Garmin

I replaced my solar garmin instinct with the Forerunner 965. For the most part, the battery life didn't change. I'm still going through the settings and tweaking everything the way I like it. Soooo many settings... I've done multiple 70+ mile rides with this watch over 8+hours of active use and a ride like that typically takes the battery down 30% or so for me. Otherwise I'm liking it. I don't think it has any other real advantages over my last watch as it's still the same Garmin software running.

I chose to buy the Garmin Edge Explorer 2 because I wanted a bike computer that can display maps for navigation and that integrates with a Garmin Varia rearview radar, but that doesn't need to include the advanced training features that the more expensive Garmin units do (as I personally don't care about that).

So, for those purposes, this bike computer works well enough.

I wouldn't say it's perfect, though. The user experience is a little clunky. It kind of reminds me of cheap Android smartphones from 15 years ago, which is a little disappointing considering the Edge Explore 2's price.

Taken the unit in a few rides, primarily early morning a few hours before the sun comes up, a few daytime.

The Vue is certainly not spectacular, my previous light was a niterider 1200 oled. That light has amazing battery/brightness ratio, is rugged and when it was damaged out of warranty, fast inexpensive repairs from NR. The NR does NOT have a camera, no NR product does. I enjoy having videos to grab snapshots from, and for safety, but can't use a gopro, edge, and light easily on my aero cockpit so was happy to try the new Varia Vue headlight.

Cons:

Battery life, a very mixed bag, absolutely atrocious when it's dark and allowed to adjust itself based on speed/acceleration, I had the light go out on me right as i turned onto my street, a less than 1hr 20 min long ride, needs an auto limp mode

The unit requires but does not include a microsd card which is a little bit of a pain especially given the cost

Did not play nice with my k-edge mount and the gopro spot (it was loose and I had to use a super thin plastic washer to get it right)

Highlights:

integrated camera

easy to adjust settings from the edge computer it is connected to

love the preview from the varia phone app for easy positioning

overlay of date/time of ride (it should offer easy overlay of performance stats since it is directly connected to an edge unit, a 1050 at that)

the unit can take up to a 512gb microsd card per Garmin that's more hours than most will ever need

Have not had to use, but Garmin support is great, they've replaced products out of warranty for free as a courtesy, so 'yay Garmin'

Unit feels rugged

Fast, easy charging with usb c

Daytime battery life, certainly less than my NR, but both units require very little attention in this situation

I purchased the unit when BTD had a 25% off storewide sale, and I am not upset with what I got for my money. It would feel very hard to justify purchasing this camera/light at full price though. So far, I would be fine giving my friends the 'buy' recommendation, and while I'm not hopeful for quality of life updates it would be nice to see performance metric overlay, easier to navigate settings, turning off auto light brightness by default.

The Edge 840 is a really good GPS computer. I purchased this after my Wahoo Roam started being unreliable. The detail and capabilities of the Edge are superior to the Wahoo. I do most of my riding solo and the LiveTrack on the Edge provides much more detail than the tracking on the Wahoo.

The one negative I can think of is that the setup and menus on the Edge and the Garmin Connect app are WAY to complex. It seems like any sort of configuration change on the Edge is buried three layers down in the system menu.