A big thank you to forum participant ‘8429046’ for providing the link to FW 5.1.
There’s been much back and forth on these forums regarding firmware versions and responsiveness of the Explore’s UI. In the interests of determining the extent that firmware versions affect initial route calculation times a side by side comparison was in order.
If the details don’t interest please skip to the Conclusion.
Parameters:
- Unit is Edge Explore North American version, updated with most recent North American maps (2020.20); Turn by Turn Navigation is enabled in the Rider Settings; Bluetooth and peripheral connectivity all disabled; battery saver mode is enabled; Navigate to course start refused; GPS locked on. There was no interaction with the unit while it was calculating.
- The same saved course was used throughout: 192KM long, created in Garmin Connect, then sync'ed to the Explore via Garmin Express with many TBT points. Edit: Here's a Garmin Connect Link to the course used. [https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/42948515]
- Three map configurations were used (with the aforementioned route) and each configuration was run twice for each version of firmware for a total of (3 x 2 x 2) 12 results.
The map configurations were the following:
- Map Config 1: Two Stock Garmin Maps Enabled: a) AMR Standard Basemap, NR; b) Garmin Cycle Map Amer, North
- Map Config 2: Four Stock Garmin Maps Enabled: a) AMR Standard Basemap, NR; b) Garmin Cycle Map Amer, North; c) Garmin DEM Map North America; d) Garmin Geocode Map North America
- Map Config 3: One Third Party OSM Map Installed and Enabled: A Routable Bicycle Map (Openfietsmap Lite) for Ontario, Canada (downloaded from garmin.openstreetmap.nl)
RESULTS:
Firmware 5.1:
- Map Config 1: a) 7 min: 23 sec; b) 7 min: 20 sec
- Map Config 2: a) 7:12; b) 7:11
- Map Config 3: a) 7:48; b) 7:40
Firmware 5.3:
- Map Config 1: a) 9:08; b) 9:02
- Map Config 2: a) 9:08; b) 8:53
- Map Config 3: a) 8:50; b) 8:55
CONCLUSION: Across the board, the older 5.1 FW is quicker at route calculation than the most recent 5.3 FW. In the case of the stock Garmin Maps 5.1 accomplishes the calculation in 80% of the time req’d by 5.3; for the third party OSM map, it’s 88% of the time.
Clearly in this area, Garmin’s FW updates are making for a worse user experience.