After my trusty
Garmin 810 fell off and got run over by a lorry I decided to replace it with another Garmin, as on the whole I had been happy with the brand.
The replacement considerations were all the more 'cycling' focused rechargeable
Garmin Edge range as apposed to the
Etrex; I never go anywhere overnight with no access to power so the replaceable battery advantages you get with Etrex range were for me not a consideration. My short (ish) wish list were the
530,
830, and
1040, plus I also really like the
Explore 2 interms of features but the battery life is not quite as impressive as the others. For me in the summer of 2022 the clear winner was the 830 as the 1040 is too big for my liking. The 530 is in many ways a cheaper version of the 830 but with 'buttons' versus 'swipe screen', the latter I find more intuitive to use plus as it was one of the buttons that failed on my 810 the 830 was my personal choice over the 530;
(click for pictures of my 'home made' button repair that worked perfectly).
Initial findings compared to my old 810 is that although overall the unit is smaller as you can see in that picture above the screen size isn't actually that much different, being slightly wider but not quite as high; in use the size is so similar I can't really tell any difference. In reality for me it ticks all the same boxes the 810 but with bigger ticks; longer lasting battery, much brighter screen, neater design and bearing in mind the demise of my 810 this one has a 'Tether' that allows you to secure the unit to the bike handlebar. I only bought the head unit as the cadence sensor still works from the 810. The settings and menus are similar, you can definitely tell it has the same DNA; I have found the transition quite painless. I still use
www.alltrails.com to compose a course and upload them to the unit by dragging the file into the 'new files folder' using the genuine lead; I have found that other leads that seem to fit perfectly may not transfer the data accurately. I also only upload a route from the site I composed it from; I never compose one on one site then add that to
Connect Garmin so I can then 'Bluetooth' that to the unit via the phone app for example.
Like the 810 the 830 offers so many features that I just don't use; but I dare say many of us can say that about a piece of tech, I can't deny I only use a fraction of what it has to offer; if the Explore 2 battery life was a good as the 830 (16 v 20 hours) then I'd bought that and saved myself £100.00! In the end I factored in how long I got out of the 810, if this one lasts as long my reasoning is that over nine years the extra investment was worth it.
