I can examine the model spanking new Garmin Edge 840 and the considerably much less spanky however nonetheless very slicing Edge 1040 in about 9 phrases.
The 2 key variations are:
If you would like extra show acreage and you’ve got pockets which are shallower and arms which are longer than mine, purchase the 1040. In any other case, it’s the 840.
So it is a brief submit.
You’re welcome and see you subsequent week. Strive the veal.
However the Google-gods received’t shine their search engine glory lens on this derisory effort, so right here’s a number of extra phrases in your eyeholes.
The Edge 1040 and 840 Are Each High Finish Bike Computer systems
In truth they’re the tippiest of the toppiest.
The 1040, launched in June 2022, is Garmin’s flagship Edge mannequin. The 1040 was the primary Edge to function Garmin’s considerably improved consumer interface (lowering the consumer of menu after nested menu) and consists of all the subtle coaching, security and navigation options that our tiny little humanoid brains might comprehend.
The Edge 1040 was additionally the primary biking GPS to function photo voltaic charging, should you have been ready to pay a soupçon extra for that possibility.
The Edge 840, launched in April 2023, is principally all of that, simply in a extra diminutive kind issue (or, to non-purveyors of wank phrases, ‘it’s smaller’).
It shares basically of all the identical software program options because the 1040, together with the up to date and improved UI. It additionally has photo voltaic glass as an possibility. Just like the 1040, it comes blessed with a holy USB-C charging aperture.
However wait. Earlier than you suppose the 840 introduced nothing to the connection, we should always speak about ClimbPro.
ClimbPro On The Edge 1040 and 840
ClimbPro is the devoted display that pops up on Edge gadgets when you find yourself… er, climbing.
In earlier variations of the function, after you had uploaded a path to your system, the Edge would establish any climbs and current attention-grabbing stats about each (gradient, size, metres ascended, time within the ‘loss of life zone’).
Whence driving one among these climbs, the ClimbPro information display would pop as much as present progress and, importantly, ‘please, Mercx, [gasp] HOW MUCH IS FUGGING LEFT?’.
The Edge 1040 and 840 nonetheless have all the prevailing ClimbPro fandango however now you don’t must be following a path to see it. As you free experience round, the 1040/840 will try to establish climbs in realtime and present the ClimbPro display everytime you’re on one.
This enhanced ClimbPro function, which excites my innards in a fashion that ought to disturb you, got here pre-baked into the Edge 840 at launch, with a firmware launch up-jizzling the 1040 software program at kind of the identical time.
So positive, in the end there’s no distinction between the 2 gadgets on the ClimbPro entrance, however I like to think about it because the 840’s small contribution to velo-manity.
However you got here for a comparability. And a comparability entails variations. So listed here are these variations.
The 1040 is Greater (And Heavier) Than the 840
Yawn.
Some gadgets are larger than others. Some gadgets’ moms are larger than different gadgets’ moms.
There are miniscule variations in width (the 1040 is like 1.5mm wider) and depth (I don’t know, a micron?). Lengthwise we’re speaking simply over 3cm (in imperial, simply over a choad).
There’s no draw back within the 1040 being larger. It’s modern and svelte (if these issues are totally different). In comparison with different touchscreen digital gadgets (let’s name them smartphones), it’s downright mini.
And I can’t settle for, not even from you, Cartwright, that the additional 45g weight bestowed upon the 1040 makes any distinction to anybody’s driving efficiency ever. Get down to five% physique fats after which we will speak.
Which Means The Edge 1040 Has Area For A Greater Show
The 1040 has a 3.5” show (I feel they specific this stuff because the diagonal size from nook to nook) while the 840 measures 2.6”. I suppose these screenstats are the identical as 1030 Plus/830 equivalents (I suppose I might verify…).
Neither show is especially ‘excessive def’. I may very well be mixing apples with hand grenades right here however while the 1040 sports activities a 282 x 470 pixel decision, the Hammerhead Karoo 2 (which undoubtedly does sport a excessive decision display) crams 480 x 800 pixels into its 3.2” display.
Anyway, the 1040 and 840 are equal when it comes to decision, the 1040 simply has extra display ‘actual property’ – by my calculations, 67% extra.
Whether or not you want that additional display area is as much as you. Eager navigators can actually make the case; everybody else might be pushed by need (aren’t all of us…).
The Mount Cleat Sort Thingy…
… as we highly-unqualified bike mechanics name it, is totally different.
On the 1040 it’s machined metallic, presumably aluminium, and, I’ve to say it, somewhat bling.
The 840 has the usual plastic model, albeit prime quality plastic (sure, my historical past diploma concerned a supplies science part).
Each cleaty-cleats embody {the electrical} contacts that permit holy communion with Garmin cost energy pack.
While We’re Speaking About Feelz (And Lookz)
The 1040 total appears a bit extra excessive finish (I imply, I suppose it’s).
In addition to the aforementioned (and considerably stunning) aluminium mount becoming (the 1030 Plus relied on good ol’ plastic), it has a two tone (black and gray) case design, unhelpfully hidden in my images by the stout rubbery sheath that comes with the 1040, free of charge.
The Begin/Pause and Lap buttons on the entrance fringe of the (Edge) 1040, and the charging port cowl betwixt them, have a gun-metal gray, metallic vibe to them (while in fact truly being good ol’ plastic).
Staying on the subject of buttons, the 1040 sticks with the historic Garmin touchscreen method of sporting solely three buttons (the 2 on the entrance edge, plus the On/Off button on the aspect). The 840 has gone a bit novel by including the additional 4 buttons seen on non-touchscreen gadgets just like the Edge 530 and now the 540.
So, if there are occasions, or situations, when you possibly can’t, received’t, merely WILL NOT! (ahem) use the touchscreen, then the buttons can be utilized to do the equal process (scroll by menus, choose an possibility, name in a tactical air strike).
Battery Life (Don’t Matter…)
It’s appears a number of the 1040’s additional heft accommodates a bigger battery. So, in contrast to me, it goes for longer.
Garminstats, primarily based on their ‘demanding’ situation – a great deal of sensors; super-duper satellite tv for pc monitoring; notification overload; and, er, messing round with it lots – declare a 1040 battery lifetime of as much as 35 hours, sans-solar, and as much as 45 hours avec du soleil (with photo voltaic…).
The 840 claims as much as 32 hours with photo voltaic and as much as 26 hours.
So there’s a distinction, however let’s have some contextual intercourse.
The equal declare for the 830 was ‘as much as 20 hours’ and the 1030 Plus is-was as much as 24 hours. Neither of the gadgets I personal really feel like over-demanding plug-cravers.
I feel we’re within the territory the place the battery life variations don’t matter an incredible deal to the huge variety of riders (and, sure, I agree that you are a particular snowflake and never in that huge quantity, however let’s get bare collectively bear with me).
There’ll all the time be some riders that want a really lengthy battery life. Even for these guys, each the 840 and the 1040 give over 24 hours – extra with the photo voltaic possibility – they usually can all the time complement with a cost energy pack. Perhaps they will persuade themselves that they want the 1040 to minimise cost nervousness.
For these of us within the remaining 99%, we’re absolutely at ranges right here the place can’t discover the distinction. I can’t keep in mind what I had for lunch yesterday, by no means thoughts whether or not I used to be aggravated the final time I needed to cost my bike GPS.
So, for me, the superb battery life field is ticked for each, and it’s probably not an element that drives my selection of which to purchase.
Ought to You Purchase The Photo voltaic Model Then?
You understand, to go the entire hog?
No.
Finest case, the photo voltaic possibility provides 10 hours (that’s on the 1040; for the 840, Garmin-specs declare a further 6 hours). However I don’t stay within the sunny uplands of ‘greatest case’. I actually don’t experience in them.
The 1040 non-solar possibility provides 35 hours of battery juice (supposedly).
Even permitting for a little bit of promo-exuberance and battery degradation over time, that’s one million extra hours than I want earlier than having to plug it in to cost.
So, for me, photo voltaic re-charging doesn’t pelvic-nudge the needle with enough thrust to justify the additional price and the slight influence on show visibility.
Simply my john-thomas price. Your photo voltaic achieve will in fact differ.
(In fact, I purchased each the Edge 1040 and 840 in photo voltaic variations as a result of I’m a grade A pork-whistle).
So Which Ought to You Purchase?
Effectively, Ray over at DC Rainmaker says that the brand new 840 occupies the candy spot within the tenderloin of the Garmin Edge vary.
Who am I to disagree with the Sage of Amsterdam?
On this case, I’ll play the satan’s avocet.
You should purchase the 1040.
Revel within the bigger display dimension.
Bask within the heat glow of ‘extra map’.
Know that you’ve got the toppest of the tippy prime bike laptop on the planet.
(And when you’ve tried that concept on for dimension, settle for that you simply maybe don’t need to spend one million billion {dollars}, and plump for the smaller however nonetheless immensely highly effective 840).
Are There Alternate options to the Edge 1040 and 840?
In fact!
You might purchase one of many older technology Edges, the 1030 Plus or the 830.
Each can be found at diminished costs and do 95% of the issues that you simply’ll realistically use on the 1040/840 (4% equates to the older route-based model of ClimbPro; 1% to ‘miscellaneous’).
I’ve acquired each and I like each. I wouldn’t have purchased the newer gadgets if it wasn’t to feed the ever-hungry maw of this bike-tech half-a-blog.
Except for that, if it’s touchscreen you’re after, I’d be contemplating the Hammerhead Karoo 2.
The battery life is a mere fraction of the Edges (albeit nice for my distances) and it doesn’t have the on-device coaching science-wizardry, however the matte color touchscreen is gorgeous and the consumer interface nearly shades the 1040/840, even regardless of current enhancements to the latter.
As we transfer to non-touchscreen options, we’re straying from the market phase that Garmin is concentrating on with the 1040 and 840. Nonetheless, if you wish to go there, my choose of the button poppers is the
