2021: buying the Edge 830 or waiting for 830Plus/840?

Nothing I've heard yet, but as an owner (still) of an Edge 110, 810, 820, 830, and Wahoo Elemnt Bolt over about 25000 miles of use between the 5 devices, I feel entitled to an opinion. From an 820 with it's miriad problems I tried the Wahoo.  The Wahoo lost out after 3 months of use because it refused to maintain pairing with a Wahoo HRM over any ride beyond 15 minutes.   Wahoo customer support and software couldn't resolve the issue.   It seems the HRM refused to use Ant+ to talk to a Wahoo device.  Blue Tooth LE just wasn't reliable.   So back to Garmin, which all of the 8xx series worked flawlessly with the Wahoo HRM.

Now back to the main subject.   Every Garmin Edge left me dissatisfied with performance and reliability - until the 830.   It is the first bike computer I've owned that fulfilled all the basic functionality, reliability, and longevity requirements that would be expected of a bike computer.   It's not perfect (only seems to download rides to home WiFi after a restart), but it does the overall job very well -- it's a fully capable bike computer.

I don't know if there's anything compelling in the future devices - but I really hope it's not at the expense of performance and reliability (Hello Apple!)

The 830 is such a known good that I don't know if I'd wait if I didn't already have one.

Don't say wahoo don't have bugs.... auto pause bug, it can trigger pause on uphills when U are riding very slow... not to mention others, search reddit. I was on brink of buying whole wahoo watch + bike computer... but i bought edge 830(gave my 530 to my brother) 530 was great for me, great battery life and never failed me...

RedC said:

I am wondering if it  is better to wait until the newer model comes

Not a lot of 2021 left and possible earliest could still be 6 months away. Of course the past does not always predict the future but...

  Edge   -   Released
   520    -    07/2015
   820    -    07/2016     
 1030    -    08/2017     
   520+  -    04/2018     
   530    -    04/2019     
   830    -    04/2019     
 1030+  -    06/2020     
     -       -       2021     
     ?      -    ??/2022

Garmin has put some effort into converging the software code base for 530 / 830 / 1030 / 1030+ so does that predict a xx40 series released at the same time to minimise software development & support costs but it might cannibalise sales . Release dates will always be marketing decisions to maximise revenue so no point asking users, need to ask the accountants?

Most 530/830 owners seem happy (at least not unhappy) to buy each 3 or so years so 2022 would be right for them and 1030 owners but would this be too early for 1030+ owners?

And with recent model hardware seemingly lasting ok what new & great features will temp us to upgrade?

Maybe wait for the next model or pick a different brand. I recently started using my old 800 again for the winter, so my GPS traces are actually on the road instead of cutting through buildings even in the burbs. Its unbelievable how much worse the accuracy of the GPS is on the 830 than a model 3 generations older. Garmin premium price for a substandard product.

I have ridden roughly 8,000 miles with my 830 and I haven’t had any problems with accuracy. It’s not like I’m riding flat terrain either — I’ve climbed 200,000 feet so far this year and I’ve ridden everything from hills and valleys to roads/trails covered with dense tree canopies. I’d suggest reviewing your profile to see which satellite constellation you have it configured to use.

I’d check your settings.  My 830 is definitely not worse than my 810 or 820, or the Wahoo.  It definitely tracks me accurately. Maybe you don’t have the GPS selected for North America (US Satellites).

The 830 uses a barometer to measure delta altitudes.   That is a weakness of GPS so they added the barometer to give 10ft delta elevation accuracy.  

You're right, it is "unbelievable".

The only thing I am missing is more memory. If you use maps other then Garmin in addition it quickly gets tight.