I have used a Garmin 820 for years and the 830 is a huge upgrade. The screen is much more responsive, the battery life is so much better and the screen is sharper. If you like the 820 you will love the 830.
Been running 520 for 5 years and thought everything newer was more than I needed. Within 5 rides I knew how much more tech was at my hands. Month in my maxVO2 is climbing along with healthy feel. Looking for technical help for your fitness, look no further.
I purchased my latest Garmin to replace the Garmin 1000 I have had for a number of years. I purchased the updated smaller unit because of the daily battery life as advertised. So far it performs as expected and is reasonable in price. I have not had a long enough ride to tell about expected battery but it works well with my Varia add on component as expected.
I use the 830 to guide me through Oregon's forestry roads, out of cell phone coverage. It shines when the road on the map doesn't exist or is washed out by a landslide. It's clear and easy to read while rattling downhill and offers a wide array of features (if you take the time to learn the details.) I tried a Wahoo and am much happier with the Garmin.
This is my third Garmin and far & away this is the cream of their crop. On a cross country trip I could sometimes go 60 miles on 17% of the charge. Screen is bright, map colorful. Flips screens off my Di2 buttons (top of the hoods Domane SLR7). Interacts with my Varia with clear readout of approaching traffic. No downsides. Love it!
I got my 830 coming off an 810. I debated long and hard between it and the 530, as the only difference is touch-screen vs buttons. And, after several months, I can say I made the wrong choice. The touch screen actually makes this less valuable than the 530. It is terrible with gloves, and their software is terrible at dealing with it. I am constantly pulling down something when a want to slide, and so on. It is just annoying. I heard the touch screen was improved, but my 810 did better.
Everything else is fine. I still can't find the compass, the menus are huge disorganized messes, but they are trying to deal with a small space and few controls, I will cut them some slack.
Get the 530. Save $100 AND get a better unit.
I ride my road bike with the Edge and absolutely love it. Love having routes loaded on it and love it just generally. It's really fantastic. Should have done it years ago.
I had first purchased 530 and used for the summer and was happy with it very much. But did not like the pushing buttons so much while riding. So went ahead and upgraded to the touchscreen 830 and have been very happy that I did a big improvement and to me worth the money. Even in cold weather riding with gloves screen was easy to use.
My Garmin 820 battery has lost its ability to hold a charge for more than two hours. So I ordered an 830 as a replacement.
I am very pleased so far. I love how it switched from my data screen to the map screen to warn me of an upcoming turn in my course. After the turn the 830 returned to the data screen. That feature is really helpful.
Setup was a little easier than my 820 but still took about an hour to pair my existing sensors and customize the data screens. No where in the manual did it tell me how to change the front and rear gear values but I did finally figured it out. (I have Etap so the 830 will display current gears and battery life).
The Garmin 830 is super easy to set up and use. Has all the features most riders would need and more. Navigate to an address and hill climb details are just two of the many useful features. Touchscreen works great. Note that the screen is on the small side.
I have been a garmin user for a long time. Started with the Edge 305, then the Edge 800 and now upgraded to the Edge 830. I have to say that I am quite impressed with the new features that this unit provides. In addition to the bluetooth functionality, the maps and directions are much better, plus the feature that you get a warning when there is a sharp curve or bend in the road approximately 400 feet prior to reaching it, which is very handy when riding in unfamiliar areas. Turn warnings happen earlier than with the 800 unit, I also like the climbing feature which lets you know how much of the climb remains and gives you a graphic to show the distance and number of feet yet to climb, which can be quite useful in gauging your effort. I frequently stop at coffee shops on my rides, so the bike alarm feature is a nice little addition to alert you if your bike is moved. Lastly, the feature sends out a notification to pre-selected contacts in the event of a crash or emergency is a great safety feature. On the downside it seems that the satellite connection is not as good as the previous models, if you even go under a short, open bridge the satellite connection is lost. I have even encountered this issue on tree lined streets, which is a bit annoying to see your connection lost and your speed drop to about 3 or 4 mph no matter how fast you are riding. If you are really concerned about this I would suggest getting a speed sensor with this unit. I have also had the unit freeze in the middle of a ride. It froze at 17 mph. I did a little investigative work and found that this is an issue encountered by many Garmin Edge 830 owners and seems to be a firmware issue. It is easily resolved if you hold in the power button for 10 seconds and the ride is saved, but if you are in the middle of a ride, it is once again annoying. Overall the the unit is great and I love it. I am glad I got it, but wish all the little annoying bugs had been worked out first.
I'm a long time Garmin user (started with the 700) and have not always been thrilled with Garmin software or hardware durability. The software has gotten better of late, so wWhen my 510 died, I looked around, held my nose, and made the expensive upgrade to the 830.
I love this computer! While the form factor is nearly identical, the display is FINALLY super readable in bright sunlight and nearly as responsive as my iphone. The text notifications on the Garmin are slick and unobtrusive. There are many small features that make this feel like a modern cycling computer.
The ONE thing Garmin still need to do is provide phonecomputer setup rather than relying on the clunky setup interface on the device.
The 830 is by far the most disappointing Garmin Edge that I have owned. Ive had the 305, 705, 500, and 810 previously, and while all of them had occasional glitches, I found them to be largely reliable. Not so with the 830. First, pairing it and uploading activities to Garmin Connect is a manual activity. Every. Time. Ive paired and repaired it multiple times. On the iPhone Bluetooth connections page, it always shows 2 830s... one connected and one not. So after every ride, I have to open the Garmin app, hope it wakes up the connection and manually sync. But at least half the time, it requires turning Bluetooth off and on, and turning the Garmin off an on one or more times. In addition, the elevation profiles on the Garmin are totally stairstepped. My other Garmins showed the climbs as relatively smoothaccurate lines, but the elevation profile on the 830 has completely flat sections followed by completely verticals sections. It also always shows me an 18th of a mile farther up the climb than I am. Separately, the climb pro feature sounds good until you use it. Its way too zoomed out so that you cant see what elevation features are coming up. Itll say the average remaining climb is something like 8% as an example, but it doesnt give you any visibility to the 20% kicker coming up. So I dont use it. Finally, it also froze on me mid-ride, although Id give it a pass on that because Ive never had a Garmin that didnt do that. But this was in the first 6 weeks of using it. In summary, I wish Id stuck with my 810.
Got one of the first units when initially released in May, 2019.
Been in contact with Garmin customer support on several occasions. Their support has been excellent starting with a beta software release update which fixed my initial problem. One annoying flaw is that you can not set the odometer in order to carry over mileage from previous computer. There is an IQ odometer app which can be preset and incorporated into display page. Everything else is functionally complete and the touch screen is a vast improvement over menus and buttons on my previous 530.
Garmin is sending me a replacement unit which will hopefully fix my remaining issue - elevation jumps all over giving wildly erroneous readings. They already had other reports of the problem and established that it is a hardware - not software - problem hence the replacement unit. Hopefully the new unit will not have this problem.
Overall I am very satisfied with the unit, especially the route guidance feature which is essential for touring in unexplored areas.
Just finished a 1,050 mile trip with my new Edge 830 and I was wowed. Battery life is incredible with 70% off the charge left after a 109 mile ride, including interacting with a Varia radarlight unit, remote and D-fly. The higher resolution screen is much clearer than older Edges. Touch screen works well and it's consistent linking with my phone via bluetooth is much more reliable than the 820 had been. Responds automatically to the buttons on my Domane SLR7 hoods to change screens forward and backwards. Ride with GPS routing directions were perfectly presented. The only thing I wish was different is the alarm which indicates someone is moving your bike when you're at a pit stop of getting coffee. It does show on your phone but is so quiet bystanders wouldn't pay any attention. It is apparently not adjustable. Overall, far and away the best computer I've ever owned. Love it!!
I've been using my Edge 820 for a few years and have been through the range from the 510 to the 820, now the 830. I was forced into a new unit due to battery anxiety. Almost went with the Wahoo Element, but went with what's familiar. Right away, I am very happy with the much improved screen resolutioncrispness. In direct sun I can finally read the unit which was at times a challenge with the 820....Big plus. Touch screen response is also much improved as well as the speed when tapping between screensfunctions...another Big plus.
Downside It could use a phone interface like the Wahoo units in order to vastly simplify screen set-up. If it had that functionality, I would give it 5 stars. Garmin, you need to catch up to the times even though your base DNA is solid.
I had a Garmin 520 previously, multiple buttons to navigate functions. The 830 is much more user friendly, touch screen navigation is far more intuitive. The only negative I have in countered so far is that it is easy to delete something unintentionally, so take your time..
I debated whether or not to go with the 830 touch screen. Very glad I did. Much easier to set up and navigate through the menu and set up. Well worth the extra cost.
I replaced an 820 and this is a huge step up - lower power GPS chip, much quicker user interface response, and better battery life. The user interface is totally different than the 820 and I still haven't figured it out, but I have a basic setup that works for my various bikes.
The emergency contact feature is good. Very sensitive and loud. Surprised my wife the time I had a minor fall and it alerted her. I didn't warn her of the feature and she was quite worried. I had to do some convincing over the phone that I was OK and didn't need a rescue. I longer battery life is why I chose to upgrade.
