My old Garmin 800 is slowly dying. Having been away from the tech market for a good while I’ve been trying to quickly get a handle on the different options.
I need to upload routes, navigate and connect to a power meter. I think the 530 has the powermeter option now but older 500 series versions didn’t?
And I think the only important difference between 530 and 830 is the touch screen (for what I need at any rate)?
Any other players in the market I should consider for my relatively simple requirements?
Thanks
Edge 500 and up have PM connectivity! (500 is ANT+ only). I can’t comment on the 530, as I have the 520. The only reason I moved from 500 to 520 was being able to charge on the go in a 400k Audax.
I have the 520, and the 530 looks a nice upgrade. The fully routable maps on the device is a step up, even from the 520 plus, climbpro looks a really neat feature, and if you do MTB or audax, then the new MTB features and the ability to hook up to the dedicated battery pack directly are big upsides.
I may well go the 945 route however, and stick with my 520. The two main features I am after are the ability to have more robust mapping, and climbpro, both of which the 945 could offer in support of my existing 520 whilst riding.
The 520, or the 520 Plus? I would wait and get the 530 tbh. DCR has said it’s a massive step up, and the 530 is everything the 520 Plus should have been. You’ll be able to get it on clevertraining.co.uk for a max of £234 once it’s actually available.
If you mean the 520, then that’s way too much. I paid about £160-180 a couple of years ago.
Re BBS, there’s an app to import your race plans to save you connecting to a computer, but I only found out about that recently and havent actually used it/tried it yet.
I deleted that last post, as having Googled the 520, prices seemed to have gone back up! Not sure why that is. I paid less than £150 last year for mine from Wiggle.
520 Plus was their first stab at bringing mapping to the 5xx series.
If you just needed a temporary stop gap, then the edge 25 might suit the bill. Only £75 (so you could maybe get for £67.50), and the only thing it doesnt really do is connect to power meters. That would then at least be a low cost travel option, whilst you wait for the more thorough 530 to be released. All depends on what you want from this immediate trip
Added Training Plan API support: This includes a redesigned structured workout execution page
– Added Hydration/Nutrition Smart Alerts: When using a course/route, it’ll automatically figure out how much water/calories you should be taking
– Added Hydration/Nutrition Tracking: It allows you to record this data in ride summary screens and log it on Garmin Connect
Are they really saying they didn’t do Bluetooth until now?
– Added Bluetooth Smart sensor support: You can now pair Bluetooth Smart sensors like heart rate, power, and cadence
Yeah, as per Jorgan, if you need PM support in the interim, then you’re screwed. The training plans API support has backwards compatibility to all Garmins, including stuff a decade old like the original 500.
As Garmin own ant+, until recently they refused to support bluetooth sensors. They moved to dual support in the last year or two, and have now even started releasing dual broadcast sensors (HR, speed, cadence, etc).
