Garmin Edge 1050 Review

The Edge 1050, Hammerhead Karoo 3 and Wahoo’s latest teased bike computer are the best on the market. Each has its idiosyncracies and subtly favours different riders. But these are all premium toys that perhaps offer us features we don’t need, and often, a simpler bike computer at a fraction of the price is all we need. If you have cash to splash, love to ride and want the best, cycling’s latest tech has now reached an impressive point in its evolution and is so good that you might wonder how it may ever materially improve.

But you came here to see what’s great or what’s wrong with the Garmin Edge 1050 – hence this review. Over the years, I’ve been highly critical of Garmin products, but their top products are all now great in most respects. I buy them myself and have no links to the company. I am a rider/triathlete, perhaps just like you.

If you are a new adopter of bike tech or have cleverly delayed upgrading your Edge 1030, you can skip the Edge 1030+ and Edge 1040 entirely. Is an upgrade to the Edge 1050 worth the $700/£650 price tag?

Here’s a summary review of the Edge 1050, and if you want lots more details and accuracy test results, keep scrolling!

Buy: UK£650, USA$700, EU 750€

Garmin Edge 1050 – Who is it for?

Edge 1050 will meet every need of a performance cyclist or serious navigator.

It’s perhaps too large and heavy to be an outright performance bike GPS, but the large size is great for displaying maps. It’s also great for older athletes with deteriorating eyesight.

The Edge 1040 Solar is the only Edge with a superior battery life. That older model is thus better suited for anyone who needs to complete Uber-long adventures on one charge.

Garmin Edge 1050 – What is the competition and differentiation

At the premium end of the price range, the competition is similar. Garmin has richer features, but the competition is generally excellent. In my opinion, Karoo has the best interface and touchscreen, but I prefer Wahoo, which has the highest levels of usability and the core features I use.

Garmin’s biggest differentiator is how it handles its omissions. It has a rich 3rd party app store (Connect IQ, CIQ) where you’ll find super-niche new features, often free. Hammerhead Karoo has that capability, but few apps exist. Hammerhead allows some Android apps to take control of the entire device rather than, for example, adding a new metric (data field) – although that is possible. Wind-related features are probably the biggest omission from Wahoo and Karoo. They cover structured workouts, plans, Strava, Varia, unusual sensors, race planning, courses, dedicated climb functionality, and more. Karoo 3 also lacks Di2/Ki2.

A Brief History of Edge

Over two decades, Garmin Edge evolved from a rudimentary bike computer to perhaps the most complete bike navigator available today.

• Edge 205, 301 and 305 (2005): Launched GPS tracking for speed, distance, and basic metrics; the 305 added heart rate and cadence.
• Edge 605 and 705 (2007): Introduced colour mapping and ANT+ sensor support, enabling turn-by-turn navigation.
• Edge 500 (2009): Compact, data-focused model for competitive cyclists, with heart rate and power tracking but no mapping.
• Edge 800 (2010): First full-colour touchscreen with advanced mapping; added custom data fields and enhanced routing.
• Edge 510 and 810 (2013): Divided line into performance (510) and navigation (810); both offered smartphone connectivity.
• Edge 1000 (2014): Larger colour display with Wi-Fi, Strava segments, and turn-by-turn navigation, setting a new high standard.
• Edge 520 and 820 (2015-2016): Introduced Strava live segments (520) and added touchscreen navigation and group tracking (820).
• Edge 1030 (2017): High-end model with large display, trendline routing, and extended battery support for ultra-distance rides.
• Edge 130 and Edge Explore (2018): Edge 130 focuses on recreational tracking; Edge Explore is for tourers who need simple navigation.
• Edge 530, 830, and 1030 Plus (2019-2020): Faster processing, new performance metrics, and enhanced safety/navigation features.
• Edge 1040 Solar (2022): Solar charging, multi-band GNSS for improved accuracy, and advanced stamina tracking for endurance cyclists. (Edge Explore 2)
• Edge 540, 840, and 840 Solar (2023): Smaller version of 1040
• Edge 1050 (2024): AMOLED screen, digital bell, road hazards and surface, Garmin PAY, new case format.
• Edge 550 and 850/Solar (likely 2025): likely smaller versions of Edge 1050.

Garmin Edge 1050 – What’s new, in brief

• It has a wholly different case shape and is slightly heavier, although the broad 3-metal-button, 3.5″ colour touchscreen format is unchanged – I don’t like the looks.
• A new high-resolution LCD is coming in at 1,000 nits with 480x800px. The screen looks very bright and has vivid colours – Excellent.
• State-of-the-art GNSS chipset – Accurate.
• Faster processor and graphics processor – Nicely smooth operation all around.
• Garmin PAY – Useful. A workaround for unsupported banks is here (Curve)
• Road surface warning and hazard alerts – Usefulness depends on your ride types and location.
• Refreshed interface – Garmin’s best to date, notably better than 2023.
• Battery life is claimed to be 20 hours with up to 60 hours in battery save mode – Over several weeks, I often got the equivalent of just under 30 hours from a full charge. I would easily have more with a dimmer screen and lower GPS precision.

Other Updates

• The digital bell plays over the new ‘proper’ audio speaker, best linked to a Di2 button.
• Doubled storage space to 64Gb
• Enhanced Group Ride features – Meh. Does everyone in your group have the right Garmin? But Garmin has to start somewhere; this is a good place.
• Course Power Guide adds wind effect – A necessary change to make it useful.
• Gradient reporting improvements are still not good.
• TBT Voice Prompts – Handy
• USB-C and MTP connection.

Buy: UK£650, USA$700, EU 750€

Feature Dives

There’s too much to cover Edge 1050 in one review fully. Let’s look in more detail at some of the newer features and more popular aspects of how it works.

Garmin Edge 1050 – Aesthetics and case design

It’s not the prettiest of shapes, but I’ve grown to tolerate it.

The standout feature is the colour touchscreen. It’s simply stunning, with sharp definition and vibrant colours. It responds brilliantly to touch and even performs well with gloves in most cases—an impressive feat for a touchscreen device. While the buttons are sensibly placed, they can be tricky to press, especially with gloves. On the bright side, this design helps prevent accidental presses during your ride.

The more elongated display design effectively adds usable screen real estate when following routes, but IMHO, it is not as appealing to regular use as a more square shape.

The tether hole has been cleverly repositioned to the underside, well away from the USB port cover—a small but thoughtful change. The replaceable Garmin mount underneath is a smart touch, offering compatibility with Garmin Charge systems for extended adventures.

Before buying a larger, heavier bike computer like this, you will want to consider how it interacts with your mount. If your mount is long, the weight of the Edge 1050 might break it or its lugs. Furthermore, the increased distance from the mount to the bottom of the Edge will not fit on your existing mount if its centre is closer to the handlebars than 65mm, allowing for the twist-on action.

Garmin Edge 1050 – The Interface

Edge 1050’s interface is massively improved compared to a few years ago. It doesn’t quite match the elegance of aspects of Karoo’s interface, but this is one of Garmin’s best interfaces that I’ll admit to ‘quite liking’… translated from British English into American English that means ‘very good’.

I will cover the basic principles of how the touchscreen interface works.

Home Screen

From the HOME screen, swiping down accesses eight general settings like Wallet, sensors, notifications, controls, lights, and weather. Oddly, it also includes Segment Explore and Climb Explore.

From the HOME screen, swiping up accesses your personalised choice from the existing nineteen or so standard widget glances. This could include Garmin coach workouts, compass, workout history, primary event details, cycling ability and VO2max. Somewhat confusingly, it can also again include weather and notifications.

The home screen comprises three sections. The buttons at the bottom are fixed, but the two sections above comprise series’ of tiles that can be scrolled left to right. The top tiles scroll through your ride profiles, and the middle tiles include things like last ride stats and last route added.

This all works quite well. The visual presentation of various screen elements could be further improved, modernised and standardised. The flow between screens also works quite well, but I sometimes get stuck in various places.

In-Ride Screen

At the business end of the design are the In-Ride screens. The ones you see most of the time. You have a decent amount of screen real estate to work with. Screens are superficially similar to those on most other competitor screens, and it’s hard to criticise when they are similar to everyone else’s offering; it’s just that with Garmin, there is a high degree of customizability plus specialist screens like Strava Segments, Stamina, Indoor Workout, and ClimbPro.

I prefer other maps like those on the Karoo and the most recently teased Wahoo. Garmin’s maps are great in that they include every detail, like POIs and road names. I have found Garmin’s choice of route colouring odd; in my mind, Garmin’s default colour choice is poor, and raw lines are inferior to arrowed routes. Great examples of what the competition does here would be where Karoo and Elemnt have multiple chevrons to indicate the route ahead and change colour if you are off-route or approaching a climb.

Garmin Edge 1050 – Hazard reporting and surface Type

You can classify and report a road hazard to Garmin over the internet as you ride with Garmin Connect. Providing that most people agree it’s a current hazard, Garmin keeps it in its database, which it shares in near real-time with other riders. Riders get a countdown to the hazard at the bottom of the display, disappearing once they’ve passed the location – similar to Google Maps.

In principle, this seems like a good idea, and it works on reasonably popular roads, especially where cyclists travel slowly. Don’t expect to get an accurately reported hazard when you most need it descending an unfamiliar hill at 40mph.

I still have two minds about whether I’ll keep this feature active. I don’t find it that useful, but one day I might.

Surface Type

The Edge 1050 cycling computer provides real-time warnings for unpaved roads during rides and displays the hazard directly on the map screen. Post-ride, users can analyze the percentage of paved versus unpaved surfaces and view a GPS overlay of road types in Garmin Connect.

This is potentially useful for gravel riders at night. Using your eyes in daylight is easier.

Garmin Edge 1050 – The Bell – A Deep Dive

Using the Edge 1050 bell: To sound the bell, tap anywhere on the Edge 1050 screen and then the bell icon. It’s loud and sounds like a real bell should. People love this feature.

But those two taps add an element of danger in some scenarios, so you’ll want to assign a Garmin remote or di2 button press to the bell action. This is a bit complicated, so I’ll give an overview and links.

• Assign one of the four D-fly channels on the E-tube app to the Di2 top button. You can assign the same channel to each top button and a remote shifter. (this is probably already done by default)
• On the Edge 1050, assign an action to each event “single press, double press, press or hold” in the Shimano di2> Sensor Details> Di2 Button setup> (choose button), for example
  • right button: channel 1+single press – next page (on-screen)
  • right button: channel 1+double press – previous page
  • right button: channel 1+press and hold – bell (in the Misc section)
  • left button: channel 2+single press – lap (separate channel optional)
  • left button: channel 2+double press – change Varia lights mode
  • left button: channel 2+press and hold – show elevation profile

Sadly, changing the audio file the Edge 1050 uses for the bell appears impossible. I couldn’t find the location of the audio file used by the bell, which possibly could be replaced by a different audio file of the same name (This PC\Edge 1050\Internal Storage\Garmin\Audio\Tones is empty). While my preference for a klaxon has some comedic value, others might choose a string of profanities, so Garmin is best advised to leave this ‘as-is.’

More: Garmin, BetterShiftingTerry, Gplama

Edge 1050 GroupRide Expansion – Now with incidents, climb challenges and awards

Garmin’s expanded GroupRide nicely adds competitive features that perhaps Strava could have done better…but didn’t.

Edge 540, 840, and 1040 get boosted Incident Detection, In-Ride Climb Challenges, and Post-Ride Awards. Ride setup is relatively easy, provided all riders join with the same unique ride code.

Setting up a GroupRide involves creating or joining a session via a unique code, with the option to share routes seamlessly among participants. During rides, the Incident Detection feature alerts the group if a member crashes, displaying location and navigation options to assist. Fair enough.

The new Climb Challenges add real-time competition to climbs, showcasing live leaderboards on the Edge and awarding winners based on climb times. I used this twice with a fellow Garmin owner, and it pretty much confirmed what was obvious, although I wasn’t clear about whether it worked based on my definition of the climb or my ride partner. I suspect it will be more fun and useful on big group days.

The in-ride experience for climbing challenges is good. Yet, in this ever-inclusive world, it’s a feature that excludes many riders lacking the latest Garmin.

I can’t help wondering why Strava hasn’t done this. Strava is compatible with older Garmin devices, watches, and non-Garmin bike computers. Admittedly, Strava needs to get its act together to determine the definitions of meaningful segments and climbs.

Post-ride awards highlight achievements across metrics like speed, jumping, power and heart rate. Here is a selection of the 60 or so GroupRide Awards, some of which are ride-type or sensor-specific.

• Chatterbox: Most Heavily Using the GroupRide Messaging Feature.
• Climb Pro: Best Climb Score.
• Fashionably Late: Last to Arrive at the Ride.
• Overachiever: Highest Total Distance.
• Speed Racer: Highest Max Speed.
• Uncontested Champ: Only Rider Participating.
• Wanderlust: Most Time Off Course.
• Anti-Gravity: Most Jumps.
• Flight-Captain: Longest Jump.
• Flow Rider: Lowest Flow Score.
• Super Fly: Best Jump Hangtime.
• All Powerful: Highest Max Power.
• Lean and Mean: Highest Watts/kg Average.
• More in the Tank: The highest stamina potential remaining.
• Most Upstanding: Most Time Standing.
• Running on Empty: Lowest Stamina Potential Remaining.
• Biggest Effort: Highest Average Heart Rate as % Max Heart Rate.
• Heart Rate Hustler: Highest Amount of Time in Heart Rate Zone 5.
• More in the Tank: The highest stamina potential remains.
• Running on Empty: Lowest Stamina Potential Remaining.
• Roller Coaster: Most Time Spent Coasting.
• Tap Dancer: Highest Average Cadence.
• Worker Bee: Most Time Spent Pedaling.

Regarding the post-ride awards, these seem to lack seriousness, bordering on childishness. More serious riders will realise the complexity of assumptions and settings that eventually determine the winners. Still, it’s mostly a bit of fun.

Garmin Edge 1050 gets Garmin PAY.

Edge 1050 is the first-ever bike computer with tap-and-go payments.

Once your card is added to the Edge, it’s passcode protected, and all you need to do is double-press the start button and pay for that coffee and cake. #Sorted

At least it would be sorted if your bank was supported by Garmin PAY – lack of support in many countries has been a big problem for garmin. An easy workaround, at least, AFAIK for the UK, is to use a CURVE card, which acts as financial glue between your Visa/Mastercard cards, PayPal, and Garmin PAY on the Edge 1050. It doesn’t need a balance to be held but requires a small initial, one-off payment (£5ish)

More: Try Curve

I’ve not used cash since before COVID-19; instead, I rely on my smartwatch – usually an Apple Watch or Forerunner 965. I’ll keep using one of those, but having the Edge 1050 as a backup is handy.

Garmin Edge 1050 Detailed Accuracy Test Results

After many rides over many weeks on proper production firmware, I have a good view of the 1050’s accuracy over its technical performance covering battery, elevation and grade, and GPS/GNSS.

Garmin Edge 1050 GPS Accuracy Results

Edge 1050 has an accurate GPS. Setting it at maximum accuracy is unnecessary except perhaps in mountainous canyons, metropolitan centres, and wooded trails.

Test 1 – all good

Test 2 – all good

Test 3 – all good

Test 4 – all good

Test 6 – just one weird performance on an average-difficulty section

I’ve got LOTS more results than that, but they all show the same thing.

Garmin Edge 1050 GPS Elevation & Grade Accuracy Results

Elevation seems fine. Perhaps a slight exception might be that Edge 1050 sometimes overestimates.

I aim to write a separate article on the grade shown live when ascending and descending. Edge 1050 will show an accurate grade up a long, steady gradient. However, its algorithm uses averages and takes many seconds to respond to changes in grade. In those cases, it appears wrong.

Ensure you perform a one-off manual elevation calibration at your typical start points to get the best elevation profile.

Garmin Edge 1050 GPS Battery Life Claims and Realities

I never had the battery cranked to the max except for taking some photos. They were so bright, and the backgrounds were black, so I had to redo them!

These five ride tests all had the display dimmed to a sensible level, and even then, the screen was highly readable, and I could have dimmed it further. Calculated battery life varied between 20 and 30 hours.

Garmin Edge 1050 Advanced Uses

Garmin Edge devices have many other features that have existed for some time. If you’re considering jumping in with the Edge 1050, know it can do every Garmin cycle feature summarised here (and more). No other company can match this in full

• Navigation: key features are Turn-by-turn (TBT) instructions and popularity routing using Garmin’s extensive cycling heatmap. Other sometimes useful navigation features include back-to-start, ride-specific routing preferences (e.g. trail vs road), and the on-device course creator
  

• Strava integration:
  • pushes completed rides to Strava
  • pulls your favourite segments to allow in-ride performance tracking
• Coaching:
  • Delivers step-by-step workout instructions with real-time feedback, including integration with Garmin Connect plans or third-party services like TrainingPeaks.
  • Adaptive training: Using Garmin’s adaptive algorithms, adjust training recommendations based on your recent performance and fitness trends.
  • Daily suggested workouts – ideal when you want a recommended workout based on your goals and readiness to execute it properly.

• Physiology tracking: Provides many in-depth physiological metrics such as VO2 max, automatic LTHR/LT2 detection, recovery time, and performance condition. These are updated with performance, sleep and recovery metrics that you might gain outside of riding with your Garmin watch.
• Indoor training: Connects seamlessly to smart trainers to control resistance, grade and replicate outdoor routes during indoor sessions.

• Connectivity & Openness:
  • Sensors: Offers robust connectivity to ANT+ and Bluetooth sensors for power, cadence, heart rate, smart trainers, core temperature, muscle oxygen, bike gears, tyre pressure, hydration, and more.
  • Cycling platforms (push, pull): Integrate with Zwift, TrainerRoad, Garmin Connect, Xert and more to push workout data or pull structured plans.

• Race planner/Power guide with wind data: Provides advanced planning tools that factor in wind and terrain to optimize pacing and energy expenditure during races.

• Safety features:
  • Bike alarm: Alerts you to the potential theft of an unattended bike.
  • LiveTrack: Shares your real-time location with friends.
  • Incident detection: Automatically alerts emergency contacts during an accident.
  • Varia: Smart radar and lights will alert you of approaching vehicles, and smart flashing patterns will be added to warn vehicles nearby.
  • Road hazard/surface alerts: Warns you of approaching hazards.

Zwift and similar training platforms like the free MyWhoosh can cause duplicate data. The best workaround is to disable uploads from Zwift entirely, which means you won’t get the pretty virtual GPS map on Strava.

Garmin Edge 1050 Key Specifications and a comparison to Edge 1040

Garmin Edge 1050 Review Summary & Opinion

I must admit a massive trepidation before producing this review – a process which takes a week. My experience with the Edge 540 earlier in the year was unpleasant as it lacked a touchscreen and the new interface tweaks on the Edge 1050. I shouldn’t have worried. I waited for the usual raft of Garmin launch bugs to subside, then got stuck right in. The 1050 has been a great device to use. Easily, Garmin’s best-ever Edge.

Despite improved usability, Edge 1050 still presents a big learning curve for anyone new to Garmin as there are so many options and capabilities – but all those features are what you bought it for. The new interface has made onboarding and learning easier and more pleasant. That’s aided by one of the best touchscreens I’ve used and a display whose vivid awesomeness perhaps has blinded me to some of the Edge’s minor flaws.

The price, of course, is eye-watering, but you guys buy $10k bikes, so what’s another $600 amongst friends? It’s a shame that Garmin has spoilt its impressive display with the new odd-shaped case. Maybe the cut-off corners made twisting onto mounts a little easier…this is a big bike computer.

I’m more of a triathlete-cum-performance cyclist, so Edge 1050 is perhaps too large and too much of an overkill for me. However, it has excited me for 2025’s inevitable Edge 550 and 850, which will certainly have the 1050’s interface and probably also the AMOLED screen. I.e. the same, but smaller.

If Garmin returned to its normal case shape and tweaked the interface aesthetics more, I would be tempted to call it the best bike computer ever. Yet, it remains hard to see how future material improvements could be made.

Garmin Edge 1050: Should you buy it?

You’ll probably want a faster or more significant piece of the latest bike tech. Perhaps you’ll be intrigued by the newest features or missed the last tranche added to recent Edge models. Mostly, you will want the best bike navigation features in a large format or one of the best performance-grade bike computers. Perhaps you want the best Garmin to impress your ride buddies! This is it.

If you are already vested in the Garmin ecosystem, it makes sense to stay there unless you are unhappy for some specific reason. With the new interface style and big battery life, Edge 1050 represents a welcome improvement to a familiar interface and the start of a new generation. It is a sensible place to jump to and get a good degree of future-proofing for several more years.

It’s hard to recommend the competitors over Garmin. The competitors will always be better value for money but come with the risk that a particular feature you absolutely must have isn’t supported in their ecosystem. ‘All’ the competitors have is better looks, better usability, and the same core features. Although, with Garmin’s improvements in the interface, that argument is weakened.

Garmin’s unique differentiators are its 3rd party app system, physiology insights, and the broadest possible range of features, with each feature being more than a simple tickbox – Garmin adds depth to its feature sets.

Gone are the days when you HAD to buy the most expensive bike computer because those were the only ones that supported FE-C and power meters. Those bike computers are readily available for less than GBP/$100 these days. Today’s must-have ‘features’ are probably ClimbPro, Di2/AXS, Varia Radar and open platform connectivity, but every other half-decent bike computer has those capabilities.

I prefer Wahoo for its usability, Karoo for its beauty, and Garmin for its apps. Now it’s up to you to decice…

Buy: UK£650, USA$700, EU 750€