On 8/7/20 5:24 pm, Lou Holtman wrote:
On Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 8:59:32 PM UTC+2,
wrote:
Can anyone tell me the difference between the Garmin Edge models?
For instance - what is the difference between a 520 and a 530? I
think that one of mine is an 830 and it has a lot of buttons on it
and is a pain-in-the-butt to get working though the basic software
appears to be the same thing. There are several probably Chinese
copies some of which seem to have a better program and display as
well as a longer battery life. But they don't connect to a Garmin
mount and the one's they provide don't work for integrated bar/stem
combos. The Garmins have absolutely terrible screen contrast and
most of the time wearing sunglasses I can barely make out the speed
leg alone the mileage. I will say that I really like the rear wheel
placement of the speed and cadence mechanism I can't think of any
possible worse position for a speed pickup that a front wheel But I
may be biased since that is partially how I got my concussion.

The difference between the 5xx and the 8xx is touchscreen (8xx) or
buttons (5xx). The 530 is the successor of the 520 as the 830 is of
the 820. The 'washed'out apperance of the screen is the result of the
choice of the display. It is readable without backlight to save
battery life. I too find the map hard to read when it is in the
shadow of myself; the numbers I can always read. To improve contrast
you can turn on backlight permanently. Myself I turn in on
permanently on a 80% setting. In that modemy edge 1030 still has a
battery life of around 6-8 hours (two rides). The colors are
definitely not as bright as the display of your phone, but there is a
reason that display turns off so quickly.


I have a Garmin Edge 500, and had a 3xx before that. I have never had a
problem seeing the screen. There is ample contrast during the day
regardless of the sunglasses I wear, and the backlight is fine at night.

Recently my Garmin Edge 500 failed and I bought a Lezyne Macro Plus.
Different mount, but otherwise very good. The only trouble was the
firmware as purchased was faulty and I had to update it using a Windows
PC (I normally use GNU/Linux), and it doesn't display percentage
gradient or VAM.

If it had these 2 features I would like it much more than my older Garmin.

--
JS