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Edge 530 screen in comparison with 130

Kontrast77
over 4 years ago

For those who upgraded from 130 model, it's just me or the screen is worse than the smaller unit? For me it's even harder to read with cycling glasses.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to boyan64

    I have always used my Garmin units, 510 and now 530, with backlight always on and now with 530 I enable auto brightness.  With 510 I think I had it on one of the lower brightness settings.  I don't notice any issues with battery performance.  I have never done a full drain in one go, but multiple multi-hour rides between charges for sure.  I ride a lot at night as well as in the day, so my preferred setting for night is always on and I never bothered to change it to something else

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Monochrome screens have much higher contrast.

    Color screens trade color for contrast.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Over the last nearly 10 years I have used Garmin 200, 510, 520 and now 530. Following a long ride last weekend, pre dawn to late afternoon, I was very pleased with the readability of the screen, before dawn at 10% backlight/Stays on and from a bit after dawn no backlight at all.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to L.Rouge

    Are you wearing sun glasses?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to boyan64

    Sun glasses yes although not polarised, just tinted plastic lenses, clear when dark, amber in sunlight. Previous posts in other garmin device forums have suggested some polarised lenses can cause a problem with viewing device screens. I have a clock on my car dashboard which appears black if I view it through polarised sunglasses so it is not a unique garmin issue.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to L.Rouge

    Today test... I think is much better feeling. It is true that sunglasess dimm a screen also a lot.

    Pictures ... sun a head, sun behind...WITH NO SUNGLASSES

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to boyan64

    I know you have had some back and forth with some of the other users here, but wanted to also provide a link to the manual regarding backlight settings. I thought you might want to have it handy just as a reference. 

    www8.garmin.com/.../GUID-0222B83B-39C2-4537-9A4D-AD8688F2CD26.html

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    After a few rides with backlight always on and brightness set on auto I can say that I'm pretty happy with the screen, and it doesn't even consume that much battery. A ride of about 4 hours consumed less than 20 percent of the battery. I can't go back to 130 even if the screen looks a little better, but 530 has many improvements and much more options.

    I use only two data pages, first one is 6-A and the second 9 fields.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Yes, I've had the same experience as you.  I upgraded to the 530 after my riding started regularly exceeded the battery capability of the 130 especially in cold weather.

    Whilst the 530 is vastly superior in so many ways to the 130, I too find the screen more difficult to read on the former. Part of this I think is that the screen is lower resolution (which is partly why the battery life is so bad on the 130). Another reason is that it is colour rather than b&w - I changed the colour after I realised I had set the default to purple which was the same as my sunglasses, making it even more difficult to read!  If you're using navigation, there's also a lot more information to display so the instructions can often be a lot less clear.

    The only exception to the above is in the dark or poor light.  The 530 in auto backlight mode will still give you a 10 hour plus ride even at freezing temperatures and the backlight on continuously in my experience. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to George

    Where is option for change colors?

    Is this only in navigation or general?

    I don't need navigation.