Excellent review as always from @dcrainmaker only the 840 watched so far, but sounds like the preferred one.
I’m curious if the “climb pro” thing works off road (eg MTB) or does it rely on Garmin’s wealth of road maps from the car side?
I’ll watch the 540 review. I have only had my 530 for a year. It’s been fantastic, but I need to see more specifically the differences in the all the training metrics/features.
@dcrainmaker , do you think they’d do a 140 solar?
I updated to the beta 17.09 1040 firmware before I went for a ride ~2 hours ago and can confirm the new ClimbPro is present and working.
Ordered an 840 today. Solar seems cool, but I hardly ever do rides over 3 hours so for me at least doesn’t seem worth the extra $$$.
I bought a 1040 last year and it was a great unit but I just couldn’t get over the size. Liked it a lot at first as it was cool to have a new headunit, but just seemed like overkill on my bike as I’m mostly a gravel and MTB rider now. Found myself using my 530 for most of my rides and leaving the 1040 at home so I sold it a few months ago.
Touch screen on the 1040 worked well for me so hopefully will be the same for the 840.
one of the DCR videos had a climb that went from road to off-road.
Yeah, I saw that one. That’s why I asked. That one looked like a relative well used road that became unsealed.
I guess I’m asking if it will work on trails, or fire roads etc, using topographic data, or does it rely on previously mapped roads from their database (and thus mostly sealed, with probably a reasonable capturing of gravel/unsealed roads that are well used by cars) 
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This is the first time I’ve felt a little Garmin lust in a long time. I finally bought a 530 (from a 510) out of frustration. My 510 stopped syncing over bluetooth after some software update. It still works fine otherwise.
Maybe when I see an 840 for 20% off some day I’ll think about an upgrade.
In GPLama’s video he went MTB’ing and it showed all the nearby climbs.
The devices seem to rely on preloaded maps on the device, which do include worldwide MTB trail data from Trailforks as per the 840 product page:
Ride with preloaded maps that include worldwide MTB trail data from Trailforks.
@GPLama video and prediction discussion is excellent.
I am curious to see what “hardware” changes could have/may happen in the future. It seems to me the Hammerhead path of repurposing phone hardware into a bike computer is not quite there in terms of battery usage (I’m also nervous about the robustness).
I do really wish (and expected it from the 40 series) they would do the bigger memory and a SIM port for phone-less livetrack.
Used extensively off road at Rebecca’s Private Idaho, Tahoe Trail 100, Fort Ord and numerous State and County parks in California. Apart from the offset error (which we know how to avoid now) it’s VERY nice to have knowing just how far you are into that 3-6 mile mixed surface climb…
Solar is not strong enough in terms of voltage to charge the unit on its own but the battery will last you longer when the device is on and recording a ride.
Currently on a Garmin 1000 that gets about 6-7 hours of battery life at best and is starting to act a little weird. Def want to upgrade and I do like the look of the 840 but £429.99 is the cheapest I can see it at. The 1040 is “only” £467.99 hmmmmm
Does size matter … to you? 
Completely agree. I think the 820 had some general quality issues. Once the battery on mine became unusable, I picked up a 530.
Now, I’m looking longingly at the 840, since it is touchscreen and buttons.
After watching/reading the reviews, I’m no longer as tempted to upgrade from my 830.
Since moving from a Edge 500, to Wahoo Bolt V1, and back into a Edge 830 I’ve been very happy with the 830. Excellent battery life and zero bugs to report.
Works well on random MTB trails and gravel. There’s a few examples in my ClimbPro video (and HH comparisons)
I’m a bit dissappointed that the 540 got bigger again. I liked the size of the 520. The way that it’s going, they could have just called all of the new devices versions of the 840, just with and without touchscreen.
Not really finding a reason to upgrade from my 530, I don’t even like the current climbpro, everything around here is short and steep, I don’t really like seeing a reminder of how steep!
Thanks to the release, the price drop on a 830 makes it into my price range. Amazon order incoming!
Got the 1040 solar recently, but thinking about returning and going with the 840 solar. 1040 screen size is overkill, and battery life stepping down to the 840 isn’t that significant (easy enough to carry an extra battery for ultras).
Seems like the 840 has all the other features of the 1040.
REI doesn’t have the 840 solar listed yet though. Hopefully they do soon.
I’ve been running the 830 since it came out, and have had great luck with it, and can get around 15 hours of battery life during recent Ultras. The small screen left me wanting a bit during Stagecoach400 when trying to navigate trails on the route, so last week I ordered the 1040 Non-Solar for Europe for only $530 shipped and have zero regrets(although I have yet to use it). I knew the 840 was coming, but I think the larger screen will be a worthy upgrade for navigation aspect for me. I’ll know after a few rides if I keep the 830 for daily use, but I’d like to just use the 1040 if I can get used to the form factor of it, and assuming it fits all my out-front mounts. The little bit of extra battery charging the Solar version offered wasn’t that appealing to me in exchange for what looks to be a bit less “clarity” on the display and the additional upfront cost.
The buttons and touchscreen really make me want to upgrade my 830. I was really considering jumping ship to wahoo, but having a hard time convincing myself wahoo, in its current form, will exist in a year…
I ride road but it’s purely training for mtb and cx, so between finger protection on the mtb and warmth for cx, a lot of my riding is in full finger gloves. Even “touch screen gloves” are ok at best