Garmin has released its public beta of Edge 1050 features for the Edge 540/840/1040 devices.
This means that anyone who wants to report the angry dog in the road as a “traffic hazard” (or Dairy Queen as an obstruction) can now do so. All of the non-hardware features of the Edge 1050 were released in public beta last night for the Edge 540, 840 and 1040. The Edge Explore 2 public beta has not yet been released.
I’d like to quickly note that I believe this is the first time Garmin has actually released both a new device and beta firmware for existing devices on the *same day*. In the past, new features have taken anywhere from weeks to “never” to come out for older devices. When I met with the Edge team earlier this month, they said their goal was to release the device on the same day as the Edge 1050. I smiled and said “That’s awesome!” while mentally saying “Uh-yeah… sure you will, like my kids pick up Legos off the floor.” So kudos to them for actually doing it.
I firmly believe that it makes a difference from a brand perception perspective when companies do that. It’s become a little more popular in recent years, but it’s still quite rare to do these things at the same time.
But now to the details!
The new features:
If you want to see the full release notes, you can find the details for the 23.09 public beta here:
– Garmin Edge 540/840 public beta
– Public beta version of the Garmin Edge 1040
As a reminder, Garmin switched to WiFi downloads a long time ago (so you no longer have to manually copy files back and forth), so all you need to do is toggle the beta option for your device on Garmin Connect:
Now let’s get to the main features (more are listed in the release notes above, which are minor things or bug fixes). I’ve included screenshots showing 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 the climbing challenges/competitions during the ride and the post-ride awards. Here is the award for the climbing excursion during the ride:
And then after the ride, with my wife the other day on the Edge 840 Beta and myself on the Edge 1050:
Added GroupRide incident detection: If you have an accident while riding in a group, the others in your group will be notified with a very loud and audible alarm. Your friends won’t miss it even if they miss you.
Added support for road hazards: It allows you to both report and see hazards on the road (dangerous animals, obstacles, potholes, slippery spots and general hazards). You can then confirm/reject any detected hazards. This is what an upcoming hazard looks like, first the little red block and then when you tap on it to see more details:
Added support for surface types, including on the map: These include warnings about unpaved roads while driving and road surface types in the post-trip summary. Here is an example of an upcoming surface warning:
Added support for downloading Wi-Fi maps (840/1040 only): This eliminates the need to connect a computer to download maps for other regions or update your existing maps. This now works over WiFi. The Edge 540 is not supported due to memory issues.
Garmin Share added: It lets you transfer courses, locations and workouts directly to other Garmin devices without the need for an internet connection. This is similar to the transfer features of the past, but has been completely redesigned and is set to become the new standard for Garmin cycling devices, wearables and other devices (you’ll see it in the next public betas of the Garmin Fenix 7/Epix series).
Revised course editor added (840/1040 only): This allows you to create multi-point courses directly on the device (as opposed to the previous round-trip and one-way courses).
Added Wind and Stamina adjustments to the Power Guide: Essentially, PowerGuide now takes into account cases where your stamina has dropped too quickly or wind conditions have changed.
Updated evaluation algorithm for a significantly faster response: I explained this in my review, but in short, this makes the gradient response, e.g. when you have a short/steep section that goes from 0% to 10% quickly, almost instantaneous. It now matches or beats the Hammerhead and Wahoo in my testing.
Final thoughts:
As always, remember that this is a (public) beta, so there will likely be quirks and things that need to be worked out. I’ve been riding on the Edge 1050 software versions for a while and that’s been very stable. But I haven’t spent much time on the Edge 540/840/1040 public betas. My wife has ridden the Edge 840 beta a few times though and has survived so far. However, some features like Garmin Share between the Edge 840 beta and the Edge 1050 seemed a bit… beta (worked fine for me from Edge 1050 to Edge 1050). But again, that’s the point of the beta.
As for other features, you won’t see things like the bike bell or a completely redesigned UI, as both require new hardware found on the Edge 1050. In the case of the bike bell, that requires the new speaker hardware that can play spoken words and more (as opposed to a simple beeper on the Edge 540/840/1040). And then the new UI requires a much faster processor, which you’ll find in the dual-core processor on the new Edge 1050.
But otherwise, virtually every other feature has been carried over. Garmin says they see the Edge 1040/1040 Solar as a core part of the lineup for those who want longer battery life, and it will continue to receive feature updates like the Edge 1050. Hopefully it stays that way for a long time.
With that in mind – thanks for reading!
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