Sorry if this has been covered but as theres a new update coming soon with regards to the strava live segments been added for the 810 wouldn’t it be better and cheaper to buy the 810 instead ?

The 810 is also touchscreen so would be easier to use and you actually have maps and can loads routes.

So is the 810 a better package ?

Looking at the prices for the 810 at the moment I’d probably say yes. They’re cheaper than old 510 stock!

The live segments on my updated 510 worked well last night so can’t see why it won’t on the 810. I only use the Connect Segments rather than Strava but it did the whole countdown, start and live compared my best run.

I was about to ask the same question as the OP. Has anyone got any real world experience of both?

Pack it in, you only got the 520 a week ago!

Great question op, exactly what i was going to ask. The reason being is i couldnt understand why the 510 was/is nearly the same price as the 810 but no maps! What i did find out i was that there are rumblings in the garmin forum that the 810 is about to be upgraded/replaced, if that makes any difference? Does the 810 use both gps and glosnas, i thought i read somewhere that its gps only or was that the 800.

I thought about this for a few weeks and after reading on the Garmin forums it totally put me off the 810. Not saying the 520 is perfect as it’s brand new and we know how Garmin release devices kinda half finished. The 520 seems a better bet just now. If you buy the 520 from CRC with BC 10% discount it’s only a wee bit dearer.

Looking at the garmin forum a bit more and it seems there are a lot unhappy people with there garmins. I assume as its a forum you are only really ever going to hear about issues rather than glowing praise but are there a lot of problems with garmins of any series?

Question asked before I went for the 520 ! @northshoreniall 😉

Well used the 520 a few times now it its crashed twice and not syncing properly with my segments I’ve chosen !?

Its either that or you can only load on a limited amount of starred segments ?

And on todays ride NONE of the live segments came up ?? not one ..

and finally I use my sunnto watch as a back up to log my rides if the garmin failed and the 520 seems to miss loads of segments out compared to the sunnto.

Hopefully these bugs will be sorted out soon otherwise I’ve made a wrong choice

Can only say good things about my old 810 (now got a 1000) had the 810 for a year, always cherished and up to date software. On occasion I suffered like many it seems on the Garmin Forum with the “occasional” and I mean occasional freeze, but honestly I’d expect that. Certainly using the unit every day for 7months can’t be a bad recommendation can it, during that time it froze 3 times.. when I say froze, i mean failed to record the ride when save was pressed..
I actually thought the 810 was one of the best pieces of kit I’ve bought.

I changed to the 1000 for the simple reason I now link other bits to it and the 810 doesn’t support it. And, well, I can afford it so thats the reason.

I could do a comparison between the 810/1000 but thats just stupid because they are different things, almost.

As is, the 810 is a great unit. Can’t honestly see what all the fuss is about. But then, some folks like to moan about the tiniest details.

🙂

Does the 520 have smartphone call/sms notifications?

I wish the 810 had that!

Does the 520 have smartphone call/sms notifications?

In theory but I can’t get it to work with iOS 9 at the moment.

Slight thread hijack, but last I read (could’ve been a while ago), Garmin were trying to force users to upload to their own version of Strava and not making it easy for a Strava sync. The latest email from CRC summarising the Strava features on the latest batch of Garmin units evidently reflects Garmin’s acceptance that the majority of their current and future user base preferred Strava.

If you’re comparing 810 and 520 you probably want mapping capabilities – for me the 520 doesn’t come close as you can’t store anywhere near enough maps on it to be decently usable unless you want to change the maps on the garmin every time you ride somewhere different, and there’s no sd card slot. 810 is a brilliant bit of kit.

I’m very happy with the 520, had it a few weeks its a better size than the 810 and all the features work fine but i have recently turned of the mapping because I know every inch of my county 🙂 and live segments becuse I find looking at a screen and putting the effort in to achieve a PB/KOM dont mix and I want my metrics not segment data.

Otherwise its spot on, loads of useful features, good battery and syncs faultlessly.

Buttons on the 520 are on the bottom edge. On an in-line out-front mount that makes it a non-starter for me. The 810 buttons for start and lap are easy to reach every time. I like my 810 but very seldom use mapping. I love my 500.

Had this 520 about 2 wks now and its not bad, obviously its got its teething problems as any new system would do,by not identifying certain segments I’m doing and it turns itself off during rides !

I’ve changed the crappy basemap and installed the open street map which gives me the trails if I’m going to a new area.

I’ve got quite a few KOM’s since I’ve had it and its actually nice to start a segment without blowing out your @rse ! when not knowing where it did actually start in the 1st place 😉

Hopefully they will increase the number of strava life segments at some point as 100 is not enough if your going to different area’s all the time