Garmin has released its public beta version of the Edge 1050 features for the Edge 540/840/1040 units.
This allows those eager to start reporting that rabid dog on the street as a “road hazard” (or the Dairy Queen as an obstruction) to do so now. All the non-hardware features of the Edge 1050 were released last night in a public beta for the Edge 540, 840, 1040. The public beta of the Edge Explore 2 hasn’t fully shown up yet.
I just want to confirm that I think this is the first time that Garmin has actually downloaded a new device + beta firmware for an existing device on the *same day*. Historically, this gap in new features coming to older devices has been anywhere from weeks to “never”. Earlier this month, when I met with the Edge team, they said their goal was to release it on the same day as the Edge 1050. I smiled and said, “That’s cool!” while in my head I said “Uh-huh. ..you’ll definitely love my kids picking up Legos on the floor.” So kudos to them for actually pulling it off.
I legitimately think it makes a difference in terms of brand perception when companies do this. It’s become a bit more popular in the last few years, but it’s still somewhat rare to do things like this concurrently.
In any case, to the details!
New features:
If you’d like to see the full release notes, details on the 23.09 public beta can be found here:
– Garmin Edge 540/840 Public Beta
– Garmin Edge 1040 Public Beta
As a reminder, Garmin has long ago switched to WiFi downloads (so you don’t have to manually copy files back and forth), so just switch the beta option for your device on Garmin Connect:
Anyway, let’s get down to the big ticket features (more on that in the release notes above, which are minor things or fixes). I’ve included screenshots of how it looks on the Edge 1050, although the functionality is the same on the Edge 540/840/1040.
Added GroupRide awards and climbing competitions: This includes both mid-ride Climb challenges/competitions and post-ride prizes. Here’s the price for a mid-ride climb:
And then after a ride, with my wife on the Edge 840 beta last night and me on the Edge 1050:
Added GroupRide Incident Detection: Now, in GroupRide, if you crash, it alerts others in your group with a very loud and prominent warning. Your friends won’t miss it even if they miss you.
Added support for road hazards: This allows you to report road hazards (dangerous animals, obstacles, potholes, slippery material and general hazards) but also see them. You can then confirm/decline any hazards you see. Here’s what the upcoming danger looks like, first a small red block and then when you tap on it, more details will appear:
Added surface type support including on the map: This includes upcoming alerts for unpaved roads and road surface types in a post-drive summary. Here’s an example of an upcoming surface alert:
Added Wi-Fi map download support (840/1040 only): This eliminates the need to connect a computer to download maps for other regions or to update existing maps. Now it will be via WiFi. Edge 540 is not supported due to memory issues.
Added Garmin sharing: This allows you to transfer courses, locations and workouts to other Garmin devices directly, without the need for an internet connection. It’s kind of like the transmission capabilities of the old days, but completely redesigned and designed to become the new standard for Garmin cycling devices, wearables and more (you’ll see this in the next public betas of the Garmin Fenix 7/Epix series).
Added improved Odds Builder (840/1040 only): This allows you to create multi-point rates directly on the unit versus the previous roundtrip and one-way only rates.
Added Wind and Stamina adjustments to Power Guide: PowerGuide will now basically take into account when your stamina is draining too quickly or the wind conditions have changed.
Updated ranking algorithm to be much more responsive: I outlined this in my review, but in a nutshell it makes the gradient response, for example when you have a short/steep section that goes from 0% to 10% quickly, almost instantaneous. It is now on par or better than Hammerhead and Wahoo in my testing.
Final Thoughts:
As always, keep in mind that this is a (public) beta version. There will probably be oddities and things that need to be fixed. I’ve been running software versions of the Edge 1050 for a while and it’s been very stable. I haven’t spent much time on the Edge 540/840/1040 public betas though. Although my wife has had a few runs on the Edge 840 beta and so far it has survived. Still, some features like Garmin Share between Edge 840 beta and Edge 1050 seemed a bit…beta (worked fine for me Edge 1050 to Edge 1050). But then again, that’s the point of a beta.
As for other features, you won’t see things like a bike bell or a completely redesigned UI, as both of those require new hardware that you’ll find on the Edge 1050. For the bike bell, that requires new speaker hardware capable of spoken word and more (unlike simple beep on Edge 540/840/1040). And then the new user interface requires a significantly faster processor, which we find in the dual-core processor compared to the new Edge 1050.
But otherwise, virtually all other features have been removed. Garmin says it sees the Edge 1040/1040 Solar as an essential part of the lineup for those who want longer battery life, and it will continue to receive feature updates like the Edge 1050. Let’s hope it stays that way for a long time.
With that – thanks for reading!
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