Garmin Edge 840 Solar

Garmin has updated its mid-range computers, and the Garmin Edge 840 Solar is one of the new products resulting from that revamp – with its solar charging increasing its battery life by an impressive amount. It's also user-friendly, has excellent resistance to the elements and it's capable of doing way more things than I need it for. Yes, the purchase price represents a big chunk of cash, but if you ride a lot and want the maximum amount of info possible the investment may well be worth it for you.

Check out our best cycling computers buyer's guide, which covers our favourite products from just £50.

Getting Started

Garmin released its range-topping Edge 1040 last year – and earlier this year was the turn of the units sitting below that, with the 530 and 830 becoming the 540 and 840. Garmin has also added solar charging to the mix, and its the 840 Solar that we're reviewing here.

Tom reviewed the 540 Solar in July and his feelings about it were mixed. He found a lot of things that impressed him, but also quite a few that he found a bit frustrating – my feelings on the 840 Solar are more uniformly positive.

One of the reasons could be that I'm a long-term Garmin user. I've used GPS computers from Bryton, Mio and Wahoo over the years, but it's Garmin that I'm most familiar with in terms of where to find things, setting up data pages and the like.

I currently own an Edge 530 and various Fenix watches and I've had the Garmin Connect app for years, and whenever I add a new device to my account I find the integration is simple and seamless.

But even if you are starting from scratch, it's not that difficult. I found this out recently when I set up accounts for my teenager and wife to facilitate their Garmin watches, which was all done without any glitches.

One thing for sure: you can get a lot of data from Garmin's Edge computers, and working your way through them can be a steep learning curve as you try to remember where everything is. But depending on how much data you want to use and collect you'll soon find your way around things.

One of the most obvious benefits of the 840 over the 540 is that it has a touchscreen – and a responsive one at that. This makes it much easier to navigate backwards and forwards through menus. It does also have buttons, for power and stop/start, which does take a little while to get used to, but if you are using it regularly these soon become second nature.

I'd say the best thing to do is to spend some time getting familiar with the unit before you head out for a ride. That way you'll find things a lot less frustrating in the long run.

Battery life

Garmin gives various battery life figures for the 840 depending on whether you're using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and sensors attached using ANT+.

With the basic GPS on and just recording your ride data you should be able to achieve a claimed 48 hours, whereas with the kind of load I was using – Multi-GNSS Multi-band GPS, data recording every second, two or three sensors connected – heart rate and power – and connecting to my phone via Bluetooth, I still managed to string the battery out for over 26 hours, which pretty much matches what Garmin claims for mid-level usage.

Add the Solar claims to that and you are looking at 78 hours for the minimal drain and 34 hours for the mid-level.

The solar panels sit around the outside of the screen, and they will only charge the battery when the unit is powered on or in sleep mode. Sadly, you can't just leave it switched off on the window sill to top up between rides!

During summer heatwaves I could achieve a battery boost of just under 30% when riding under a clear sky in conditions about as perfect as you could get. This isn't bad considering just how little area the solar cells take up.

We don't actually have weather like that much here in the UK, so I'd say you're likely to get around 15-20% for most of the year. That obviously drops as autumn blends into winter when you'll be gaining quite minor benefits from the solar panels.

The Solar version is £70 more expensive than the standard 840 and unless you regularly tackle long-distance rides, or are going to be away from a charging point for a long time, I personally don't see the point in paying the premium – though you may think differently.

When it comes to charging the old-fashioned way, Garmin has moved to USB-C for the 840, a welcome improvement over the earlier version's micro-USB

Plug it into a wall socket and it will fully charge from flat in around four to five hours.

Navigation, mapping and connectivity

The 840 comes loaded with a full-colour, routable basemap, which considering the 2.6in (66mm) screen size and 246 x 322 pixel resolution is very easy to read, and routes are easy to follow with on-screen prompts helping out regardless of what data screen you are on.

Re-routing and calculations are carried out quickly too.

You can add maps if you're venturing away from the UK and mainland Europe thanks to the device's 32GB storage capacity.

You can also create your own courses to follow and store up to 100 on the device itself along with 200 waypoints, favourite places or locations.

In terms of navigation on the fly you can search addresses and points of interest, and to facilitate this the GPS connection is not only quick to latch on and stable in use, it's also extremely precise.

The only minor quibble is that you can't add a destination by way of a full postcode, which you can on your phone or on most car satnavs.

For example, if I was heading to the road.cc office and searched BA1 1JB the 840 Solar will say 'not found'. I'd have to put in BA1 1 and hit search, then I'd have to add the street name and then the number. It's not a major issue, but it feels a bit more of a faff than it needs to be.

As with everything else on the Edge, you can tweak the navigation settings to the Nth degree in its various menus.

Part of the navigation whether gives you access to ClimbPro, a neat feature that gives you details and data of upcoming ascents. Originally, it would only work with pre-loaded routes, allowing you to see which climbs were on your route ahead of time, and when you're riding it would tell you how far it is to the next climb, showing the climb data for when you reach the base.

It doesn't just work on the road either – it gives you data for gravel routes, byways and so on.

ClimbPro now comes with a Free-Ride mode so it switches to the ClimbPro page when riding without following a route, should you want it to.

Other neat features are Garmin's Livetrack and Incident Detection – Livetrack lets you share location with people you specify while Incident Detection sends a text message with your location to your stored contact or contacts should things go a little pear shaped. I found it worked well, and while it did send out a few false alerts, you do have around 15 seconds to cancel the alarm before the text is sent.

You can also keep in touch with the rest of the world when you're riding, as the 840 will show any messages received from your phone.

If you have an Android phone connected to the Garmin you can also respond to phone calls with a text.

Thanks to a full suite of Bluetooth, ANT+ and Wi-Fi your Edge 840 will connect with pretty much every sensor going, from heart rate monitors, power meters to speed and cadence sensors, and many many more. They don't necessarily need to be Garmin devices either.

You can connect electronic groupsets too, which will allow you to see your battery level and what gear you're in.

Training & Analysis

If you are following a training plan or want to start one, then you won't be surprised to hear that the 840 has access to a plethora of options.

After each ride you can get a breakdown of all of your stats and data, including things like training status, VO2 Max and pretty much everything else you can think of. All of this data is uploaded to Garmin Connect once you save the ride, which allows you to look over things when you have finished.

It also helps you build up a picture as you spend more time riding on how you are responding and feeling. I found a lot of this data very useful when returning to riding after a bout of pneumonia earlier in the year. With all of the data I had built up from Garmin's devices over the years I could easily detect peaks and troughs in my performance and wellbeing, which allowed me to back off when necessary.

Training plans and workouts can be used, and they adapt to recent metrics uploaded from previous rides or those being constantly uploaded from wearing a Garmin smartwatch.

If you have a power meter you can tailor your training using Power Glide, which gives you the ability to ride to certain output targets and will also give you predicted times to finish the route you have uploaded depending on your average power.

It's an ideal way to pace a route or race.

You can also program in nutrition and hydration alerts to make sure you don't want to run out of fuel, and you can also see a break down of your stamina on a ride.

Value

The standard Edge 840 has an RRP of £449.99 while this Solar version costs £529.99.

In the box you'll find the unit itself, a secure-fitting, bulky but sturdy out-front mount, standard stem/bar mount, USB charge cable and manual.

By comparison the 540 Solar costs £449.99 with the standard non-solar model £349.99, but I would definitely go for the 840 over the 540 purely for the touchscreen interaction.

Early this year I reviewed the Bryton Rider S800E, its flagship model that costs £339.99. You aren't getting solar charging, but you do get a much bigger 3.4in colour touch screen, which is closer to the Garmin 1030.

There is no Wi-Fi, but that's hardly a deal breaker, but you do get Bluetooth and ANT+ giving you full compatibility with sensors and your smartphone. Its 36-hour claimed battery is similar to what Garmin claims you'll get from its non-solar 840.

The Hammerhead Karoo 2 scored highly when reviewed by Anna a few years back, thanks to its large 3.2in screen and easy functionality. There are no solar charging cells, but it is much cheaper than the standard 840 at £359.99.

The Hammerhead doesn't have all the 840's training capabilities, so it really boils down to just what you want from your bike commuter.

Conclusion

I think the value and desirability of the Edge 840 Solar comes down to exactly what you're looking for from your computer. If you just want mapping and ride data, then it's probably a bit overkill, and you can spend a lot less either on Garmin's lower-end but still highly effective devices or those from other brands.

It's the same with Garmin's Solar option too. Put simply, most of us really don't need it and I personally don't think it's worth the extra £70 unless you're on a remote adventure, when charging your unit the usual way may not be possible.

If you want a computer that can be a training companion, data recorder and a bridge between your bike and your smart phone then the Edge 840 can't really be faulted. But if you don't need the extended battery life plump for the standard version.

Verdict

A very impressive all-singing, all-dancing device offering navigation, data recording and full training partner