grwoolf

Santa brought me a new Garmin Edge 500 today and I gave it a quick test today.

I've been using a Forerunner 305 and the Edge 500 has a pretty similar set of features, but in a bike-specific package that also supports power (on my wish list for the coming year).

Here are my initial impressions:

I like the size of the unit and the mounting system seems to work very well (you lock the unit in with a 90 degree turn).

The unit immediately recognized my existing cadence and HR monitor, so setup was simple.

You can customize each of 3 screens with up to 8 data fields and it is still very legible. This was a big improvement over the 4 fields available on my Forerunner 305 since I hate flipping between screens while riding.

I read that the calorie counter is much more accurate on this model and includes heart rate in the calculation. I compared my ride today to a similar ride with my 305 and the calories burned were about half on the Edge 500 vs. the 305. The numbers seem much more reasonable. I don't really track calories , but this seems like a valuable improvement for some.

Overall, I think the 500 a nice GPS unit for a reasonable price for people that don't care about mapping. Even more so if you have/want a power meter. The unit retails for $249, but my wife got it at the LBS for $199 with an x-mas coupon (that price is without the cadence pickup and HR strap). I imagine prices will be dropping once the 500 has been out a little longer.