Originally Posted by
Koyote
To provide some thread closure: I just recently bought the Garmin Edge 530. Chose the 530 (over the 830) because I already have three pair of full-fingered riding gloves, none of which have those touchpad-compatible fingertips - so the 530's pushbuttons (and $100 lower price) were appealing to me.
Chose Garmin not for any particular features, but b/c some of the features seem preferable to me: being able to switch screens (rather than zooming in an out to change the number of data fields), slightly better integration with Di2, slightly more sophisticated navigation, etc.
The device has an extremely steep (for me) learning curve: have had to post a few questions to a Garmin users' forum and call CS twice just to get certain features set up properly. (Wahoo MUST be better in this regard....It could not be worse.) However, I think I am close to having it configured as per my preferences, and have ridden 3x with it and had no problems. But seriously, if I run into one more roadblock with the setup, I may return it (to REI) and get a Wahool Bolt. It really is that difficult, and the Garmin online manual is not very useful.
My first GPS was an 810 and like you, didn't find the device easy to get configured, they just put key things all over the place it seems. That unit was a POS, sold it, got a Bolt, found the smartphone app easier, but only as it was different. Returned it as I couldn't read the TBT screen while wearing sunglasses, got an Edge 1000. After setting up the 810, it was a piece of cake. Ditto the 1030, I understood Garmin logic at that point so consider it a learning curve. In truth, it's just different then a Wahoo, not worse or better.. The pdf manual from Garmin is maybe better then the Wahoo and it still sucks. They seem to tell you that features exist, but not how to actually use them. And only SOME features.