User submitted reviews
Review by Timberwolve17
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.