850 Battery Life - OUCH!

I rarely ride more than 4-5 hours too. But with short battery life if you have to charge it more frequently (let's say before every other ride), that means more cycles for the battery in a shorter time period, and that means the battery will deteriorate much sooner. Of course, if they made the battery user replaceable (as you could still do it on the 810), that's different.

But as I said, with my 840 I only use 3% max per hour (after more than one year), and I normally recharge it only when it drops to around 30%. That gives me lots of rides without having to constantly charging it.

See also DC Rainmaker's typically thorough test of the 850. He definitely confirmed the 10-12 hour battery life. What extends the battery life is dimming the backlight to 30%, but that's clearly not an ideal solution

Every thing is a trade-off.

If everything else can be kept the same, longer battery life is better.

I doubt that Garmin made the battery life small to make the devices have shorter useful life.

It's not just deterioration: it's more convenient not to have to recharge as frequently (and this benefits more than people who want it to work for really-long rides).

It looks like the back might have screws (so, maybe, the battery is replaceable).

I haven't seen that mentioned yet. But phones in the EU will have to have replaceable batteries from 2027 on. Not sure if that also applies to Garmin devices

dpawlyk said:

These people might be stuck using an external battery. (You don't need the expensive one from Garmin.)

I started with an Edge 130, and the battery just wouldn't last even several hours on frigid winter mtb rides, so I rigged up a standard cheap "lipstick battery" on the handlebars.  Worked great, and wasn't too obtrusive.  I went from battery angst to having to charge the lipstick only once every four rides.

Co-incident with the release of the 540/840 in April/2023 the X30 devices (530/830/1030) never got another software release (last x.75 version March/2023) . The 1050 & x40 devices up till now have shared software and releases but if there is a fork after 28.33 then the same may happen with x40 devices, I guess sales of the 1040 Solar will determine if  some "token" releases continue. The 28.20 & 28.33 releases already have a us / them feel with the x40 devices getting far fewer "enhancements" and bug fixes due to "hardware differences"? I am currently staying on 28.14 as 28.20 removed (without notice) several map appearance features I used and would miss. If I can keep my 1040 (2022, non-solar) going for the next 10 years it might see me out for serious (out door) cycling, as backup my 530 still does "almost" everything I need and I recently cam across my Edge 200 (2012) and surprise surprise it started after being plugged in, haven't test how long the battery lasts, still have a 510, 520 in a box somewhere.

Maybe Garmin-Michaelcan help? 

Are 840 and 1040 discontinued in terms of updates,  new features, and fixes?

Has a 850 a replaceable battery? If not, is it still the same battery part as in the 840 before?

Thank you. 

As pointed out by GPLama in his EDGE 850 review, there are 6 star screws on the back of the 550/850 so it could be that Garmin is paving the way to complaint with the EU regulations going into effect by 2027 that requires portable devices to have replaceable batteries.

https://youtu.be/pgybnvyGWRE?t=244

i see garmin have released a software update already!
Edge 850 Version 7.09 includes "Improved auto backlight performance" - i wonder if this is actually a dimming of the automatic brightness level to improve battery life in response to the consumer reactions (and if so, whether that then kills the "brilliance" of the new display)

actually, battery life is up to 12 hours, when new.

DC rainmaker testing suggests reality is more like 10 hours.

because of that short life, you're going to end up charging it after pretty much every ride to be sure its not going to run out on the next ride. so after a year battery life will probably degrade to be 8 hours. after 2 years, 6 hours. then a lot of people will frequently be unable to complete their standard weekend rides without using battery saver ie turning that wonderful new screen off completely.

for a device as expensive as this, you'd expect to get at least 2 years before it ceases to be usable for its intended purpose 

also, battery saver doesn't really achieve much if you use a radar which turns the screen back on all the time

I got rid of my 840 earlier in the year. However, I just bought the 850. The UK price of £469 is only £20 more than what I paid for the 840, six months after it's release.

I'll have the screen at around 50 or 60% brightness, so I'm not overly bothered about the overall decrease in battery life. It's still more than enough for my needs.

What is interesting though, the battery is easily replaceable. I know that it's not practical to carry a mini screwdriver set around, but it's good to have the ability to change it, especially if you plan to keep the device for several years or more.