Just bought a Mio 505, should I have gone for a Garmin 810/820 instead?

My Mio 305 snapped off it’s base the other day, 4 days over 12 months old. It’s gone back to wiggle/mio but after 5 days I miss random journeys after work already.

So this afternoon I ordered a Mio 505, but now I’m having second thoughts that I should have taken the opportunity to convert to a Garmin edge 810/820…

Have I made a mistake here!? 🙄

i don’t know what a MIO is but I bought an 820 after reading some stuff , basically does everything a 1000 does but the thing annoying me with it is the display is tiny

i wish id got the 1000 that doesnt help but a lad i ride with has a 1000 and i have size envy

I think Mio come loaded with maps don’t they? I think you have to pay for decent ones for the Garmin. I don’t think in the real world the Garmin does anything better than the Mio already does pretty well.

Yeah fully loaded with Western europe maps as standard.

I think the Mio has a very similar screen size to the edge 1000:

I’ve got both, Garmin wins hands down.

Garmin comes with a decent cycling map of europe

burt – Member
I’ve got both, Garmin wins hands down.

How so?

Depends what maps you get for “Free” takes 5 mins to load OSM onto a Garmin, you pay for the OS ones (or regional equivilent)
Been an 810 user for years now and really happy with it. Sits on the bars, tells me everything I need to know, syncs to my phone and my watch so rides etc are uploaded before I’m in the house. Works with the nice strava premium bits and all that.

Have the 505, very happy with it. Heard a lot of horror stories about Garmin website/software & interfaces so opted for Mio.

Battery is awful,I have to take a battery extender on a day long ride. GPS under the slightest tree cover is awful.segments don’t log, probably because of the shoddy GPS. Tried to use it several times but end up going back to my garmin.

My 820 came with Garmin cycling map of Europe included, I think it’s based on OSM and it’s working pretty well for me, so far.

Recently gone from an 800 to 820. Massive improvement (not that the 800 wasn’t good). Interface is better, comes with decent maps loaded, screen size perfect (for me), battery life very good. Live strava segments surprisingly fun! Even Garmin Connect seems much better than last time I used it (actually seems decent for plotting routes now).

As a left field and traditional STW ‘recommend what you own’ answer, unless you want Bluetooth, cadence, live stages and the virtual partner suffer fest, how about the Edge Touring? I’m very happy with mine, it does exactly what I wanted. Usefully cheaper than 800 series for the same device with stripped out firmware. In my mind the 800 series are specced as Road/Tri training aids with some maps and navigation, while the touring has the same chassis with a lot of the training features gone but enhanced navigation and routing… and can be found new upward of about £130 usually.

burt – Member
Battery is awful,I have to take a battery extender on a day long ride. GPS under the slightest tree cover is awful.segments don’t log, probably because of the shoddy GPS. Tried to use it several times but end up going back to my garmin.

Cheers!

vincienup – Member
As a left field and traditional STW ‘recommend what you own’ answer, unless you want Bluetooth, cadence, live stages and the virtual partner suffer fest, how about the Edge Touring? I’m very happy with mine, it does exactly what I wanted. Usefully cheaper than 800 series for the same device with stripped out firmware. In my mind the 800 series are specced as Road/Tri training aids with some maps and navigation, while the touring has the same chassis with a lot of the training features gone but enhanced navigation and routing… and can be found new upward of about £130 usually

I’ve already got cadence/speed sensors fitted on my bikes, plus a couple of HR monitors (one bluetooth one ant+) – it would be a shame not to utilise them. Plus it’s quite nice data to have as I’m able to track improvements, all be it marginal gains. It does look to be a nice device though!

I’ve got a 505, got it to replace a garmin 810.

Not used it off road, so no idea about its performance with that.

The 810 was the most unreliable thing i’ve used, wouldn’t log a ride longer than 60 miles without crashing, turn by turn navigation was dire, had to use a workaround to get it to consider working and even then you couldn’t rely on it. Think I lasted around 2 months with the garmin.

The 505 has not missed a beat in 18 months. It just works. Only downside is that its a little slow to respond, but just don’t go press happy with it and it’ll catch up. Navigation is great, maps are OSM so no different to what you could put on the garmin via talkytoaster.
I bought a black rubber bumper case for it as I wasn’t so keen on the white. Looks a lot better now.
Also, I’ve got the official out front mount as it was the only one available when I got it, I think it sits too high on there really, same height as if it were on the stem. There is a third party one available now, think its a bit better, more like the garmin ones.

WiFi sync is great too, dont have to find a USB cable once you get home to sync rides.

Not tried live segments on it (this came with latest firmware update), think you need strava premium and i’m not bothered by them.

Oh, the firmware updates are very rare, but when they do happen they don’t normally break everything that was previously working like garmin seem to.

Battery life on my 505 is fine, easily 8hrs+. Just make sure you do things like turn the display brightness down & turn off any connectivity you aren’t using.
Like above, it just works & updates are seamless.

Cheers for the responses guys – very useful!

The 505 is being delivered tomorrow. 😆

Okay so I bought the unit from CEX for £137.50 expecting just the unit and charger with European maps.

Pleasantly surprised today; turns out its the HC version which includes the unit, charger and brand new heart rate monitor, cadence/speed sensor and mounts turned up – in fact it doesn’t have any signs on the bottom of ever being used!! It’s flat as a pancake but it turns on which was my next concern. It isn’t registered with Mio (which is what you have to do to get the unit to sync). This suggests someone bought it, played around with it, stuck it in the box and then took it to CEX?!

Obligatory picture:

Setting it up it already seems much faster than the 305, which was my only gripe with it. Just about to start the long process of updating.

Very happy so far!

traditional STW ‘recommend what you own’ answer

have a MIO 505 and I’d only recommend returning it for a refund

good navigation, nice set up for bike type

crap battery life, won’t connect via usb (problem if no wifi), demands to stop and restart in middle of navigating – a 10minute process

Took it out for a trial run today – seems good to me.

Have yet to figure out the strava segments thing – I’ve got a free trial of strava premium at the moment so would be nice to see if it’s any good.

So far so good though – thanks everyone!

If you are using the route creation system on the website, be aware that when you choose to use ‘cycle tracks’ (you choose that on the unit) it will send you down some very poor ‘cycle tracks’ indeed – not good if on a road bike!
As Mio are European in origin, they no doubt aren’t aware of the laughable state of what passes for off road cycle infrastructure in the UK.

. This suggests someone bought it, played around with it, stuck it in the box and then took it to CEX?!

i had the same with a garmin 1000, came with unused HR and cadence / speed sensors and unit was unused with screen protector still on.

Made me wonder if these items are maybe nicked!

I mean you’d have to be a pretty keen cyclist for someone to think “oooh i’ll buy him a garmin 1000 / mio 505 as a gift” And if you are a keen cyclist and didnt want this gift you’d have a fair idea of its worth, maybe check ebay out see how much they go for and stick it on there. Not pop to CEX for their poor payout.

muddydwarf – Member
If you are using the route creation system on the website, be aware that when you choose to use ‘cycle tracks’ (you choose that on the unit) it will send you down some very poor ‘cycle tracks’ indeed – not good if on a road bike!
As Mio are European in origin, they no doubt aren’t aware of the laughable state of what passes for off road cycle infrastructure in the UK.

Nah the only time I use Mio routing, including on the device, is if I’m lost lol. It has taken me on some very dodgy routes, but equally the surprise me function has taken me to places I never knew existed! I do all my mapping on Strava, Select my house then where I’d like to go – it then takes me along the most popular routes. Loop it back to my house and then export it to the Mio. Jobs a good en!

meeeee – Member
I had the same with a garmin 1000, came with unused HR and cadence / speed sensors and unit was unused with screen protector still on.

Made me wonder if these items are maybe nicked!

I mean you’d have to be a pretty keen cyclist for someone to think “oooh i’ll buy him a garmin 1000 / mio 505 as a gift” And if you are a keen cyclist and didnt want this gift you’d have a fair idea of its worth, maybe check ebay out see how much they go for and stick it on there. Not pop to CEX for their poor payout.

Unless they’re bought as gifts by family members. Because I cycle I normally end up with a lot of cycling things on my birthday and for christmas lol.

What I’ve noticed today is if I activate the “Starred Segment Option” it takes the unit a good 5 mins to turn on, I just have a “please wait screen”. I’ve un-starred the ridiculously long segments such as 6 laps around Richmond park and it boots up in 30 seconds now. I had a go against a KOM I had set a few weeks ago to try it out. The mio said I’d beaten my time by 2 seconds, but when I sync’d to strava it was actually 1 second behind my best. Strange!? I’m yet to tick the “Popular Local Segment” option. I’m imaging that is going to be the same in terms of having a determent effect on boot time.

Other than that it’s much louder and clearer to see than my old 305, the incoming texts/calls alert has already been useful and it’s not crashed yet. So all good in my books!