iGPSPORT Announces Flagship Cycling Computer iGS800: Specifications and Features

via: fast1.kr and reader @Jan

Would you spend approximately US$350 on a top-end Chinese bike computer from a brand you’ve never heard of? iGSport hopes you will. It’s time to open up and empty your wallet for its soon-to-be-released iGS800…or is it?

I have a cupboard full of very well-specified bike computers for their time, dating back a decade or so. You’ve not heard of many of them and neither of us has seen any in use on our Sunday ride or Monday morning commutes. History is littered with companies that think the latest tech will guarantee success. Most of those companies were subsequently guilty of pricing their products at what seemed to them to be a sensible level, close to the price of a similarly featured Garmin or Wahoo.

The bad news is that people pay a significant premium for a brand they’ve heard of, one that they trust and for all they perceive that brand to symbolise and deliver. eg a brand perception of Garmin might be that “Everyone buys a Garmin because they work, they’re accurate and they have all the features I might need“. This is the entire point of building and nurturing a brand identity, whether or not it’s true is another matter entirely. Belief trumps truth every time…look at religion.

That said, the new iGS800 does have an excellent hardware spec with novel, leading-edge attributes including 50 hours of run time albeit in a power-saving mode, a colour touchscreen screen that covers a significant proportion of the face, and a metal mount. All the other hardware specs are great but not materially different to the competition. For example, every kind of connectivity is supported – power, ANT+/BLE, Varia, FE-C, WiFi, e-bike, Di2…the lot.

Some of the features also look good. we have features like ClimbPro, load-based physiology metrics, Strava Live Segments, (seemingly) re-routable maps, effort-based fuelling and hydration reminder strategies,

iGPSPORT iGS800: Key specifications

• Case: 99 x 60 x 21mm (Edge 840 is 85.1 x 57.8 x  19.6 mm) Weight: 110g
• Display: 3.5-inch color touch display, 320 x 480 pixels  (Edge 840 is 2.6″, 246 x 322 pixels)
• 6 buttons (physical buttons)
• Up to 50 hours of usage time (Edge 840 is 26 hours), Supports fast charging: (1.5A)
• Network: BLE 5.1, ANT+, Wi-Fi
• Satellites: Multiple constellations (including Galileo), A-GPS, dual Frequency (L1+L5)
• Navigation: Re-routing supported
• Climb assistant: i-Climb Pro
• Built-in sensors: accelerometer, barometric pressure, temperature, ambient light, magnetic compass
• 3rd party sensors support: Speed, Cadence, speed + cadence, HR, Power meter, Smart trainer, smart radar, Smart light, electronic drivetrain (Di2, eTap, EPS), E-Bike
• Strava automatic sync and live segment: Yes
• Other: IPX7, Speaker (beep), 32GB storage USB-C

Physiology Features

• Training Status – Based on historic HR/Power load
• Real-time fitness monitoring
  
• Post Workout Training Effect Analysis
• Health recovery tracking

iGPSPORT iGS800 Expectations

Based on past experiences I expect this will be a decent bike computer very much on par with the Magene C606 I reviewed a week ago.

The key difference here is that the iGS800 differentiates itself visually with an awesome screen whereas the Magene was a me-too model, very much aping the look of a Garmin. People have been asking for larger screen-to-case ratios for a while. Similarly, people want the biggest battery life possible and 50 hours sounds awesome even if it’s WAY higher than anyone needs in reality. It’s a great selling point even though it is in a power saving mode.

Like the Magene I would expect that many of the features are rough around the edges and may not work quite how you would expect at launch and that they will also lack depth beneath the headline feature box that has been casually ticked.

The app will be good for basics but, like the device itself and perhaps more so, it will probably not be the final deal. Maybe I’m being preemptively critical of iGSPORT? They’ve been in the bike GPS game for a long time and maybe the maturity of their device and app will reflect that? I hope so.

Judging by the known price tag in China, it will probably be priced at well over GBP250/USD300. It won’t sell in volume in the USA/UK and more importantly, it simply will not change the market dynamics. the Garmin hegemony will not be threatened.

To do well and change the market it needs to be a good product that generally works well and is priced under GBP150/USD200. Only by gaining market share and awareness can you hope to start to build a meaningful brand. Once you have done that you can make serious money in the future – just look at Garmin. Garmin makes LOTS of money. We currently see Chinese Electric Vehicles flood and change the EV market…why? Because they are quite good and super cheap, iGSPORT needs to follow the same strategy.

More: iGSport on Amazon