly my ancient Garmin hard shell chest belt gives whatever it is (I’m just guessing HRV) that the 830 uses to compute respiration. My Scosche Rhythm24 does not, and I don’t get respiration when I use it.