Garmin Edge Explore?

Views on the Edge Explore for road and mountain biking? I don’t need HR etc as I have a Fenix 5S which I love, but just want mapping with simple function to transfer routes via Garmin Connect (often away without a laptop) and a bigger screen (I have a Edge 800, but was born with awful eye sight and struggle to read it on the move). So really just want a decent mapping GPS for unknown/new routes. Any experience or just too basic?

Been using one (road and gravel) for a few months now. I keep meaning to write a full review but in the meantime, my main thoughts:

– overall, it’s very good, the best GPS (Garmin or otherwise) that I’ve used for my requirements
– touchscreen is pretty much faultless, even with gloves or in rain
– navigation is as you’d expect from a Garmin, ie very good with occasional foibles
– screen is a bit clearer than the 800 (and the 800’s typography is really bad if your eyesight is dodgy; the Explore is much more legible)
– I’ve not done enough really long rides to be sure how predictable the battery life is, but I’d say I’m getting at least as much as I got from my 800 and Touring; 10 hours is easily doable
– the one slight downside is that if you do ride for long enough to require additional power, you need to use an out-front mount as the USB port is in the back of the unit rather than the bottom edge
– battery saver mode is in theory great, but in practice it goes a bit haywire after a while and then the screen just stays on all the time
– phone pairing is occasionally flaky when waking from sleep, but I’ve never had a problem when starting up proper
– I use Routecourse to get routes on there from RideWithGPS, which works well when it’s working well but does have an occasional hiccup

Overall I really like it, and it’s keenly priced. I actually ordered a 530 recently (mainly for the longer battery life, but also for Climbpro and profiles) but the buttons are a nightmare compared to the touchscreen, so it’s going back.

I’ve only managed to use mine a couple of times due to illness but I’m very impressed so far. I’m long sighted but by using a front mount its clear enough not to cause me issues.
I wanted something that would provide guidance on long distance rides so didn’t need any training extras like heart rate and it certainly fits the bill.
As Bez says above the touchscreen is a cut above previous models.

Interested in Bez’s comments on Battery Saver mode. I tried it for the first time yesterday – it put itself to sleep, then I didn’t hear from it again. Had to keep tapping it to wake it up, at which point it told me I was off course. Even though I thought I had the next turn and off course alerts activated. There’s clearly some other setting somewhere I’ve got wrong.

Which brings me to my point – the software can take a bit of getting used to, with trial and error involved, but once it’s set up to your liking, it’s good. (Edge 820)

The 820 Explore is a very different piece of hardware to the Explore… (the naming “system” is fantastically unhelpful).

My issues with battery saver mode are:
– at some point it will get stuck: the screen will stay on but it will not update
– this is normally solved by swiping left and right a few times
– it then goes through a bit of a phase where that doesn’t solve it
– this phase is a bit annoying if you use the radar, because it renders it unresponsive
– it then goes into a “fully on” state, where it’s still allegedly in battery saver mode but the screen never turns off
– it won’t emerge from this phase, even if you turn battery saver mode on and off etc
– however it seems to work fine and the battery life still seems good: last week I was using a bit over half the battery per day and it was looking like it would last about 14 hours (which is the claimed life in battery saver mode)

I’m still on firmware 2.10 and will try 4.10 at some point to see if it fixes this.

Agree that the firmware can take a bit of trial and error; for example (and I can’t recall if the 800 etc differed much in this respect) there was a slightly obscure setting or two which I had to change to get the pop-up turn notifications appearing how I wanted them to. A bit of trial and error is required.

Thanks ever so much Bez – really useful review. I might see if I can get a look at one.

Just bought one of these. Upgrading from an Edge Touring that broke.

Been running an Edge Explore for a year now, bought one just after they came out

Coming from 2 Garmin 800’s (one which was great, the other was crap) and a Garmin 820 (sold with a month of buying it, it was that bad) i was very impressed

No issues in the year Ive had it, don’t use the battery saving feature so cant comment on that but everything else has been spot on for road and MTB use

Its worth downloading TalkyToaster’s 1in50k look and feel UK map from his website, costs £11 and is much better than the standard Garmin map

My Edge Touring used to switch to a different zoomed in map with course up when approaching a turn. This was handy, but the Edge Explore doesn’t seem to do it. I’ve tried the option for nav prompts, text or map; whilst the map nav prompt option seems like it should be what I want it doesn’t change anything.

the Edge Explore doesn’t seem to do it

This is one of my slight frustrations with the Explore. It definitely will do it, but I can’t seem to get it to do it reliably.

I think if you’re not already on the map screen it’s more likely to do it, and I think some zoom settings may do it, ie the zoom level you have the map set at and whether you have auto zoom on.

I need to do a bit more testing to see if I can figure it out. Sadly Garmin never document these little things so you’re left to figure it out by trial and error.

One other thing I’ve found recently is that if you have two turnings in quick succession, when it does pop up the through-junction notification you get shown the second one, but not the first. I had a few times last week where the junction detail would pop up and it bore no relation to what I was looking at on the road, and it wouldn’t show the arrow for my position. Took a while to figure out that it wasn’t just making stuff up.

In general I’m finding v4.30 of the firmware is a bit crap. The biggest problem is that in battery saver mode after a while it’ll just sort of corpse. The screen will stay off and it’ll stop recording. You don’t notice because the screen’s off in battery saver mode, so it’s only after you realise you’ve not seen anything for a while that you realise. Then a long (10 sec?) hold of the power button reboots it back to normal.

If you’re still on v2.10 I’d suggest not upgrading.

Mine is on 4.2. Not had an issue so far on one ride. Love being able to create routes during the ride to automatically navigate me through a town say then just nav on the map after I’m through (which I could do with my.old.one to be fair).

Routing seems far more sensible on this one too. On the old one it was insane at times.