I've owned almost every iteration of these edge devices -- 705, 800, 810, 820, 830. I absolutely adored my trusty 810, the 820 was disappointing, but the 830 has been a great unit for me. However, it had been showing some age, I like new gadgets, and sadly I dropped the 830 on some rocks and damaged the screen enough that it's probably not waterproof (or sweatproof) any more. With a much better excuse than "I want it", I ordered an 840, and well, I'm finding that the new UI seems to be awful?
There are numerous little animated "hints" all over the UI, do those stop appearing after a while?
The extra buttons are more confusing than useful right now, but I haven't actually taken it out for a ride. The buttons do feel like they have been redesigned to be more tactile, so that's good, but holding the unit in my hand feels like some weird lumpy thing that I don't quite know how to hold properly. Did anyone want these buttons, or is it an attempt to be more like the Wahoos (which I hate).
My incredibly useful Accuweather widget doesn't show up in the pull-down page any more??? Can I access it somewhere other than several taps deep in the "Connect IQ" option.
I have to scroll through the home page instead of tapping an icon? This is awful. Scrolling and swiping is the worst possible interaction - screens are dirty with sweat or rain, and some people wear full finger gloves.. I guess the extra buttons are supposed to make that better? But now I have to push a button several times instead of one tap?
And the floating menu button on the home page never vanishes, but there's a duplicate item literally on the home page. Wtf guys?
I didn't care for the 810 to 820 UI changes, but eventually got over it, and the 830 was bigger, faster, and better. I still think the 810 UI was better than the 830, but now this 840 is even more jarringly different than the 810 to 820. It feels like they have tried to cram a "modern web UI" into a tiny cycling computer that should not have anything of the sort. Garmin should hire someone who does industrial HMI design instead of web design. :(
I wish I was a design tester for Garmin, because I love their stuff and want it to be great, but clearly their designers would hate me, hah!
I know most of my interactions will just pressing start and going, with the occasional activity profiles switch, so am I being overly critical here? I've already set up refurbishing my damaged 830 with an eye on just returning the 840. Can anyone coming from an 830 tell me about their experiences after a few weeks of use?
Thanks!
