I read DC Rainmaker’s review of the Roam and was frankly shocked that he focused so much on the spec sheet and price. If all you’re interested in is the spec sheet and price, you don’t really need a review.
Except, in this case, where it fundamentally doesn’t do what it says on the spec sheet. Want to use Strava routes? Oh, you don’t get turn by turn navigation. Want to use the Wahoo companion app to send directions to the ROAM? Great, you don’t get elevation data for those routes. Want to route back to start along a route? No turn by turn there either. See, that’s what a technical review is there for. So yes, I focused on things on the spec sheet that Wahoo simply isn’t doing.
It’s funny how many folks keep going off on the USB-C item (literally, it’s a single line mention in my review - I have countless single things I mention - this one hardly important).
Yet the thing people are forgetting is that it just doesn’t do what people think it does. If it did everything it claimed to do, and did it for the asking $379 - then we can continue the debate on that - but that’s frankly the least of the issues at this point. Watch GPLAMA’s video, especially the last 5-7 minutes, where he goes effectively slide by slide on all the if/but statements around caveats for endless things. I’m not sure if people didn’t make it that far in the video, or if people didn’t understand the nuance/importance of what he’s pointing out.
I have no doubt Wahoo’s shifting directions internally in the last 24-48 hours to address these with software updates in the future, but today, that’s not the device people are buying.