Garmin Edge 830

The Garmin Edge 830 has been around for three years but is still a great GPS cycling computer. Its well-developed software and decent performance mean that it's still worth considering if you need a new full-featured head unit now.

In recent years, Garmin has come under pressure from the likes of Wahoo, Hammerhead, Lezyne, Bryton and more, all releasing new bike computers with the goal of deposing the longtime king of the castle. It's a competitive space these days, no question.

You can check out our feature on the 10 best cycling GPS units available right now, which features the latest models from all of these brands.

The Edge 830 isn't listed there (yet) because we haven't had it in for testing until now, but it's certainly worthy.

“It's an Edge 1030 (Plus)... just smaller”

If you ever need one catch-all line to work out where the Edge 830 sits in the Garmin stable, this is it. It lives in between the flagship Edge 1030 Plus, which replaced the original Edge 1030 a couple of years ago, and the Edge 530. But to all intents and purposes, it really is a downsized 1030.

That's unsurprising given Garmin's recent track record of product development – normally, it produces a new, large flagship model and then filters the tech down to 'lesser', smaller units. The biggest differentiator between the 1030 and 830 is the screen size, plus a smaller 16GB internal memory. The 1030 Plus improved on the original 1030, but it actually took some tech from the 830 to do it (such as the screen), so you're still getting a premium unit here.

It has practically every feature of the 1030/1030 Plus, and compatibility with all the latest ANT+ and Bluetooth protocols for connecting up to all the peripherals you own. It can connect directly to WiFi for over-the-air updates and syncing (you still get a micro-USB data cable for this and charging, though), and it can also connect to your phone for syncing as well as for features like LiveTrack, GroupTrack and push notifications.

I've linked the 830 to my Saris H3 smart trainer, Rally RK200 power meter pedals, cadence sensor, heart rate monitor, plus a compatible Shimano Di2 groupset, and each has paired seamlessly and offered its full range of features straight away.

> 12 reasons why you should buy, and use, a power meter

The 830 does have the ability to recognise the kit that it's paired to, and automatically creates screens to display some of the key metrics. This works best with Garmin's own ecosystem – so pairing my Garmin HRM-Dual and Rally RK200 power meter pedals yielded automatically-created data screens.

Of course, the screens are completely customisable, and you can blend practically any mix of Garmin's bewildering array of metrics. Any seasoned Garmin user will probably be familiar with them, but there's enough detail in the 246x322 pixel colour touchscreen to fit 10 fields on one page and retain good legibility.

Graphic-heavy pages, such as the map and auto-generated Cycling Dynamics display, are all easy to read at a glance. The map display can be customised in terms of zoom level and detail as you might expect, while the Cycling Dynamics page offers interesting insight when you're using Garmin's Rally pedals.

If you want a complete list of those features and metrics, check out the link to Garmin's website up top.

Navigating

When you've loaded a compatible course into the unit (either via a syncing method or by dragging and dropping a file through a hard connection), routing is clear and easy to follow. You can challenge it by asking it to route you back home either via the most direct method or the most popular roads, and each time I asked it to do this it did so competently without directing me onto any random off-road paths.

When you select the direct route home it can sometimes pick roads that are a little big or busy, and one niggle is that Garmin still hasn't quite figured out the 'rider knows best' mentality. For example, if you turn off a route – maybe because the road was too big or busy – it stubbornly tries to get you to u-turn for far too long for my liking, rather than just trusting, after a few ignored u-turn notifications, that I might have chosen my unplanned detour for good reason, and rerouting along it.

> GPS cycle route planning made easy – how to plan and follow a bike route

The 830 also features ClimbPro, which automatically recognises climbs on a given route (you can select the difficulty of the climbs from three pre-sets during initial setup) and offers genuinely useful metrics on distance to go and upcoming gradients so you can better measure your effort.

It's distinct from Strava's Live Segment functionality, which works on any of your favourite segments wherever they are and offers a competitive element. I found little conflict between the two, and on the occasions where a Strava Live Segment would overlap a ClimbPro climb, I found the unit would normally prefer to show the Strava function, which I suppose is technically 'added on' by choice as opposed to being built in... though you can switch off ClimbPro completely if you want.

Physical usability & design

Given that the 830 is going on for three years old now, I've been impressed with the speed of the unit out of the box, the responsiveness of the touchscreen, and the general slickness of the interface.

I've owned an Edge 510 and tested an Edge 820, both of which employed touchscreens, and the 830 is the first time the experience has been truly fast enough to keep up with me. In fact, my own current head unit is an Edge 520 Plus (with a button interface), and until this point I've liked it specifically because it didn't have a slow and plodding touchscreen. That's definitely no longer a problem.

Menus are clear and easy to navigate on the whole – occasionally I can struggle to find a particular setting sub-menu, but with use I've managed to learn where the important stuff is kept (or simply asked Google!).

The only real usability snag I've noticed is a result of the increased size of the unit on the bottom edge (combined with the positioning of the quarter-turn mechanism) versus my Edge 520 Plus. The Start/Stop and Lap buttons both still live at the base, but when mounted to my existing K-Edge out-front mount, those buttons aren't that easy to access with your thumb because they're a little close to the stem faceplate.

Sure, you could use Garmin's own out-front mount or a longer third-party mount... but the former remains chunky and unsightly – and I like my existing K-Edge mounts!

It's also a shame that there are such thick bezels around the display too. In this day and age of edge-to-edge displays that maximise screen size within a certain footprint, the Edge 830 does look a little dated compared with the competition and the wider tech world.

The battery life is easily good enough for a whole day's riding – you get up to 20 hours if you're frugal with your inputs and don't mind putting the screen on sleep mode from time to time. You'll eat into this a little with all your sensors connected, but off the back of a 4.5-hour ride with those sensors plugged in I still came home with 78% battery left.

Should you buy one now?

This will be the burning question for many. Given the age of the 830, it's not unreasonable to hope for a new generation of hardware to launch in the near future. This logic applies to all of Garmin's Edge range with a '30' attached to it.

Brands will never disclose publicly if a new piece of hardware is on the way, but I did ask Garmin what its plans were when it comes to providing continued software updates for the Edge 830. It responded by telling me that it has continued to update the 830 with improved mapping, routing, functionality and more since its launch.

Although that guarantees nothing going forward, Garmin does have a track record of continuing to update units when when they're not the latest generation (for example, my Edge 520 recently had a full map update and updated compatibility for its Radar system), so I'm fairly confident this will continue for the 830.

The benefit of having a three-year-old unit is that it's already had its bugs ironed out by updates. When I first set up the 830, it immediately set about downloading and installing the latest software and mapping. There's a few to get through, but if you do this before using it then you get a completely up-to-date head unit with tried-and-tested software.

If you're the kind of person who needs to be at the cutting edge of the product cycle when you buy kit, then it might be worth waiting to see if Garmin launches a new range of head units this summer or soon after.

However, if you need a new head unit now and want it to be a Garmin, there's little danger of the 830 being hopelessly outdated for the foreseeable future and is my pick of the bunch if you don't have a need (or the budget) for the large-screened 1030 Plus. It runs smoothly and responsively, is a pleasure to use and seems to be bug free.

Value

Garmin sells the Edge 830 for £349.99. There's no doubt that that's a premium to pay when you compare it to the £264.99 Wahoo Elemnt Bolt that earned 8/10 from tech editor Mat.

The Lezyne Mega XL, reviewed by Dave in 2018,  undercuts this again at £180, although you start to sacrifice some usability.

An interesting competitor is the Hammerhead Karoo 2 at around a tenner more, which seems to be incredibly easy to use and well made. Anna had very little bad to say about it, giving it a 9/10 score. It also earned a coveted spot in road.cc Recommends.

Conclusion

It may be getting a little long in the tooth, but the Garmin Edge 830 has aged very well. If you need a fully-featured head unit right now, and you want it to be a Garmin, the 830 is arguably the pick of the bunch.

Verdict

It's three years old, but there's life in the Garmin Edge 830 yet – it's still a very good option