9^th of October 2022

Dear Garmin,

I am a huge Garmin Fan, User and shareholder and have been since 2015. I have been an advanced user of multiple products, including Fenix range watches, sensors and just recently the Garmin EDGE 1040 Solar Bike computer.

Today I am writing to you with huge sense of disappointment and frustration with the device which despite me really wanting to like/use the Garmin EDGE 1040 Solar, I am being forced to return for the following reasons:

I hope you can review these issues/recommendation and address them for other users. These are simply too many and ruin my Garmin ecosystem daily experience. If those do not get addressed I will need to move away from Garmin after so many years of having loved the products.

Distribution list:

Marketing email: [email protected].

Email UK Customer Services on  [email protected]

support.garmin.com/.../

Devices Used:

• Garmin EDGE 1040 Solar,, SW: 14.20
• Garmin Fenix 6 X Pro, SW: 23.10

Contents

1)      EDGE 1040 Solar BUG/UI issues. 2

1. a) Intensity Minutes target Synchronization. 2
2. b) Imported activities into EDGE 1040 errors. 2
3. c) External sensors do not automatically connect from Ride start. 3
4. d) Inaccurate ETA and Time to destination. 3
5. e) Solar recharging gain is widely inconsistent. 3

2)      Multi devices integration BUG: 3

1. a) Incorrect Calorie Count. 3
2. b) Inconsistent Training status sync across devices and Garmin connect app. 6

3)      EDGE 1040 Solar falling short of expectations: 7

1. a) Round Trip Course. 7
2. b) No Music. 8
3. c) No Zwift integration. 8
4. d) Ride an Activity not available. 8
5. e) Ride an activity or a course in reverse/trackback not available. 8
6. c) Cannot see a Kcal/hour data field. 8

1)    EDGE 1040 Solar BUG/UI issues

a)      Intensity Minutes target Synchronization

The intensity minutes target set in Garmin Connect is not synchronizing with Edge 1040 Solar. I have set my intensity minutes target at 500 per week in the Garmin connect app but the 1040 has never updated it. The Fenix 6 X pro has updated the target so no issues with the watch. See photos for reference

b)      Imported activities into EDGE 1040 errors

Imported activity from Fenix 6 X pro onto EDGE 1040 shows incorrect cadence and speed for an imported run. Also there are no imported map or elevation profile

c)      External sensors do not automatically connect from Ride start.

ANT+ Sensors do not always connect to device. After starting a ride, I realized that the HR sensor was not connected and there was no way to reconnect whether by getting into sensor menu and trying to reconnect the sensor, it would keep searching in vain or by forgetting and reconnecting sensor, neither worked. I am using a HRM tri chest strap and at this time could connect it to my Fenix 6X pro, so I can categorically say the issue came from the EDGE 1040.

The only way to fix the issue was to stop the ride in the middle of activity, turn on device and restart to reconnect the sensors. My activity ride was then split in 2 halves. Not a pleasant experience and an issue I have never had with any other Garmin products to date.

d)      Inaccurate ETA and Time to destination

As I use my Garmin to commute, I find very useful to route to work so I can get an accurate estimate of arrival time and time remaining. This feature has worked so well on my Fenix watches for years and has always been very accurate (Fenix 3 and Fenix 6 X pro). Now on the EDGED 1040, ETA and time to Destination estimate are widely wrong, calculating 1h30 for 24km ride (which normally takes 50 min). It is clear that the estimate does not adjust based on actual riding speed to become more accurate as the Fenix6 X pro would do. It remains unrealistically high for the entirety of the ride and keeps takes minutes at times through the ride to try to correct as I approach destination. Still 5km away, it indicated 18min of ride time (when I ride at an average speed of 30km/h).

e)      Solar recharging gain is widely inconsistent

I have left the device facing the sun, either switched off or in sleep mode for 4 to 5 hours and gained 9 min of ride time while solar intensity was close 100% the whole time. While in other cases I have gained over 3 hours of ride time for a similar sun exposure. There are also days where even when left in the sun in sleep mode it says that there was no battery gain.

2)    Multi devices integration BUG:

a)      Incorrect Calorie Count

While wearing a Fenix watch (non recording) and recording a ride with the EDGE 1040 with Chest Strap, Garmin Connect prioritizes Wrist Heart rate monitor from Fenix 6X pro watch for the calorie count over the more accurate chest heart rate and calories recorded during an activity on Edge 1040 Solar. As a result my active Calories for the day are significantly lower than they should (my wrist HR always indicates significantly lower HR than with Strap) and affecting Activity minutes to undercount.

Figure 1: Activity recorded with EDGE 1040                                  Figure 2: Active Calories=998

Figure 3: Active calories on Oct 2nd, showing 592 Calories while Active calories recorded with EDGE 1040 and chest strap were  882 Calories

Figure 4: Activity recording that Day showing True HR much higher than the one recorded with fenix 6 Wrist HR

Figure 5: HR recorded while wearing fenix 6 X pro Wrist HR

 is hugely lower than the HR recorded with EDGE 1040

with strap, leading to under count of calories

b)      Inconsistent Training status sync across devices and Garmin connect app

Acute load varies from one device to another, why would there be 2 Acute load screens? In my opinion I would like to see one Acute load Graph which is user specific, not device specific. I need to see one chart with one set of number to know which one to trust. In my opinion it shouldn’t matter what device is used, as long as it is linked to the Garmin connect account all activities data should add up into a single Acute load chart.

Why are the Value different?

Once again Values are different, which one to believe/use?

3)    EDGE 1040 Solar falling short of expectations:

a)      Round Trip Course

The primary reason why I was excited of getting a high-end bike computer was that I would be able to use the same feature as my Fenix 6X pro but improved. I love the round-trip course but the Fenix 6X pro can take several minutes to calculate the route. Unfortunately the EDGE is no better or faster. Round-Trip Course Calculation takes several minutes and crashes often.

For example, this 60km course, which I would not consider as being a particularly long course took 9min to calculate. I just cannot see myself wait for almost 10min before to set off for a ride. In this time I would rather use the Connect app or portal and upload onto the device. It’s a really shame as the feature is brilliant, but simply unusable considering the calculation time. Clearly there is no value added in paying for the premium of a bike computer over staying with my Fenix.

b)      No Music

I purchased the EDE solar with 64GB hoping that it would allow plenty of space to load off line music as I have done with My Fenix. Purchasing the EDGE was sold as perfect for Bike touring and long ride. Which in this case the use of music is pretty crucial. I rode from the UK to France for 3 days and rode a total of 24 hours with my Fenix 6 X pro, I use the music at least 3 to 4 hours a day. With eth EDGE I simply do not have the option, even though I have a ton a left-over storage pace unused as the global map do not even fill the available memory. I have tried the use the Bluetooth phone control but quite frankly is clunky, the volume slider does not work, and who would want to play/control music on their phone when the phone is in the back pocket and you cannot ear it anyway?

c)      No Zwift integration

Activity minutes from 3^rd party App such as Zwift are not calculated in Garmin Connect, therefore for mots riders riding indoors for the best part of 6 months in the year there is no calculation of activity minutes or integration with training Status. This is a huge shame, as I love these performance metrics and use them daily, but as they do not integrate with Zwift rides, they become completely useless for 6 months out of 12. Zwift activity upload provides all the data needed for those metrics, including Heart rate, Power data… I still cannot get my head around why there is no integration, especially when Garmin has gone into the effort to link Zwift to Garmin Connect.

d)      Ride an Activity not available

There is no ability to ride a previous activity without needing to save previous activity as a course first or selecting Race an activity. This is a simple function which is very useful particularly for Commuting and available on the Fenix watch series. Would be great to have this back

e)      Ride an activity or a course in reverse/trackback not available

One of my favourite feature on my Fenix 6 X pro is being able to ride back home from work. So I select the last activity from morning commute or any activity and ask to TrackBack. Fantastic feature! I bought the 1040 and a basic feature like this is unavailable.

c)      Cannot see a Kcal/hour data field.

Would it be possible to have a data field to indicate Kcal/hour, for continuous monitoring of Calorie burn rate?