Garmin  Edge 850 GPS Cycling Computer

Best mapping experience you can get on a bike computer. Makes the map far more functional to use whether you are on the road or MTB. Much quicker/responsive than previous 840 model. You'll need a case because the unit is heavier and more likely to get damaged if dropped. If you can get over charging it every 2-3 rides then its the one to get.

I'll start with the good. The screen looks nice and the unit works well. The very unfortunate miss is the battery life which is HALF of what the outgoing unit is under "demanding" use. This would have been a home run if it kept the same battery life I ended up returning it and getting a much cheaper previous model on sale

I bought this for integrated Trailforks maps, but trail navigation is very difficult to follow! The default settings only show the map on about 1/3 of the already small screen. It’s harder to follow than the very tiny screen on my fenix?! Maybe if had spent time setting up the mountain bike profile it could have been better? But…. I bought it for a trip without time to configure everything and it made my rides miserable. There are just so many options and features that I’d want to disable in order to make it useful and less distracting mid ride. For example, I don’t need a pop up for every “climb”. I was constantly having to hold a button to unlock the screen (auto lock was on by default for MTB), then swipe to get back to the navigation page. It frequently disconnected from my phone. Even simply syncing after a ride required turning Bluetooth off/on on my phone. Each time I started a road ride, I would have to reboot my fenix and pull the battery on my power meter to get them connected for HR and power display. Lastly, text size is way too small for phone notifications (when it would stay connected). I’m returning this and sticking with my fenix for fitness tracking and wahoo roam v2 for navigation/display that I’ve been using trouble free.

I recently upgraded from a Edge 530 to this Edge 850. I'll add more details after i've used it for a month or two, but wanted to address some key points that might impact your purchase decision, including points made by other reviewers. 1. Display The recently released Edge 850 and 550 get the much brighter, more vivid display that the 1050 got last year when it was upgraded from the 1040. It really does look fantastic. Easier to read in all lighting conditions. 2. Battery life The bright, vivid display comes at a cost: less battery life. The 1040/840/540 and earlier Edge models could be used for 200+ miles between charges. With the 1050/850/550 series, it's closer to 100+ miles between charges in my experience. I have no problem with this. I rarely bike more than 100 miles in a week, so I'm charging my Edge 850 once a week. Garmin gives us the option to double the battery life by turning the brightness down to a level that matches the previous gen devices. I tried this and it works well. On reduced brightness, the display is very readable on a cloudy day and a bit hard to read on a bright sunny day - just like the previous-gen devices. 3. Benefits of faster processor and double the RAM Compared to the previous generation, maps render and pan quicker and more smoothly. The Edge 850 has 64GB of storage, twice that of the previous gen devices. I never maxxed out the RAM on my older Edge units, but this will be a great feature if you pre-load a lot of maps. 4. Touchscreen My Edge 850 is my first bike computer with a touch screen. I love it. It's easier to navigate menus and commands while riding. The touch screen works extremely well in dry conditions but just so-so in rain. But the Edge 850 also has physical buttons you can use when it's raining heavy--or anytime you might prefer using physical buttons to the touch screen. Interestingly, the larger and more expensive Edge 1050 doesn't have physical buttons. 5. The bell The Edge 850 has a real speaker and can play a very realistic sounding bike bell sound. (So does the pricier Edge 1050 but not the cheaper Edge 550 or the previous generation Edge 840). I learned this reading reviews prior to my purchase, and didn't give it a second thought. But now that I have the device, I love it. I use it all the time. Quicker and easier than saying "passing on your left". 6. Robustness Garmin outdoor electronics sometimes have bugs that get resolved months later with firmwware updates. I've experienced some on other Garmin devices and they can be annoying. But this is generally much less a problem with the 800 and 500 series Edge bike computers, because they use the same firmware as the Edge 1000 series, but come out a year later. So, let's all thank the folks who bought the more expensive Edge 1050 last year for basically being beta testers who found and reported bugs. By the time the Edge 550 and 850 were released, the firmware is operating pretty smoothly. There still may be glitches in the future, but at this point it's fairly refined and works well. 7. Weight I read a review at another site in which the reviewer mostly liked the Edge 850 but complained that it weight a lot more than the 840. I don't have an 840 to compare it to, but I pulled up the specs on both devices. The 850 weighs 4 ounces while the 840 weighs 3 ounces. Whether that's a meaningful difference is up to you.