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Looking at a Garmin mainly for navigation for mountain biking and am either looking at the edge 530 or edge 830.
The main deciding point is whether I need a touch screen or not as I am thinking that it'll be frustrating trying to navigate maps without a touch screen.
Anyone with any advice or experience?
Many thanks,
Not that helpful this but on 520 vs 820, people found the 820's touch screen awful to use and it wasn't an upgrade at all. One guy wanted to swap his 820 for a 520 for no money after finding his sweat was dripping on his 820 and changing the screen (possibly he shouldn't have mentioned that in his ad though......).
Main point, do your research and make sure the screen works well now. Have you trawled through DC Rainmakers no doubt 400 page review? On a skim read he seems to say it's better:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/04/garmin-edge-830-cycling-gps-in-depth-review.html
@londoncommuter that looks great, thanks for your advice and I'll have a look through that link thanks 👍
I'm considering this and others at the moment. It doesn't sound like either have particularly good scrolling and zooming from.my research. Also if you just want the mapping elements then check out the Garmin Explore as well. Doesn't seem to be in the current sale, though.
There was a PSA on here yesterday with a link from HDUK for a big discount from Garmin and the 530 was included in that. Think it was something like £170. A load of money off might help you decide 😀
@muggomagic, thanks for your reply but it looks like that deals just finished 😭
I had the 820 and upgraded to the 830. The difference in the touch screen is night and day. I have not tried the 520 or 530. I have no issues at all with the 830. Battery life is massively improved as is the touch screen. The screen is a little bigger too
I had a 530 for about half an hour, when you are used to iphones/ipads etc the buttons just feel like a clumsy and inefficient way of operating. Took it straight back and got an 830 and have been very happy with it. The touch screen is fine in general use - no it's not as good as a phone, but it's perfectly usable on the bike. I haven't used an 820 but heard they were pretty bad for the screen.
I'm over the moon with my 530 but I don't ever user it to browse the map while out. I load a route and follow it. I will use my phone to look at maps as it had access to better/more map data.
The deal still shows up to me.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/psa-garmin-store-upto-40-off/
Click on the first link in this, click to go to the deals and then filter by "edge" as the series.
The 830 is lights and day better than the 820. Every aspect is a huge improvement; touch screen, battery life, processing speed.
I had such a mediocre experience with my 820 I almost chose a Wahoo, I'm glad I didn't.
I've been toying with the same, the battery on my 820 is on the way out and I've been tempted by wahoo. Interesting to hear what people say about the 830