I've just had an email about the release of a new Garmin Edge bike GPS, the Edge 1040. It looks grand and comes in a 'solar powered' version which could be a real boone. Solar power isn't sufficient to run the device off of, but it does appear to significantly improve battery life.
However, you still need to link it up to a smartphone to make full use of it and it's hugely expensive, it's also an extra £100 to go solar, which seems steep.
Hopefully in time the solar option will trickle down to less pricey models, what do folk think?
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/731136/pn/010-02503-21
I'd buy one now if it wasn't over £600. The solar charging of my Fenix 6 works well enough.
Hopefully in time the solar option will trickle down to less pricey models, what do folk think?
For my use battery life is now so good that solar is irrelevant unless it were to replace the need to plug the device in at all.
It'll trickle down with the edge 840/540 in a year or 2, just look at the forerunner 955 solar which is essentially a cheaper fenix 7 for £200 less.
The 1040 does look nice, plenty of new stuff added, including USB type C!
Solar with the multi band GPS adds around 30% more battery but even then it's got 30hrs as standard.
If I had money to burn I'd get the 955 solar to replace my 245, and the 1040 solar to replace my edge 530, but they'll both do the job for a year or 2 more, at least.
does look nice but way more than i need and christ it expensive.
im waiting for the the 840 to replace my crappy (but manageable 830)
Picked up a basic 530 for cheap at the start of this year. Will be happy running that until the inevitable 540 release in a few years. I must be one of the few who still prefer buttons, having had a bad experience with the 820 (which was shockingly crap).
~£600? Bargain, I'll take ten! 😆
The Bryton S800 claims a 36 hour battery life and is half the price. I'm keeping an eye out for real world reviews.
I have had a 530 for a few years and get on well with it but I do quite fancy one of these !
I’m keeping an eye out for real world reviews.
DC rainmaker is my go to for device reviews. He says it’s good, and annoying - much like everything else Garmin does 🤣
it does. DCR says you can just leave it on the windowsill/car dashboard etc in the sunlight and it'll charge up! He reckons it's pretty much the best bike computer you can get right now. Way too expensive for me at full RRP, maybe see what offers are around on BF though...For my use battery life is now so good that solar is irrelevant unless it were to replace the need to plug the device in at all.
Ahh yeah it'll charge via solar when in standby, that's pretty cool.
He says it’s good, and annoying – much like everything else Garmin does
I dunno, I've had Garmin devices since a Foretrex 201 in whenever it came out, and I even had an Edge Touring. That thing was so hard to like that everything else seems pretty decent to me. I have an Edge Explore, a Forerunner 245 and an Edge 530 and I think they are all pretty decent in terms of UX. Sure, the 530 suffers from lack of touch screen and that's reflected in the price. But even then it handles nav via buttons about as well as it could.
yeah, and the fact that the display itself is a type of PV panel (albeit a relatively inefficient one) is extremely cool tech that I was previously unaware of! How handy would that be on a smart phone? Charges up whilst sitting in the pub beer garden!!Ahh yeah it’ll charge via solar when in standby, that’s pretty cool.
from the ad it sounds like you can config it via you phone (like wahoo) which is winner in my book. dicking about with garmin config via the crappy screen is a nightmare.
Got one coming for review for UkgravelCO, liked the 1030 so the extra battery life on this solar version should be interesting to use
Plus usbc, thank you at last Garmin!
How handy would that be on a smart phone? Charges up whilst sitting in the pub beer garden!!
I dunno what magic the garmin pulls, but most phones can't even play spotify in direct sunlight without overheating. And I'm guessing it's only probably 0.1W or so (based on an assumed battery of about 8Wh lasting ~34 hours and the solar adding about 40%).
Why can't garmin use an e-ink display? surely the refresh rate for most data doesn't need to be that quick and it would solve both the battery life and the viewing in sunlight issues.
I’d buy one now if it wasn’t over £600
This +1
Sounds like some genuinely useful features, but how f******* much?
Especially for the serious adventure market (more than 2 days runtime and not just relying on external batteries), surely just making something like this would be far more useful?
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=116143.0
Why can’t garmin use an e-ink display?
i think the instinct is an e-ink display, if not its something pretty similar, low power mode saves energy by removing the seconds from the display (amongst anything) so only had to redraw once/minute, which sounds a lot like that kinda tech. The downside is B&W I guess.
you can get multi-color e-ink displays for raspberry pis, etc, which are extremely cool, so definitely a thing. not amazing PPI, but would be fine for a Garmin I'd have thought.The downside is B&W I guess.
Looks great and topping up with solar is a nice idea but I can't justify the price.
Why can’t garmin use an e-ink display? surely the refresh rate for most data doesn’t need to be that quick and it would solve both the battery life and the viewing in sunlight issues.
The b&w display on the edge130 is superb even in bright sun. I’m not sure about the solar - if it’s in the car I can plug it in. The first review I saw noted that’s garmins assumption on light level was 7 times an overcast day in the UK. For much less money they could just put a much larger battery in the thing in the first place.
What's all the fuss about with USB-C?
apart from the fact it's massively better than micro-USB in every way? Nothing 🤣What’s all the fuss about with USB-C?
Genuine question, how?
there's no right-way-up, potential for much faster charging, and it's more robust/durable would be the big 3
Yep, and I'm at the stage where most of my things that need charging are USB C, having to keep a micro USB cable around for the one or two things that still use it is annoying.
Cool, so a welcome addition but no real reason to upgrade from my 830.
I guess the faster charge times coupled with the solar option will come in use for those with multi-day events.
micro USB is the work of the devil.
my 830 will only charge if light pressure is applied to the cable in a very particular direction. hate the bloody thing
Could be worse, my Garmin still uses mini-USB
Genuine question, how?
The micro-usb cable tends to work loose on my Garmin if I'm riding and charging from a battery bank, and it charges too slowly to be able to top up enough when stopped.
I reckon you could justify the inevitable future discounted price (say ~£500ish?) In a year or two, if Garmin would give you a 5 year guarantee on it, and promised no duff firmware updates... Which they won't.
TBH at £600 it's probably worth more than most of the bikes I'd be mounting it on.
I'd be looking out to see how much the standard one comes down by in a year, they 'only' want £520 on release and claim it'll do 35hrs or 70 in saver mode, plus it'll have the pins for the power-pack they introduced with the 530/830 if you need more range later. Is the claimed extra 10hrs the solar version gains you really worth the extra? Both claim over a day, I would struggle to pedal for a full 24h, and could still probably manage to plug a power bank in after a day in the saddle...
Any blurb about on the 540/840 yet?
Probably a bit early but I think lots of people will hang on for those.
there’s no right-way-up, potential for much faster charging, and it’s more robust/durable would be the big 3
I’ve already had a usb3 device (Sony Bluetooth headphone adapter) that seems fussy about which way up the cable is. Or a single sided cable.
My MacBook air doesn’t always make a reliable connection.
USB3 doesn’t seem to deliver all it promised.
The solar version has 64gb RAM vs 32gb for the non solar. According to Kermit, they are the two key differences.
no modern cable standard really stands up to repeated plugging/unplugging. Wireless is the way forwards.USB3 doesn’t seem to deliver all it promised.
no modern cable standard really stands up to repeated plugging/unplugging
I’ve had least trouble with apple lightning 🤷🏻♂️
Repeated unplugging isn't the issue, it's being accidentally yanked or dropped on the plug that's the issue, I think.
I wirelessly charge my phone for this reason, but it does get a little warm and I did have to replace the battery in my last phone after about 20 months. Coincidence? You decide. Current phone is nearly as old and still fine.
Interesting they have announced the release yet they are out of stock everywhere !
Wiggle have the solar model in stock.
Aha, so they do, I looked this am and they didn’t !