I was planning on buying a new cycling gps unit next Spring but can get each of these at a substantial discount for the next week or so. As I understand it the main differences are that the 820 has the following:
Crash detection
Friend finder
Wifi
Touch screen
True mapping capabilities (will route you back on course if you miss a turn)
I found an earlier discussion of the 820 when it came out in July but didn’t see anything recent. Does anyone have the 820 or better yet, both units? It would be an extra $60 for me to upgrade to the 820, which seems worthwhile b/c of the wifi and mapping, but I remember how the 405 and 410 watch were supposed to be great b/c of the touch bezel… and I hated my 405!
I was planning on buying a new cycling gps unit next Spring but can get each of these at a substantial discount for the next week or so. As I understand it the main differences are that the 820 has the following:
Crash detection
Friend finder
Wifi
Touch screen
True mapping capabilities (will route you back on course if you miss a turn)
I found an earlier discussion of the 820 when it came out in July but didn’t see anything recent. Does anyone have the 820 or better yet, both units? It would be an extra $60 for me to upgrade to the 820, which seems worthwhile b/c of the wifi and mapping, but I remember how the 405 and 410 watch were supposed to be great b/c of the touch bezel… and I hated my 405!
Any thoughts on the two units?
From what I’ve heard, touch screen isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be for a cycling headunit. I personally like my physical buttons, though I have no experience with touch screens. I love my edge 520. It lacks true mapping capabilities but you can get custom basemaps loaded onto it, if you’re just needing a sense of direction then this is more than adequate in my experience. I haven’t ever really had a time where I was on my bike and unplanned needed to get to a specific address using actual routing so I personally don’t have any value for the true mapping capabilities. If you’re doing a course, both 520 and 820 will tell you if you’re off course and again with the custom basemaps on the 520, you’ll have a more than adequate map to help you get back on course. Edge 520 is livetracking capable so while it won’t send emergency message to your SO, you can at least send them the livetrack and they’d be able to pull it up if you’re not home when you were supposed to be.
Really, it just depends on what you value. I personally did not benefit from any of the additional features on the 820. If you find yourself needing to do a lot of actual improve routing or value those other features then it might be worth it
I was in this same toss up earlier this season. I went with the 820. Main reason: I needed mapping/navigation. I ride in NYC/NJ and there are lots and lots of roads, and lots and lots of ways to get lost and lots and lots of roads that I want to avoid at all costs. I wanted to be able to upload TCX files of tried and true routes and follow turn by turn navigation. That said, my friend who lives in rural Connecticut has the 520 and it’s perfect for his needs (fewer roads, less traffic, etc.)
I have the 820 and I’m happy with it. I upgraded from an 800 and bought it instead of the 520 for two main reasons:
WiFi - after a ride/turbo session, the last thing I want to do is mess around with the laptop to upload the data. Sure, the 520 has Bluetooth and I’ve used it to upload files when I’m out-and-out, but it’s slow, cumbersome and sometimes fails altogether. Considering 90% of my bike rides finish at my house it’s a good “set-and-forget” solution.
Mapping - I became very accustomed to full maps on my 800 and use them a lot in summer. Sure, if you’re plotting a route beforehand the 520 will do most of the job, but it’s nice to have a base map and be able to reroute as necessary.
There are a few things that I’ve found that I don’t like:
Build quality - the whole unit feels quite cheap, which was a bit disappointing considering I paid full retail price; the 800 felt more solid.
Screen - whilst it was obvious the screen size was going to be smaller, the 820 also cut a few features from the 800 that mean it makes poor use of the limited screen space, e.g. no adaptive row sizing for data fields.
Bugs - as with any new Garmin product it was plagued with bugs at launch that really took the shine off it. Some have been fixed, others haven’t but they seem to hit people at random and aren’t universal. It’s only since the most recent firmware update (this week) that it’s started to tick all the boxes. I wonder if this is why DCR hasn’t written a review yet?
I’m keeping mine, but it comes down to what your priorities are as to whether its worth the extra over a 520.
I’ve got an 820 review coming very shortly. My TL;DR summary:
CONS
the touch screen is not positive, IMO. It’s actually a detriment.
MIXED
impact detection is pretty neat, but hard to say how effective is actually. But since this is algorithmic, I expect it to get much better
WiFi is nice but both units have Bluetooth and connect and upload via your phone quickly
PRO
REAL mapping on a unit that small is pretty amazing and very nice, especially if you ride in new places
I bought the 520 and nothing about the 820, which Garmin provided to me for review, makes me regret that. With that said, if I was buying a unit now (I bought my 520 before the 820 came out), I’d buy the 820 because of mapping and because the impact detection is an appealing feature to me because of my history.
I think the price premium of the 820 over the 520 is justified. But I also think that if you don’t care about mapping or impact detection, the 520 is probably the unit you want.
Thanks for the input everyone. I’m not sure how much I like the idea of the touch screen and the accident detection doesn’t do much for me. I load most, if not all of my routes ahead of time and have enough of a sense of direction to get back on course if I space out and miss a turn… the big one was wifi, but if it works through my phone via Bluetooth like my 920 I can’t justify the additional expense… especially when you consider that I seem to be buying something every week! My wife says she is going to shoot me if I tell her yet again that I only need to buy “just this one more thing”, hahaha.
It looks like the 820 has the mode options like the 920…ie Run Outdoors, Run Indoors, Ride, Ride Indoors, Swim, Open Water Swim, etc
Does the 520 have that? I hate when using my 510 indoors that I need to manually turn the GPS off prior to every ride. I wish that I could just select Ride Indoors and the gps would be off automatically.
I’m not really that interested in mapping or impact detection, so on that front, 520 would be the front runner, but having those various training options to ride indoor vs ride outdoor would be a feature I would upgrade for.
It looks like the 820 has the mode options like the 920…ie Run Outdoors, Run Indoors, Ride, Ride Indoors, Swim, Open Water Swim, etc
Does the 520 have that? I hate when using my 510 indoors that I need to manually turn the GPS off prior to every ride. I wish that I could just select Ride Indoors and the gps would be off automatically.
I’m not really that interested in mapping or impact detection, so on that front, 520 would be the front runner, but having those various training options to ride indoor vs ride outdoor would be a feature I would upgrade for.
Thanks,
520 has the exact same option to set up an “Indoor” activity profile that, by default, disables GPS and relies on manual stop/start of the timer.
If you can live without the maps then 520 for sure. Been burned by touch screen bike computers and watches in the past. I’ll stick with good old buttons from now on.
Here’s precisely what’s new on the Edge 820 (and if it’s found on other Garmin units):
– Adds in Group Tracking (stalking your friends)
– Contains full/detailed mapping/routing (like Edge 1000)
– Contains 16GB of internal storage (no micro-SD card slot though)
– Adds in phone-based audio prompts (like Garmin wearables)
– Adds in Incident/Emergency Detection/Notifications (like Edge Explore 1000)
– Adds in new Stress Score (seen on wearables)
– Has WiFi (on Edge 1000, but not Edge 520)
– Has a touch screen (like Edge 1000)
– Has a cool new ‘Battery Save mode’ (never seen before)
So are there any things not found on the Edge 820 that are on the Edge 1000? Just a few:
– Doesn’t have landscape mode (for rotating screen)
– Doesn’t have the micro-SD card slot (for more than 16GB of maps)
– Has a smaller screen than the Edge 1000
And…that’s it.
As for the Edge Explore 820, here’s how it’s different than the base Edge 820:
– No WiFi
– No Ambient Light Sensor
– No ANT+ Power Meter or Shifting Support
– No Structured Training Support (i.e. structured workouts)
– No advanced metrics like performance indictor, FTP, etc…
Most importantly though is that you can easily play the $100 game between the three most popular units:
Edge 520: $299
Edge 820: $399
Edge 1000: $499
Just wondering, why no love for the touch screen?
I have an Edge 500.
I was thinking of upgrading to the 520. I have no use for maps, but I hate the buttons on my 500 and was thinking the touch screen on the 820 might be really nice…does it not work well? How does it work with sweaty fingers and/or rain?
thx!
Just wondering, why no love for the touch screen? For me, it’s because they suck compared to a normal touch screen (smart phone). And, I’ve had ghost touch issues on the 510 where things would get selected without my input.
If they really want to make progress with the Edge line, let me setup the Garmin through an app on my phone (screen layout, settings, etc) … and let me easily back up those settings.
They work fine in the rain and with gloves, because they are a different technology than your phone. They relay on actually sensing the physical pressure on the screen, so gloves work, but multi-touch is not possible.
Personally, I have kinda like the touch screen on my edge 800. At least on the 800 it works pretty well since most of the use is simply swiping screens back and forth, it works great. Have played with some edge 500s/510s and things like zeroing power meters is a bit more button presses than with a touch screen.
Sure, if you’re plotting a route beforehand the 520 will do most of the job, but it’s nice to have a base map and be able to reroute as necessary.
Practically speaking, how well does this work on the 820? I am a power user of courses on my 520, which I plot out meticulously beforehand using Strava heat maps, so that I know where it is safe to ride and where it is not. But when there’s a road closure or some other issue that requires a reroute, I have to zoom in and out on the map and try to pick a safe-ish/rideable route to get back on course. Sometimes when this happens I get myself on unacceptably unsafe roads (in and around the Philadelphia area), and that’s with a human (me) choosing the route. Will the 820’s on the fly mapping lead me to certain death? For what it’s worth, I have ‘routable bicycle’ base maps installed on my unit, and they are not a silver bullet.
Well I will chime in on my particular device. Particular because on the Garmin forum it seems user have slightly different experiences.
I do like the 820 in general, but if it raining when my ride starts I will use the 800 from now on.If I starts to rain during the ride I hope to lock the screen first.If I lead another group ride like last weekend I will use the 800.
I’ve had some frustrating experiences riding in the rain and having sweat drop on the screen and change settings believe it or not. Now if one can quickly lock the screen that would be the remedy, but the time a heavy shower popped up on one ride it changed all sorts of settings and it would not recognize my attempts to lock the screen until the rain stopped. On really hot days with a BTA mount and me in aero my sweat was changing the screens and settings at times.
Last weekend I led a group ride and fortunately others had the route. I could see the display for turns most of the time, but on a few times the combination of glare and small screen I could not see the details. I did not have that issue with the 800.
I updated to the latest firmware that addressed the screen sensitivity, but it still can wake it up and change screens and settings at the lowest sensitivity setting.
Here is my blog thoughts with a couple of short videos showing the sensitivity of the screen with water drops.
All that said I still like the 820 and out of the 820, 800 and 500 that I have I will grab the 820.
I’ve owned both. I have sold my 520 and use my 820 exclusively.
I liked the buttons more than the touch screen on the 520. The touch screen is works, thats about all the nice things I can say about it.
But I do love the mapping on the 820. I travel a lot, and often am having to search for new routes. Being able to download a route from strava, load it and then have turn by turn directions both on the screen and voiced into my headphones is simply amazing.
All those other features… I haven’t really played with. I just want my computer to record the data, keep me on track, and be simple to use. The 820 does this for me.
I recently returned to Garmin after a couple years with the Pioneer head unit (which I really liked, I just changed PM from Pioneer to something else so sold the Pioneer head unit).
Once you get used to auto-upload via wifi (which I had with the Pioneer), it’s tough to go back, so I went with the 820 vs the 520. For me it was all about the wifi.
The touchscreen is OK for some uses, but sometimes is more annoying than what it is worth.
The worst thing about the 820 and something that just boggles my mind is the placement of two of the two most used buttons (start/stop and lap) at the BOTTOM of the unit. My out-front mount positions my Garmin 820 probably only 5mm or so in front of my stem… in other words, functionally and aesthetically perfect… but because Garmin put the buttons on the bottom of the 820, you have to jam your fingers into the small gap between the stem and the unit to use the buttons… I cannot fathom why Garmin took buttons that work perfectly well on the side of the unit and put them in a spot where they would be hard to reach/activate.