Garmin Edge 820

buckmulligan

Has anyone got their hands on one of the new Garmin Edge 820's yet? It's being listed as 'In Stock' at some UK retailers now, so no doubt there are a few out there in the wild already!

Just interested in how it compares to Garmin's previous offerings. I'm thinking about buying one to replace my Edge 800 so I'd be keen to hear how it compares with respect to battery life, navigation, screen responsiveness, notable missing features etc.

Thanks!

philbar72

seen the DC rainmaker review? that will help you make a decision.

for me it looks good, though the maps look a little slow. possibly because of paris and lots of buildings.

kingstongraham

I've got one - arrived on Tuesday. I was about to buy a 520 to upgrade from a 500 and then this came out. Went for it mainly for the extra storage space for mapping and occasional navigation.

First impressions are pretty good. It all seems to work so far but not done anything complicated with it yet. Screen responds ok - not as good as a phone screen but will work with gloves. Might let it try and navigate me home from work tonight and let you know.

northpole

Agree with previous post - check out the DC rainmaker review which is informative.

If the size of the 1000 unit is not a problem for you, I suspect that with the discounts available you could pick one up for very similar money to that of the 820 and enjoy the benefit of a larger screen.

Garmin don't have a fab reputation for launching new models, tending to be tagged beta versions and leaving Joe Public to sort out the final stages of product development..... The 820 does look neat though!

Peter

flasher

Interested to know what maps come preinstalled with it, for a UK user?

kingstongraham

Flasher wrote:

Interested to know what maps come preinstalled with it, for a UK user?

Garmin cycle maps - seems to be street level plus cycle paths. Not sure it's perfect, I think it is trying to take me down the Thames towpath on my way home when I said I didn't want unmade paths.

Just to see how long it took, I tried asking it to create a route from here in Hammersmith to Cardiff, and it took about 2 minutes to calculate.

alex222

I am going to grab one when my work's Bike 2 Work scheme application period starts again in September.
Was all set to buy the 520 but on seeing the DC Rainmaker review for the 820 it seems to be worth it for the extra £46 (net of B2W discount) it will cost.

robbobkirk

BuckMulligan wrote:

Has anyone got their hands on one of the new Garmin Edge 820's yet? It's being listed as 'In Stock' at some UK retailers now, so no doubt there are a few out there in the wild already!

Just interested in how it compares to Garmin's previous offerings. I'm thinking about buying one to replace my Edge 800 so I'd be keen to hear how it compares with respect to battery life, navigation, screen responsiveness, notable missing features etc.

Thanks!

I got one last Friday. Used it a couple of times for commuting but did a big ride last Sunday. I'd plotted a route on Strava then needed to abandon that part way through due to a unplanned visit to Halfords which I had to use the Garmin to get me to. I then navigated to another place before jumping back on the original route. All in all I was out for 6 hours and it had 49% of the battery left so impressive.

I'd not used the Garmin segment stuff before and had a go with that commuting and already beaten a couple of PRs on my single speed so quite impressed with that.

It automatically uploads my ride to Strava once I click 'Save Ride' with an option to review the ride. It seems to use Bluetooth via my phone. Not sure what the Wifi bit does yet.

Doing London/Paris this weekend with route plans so it'll get a good test for that. I believe it comes with European maps - guess I'll find out on Saturday if not!

So far very happy with my upgrade from the Touring Plus. If I'm being a bit picky I probably miss the slightly larger screen - guess that's a pro and a con to be honest.

Rob

StillGoing

I bought one on the day of release via Clever Training using DC Rainmaker's discount for £297. Only downside is it won't arrive until mid August. Luckily I'm on holiday (without a bike) so won't need it until I return. Sold my Garmin 810 within minutes of advertising it. Why change to the 820 from an 810? The 810 was good, but it has had so much messing about with the firmware trying to make the 520 work, it would constantly require further changes from Garmin. Why a 820 over a 520? Besides mapping, there's touch screen. WTF would I want to be messing about pressing buttons to navigate through the pages when I can just swipe a screen.

kingstongraham

philthy3 wrote:

Besides mapping, there's touch screen. WTF would I want to be messing about pressing buttons to navigate through the pages when I can just swipe a screen.

To change screens on the 500 was one press of one button. I never found this to be a particular hardship.

On the navigation, when it is set to Road Cycling, it is very insistent on sending me down towpaths and unmade cycle paths even when this is set to exclude. For example the Thames towpath from Hammersmith, or the Tamsin Trail in Richmond Park. Is this consistent with other Edge devices? If so, what can be done other than setting it to Motorcycle navigation?

kingstongraham

Used it on Saturday on a 50 mile ride with a course created from a GPX file and it was really good. Turn by turn instructions with road names automatically.

wongataa

KingstonGraham wrote:

On the navigation, when it is set to Road Cycling, it is very insistent on sending me down towpaths and unmade cycle paths even when this is set to exclude. For example the Thames towpath from Hammersmith, or the Tamsin Trail in Richmond Park. Is this consistent with other Edge devices? If so, what can be done other than setting it to Motorcycle navigation?

Use maps without the offending features? Edit the Openstreetmap data for the offending features to mark as unmade so hopefully when the map is updated things will be better?

kingstongraham

wongataa wrote:

KingstonGraham wrote:

On the navigation, when it is set to Road Cycling, it is very insistent on sending me down towpaths and unmade cycle paths even when this is set to exclude. For example the Thames towpath from Hammersmith, or the Tamsin Trail in Richmond Park. Is this consistent with other Edge devices? If so, what can be done other than setting it to Motorcycle navigation?

Use maps without the offending features? Edit the Openstreetmap data for the offending features to mark as unmade so hopefully when the map is updated things will be better?

Will do - have updated a bit to unpaved.

Doesn't seem to be an ability to avoid all cycle ways when cycling though.

StillGoing

KingstonGraham wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Besides mapping, there's touch screen. WTF would I want to be messing about pressing buttons to navigate through the pages when I can just swipe a screen.

To change screens on the 500 was one press of one button. I never found this to be a particular hardship.

On the navigation, when it is set to Road Cycling, it is very insistent on sending me down towpaths and unmade cycle paths even when this is set to exclude. For example the Thames towpath from Hammersmith, or the Tamsin Trail in Richmond Park. Is this consistent with other Edge devices? If so, what can be done other than setting it to Motorcycle navigation?

You're missing the point. I had a 705 which was simple enough to operate with the toggle button, but then came the 800 with touch screen soon followed by the 810 with touch screen. The 500 was replaced by the 510 with touch screen. What do Garmin do, they replace a device with touch screen for one operated by buttons! Its akin to going from a smart phone back to a Nokia 5110. The 820 rectifies that cock up.