Originally Posted by
njkayaker
The Karoo is basically a phone.
There are no other cycling cycling computers that come close (as far as I can tell).
Having long runtimes and something not too big are things many people want in a cycling computer.
The Karoo 2 has marginal battery life (5h, I believe).
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Hammerhead states "
Karoo 2 is estimated to achieve between 7 and 14+ hours of battery life depending on the features employed during usage"
My experience after a month of use has been 8% hr., or 12 hours. I always use a speed sensor, 1/2 time a Di2 connection. It does a little worse if navigating. I've been paying attention to this and have 21 rides on the Karoo 2.
My experience with Live Track on a Garmin is it neither runs the battery life down, nor runs the phone battery down, to any extent I could determine. I was enabling it every ride. I was pretty much always getting 5% hr. usage on my 1030 (except when using navigation), which is the stated 20 hrs. Thats not to say LT was reliable, I'd say about 60% reliable at reporting my location. The Karoo 2 uses either a SIM card or a phone with hotspot enabled to use its LiveTrack feature. I did one ride with LT and hotspot and didnt really notice any unusual phone or device battery drain, I need to play with it more often though.
Garmins (at least my 1030) I believe can have a number of preset text replies ready to go - "I'll call you back", " got your text and will call you", etc.... ready as a one button push.