The new Garmin Edge 830 offers a host of great new features, especially for those interested in cycling training, long-distance rides, and mountain biking. In this post we sum up 9 great new features, so you can decide if these upgrades have value for your own cycling needs – and if this bike computer is the one for you.
Garmin’s new Garmin Edge 830 is more like a new brand-new bike computer than a simple upgrade. Up to now, if you wanted a premium-performance bike computer with full navigation features, you could be forgiven for being a bit confused by all the choices. But with the launch of the Garmin Edge 830, the choice has got a lot simpler, because this bike computer basically does it all, twice as fast.
Related Post: Edge 1030 vs. 820 vs. 520
Related Post: Garmin’s New Game-Changing Bike Computer: the Garmin Edge 530 – What’s New?
Double the Speed with the Garmin Edge 830
The Garmin Edge 830 comes with a processor that is claimed to be twice as fast (but which in actual use sometimes feels even faster than that). Plus, it comes with an entire raft of awesome new abilities. In this post, I summarize the most important upgrades, so you can decide if these upgrades have value for your own cycling needs.
Related: Garmin Edge 530 vs 830 vs 1030 GPS Bike Computers
The Garmin Edge 830 Offers Full Navigation Features
Note that the Garmin Edge 830, like the Garmin Edge 1030, offers full navigation features for routing and turn-by-turn directions. This means it comes complete with a full set of Garmin Cycling Maps, plus Trendline Popularity Routing (so it knows which routes are most popular with cyclists who use Garmin Edge bike computers). If you are out on the road and you suddenly need a coffee shop, it has a full set of nearby POI (Points of Interest). If you get a text to meet your partner at a specific location, you can just input the address and the 830 will calculate a route for you. If you go off-route, it will alert you and recalculate!
Upgrades offered by the Garmin Edge 830
Upgrade no. 1: Speed
The processor is twice as fast. This is by far the most important upgrade, in our opinion. Who hasn’t been irritated by having to stand astride your bike, waiting for your bike computer to get done processing, so you can ride your bike already?
Upgrade no. 2: Better Touchscreen
You control your Garmin Edge 830 mainly with the touchscreen. The responsiveness of the 830 touchscreen is much improved over the 820, and works very well.
Upgrade no. 3: ClimbPro
The Garmin Edge 830 has a feature called ClimbPro. This upgrade is awesome for those who like to cycle up hills. It only works on downloaded routes. But it’s really quite awesome – it basically shows you graphically the grades that lie ahead, as well as the grade you are currently climbing. This could be immensely useful on long-distance, hilly rides.
Upgrade no. 4: Mountain Biking Metrics
The Garmin Edge 830 is a whole lot better for mountain biking. Several of the upgrades are directly related to mounting biking, notably:
- Grit rating – this shows you how difficult a route is.
- Flow rating – this shows you how well you descended a tough route. This gives you a metric to try and beat the next time!
- Hang time – this shows you on the fly how long you were in the air after a jump. Later, you can analyze every single jump in great detail on Garmin Connect. How far did you jump, how long were you in the air, and how fast were you going?
- Trailforks – this app is now integrated into the unit. This means that maps for 130,000 mountain bike trails are included in the unit, along with their difficulty rating. So, you can see the difficulty level of the trails you are cycling on. If the trail forks, you can make an informed decision as to which trail to take. For example, if you’re tired, you can choose the trail with a lower difficulty level.
Upgrade no. 5: Brand New Performance Metrics
You can now get even more training data on your bike computer. These metrics include:
- Performance power curve – this will track your power over various periods of time – very useful if you are training and want to track improvements. Of course, you need a power meter.
- Heat acclimation – how well are you adjusting to heat?
- Altitude acclimation – how well are you adjusting to high altitude?
- Water and calorie requirements – this bike computer will remind you to drink and eat on a long bike ride, based on your individual profile. You can even meticulously record all the hydration and nutrition you take on board.
Upgrade no. 6: Better Structured Workouts
The workouts built into this bike computer now rival those offered by dedicated apps. So, if you are interested in training, this could be super useful for you.
Upgrade no. 7: Bluetooth
The Garmin Edge 830 has Bluetooth Smart connectivity, so you can use sensors that connect via Bluetooth Smart. This is of course in addition to ANT+ connectivity.
Upgrade no. 8: Longer Battery Life
The battery will last for 20 hours (up from 15), even while running sensors. More importantly for long-range cyclists, the Edge 830 can be used in conjunction with a Garmin Edge Charge Power Pack, so you have power for more than 40 hours! In practice, if you were navigating and running multiple sensors, this would be more like 10 hours.
Upgrade no. 9: Bike Alarm and Find my Bike Computer
You can use this in situations such as running into the bakery or the washroom. If anyone moves your bike an alarm will go off, and you will get an alert on your phone.
Let’s say you do a huge jump and your Garmin Edge 830 manages to come loose and land in the bushes. With this feature you can get it to make a noise, so you can find it. I would be more likely to use it to find where I left it. The only reason I wore an Apple watch for a few years was because I could use it to find my iPhone. Very useful feature!
Bottom Line on the New Garmin Edge 830
If navigation on the fly is a must, plus you cycle long distances, or you are seriously into bike training, or you are a mountain biker, the choice of bike computer is now simple – get the Edge 830! If on the other hand you don’t need to be able to input addresses on the roadside and have your bike computer give you the route, you can get all of the other features in the Garmin Edge 530 – for $100 less! But note that the Edge 530 does not have a touchscreen, so you control it with buttons.
For cheaper options in bike computers, please see our popular post on 7 of the Best Bike Computers.
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