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Garmin gets tiny with new Edge 20 / 25 GPS cycling computers – updated

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garmin edge 20 and 25 miniature GPS cycling computers

While the idea of losing your GPS cycling computer might seem ironic, the new Garmin Edge 20 and Edge 25 units are small enough to get lost despite their ability to help you find your way.

Both models share the diminutive 40x42mm footprint and 25g weight. They track both GPS and GLONASS satellites to keep your position pinpointed even under light tree cover or between tall buildings. The location data provides it with speed, distance and ascent, too. The Edge 25 adds ANT+ to pair with heart rate, speed, and cadence sensors to capture more data. Update: It seems to be software limited from what Garmin has informed us, that it will not record power meter data. This may be as a result of then needing a lot more internal memory to store significantly more dense and frequent data generate by power measurement, something their bigger units are more capable of. The Edge 20 and 25 store just your most recent 10 rides on the device. It’ll also adds Bluetooth LE to sync with your phone, allowing you to stream your ride through Garmin Connect so others can live track you. After the ride, that connection lets you upload your ride data and share it on Connect, too. And Strava and others, too.

Find your way below for video and more details…

garmin edge 20 and 25 miniature GPS cycling computers

The Edge 20/25 gets a small black and white non-touch screen, relying on four buttons to cycle it through. Within Connect, you can download rides shared by others or create your own route, then upload to the Edge and follow along in the real world. It’ll provide turn alerts and, with the Edge 25 connected to your phone via Bluetooth, it can alert you when a Connect Segment is coming up, starting and finishing, then tell you if you became K or Q.

garmin edge 20 and 25 miniature GPS cycling computers

Both models have a claimed eight hour battery life, are water resistant and come with a basic strap-on mount and charging/sync cradle. Retail is $129.99 (20) and $169.99 (25), or get the 25 bundled with a cadence sensor for $199.99. The mounting system is the same as their other Edge computers, so any out front or other mounts you already own will work.

Garmin.com

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Dirty Sanchez
Dirty Sanchez
8 years ago

That Edge 25 looks awesome for the money.

Derek
Derek
8 years ago

I’m really disappointed in Garmin for purposely crippling the Edge 25 and not making it work with a powermeter. It already has an Ant+ radio, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be able to work with an Ant+ powermeter as well. DCRainmaker confirmed that it was a software limitation.

HoganOnEpo
HoganOnEpo
8 years ago

DCRainmaker….eh. Who cares?

This is a rad little device and I think exactly what everyone wants.

robjustrob
robjustrob
8 years ago

8-hour battery life? I guess that’s part of the trade off for the compact size.

djconnel
8 years ago

No power data plus no 1 second recording option (necessary for accurate Strava timing) are both software limitations which I feel are mistakes. I also would like a barometric altimeter, but would live without it if I could get the other two. I feAr Garmin loves bloat ware and under appreciated that light, small, and simple is of interest to beyond entry level riders.

Katadze
Katadze
8 years ago

8 hours??? Really??
And what should do those who rides more than 8 hours? Buy another one?
I hate modern trend of slimming things down with reducing their battery life.
What is the point of charging a bunch of devices after every ride?

TC
TC
8 years ago

@Derek
Unless I’m reading this wrong, it sounds like the Edge 25 DOES work with a powermeter: “The Edge 25 adds Bluetooth and ANT+ to pair with heart rate, speed/cadence and power meter sensors to capture more data.”

dan
dan
8 years ago

perfect! It has all the features I use on my 500 in NUE races…. and if it breaks I wont cry as much. Just wish it came out a few months ago!

Ryan
Ryan
8 years ago

You know, strapping an Apple watch to my stem and using some app for bicyclists that does all this and more at a competitive price is surely just around the corner.

charango
charango
8 years ago

@Derek @djconnel Why don’t you think it works with a powermeter? The description doesn’t say that. It says, “ANT+ to pair with heart rate, speed/cadence and power meter sensors,” which would lead me to believe it will display power.

John
John
8 years ago

Tyler, the 25 does not support power meter sensors.

Collin S
Collin S
8 years ago

@charango, this is the only article where it mentions power meter, garmin site lists only HR and cadence senor compatibility.

Tom
Tom
8 years ago

Re: the power meter comments. This review clearly states that the 25 has “ANT+ to pair with heart rate, speed/cadence and power meter sensors”. I’m confused…

Sickboy
Sickboy
8 years ago

Um, yall know Garmin makes other models that display power? In fact, I bet about every person that has invested in a power meter isn’t even looking at the 25. Enthusiasts buying this model don’t want a bunch of features they won’t use. They want it to be as simple as possible.

Cory Benson
Admin
8 years ago

@TC @Charango @Tom Derek was correct, the 25 does NOT support power data collection. Our wording was not correct (and has been updated.) It seems that in keeping this thing tiny and low cost, this was a big limitation, as was shortened battery life. But like @Sickboy says, Garmin has plenty of other capable options. While I personally would love to see something this small from Garmin that could log power and last for a weekend of riding, this seems to be aimed still at the very entry-level of the market, so we should be happy it will connect to a HRM and upload to a smartphone.

Darwin
Darwin
8 years ago

Given the many quality control issues I have had with Garmin devices they are the last place I would go to for a new one. You are guaranteed all kinds of issues for a year or two. Their software quality control is pathetic.

duder
duder
8 years ago

Sweet. Looks like it’ll fit on a shorter MTB stem. I wonder if you can mount it to a direct mount DH stem/handlebar?

Darwin
Darwin
8 years ago

Also this is not of course a review its just reprinting a press release.

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

These prices are crazy considering you can do what this device does and more with the phone YOU ARE ALREADY CARRYING!

That Guy
That Guy
8 years ago

Am I missing something? Couldn’t you buy a wired computer for $25, where there’s nothing to pair, and your battery lasts for 3+ years, and you don’t have to worry about using your phone? Considering most of us are on our phones too much these days… Or hell, wireless for $50.

Helen Daniels
Helen Daniels
8 years ago

I heard the “so called state” uses Garmin and they want power.

duder
duder
8 years ago

I just checked, and it does seem like I could mount it easily to the handlebar/stem on my DH bike, which would be awesome, except for the 10 ride limit, as I often do more than 10 laps at the bike park. Seems kinda arbitrary. I use a Soleus watch currently, and it will run out of memory, but if there is a limit to the number of rides, it’s high enough to not be an issue.

ChrisC
ChrisC
8 years ago

@Eric Hansen – Agreed, but good luck getting 8 hours of GPS recording time out of a lot of phones.

djconnel
8 years ago

Of course everyone always wants more battery life. I’d like a month if possible, then I could do extended tours without worrying. But in this case what Garmin has is what would be a very nice unit for road racing or other types of fast riding where people like to shave weight and cross-sectional area. But they blew that with the design options of omitting power and 1-second sampling. They think it’s targeted at novice riders, but novice riders want either more battery (for their slow century ride) or else don’t mine using their phones. Targeted as a “race day” device this would have been excellent. Garmin blew it, I think.

ChrisC
ChrisC
8 years ago

@duder – If you’re doing multiple laps on a single day, why not just use the lap function and record all of your laps as one ride?

ChrisC
ChrisC
8 years ago

@djconnel – You could be right (and I might be in the minority) but the 25 is just about perfect for me. I’m never going to ride more than 8 hours in a day. I don’t use a power meter. I don’t want to kill my phone battery using it to record a ride. All I want is a small and reasonably inexpensive GPS tracker. The new Lezyne units look great too, but this one incorporates navigation and BT phone connection for calls & texts at a price point that Lezyne is not matching.

Derek
Derek
8 years ago

“This may be as a result of then needing a lot more internal memory to store significantly more dense and frequent data generate by power measurement”

Is this what Garmin told you guys or is this your own interpretation? As far as I know, there shouldn’t be any difference in storing power data instead of heart rate or cadence data. It’s just a number. The powermeter is doing all of the work to calculate the power and it tells the headunit what that power is. Heart rate and cadence are already stored every second, so frequency shouldn’t be an issue either.

Garmin is lucky that Polar is so stubborn in supporting Ant+, otherwise I would have jumped ship a long time ago.

duder
duder
8 years ago

@ChrisC, using laps works, but if you upload to Strava and friends as one ride, then the lift laps will still be included in your elevation totals. I do a lot of XC and trail too, and I like to track my real elevation totals. I’m guessing the software doesn’t make it easy to delete the lift laps and split each run into a separate ride.

With my watch I can record a new activity for each run, completely skipping the lift segments. I’ll probably buy this anyway, because it looks like it would fit perfect, but it’d be nice if they do a software update to increase the number of rides. More rides could be a nice differentiator between the 2 models too.

Collin
Collin
8 years ago

I’m with Derek on this one. Besides my 705 (which I lost and didn’t have enough time to discover its flaws) I’ve had issues with my 305, 500, and 510.

305, hit a bump, the battery would loose contact and the unit would shut off. After 3 units, I finally “upgraded” to the 500 (I bought mine the first week it was available)

The first gen firmware (and probally the next 2 firmwares to follow) were God Awful. For the first few weeks, it worked fine, then it started not saving rides properly. This happened ride after ride, and eventually after a month of no real data, they finally fixed it. Thanks for letting me be a paying beta tester. Then I had issues with my 500 shutting off/going into almost “bios mode” when it got really hot. Every once in a while, it would loose rides, which I never figured out why. Normally they were rides I really wanted to look back on, like say a race where I suffered in a break for 40 minutes, or the time I rode up Alpe d’Huez.

Now the 510. Worked fine for the most part at first. Then it started shutting off mid ride. When I turn it back on, it asks if I want to continue or save the ride. I loose that data no matter what because if I save it, it says nothing is there. If I continue, that GPS data is not there. I eventually read that sometimes the unit will get corrupt, so you have to reformat it, then load up a new firmware package. Worked for a while, now its starting to do it again. WTF garmin.

eric
eric
8 years ago

I’d be excited if this would upload to strava via bluetooth post ride rather than having to use app on phone (along with battery power). I’ll stick to my Garmin 800 as backup duties for my strava app.

Frank
Frank
8 years ago

I like what they’re trying to do here. Lezyne did it first though (or maybe the Edge 200 was the first “mini-GPS”). There’s real merit in a less is more approach to data when it comes to recreational cyclists. That 8 hour battery life is a real buzz kill though.

peterw
peterw
8 years ago

thumbs up, looks like lezyne has scared ’em, this is my kind of unit!

maz-o
maz-o
8 years ago

If I hadn’t just bought a 500, I would seriously consider the 25. It has just what I need and nothing more. Only downside is the poor battery life.. Only 8h vs 18h on the 500. Basically the same machine just the new one is considerably smaller and has a more modern display. Either way, good job Garmin!

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

@chrisC

I have personally gotten 9 hours recording time out of my phone. I didn’t run out of battery, I finished the ride. I have a OnePlus One.

boom
boom
8 years ago

let’s hope this works better than the usual Garmin crappy bicycle products. I converted to Magellan and haven’t looked back.

offrhodes
offrhodes
8 years ago

I like the 20. All I want is distance, time, and the ability to download it at the end. I use a Forerunner 10 for running and cycling and the 20 seems very similar. I do not care about power, heart rate, Strava (though I do use it). I just want to track my runs and rides. This is the segment these two units are targeted for and I think that population is much larger than the one seeking all the other features.

Skip
8 years ago

I have been running an Edge 200 for several years now and I really like it. It is simple and it has just what I need. I have put a bar or stem bracket on all of my bikes and use my Garmin on all of my stuff, even my cruiser just for fun. The only thing that I do not like, is the fact that there is no easy way to fade back to time of day. ( have lost half of my ride info trying to get back to clock) I always thought that Garmin should offer an online update that I could down load that would add a time of day line at the bottom of the screen. I have put a bar or stem bracket on all of my bikes and use my Garmin on all of my stuff. even my cruiser just for fun. This new device looks good and should work well for most folks. I only want and need how fast, how far and how long, I would like time of day on screen.

mtnbikej
mtnbikej
8 years ago

While it is a nice idea…..add me to the list of 8 hr battery life being too short. My current 705 will easily go 12 hrs. Since my rides are regularly 8-10 hrs, sometimes more, it wouldn’t work for me. I do like the price though.

alvis
alvis
8 years ago

Xplova E7 does more in same size package and is even uglier.

Pistolero
Pistolero
8 years ago

(deleted). this device is almost useless due to such a low battery time. Also, that propietary charging interface instead of usb is a pain in the a** if you loose your cable, or you just have to use this new cable instead of a usb cable.

garmin should do a power user cycling device, but with black and white screen, like an updated edge 500, (deleted), and colour screen and touch screens are expensive and useless too.

(deleted).

MTBcycloRista
MTBcycloRista
8 years ago

The 1000 would be great if it used something other than 6 year old technology and didn’t freeze randomly :/ I just can’t bring myself to plunk down big money for antiquated design (or $trava$$ole @@look at ME@@ nonsense for that matter).

duder
duder
8 years ago

Garmin, when will this be in stock at retails like REI?

Dave D
Dave D
8 years ago

Looks like war in the GPS arena, Lezyne and now Bryton have produced their own mini GPS. Bryton’s 200 and 210 models at least have 17 hours battery power if a little chunkier looking than the rest. Still not easily rechargeable in the field. And something about updating to Facebook?

Not everyone wants a GPS just to record Strava. Or wants Facebook.

KyleP
KyleP
8 years ago

Don’t buy this for mountain biking. Even with a speed sensor it is incredibly inaccurate.

I bought the Edge 25 because it was a good price point, and, according to the preliminary reviews, it had all the features I wanted. A big plus was that it could sync with my smart phone.
Because I ride my mountain bike about 75 percent of the time, I also bought a speed sensor so I could get accurate distance measurements on the trails I ride.
The Edge 25 and the speed sensor were easy to set up.
But the Edge 25 never gave me an accurate distance reading, even with the speed sensor installed. Over two weeks, I rode my local trails, and the Edge 25 with speed sensor was off by 1.5 miles over a 6-mile course. That’s too much over a 30-minute ride. I tested it on other trails, judging it against friends’ computers, and it was consistently wrong.
On the road it was decent. Over a 55-mile ride, I had a difference of 1 mile compared to my friend’s computer.

I called Garmin, and they began testing the speed sensor with the Edge 25. Because it was a new product only a few weeks old, they didn’t know how the two paired.
The next day the representative called after testing the combo and said that the Edge 25 doesn’t offer any additional calibration options with the Edge 25. It’s either on or off. You can’t adjust wheel size. The representative said that the computer was comparing the GPS mileage to the speed sensor while I was on the trail, so it wasn’t giving an accurate reading.
Plus, she said that the Edge 25 does not offer the same accuracy as their higher end models. It takes fewer points of data compared to the 510 or others. It was meant for a more “recreational” cyclist who wants to throw it on his bike and ride occasionally.
A $170 computer is a little steep for a “recreational” cyclist, especially when a smart phone will work just as well.

Garmin offered me a return, which was great.

BikeStride
BikeStride
8 years ago

All points above noted. But the biggest problem I have is that you cannot put HR on the customizable screens. This is a real pain if you doing time and HR based intervals. You have to keep pressing the screen button to see the two bits of info. Surely this is just a software issue?

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