Review on 🚴 Enhance Your Cycling Experience with the Garmin Edge 810 GPS Bike Computer by Gregory Sirgio

Garmin Edge 810 is good. I'm hesitating between three and four stars. The device itself is very beautiful. Battery life with GPS running is stable. Screen quality is pretty decent, but it's not the crisp, high-resolution screen you're probably used to seeing on your phone or tablet, for example. The first one I got had a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen, and it's one of those things that once you notice it, you never _not_ notice it anymore. The return process was quite easy and the exchange went well. I haven't used the Bluetooth capabilities yet, so I can't comment on that. Creating workouts on the device itself (rather than through Garmin Connect) is fairly easy, as is the overall configuration and initial setup of the device. I have two main problems with this device (so far): 1. Cards. After spending $500 on a bike computer, it's a bit of a shame that the device doesn't come with maps. All those pretty turn-by-turn navigation shots? Yes, that's not immediately possible with the Edge 810. It has only major and minor roads, which are basically main highways, and nothing else. To get all the navigation features that make the Edge 810 cool, you'll have to pay Garmin another $80 for the maps. At least that's what Garmin wants you to believe. There are free maps that you can download to your device without paying Garmin a dime. All you need is a 4 GB microSD card and maps from OpenStreet Maps. The process is detailed on RideWithGPS: http://ridewithgps.com/edge_8102. Unreliability when connecting to a computer. At least half the time you connect a device to your computer, Windows will say it's an unrecognized device. It seems there is a problem with the drivers. Garmin acknowledges this issue, but instead of fixing it, they only offer a workaround: with the device powered off, press and hold the LAP button while connecting the USB cable to the computer. Keep doing this until you get an Unidentified Device pop-up in Windows - this may take a few tries. My other issues are mostly with Garmin Connect, their web-based system for managing profiles, workouts, etc. It's a great tool (and it's free), but some things about it are pretty confusing and not particularly optimized. I think overall it's a great learning tool. It has its own quirks and issues, but you can work around one of those issues by getting free maps, and hopefully Garmin will fix the other issues.