Is it just me?

7873118
22 days ago

I have had my Explore 2 for 6 months and I am really trying to love it but frankly I find it utterly frustrating. I use it almost exclusively for navigating using the Komoot app. I have turned off as much data as I can but these are the problems I keep encountering. Firstly the interface is unintuitive, if I want to switch between screens sometimes it's a swipe, sometimes it's an arrow at the top and sometimes it's an arrow at the bottom. I find it quite often displays random screens which I can't easily get out of. There s no simple way to simply get back to the home screen and start again. Sometimes when I have finished a ride and want to switch it off I get a message telling me it can't switch off because ConnectIQ is open and that I have to close it first. I rarely use ConnectIQ (so I don't launch it) but I do use the Garmin Connect app which maybe it is referring to but even when I close it on my phone I still can't switch off the Explore2 so eventually it runs out of battery. There are a lot of other little irritations and no doubt there are some clunky workaround or some small print in the manual that would address my issue but, honestly, all this stuff should be obvious. 

I live in a country where the sun shines almost all of the time so I always have to wear sunglasses. This makes the already dim screen extremely difficult to see. Yesterday the screen somehow managed to change the display brightness from 100% to 30% without any known input from me.

So is it just me or do others suffer from this pile of poo software? I am thinking of cutting my losses and have been looking at the Karoo 3, primarily for its brighter screen but would welcome any recommendations or otherwise.

  • 0 3 days ago in reply to Alex
    Alex said:
    Kind regards from the Netherlands,

    Thanks for taking the time to reply. And regards to you from Portugal. Sunglasses

  • 0 3 days ago in reply to 7873118
    7873118 said:
    Indeed, as will I but it feels like Garnin interface designers have little understanding of real life. And it's not that I'm technically illiterate - I am a web designer - it's just that user interfaces should be intuitive. I shouldn't have to revert to the manual every time I want to do something fairly straightforward.

    Most people (who are not web designers) figure it out not reading the manual. Lots of people have problems with "intuitive" user interfaces (which are more of things people are "used to" than inherently "intuitive".

    The history of these devices is quite old. Garmin is fairly conservative when adding new features. So, they don't tend to break old behavior/interfaces.

    But the fact is that all sorts of people deal with it or ask for help.

    7873118 said:
    You make my point: there is no consistency about navigating between screens.

    It's not inconsistent. It's two separate types of things. And the UI reflects that (as it should).

    (The widget stuff is relatively new. Garmin had to find a way of adding them without breaking the old interface that people were familiar with.)

    7873118 said:
    And just for the record I do not typically care about data pages as I use the EE2 primarily for navigating.

    The map screen is a "data page".  Lots of other people care about other data pages. The device has to work for them too.

    7873118 said:
    Actually I use the Komoot IQ app when I am riding as I prefer the Komoot mapping. However I have since come to understand that when it tells me I have to close the Connect IQ app it doesn't mean the Connect IQ app on my phone but "a" Connect IQ app on the EE2 which, in my case is the Komoot IQ app. I have now discovered how to deal with it but I would argue that the error message is far from clear and doesn't give any hint as to how to deal with it.

    This is an important detail that you left out.

    This is kind of cool but it's also kind of something that is kinda using the device in a way it wasn't quite intended to be used. So, it's not surprising this works a bit weirdly.

    IQ really refers to things (apps or widgets or datafields) running on the device. On the phone, there's the "Garmin Connect (Mobile)" app and the "Garmin IQ (store/management)" app (this is somewhat confusing).

    The Komoot IQ app (running on the device) might require Connect Mobile running on the phone (it might even need the Komoot smartphone app to be running). The Garmiin IQ store/management app does not need to be running (that app is only used for IQ device app settings and installing/getting IQ device apps).

    7873118 said:
    Thanks for this tip. I will try switching off the backlight - hopefully it will give me much longer battery life.

    These types of screens aren't ones many people run across. They are definitely a compromise but they are "good enough" (from my experience).