Garmin EDGE800 Review

"If you’ve been shy of getting into GPS, this new 800 will convert you. Touchscreen and OS maps make it our top choice"

With a touchscreen display and improved interface, the Edge 800 is an excellent successor to Garmin’s popular Edge 705 GPS bike computer. It’s easier to use and offers significant new features over the 705 including compatibility with a wider range of maps (including Ordnance Survey in the UK), temperature, and improved calorie counting.

The new full-colour, backlit display is 160x240 pixels, which is just big enough to make the detail of a 1:50,000 map useful. The resistive 37x55mm touchscreen – it needs pressure to activate it – uses an Apple iPhone-style swipe to switch displays, and provides a big target when you need to press a virtual button. It works fine in full-finger gloves or with numb hands, making it ideal for winter riding, and makes it easy to spell place names.
Ride data is presented in three customisable screens with up to 10 pieces of information on each, with each digit measuring at least 5mm tall. We configured our test unit to show all of our important ride data on one page, important time info (such as time of day and sunset) on another, and key post-ride data on a third.
Available data now available includes temperature, which is useful for training analysis and for showing off how hardcore you are. A notable improvement over the 705 is heart-rate-based calorie computation: the 800 gives a reasonably accurate figure for the total work on your ride, unlike the 705’s rather vague estimate.