MikeDeason

Possibly dumb question but what are the
advantages ?

I have a retired iPhone 10 sitting in a drawer

i dont go off the grid. I like the grid.

PeteHski

Battery life and ANT+ sensor connectivity. You might as well try the iPhone first seeing as you already have one.

terrymorse 

And more accurate GPS location, or so it seems.

Steve B.

You have the phone, get an app like Ride With GPS and give it a whirl. General complaints are screen on all the time displaying data kills the battery. hard to read screen on bright day or sunlight. less rugged and not waterproof, if that matters. Garmin comes with a few useful mounts vs. having to buy a quad lock.

PeteHski

Is that true? They both seem very accurate to me. Is the Garmin using a different GPS tech?

terrymorse 

I don't know. I've used both Garmin and iPhone (RideWithGPS), and it seemed that the Garmin tracks jumped around substantially less.

Maybe the sampling rate is higher on the Garmin. I have mine set to 1 second.

downtube42

Depends on the use case.

​​​​​​Buy one of those phone holders, throw it on, and see if it works for you. Apple designed their phone to ride in your pocket and see occasional weather. How well it works for you depends on how much your riding deviates from their design capabilities.

Jughed

My Garmin will last 15+ hours on a charge. The iPhone is smoked in 2.

Easy connection to all my sensors- cadence, power, speed, heart rate…

The mapping function is decent.

Crash detection that will send emergency texts, and I’ve used it.

SoSmellyAir

1. Battery life. On an iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought 2 or 3 weeks after release), Ride with GPS iOS app uses ~ 15% battery per half hour of navigation plus Varia monitoring.
2. Climb Pro tells you how much more suffering on the current climb.
3. Better water resistance.

Steve B.

New Garmin’s, like the 1040, go 35 hrs. easily,

Jughed

Mine will get more than 15, Probaby well over 20. I usually charge it at 30%.

Koyote

Easily. If not following a gps route, mine will get close to 45 hours.

genejockey 

My iPhone is a lot larger than my Garmin (13 vs 520). This may not be a problem for you, but the aesthetics of a phone on the handlebars doesn't work for me.

shelbyfv

iphone will be fine for anything OP will do. Get Strava or RWGPS.

MikeDeason

Waterproof is a plus. Battery life I’m ok with the phone. GPS on phone seems reliable. I can’t see Garmin having a better tech.

I like the radar safety integration and that may sell it if there’s no way to do that on iPhone.

Aubergine 

On the other hand, my iPhone does everything I need for just riding around, as well as for much longer rides (up to 70 miles). I don't keep the phone on all the time, so the battery life is acceptable.

PeteHski

That’s interesting. I didn’t realise you could change the sample rate on the Garmin. Mine is whatever the default is on an Edge 530

PeteHski

There is an iPhone App for the Varia, but I don’t know how it works with any other data you might want to display. On a Garmin Edge the Varia display works with any data field or map screen.

SoSmellyAir

There are two iOS apps that can run the Varia radar:
1. Varia™ on the App Store (apple.com)
2. Ride with GPS: Bike Navigation on the App Store (apple.com)

I find the Varia app on my iPhone to be a better Varia interface than my new Edge 540 GPS, but I need the latter for navigation.

Steve B.

I too find the Varia app to have better functionality then my 1040, but in reality outside of selecting which flash function, which the 1040 can do, there’s little need for the app. I just today realized I could add a data field that showed the Varia battery level on the 1040.

The Varia as well, is not a GPS device, so cannot be considered for what the OP wants to do,

MikeDeason

My bike comes with a Blendr stem but there’s no mount for a phone. Strange.

In the interest of keeping things clean I’ll get the Blendr computer mount and a Garmin Edge Explore 2

PeteHski

I think the OP was just interested in using a Varia with their chosen GPS device.

CrimsonEclipse

Garmin specializes in GPS
They got their start in making airplane avionics, and certified for use in commercial aircraft
I think they know what they are doing.

Apple relies on cell phone towers to increase the accuracy of their positioning.

So if you're out of range, accuracy might suffer.

rosefarts

On mountain bike rides, I turn on my preferred tracking software and throw my phone in the fanny pack. I’m usually only out a couple hours and with the screen off, works fine for checking out after I finish.

On a road or gravel bike, I prefer to have speed and distance in front of me, so I got a dedicated head unit.

I’m not sold on the GPS. It helps sometimes, other times it tells me to do a U-turn in the middle of an isolated road with no possibility that I’ve missed a road.

It doesn’t replace the phone. I still bring it for directions and to really see what is going on if I’m at risk of taking a wrong turn.

Chuck M 

There are a lot of reasons the Garmin is a better option than the phone for many people. But the Blendr stem mount is an added benefit. I have the dual mount with my Garmin out front and my Bontrager light mounted beneath it. It just looks so much better than crap mounted on the bars IMHO.