Hammerhead Karoo 2 vs garmin 530

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HansZuDemFranz
Posts: 137
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 11:39 am

by HansZuDemFranz

jencvo wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:01 pm
HansZuDemFranz wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:32 pm
jencvo wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:22 pm
Visqu wrote:
Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:41 am
10hrs battery life during summer months, how about winter?
My original Karoo had less than 1h of battery life when below 0°C.
A buddy of mine had his Karoo 2 die in 5hrs using navigation and being sinked to power meter and HR monitor (hot, humid weather too). 10 hours is extremely optimistic.
Well I get more than 10 hours easily. So its definetely not "extremely optimistic".
Maybe just a unit then? Is that with navigation on, power meter, Di2, and heart rate connected?
Powermeter, HR, Varia and AXS are all connected.
On average I get between 11 and 13 hours.
It`s obviously nowhere near the level of the 1030plus (which I had prior to the Karoo), but to me the trade-offs are worth it. The Garmin was way too bloated for my liking (why do I need my Cycling Computer to guide me through Yoga workouts?). Also the Garmin app is just utter trash in my opinion.

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Juanmoretime
Administrator
Posts: 289
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 11:08 am

by Juanmoretime

I had one of the original Garmin Edge 530's and it was a love hate affair. I ordered it before to came out and the issues I had were the buttons were so hard to push that after two days I went to end a ride and having to push hard on the buttons the Garmin spun off it's mount and hit the pavement getting scuffed up. I bought the Garmin rubber cover for it. To hide the scratches. While it would find the satellites quickly the display lagged when it came to changes in speed. Then last week Garmin did a software update and my down key would not work in the main screen and the up and down key would not work in certain screens. After 45 minutes on the phone with a Garmin Tech rep it still would not function properly. He chatted with the engineers and they felt somehow the update cause a giltch with the OS and they wanted it back to look at it and sent me another one. I guess the one I had was released before they worked out all the bugs. The keys are much easier to push and the new 530 responds instantly to speed changes on the speed read out. Lesson learned? Don't be the first kid on the block with a new toy. Let it release and give them a update and consumer feedback to tweak the design to perfection, or as close as you can come to it.
Last edited by Juanmoretime on Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

jmomentum
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 5:19 pm

by jmomentum

First ride with Karoo 2 after a few years with the Garmin 520.

The Garmin had a field for windspeed when syced to the cell phone. This is one of my favourite features.

Di2 gears showed the actual chainring/cassette teeth count ie. 52/28 where the Karoo 2 is only showing 2/11 for example. This was my other favourite feature on the Garmin.

Are these options not available on the Karoo 2? I felt like I did enough research but apparently not.

The other surprise is how big and heavy it is compared to the 520. I suspect if I had seen one in person I may not have purchased.

Everything else is great of course. Screen, ease of use and setup, android function, navigation etc. But i don't think i'm going to be a big navigation user unless I go travel somewhere.

If I'm honest, the garmin although somewhat primitive does everything I wanted. The screens can be controlled with the Di2 buttons (same with Karoo). I'm feeling a bit like I didn't need to spend the money on the Karoo 2. Now I have to decide if I will keep it.

carbocation
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:40 pm

by carbocation

HansZuDemFranz wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 7:11 pm
jencvo wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:01 pm
HansZuDemFranz wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:32 pm
jencvo wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:22 pm


A buddy of mine had his Karoo 2 die in 5hrs using navigation and being sinked to power meter and HR monitor (hot, humid weather too). 10 hours is extremely optimistic.
Well I get more than 10 hours easily. So its definetely not "extremely optimistic".
Maybe just a unit then? Is that with navigation on, power meter, Di2, and heart rate connected?
Powermeter, HR, Varia and AXS are all connected.
On average I get between 11 and 13 hours.
It`s obviously nowhere near the level of the 1030plus (which I had prior to the Karoo), but to me the trade-offs are worth it. The Garmin was way too bloated for my liking (why do I need my Cycling Computer to guide me through Yoga workouts?). Also the Garmin app is just utter trash in my opinion.
Not sure if anyone already said it or not yet, but (at least for me) battery life is all about screen brightness. I did a 12hr ride with a few hours of navigation, no cell phone connection, but HR/PM/cadence sensors. I finished with 10% or so, but I purposely put the screen brightness all the way down. On a normal ride with it brightened up, I suspect it would make it about 8 hours. No experience with battery life when cell phone is linked but someone (I think Karoo?) said that really hits the battery life.

Hazzer19
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:03 pm

by Hazzer19

HansZuDemFranz wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 7:11 pm
jencvo wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:01 pm
HansZuDemFranz wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:32 pm
jencvo wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:22 pm
Powermeter, HR, Varia and AXS are all connected.
On average I get between 11 and 13 hours.
It`s obviously nowhere near the level of the 1030plus (which I had prior to the Karoo), but to me the trade-offs are worth it. The Garmin was way too bloated for my liking (why do I need my Cycling Computer to guide me through Yoga workouts?). Also the Garmin app is just utter trash in my opinion.
HansZuDemFranz what settings have you tweaked to get this much battery life?

djstalca
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:21 am

by djstalca

Hi,
i had a chance to try in short period both Karoo 2 and Garmin 1030 plus. My opinion is that if you are not in garmin eco system and you want solid computer is Karoo ahead by a lot. It seems like visually from different era. I was lost more time in 1030 than Karoo 2. I understand that Karoo doesnt have any eco system or power dynamics but i dont care about that. I like that with every update they are adding new features and making device even better :) in my experience was working with 1030 plus much more laggy and annoying...even had problem that it wont find any gps satelite...

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