u/jigsawfallingin2plac

Some time ago I wrote a long post to provide feedback about the edge 1050 over almost over year.

I'm moderately happy with the device overall considering the high price, but at least the most basic functions kinda worked well.

Since then, the device had like 2 updates, and the last one has really degraded even the basic functionality of just following a route.

Some days ago I created a 200 km ride on Strava and sent it to the Edge. No problem, the route appears with the right distance and elevation change.

While following the route though, after 160 km the Edge decided that the route was complete. The rest of the route was nonexistent, although the distance in the route stats was correct. The unit persisted in considering the ride was over, well before the actual end.

End route/ reload route: no effect. Power off / power on / reload route: same... This never happened to me before, even on longer rides.

I'm starting to really becoming pissed off. I paid like 500€ for this device and updates after updates, it's degrading, not improving. I really wish Garmin would be more serious!

I'll probably submit a ticket to the support, but the experience is really frustrating, as this adds up to a lot of other existing frustrating imperfections and glitches...

The fact is that now I don't trust the device. I want reliability, and it's simply not reliable.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I also lost the SMS notifications on the device, also very annoying!

Most reviews that can be found are made by people who have gotten the device for not long, and are therefore in the "peak of enthusiasm" about their new toy. I'm far past that peak, have visited the "valley of despair", and have now reached the "plateau of sustainability" about the Edge 1050. So I thought a long-term review of the device would be interesting. There are some already on the web, but not that many.

Profile

I do road and gravel cycling, about 10,000 km/year, essentially focused on long-ish distance: week-end rides are like 100-200 km and I do 300-600 km a couple of times a year. I live in the mountains, so lots and lots of climbing! I've been using the Edge 1050 for slightly less than one year. My previous device was an Edge 830, which I wanted to change for better readability with sunglasses on.

What I like about the Edge 1050

First of all the screen, of course! It's large plenty bright, high res, very readable even with sunglasses on. Like all screens there is an angle from the sun around which reflections are annoying, but it doesn't happen often.

The home and activity screens are nicely displayed, they are more colorful and pleasant than on the 830, it really adds something "friendly" I find. Some fields are resizable, which is nice, and there is enough real estate to display more information, more clearly, without degrading readability.

The battery life is very decent. I typically plug it in at night after typically about 12-13 hours of riding and it's still around 30%, so I'd say the claimed 18-20 hours in nominal conditions (auto brightness, one-second tracking...) is there. That's more or less what I got from the Edge 830, so no change for me.

The speaker is a nice feature: notifications are nicer, less agressive than just beeps, and the bell is actually much more useful than I expected!

Crash recovery: I've had a couple of serious crashes during rides, but never lost data after restarting it. The activity reloaded by itself. This si essential, and seems well implemented.

Compared to the 830, the 1050 offers a bit more possibilities in terms of software customization. For example, you can at last switch off the irritating Virtual Partner feature.

The ClimbPro feature does not need a planned route to work on the 1050, it just pops up when you approach a climb it knows even if you're not following a route. That's really great, but unfortunately I find the ClimbPro feature is a disaster (see below).

Third-party Garmin Connect applications with more friendly color fields work well, I did not have any compatibility issue. Similarly, third-party hi-res topo maps display beautifully (although I've found that a prefer a simpler, less detailed map for riding after all). All in all, it integrates very well into the Garmin "ecosystem".

So in short, it's a brighter, larger, nicer, friendlier device.

What I don't like about the Edge 1050

ClimbPro: The ClimbPro feature is very important for me, but unfortunately it is complete garbage. It is mostly wrong and irritating, and only occasionally a bit useful. The general aspect of the climb shown when a climb is detected is kinda reliable, but the rest is just garbage.

The beginning and/or end of the climb are most of the time off by several hundreds of meters, sometimes even kilometers! The slope profile "high res" grade color could as well be random. The "remaining grade" cannot be trusted because the position of the end of the climb is too often completely off. Very regularly it tells you that the climb is completed while you still have 1km at 7% left! Or you're climbing a 6% slope since 2km and at some point it decides the climb just starts. Pathetically bad a feature!

Slope color: The device can display "real time" slope as a colored profile in a field even when ClimbPro is not activated. This is nice, but it's as laughably bad as ClimbPro. Like you're struggling in a 6% section for several hundreds of meters, and the color code says it's flatish. Great... It is only usable at a scale of a couple of kilometers, to get an idea of what's ahead in general (will it be generally descending, generally climbing, ...)

ClimbPro and grade colors only kinda works when the slope is both very regular and pretty steep, I find. In those cases they tend to agree with with the percentage grade measured by the device and displayed as a number. I guess there's some kind of Digital Elevation Model with massive interpolation behind this profiling feature. They don't seem to be leveraging barometer data they collect from devices to build reliable profiles.

I live in the moutains and do a lot of climbing, so this type of route profiling feature is important for me. I thought it would be better and more reliable on a newer device, but apparently it uses the same crappy data as a basis... I don't know of other brands are better at detecting and displaying climbs and route profiles, but if they are it would good enough a reason for me to abandon Garmin.

Lags: Garmin claims the Edge 1050 uses a fast processor and so on. The truth is I regularly get some lags when switching screens (especially on long rides and when switching to the remaining climbs screen). The device also occasionally freezes, becomes irresponsive, and after several seconds it "catches up" all actions I triggered by touching the screen to wake it up! Quite frustrating.

Firmware bugs: There are occasional bugs that are very annoying. Pop up dialogs that don't go away when you click on the check mark (device frozen for like 2 minutes, but the position tracking seems to go on). More annoying: occasionally unreliable battery level after charging the device from my powerbank at night (100% charged, plug it off it says 33%, plug it back in it says 72%, plug it off back to 33%, and finally it remained at 33% for the remaining 10 hours of the ride!). Also, sometimes when you switch it off, it does not really switch off (logo still on the screen).

Unsatisfactory power off during a ride: If you need to switch off the device during an activity (to buy food, have a meal, or sleep), you have to stop the activity first, then power it off. Makes sense on the paper, but considering the lags and screen freezes that happen sometimes, I accidentally ended the ride several times! This ends live tracking and saves the activity, no second chance. I wish there was a more reliable way of switching the device off during a ride without risking ending the activity.

Too bright at night: The auto brightness feature works well, but the minimum brightness is a bit too bright at night, it kinda blinds you. There is a dark mode for the map that can be used as a workaround this, but I find the map less readable in that mode.

Power management when charging is weird. Plug it in it powers on (why?). Switch it off, let it charge, unplug it it powers on again: why?

It's a bit on the heavy side, but I guess that's the price to pay for a big bright screen and non-ridiculous battery life.

Unreliable live tracking: Maybe not specific to the 1050, but live tracking often ends abruptly after like 10-12 hours of riding, especially during or after a long stop (meal for example). The problem is you get no warning whatsoever that it has stopped (except the messages from your relatives asking why you're not moving anymore, are you hurt?), and there is no way to restart it. Very poorly implemented feature overall.

Lack of hardware customization: I wish I could reallocate to bottom left "lap" button which I never use to do something more useful: switch screen off to save battery on a section of course I already know, for example.

Bottom line: would I buy it again?

To be honest, I would not buy it again at this price. I just expected better overall. When the next generation (Edge 1060?) comes out and the price drops like crazy, then it will be worth it.

I'm very happy with the screen (size, brightness, layout, GUI), but disappointed by features that are really important for me and show no progress whatsoever (ClimbPro, course profile, live tracking). Regular firmware issues, lags, screen freezes and weird power management are also very annoying for a €500, supposedly top-notch device.