They don’t charge up at all when not being used, that was one reason i went for the solar, have a look at garmin forums.
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Go with non solar. I fell for the marketing and Garmin saying they charge up when left in the sun, and bought a 1040 solar. They don’t charge up, you could leave it in the sun for hours and the battery level will still be the same.
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I’ve not had the best of luck there 
My original 305 (circa 2007) failed just out of warranty, tbf to Garmin they said it was a common problem and the free replacement lasted till around 2012.
It was replaced by an 800 which I think died in 2015 after a soaking on the LBL (it had been problematic for months refusing to switch on without a hard wire usb straight to the mains, not pc before dying permanently).
That was replaced by a refurbed 1000 and I think it ran well for years until a user error wrecked it (throwing it under a dumper truck wasn’t the best idea, but tbf Garmin gave me a discount on a refurb)
The replacement 1000 refurb and that lasted to just over a year before failing just outside of refurb warranty the power button crumbled and was replaced by another refurbed which again failed in just over a year. That was replaced by garmin with a 1030 refurb/upgrade in 2021 and whilst it has mostly been good the sound chip over the last 6month has got erratic but whilst everything else is still working at that cost I’m not in a hurry to fix it 
I think thats 7 since 2007 (one failure was completely my fault though 
) and they have seen reasonable mileage, circa 155,000miles.
One of my mates though has still got his original 500 
Really, they don’t charge? That seems like a missed opportunity!
I can sort of see why - it might destroy the battery fairly quickly if it is constantely charging - but you’d think there was a way out of that. Maybe check charge frequently and switch charging off when at 100%, or similar.
If you check the 1040 thread you can see the documentation claims they do charge when off… But they don’t according to most people posting real world experience. Not sure I recall seeing an answer whether it was wrong in the book or if it was disabled after some issues. But it seems like they might have wanted to do it, but they don’t.
The only reason I’d consider solar is if it charged when it was off, I keep all my devices topped up, and have no plans to do any rides that I’d need it while riding (ok one event). But I like the idea of just never taking it off the bike if it did charge when in storage, especially going from an 800 to something that can finally sync wirelessly.
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Great information in this thread! I feel like the odds are high that Wahoo releases a computer with crazy battery and solar charging capabilities within the next couple of years, so I’ll probably hold out for that.
Sold my 1030 and 830 today knowing my 840 is due to arrive on Monday. Just my 2 ct.
I’m kind of hesitant to resell old Garmin devices.
I sold a varia and an 820 in 2020, and the purchaser (of both) flipped out 8 months later and has been publicly slamming me every chance they get. Wanted me to pay the Garmin replacement cost.
‘Well, sure, but I get the units back’ But I thought you would be reasonable! ‘Reasonable would have been a week later, not 32 weeks later!’
They even slandered me on the bike club classified section. 
They both held a charge, and worked fine.
EIGHT MONTHS LATER? Good grief…
But as DC commented, it’s essentially the same screen, and I think he said it’s a little darker too, but that might have been for the solar model. 
Its essentially the same screen in all the X40 models I believe but its certainly going from the vid a considerable step up from the previous X00-X30 models 
True. I thought the 1040 had slightly better screen resolution, but no. Though it sounds like the 1030 isn’t getting the new features. Hmm…
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Garmin has been doing software variants of the same hardware with minor changes to the hardware (touch screen, bigger storage, etc.) since the days of the GPSmap products. We even rolled out a version of the Nuvifone as a Wifi capable Car GPS, sans RF and other mobile apps. That was about 12-13 years ago.
Note: I worked for Garmin a while back 1998 - 2010. Just adding an anecdote.
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I’m sure they just throw on a faster chip, change the crystal, otherwise same board, and charge what they think they can get away with. DC, or GP went on a good rant about storage capacities too and how they need to provide more storage. Same chip size, they just have to want to do it.
'Please charge us more for the same board with a couple of different chips on it. 
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My day job involves helping companies that ‘simply throw on a faster chip’ and discover all types of issues that they can’t resolve themselves because the engineer that fixed it last time is no longer with the company. So yeah, hardware is insanely easy, software is insanely easy, why can’t all these companies charge $49 for a bike computer so the Internet stops whining!
Mine just arrived, 530 vs 840:
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I was being sarcastic in my comment. I was a programmer in a past life and always cringed when users assumed that ‘a simple little change’ would take minutes. Yeah, no… And hardware can be just as much of a headache for developers. If it was only that easy! The devil is in the details, and those details can come with a high price and a long delay.
My bad for not labeling my comment as sarcasm. The comment I was commenting on feed my sarcasm.
Garmin has been doing software variants of the same hardware with minor changes to the hardware (touch screen, bigger storage, etc.) since the days of the GPSmap products.
Or maybe I misread/interpreted what he was saying.
Whatever… We good?
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No worries it was a general comment to the interwebs!
I ordered my 840. I bought a 8 dollar case. Not paying gamins 20 dollar silicone case. The case I ordered was for the 830. So I will let everyone know if the 830 case fits. I like have different colored case for different bikes.
I look so forward to a touch screen and buttons!!!
On a side note, I had to switch from Wahoo to Garmin so I could upload rides on my Specialized Levo E-MTB through Connect. Just bought an (almost) brand new 530 on Amazon for $200.
Wahoo will upload the rides to Strava, but TrainerRoad will not auto import E-Bike rides from Strava into Trainerroad. This is a fail. You have to do each one individually and it’s time consuming.
E-MTB have TSS just like every other bike. I usually ride with no power assist and the power meter works well to measure watts. Plus since its 54 lbs, its an even better workout!
840 maps installed by default on a device purchased in USA:
and
and North America coverage:
and Europe coverage:
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If anyone is upgrading from something like a 520 or 530 or 820 or 830, here are a few screenshots.
After getting the 840 and pairing to Garmin Connect on my iPhone, I ran a bunch of updates. Then added a most/all of the widgets to the widget loop. Here is my first pass at “new to me” stuff coming from the 520 and 530:
Looks like I have a 2.5 hour endurance ride and I can see current temperature and wind speed plus the forecast for next 3 hours. Tapping on today’s workout:
informative, but a pretty boring workout. Thats why I ride outside
Tapping on the weather widget you can get the forecast:
Temperature, rain, and wind. Nice sunny afternoon here today.
Ok, back to the widget loop, lets scroll down one page:
again I added pretty much all the widgets, so we can see sunrise/sunset which I’ll either remove or move lower down the loop. You can see I’ve recently done 46 outside rides and 3 inside rides. Next is the Training calendar for the remainder of the week (yesterday it was empty - my day off). Tapping that widget leads me to this screen:
and tapping Training Plan:
those were all synced from TrainingPeaks to GC. Tapping on Monday and I can see whats coming up:
Kinda handy I guess, if I was on the road and wanted a reminder of whats coming up without having to pull out my phone.
Going back to this menu:
And tap on Workouts
looks like I can create a workout (the + symbol), but I didn’t tap that. Lets look at the suggested workout:
I pulled them up and they are basic workouts. Nothing wrong with that, just a little too basic for me after years of structured training. But a really good start for a newbie.
Back to the widget loop, the 3rd and 4th scrolls:
Those are all in the Garmin Connect app, but nice to see them here.
Cycling Ability is new to me, lets look:
I guess thats the nice way to call me a diesel with a low W/kg and the analysis:
What can I do about it? Well lets start with Aerobic Capacity “higher intensity aerobic workouts” which I would normally think of as 5-min efforts, but that was in the Anaerobic Capacity bucket. And I’ve been focusing on increasing short power, even set a 2-min all-time power PR recently. So lets look at power curves for the last 3 months and scroll to to 10/20/30-min chart:
Yeah a big drop from 20-min (recent field test) to 30-min power because of the recent focus on short power.
Ok this is the ‘human powered analysis’ - maybe target 30 minutes? Lets look at recent 30 day load focus:
definitely been slacking the last 4 weeks on sweet spot and just doing maintenance short threshold work, while I did a rebuild on endurance and an anaerobic battery recharge.
Ok, for Aerobic Endurance it said I should put out more power (increase intensity) on long rides:
205 is the top of my zone2 / bottom of zone3, so I’m doing good at 2 hours and need to extend that out longer. Well the 840 is not showing any detail between 2 hour and 5 hours, so not going to do that analysis on the 840.
Back on a mobile or computer, lets look at the long end of the power duration curve. I’m pulling out WKO, but you could do the same in Intervals or TR or Strava GoldenCheetah or Garmin Connect or whatever.
definitely been slacking on the longer 2.5+ hour rides. And longer tempo/SS rides. Thats partly life interfering with training, partly a focus on short power to prepare for weekly Wed rides, and partly slacking on the longer rides.
Hope that helps anyone interested in making the jump from a 520/530 to the 840.
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