Bryton Rider 450 / Aero 60 GPS, any good?

[Zed43]

A search for bryton returns no results, which already makes me a little suspect, but it offers a long battery life, many features and a low price.

Intended use is mainly for audax, and the things I am particularly interested in are:

• how visible is the track you're following, I think it uses chevrons?
• how is the screen during the night, does the backlight come on automatically and does it drain the battery much?
• any experience with charging while riding? in the wet?
• can GPX files simply be uploaded from a PC to the device?
• does Bryton (often) update the embedded OpenStreetMap (and does it cover the whole of Europe?)

My Garmin 820 edge catastrophically died last week in the mids of a 600km brevet, so I'm now looking for a replacement (or backup if/when I succumb to buying a Garmin 530)

[James O]

Probably going to upgrade my Bryton 530 to a 450 fairly soon, as I've been mostly happy with the 530 except for the lack of mapping.
Battery life has been around the 30 hour mark, closer to 20 with light on.
The phone app isn't slick, but its easy enough to drag and drop.

[quixoticgeek]

When my Wahoo died on RatN, the first shop I went to had a Bryton. I'd never heard of them before. I was very tempted, until the sales guy said you needed a PC to set them up, and couldn't just do it via a phone app. I don't know if this is 100% the case, but it was enough for me to leave well alone.

J

[Zed43]

After viewing this video review by GPLama I decided to pass. The menu lockout during an activity was enough for me to look elsewhere, but there are other significant downsides as well.

I gave in and got a Garmin 830 with the Garmin power pack instead. Also tried the 530 for a weekend but decided that for me the improved usability of the touch screen in the 830 was worth the additional 100 euro. YMMV