Garmin Edge Explore 2 – A boring new product?

8 thoughts on “Garmin Edge Explore 2 – A boring new product?”

1. This one actually seems to have a feature that not even the 1040 has – lack of a virtual partner! Yes, this is a feature 🙂

2. Wonderful recommendations and a very interesting article.

3. Kind of surprised that it’s still a “1000 refresh” (screen size) and particularly that they introduced the charging dots but didn’t use the metal foot of the 1040.

   But there’s a non-boring release coming alongside: the power mount. If it wasn’t so ridiculously expensive (seriously, wtf???) the USB version could be a game changer for a hypothetical 840 that used the “30% more runtime” of the latest generation for a super flat case, leaving everything 12h plus to an external battery (the Garmin one just didn’t fit the bikepacking mindset enough, those people want to feel in control, mix&match as they see fit, not a comfy readymade)

   1. yes, it looks like the power mount compatibility will come to 840/540.
      I don’t think it’s a game changer in 2022 as battery lives are already so good. 4 or 5 years ago it would have been different. obviously, it will still help some people in niche cases and especially those with an electric bike who forget to charge their Edges.

      1. The ebike use case is obvious, just take your main battery off for charging and leave the Garmin on the bar forever. It’s also the only possible explanation for the ridiculous price, it’s an upsell option for customers who don’t have to care about money. I certainly agree that the connector would have had far more impact if it came a generation earlier, in the 1000/810 era. But there’s also this marginal gains trope of doing TT with nothing more than the tiny 130 and if I continue that line of thought I come to the conclusion that there could be a market for a small but full-featured Edge that sacrifices battery for weight/aero and is meant to be run on external power when you do something longer than usual.

      2. yep i generally agree with that.

         a small device would be interesting for pure TT, eg wahoo did a tiny one a while back, .
         just showing one or two metrics would have its place on race day i suppose.
         marginal gains – get the wahoo bolt that supposedly saves half a watt! (tho stuck between aerobars i doubt it would)
         full-featured on small format – not sure small format would work for all features.

      3. There’s the screen, which apparently cannot come with as little bezel as we’d like if the product in question can’t drown suppliers in money and order volume as Apple can, so screen plus a bezel of the “looks like a smartphone from 1998” kind sets our lower bound for total size.

         But other than that, you need a board and a battery, that’s it. Watches are as thick as they are because they stack one on top of the other (plus the HRM sensor), but an edge could be as thin as display + board if you put a very thin battery side by side with the board instead of stacked (10×0 actually are side by side, but the battery isn’t thin at all to get that runtime measured in days now and its packed with a generous amount of air on most sides). That “marginal gains Edge” could be as thin as a Casio (non-Gshock), particularly if the mechanical setup utilizes a gap between battery and board for strengthening the base of the quarter-turn (room for plastic ribs). It could have a large screen (explore size perhaps?) and still make the Bolt look like a The Biggest Loser candidate.

4. I added up “Yes” next to 28 features for the old Edge Explore but 49 for the new model. It’s a huge step forward over the old one.

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