Garmin 820 or 520

Mark Alexander

Hi all. I'm looking to replace my ageing garmin 500. My reasons being that recently it has meen missing parts of my ride/turning itself off and, well, I want a new toy....

Both seem great, I've read DC Rainmaker articles and various other things but has anyone here bought and used the 820? Is it as good as they say? Is the 520 a huge game changer? I've never felt the need for more than a 500 before as I used to want data only.

bendertherobot

Can you afford an 820?

kingstongraham

I just went from a 500 to an 820 and am happy with it. The turn by turn instructions when following a course is pretty nice, plus it has a lot more storage space for maps than the 520.

It picks up satellites a LOT quicker than the 500, and is a lot easier to upload to Garmin Connect. I guess that also goes for the 520 though. It's pricey mind.

And after last night, I know it all works (including touch screen) in the wet. It's pricey, mind.

furiousd

I went from a 500 to 520 about 6 weeks ago, i think it is great. I have no experience of the 820 though. The bits i like are picking up signal much quicker, text coming through on the Garmin, auto upload via my phone, live tracking if you want it. I have been pleased with the purchase. My splits are set to 5 miles, i like the fact it lists all of them so you can see previous ones. All of this will be on the 820 too.

Mark Alexander

bendertherobot wrote:

Can you afford an 820?

Yes I can but I'm not going to get the upper models without being able to justify the cost.

bendertherobot

It does more than the 520 just not much more and nothing really killer apart from native mapping and touch.

Have you looked at the Wahoo Elemnt?

Anonymous

The 820 has touch screen, a slightly larger screen, is re routable, and has Group Track (which the 520 may not get).

Group Track will defo be a 'killer' for me when its an update on the 1000.

Personally I would not get the 520 if you can afford an 820.

noodleman

I just bought a wahoo elemnt. Had all manner of garmins and had umpteen problems with all of them except the 500. The elemnt is a newcomer but I love it so far. Definitely worth a look.

northpole

Sorry for repeating an observation I made on an earlier thread. Garmin do not have a good reputation for launching new models fully developed and free of glitches. The 820 may be an exception to most of what has gone before! If mapping is important to you, (to me the main distinguishing feature of the 820 over the 520) you may be able to buy a 1000 for less. Admittedly it is physically bigger, but it has had time to iron out glitches, has a larger screen and, well, what's to lose. There are some features on the 820 not yet on the 1000 but inferences are that a firmware upgrade later this year should address this - no guarantee on this!

Peter

kingstongraham

Only two weeks in, but about 20 rides and my only issue so far with the 820 is that when I asked it to do satellite navigation, it chose a really odd route. Look at the last mile or so of https://www.strava.com/activities/649752393 Have only used that once as it's not really how I ride. And it doesn't know which cycle paths are suitable for road bikes around me.

Riding to a route was superb with automatic turn by turn navigation without having to set any of that on the course creation.

I still don't know what "Performance Condition" means, which it tells me about after about 5 minutes riding.

kingstongraham

And the touch screen is a bit over sensitive and takes a bit of getting used to when setting up. Sometimes registers a press when your finger is a few millimetres away and hasn't touched it yet.

drlodge

Still using my 4 year old Edge 800 with lots of battery life and see no reason to upgrade! All of the newer models seem to have far less battery life so actually would be a downgrade for me.

rs6mra1

You answered your own question by initially stating that you only need data which the 500 provided you with and also that you would not opt for an upper model without justifying the cost. So if you only require data and fancy a new toy then the 520 is the one as it would give you a wee bit more than the 500.

markhewitt1978

noodleman wrote:

I just bought a wahoo elemnt. Had all manner of garmins and had umpteen problems with all of them except the 500. The elemnt is a newcomer but I love it so far. Definitely worth a look.

I've had a few Garmins - 510, 810, 520, sent them all back, but the ELEMNT is spot on. Love the LEDs for heart rate and works well with the turn by turn instructions. I especially like the zoom function so when I'm going hard I can just see power, cadence, HR, then zoom back out to all the data including time, temperature etc when I'm not.

optrexeyedrops

Neither.

Buy a Wahoo Elemnt.

markhewitt1978

optrexeyedrops wrote:

Neither.

Buy a Wahoo Elemnt.

It's just rolled out support for live Strava segments
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/08/waho ... t-gps.html
http://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-u ... re-Updates

itboffin

drlodge wrote:

Still using my 4 year old Edge 800 with lots of battery life and see no reason to upgrade! All of the newer models seem to have far less battery life so actually would be a downgrade for me.

That was my biggest worry going from the 705 to 810 in fact I kept the 705 just in case for all day rides but as I've found out switch off Bluetooth and lower screen brightness and the 810 lasts all day, 8:30 hrs plus another hr riding home afterwards and I still had 50% I can't imaging the 820 being any worse.

820 biggest selling point has to be the connect iq worst could be the built in maps, how do they compare to OSM? Can you load OSM as well?

wongataa

itboffin wrote:

drlodge wrote:

820 biggest selling point has to be the connect iq worst could be the built in maps, how do they compare to OSM? Can you load OSM as well?

The Garmin maps on the 820/1000/Touring are based on OSM data. You can load your own maps if you wish just as you can with the older units.