Wahoo – backlight vs no backlight on EVERY ELEMNT ever
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On a bright sunny April afternoon, I gathered together every ELEMNT bike computer ever. I shot a few videos to compare the screen readability with the backlight off and the backlight set to maximum. I angled my iPhone camera in multiple directions to cover many viewing eventualities.
TL;DR – even with no backlight, these are all perfectly readable. OK, it wasn’t the middle of June, but I had zero issues.
The only ‘remarkable’ finding was that the Karoo 3 was especially bright when cranked up to the max.
There are two playlists, one for no backlight and one for max backlight – each playlist containing a video confirming the settings and one recording a workout.
- top, 1st row – Wahoo ELEMNT
- 2nd row – Bolt 1, Roam 1
- 3rd row – Bolt 2, Roam 2
- 4th row – Bolt 3, Roam 3, Karoo 3, Edge 540
No Backlight
Max backlight
Note: This performance of Wahoo is acceptable in the conditions I typically cycle in. However, I would caution that the display is hard to read in a dimly lit house without a backlight, and generally when in shade. The ‘transflective’ screen technology takes sunlight and reflects some of it, explaining why it works so much better in real-world conditions outdoors. Of course, as the evening closes in or if you are cycling at night, you will need some backlight; similarly, as said below, when your body casts a shadow over the display on a bright day readability will be tricky.
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Too bad Garmin is moving away from transflective screens. Now, only with a giant battery and corresponding weight you get good battery life (Edge 1050)
And Garmin are throwing their key USP over board in doing so: their *huge* advantage in energy frugality on software and SoC level? All meaningless when power use is completely dominated by the screen. The 1040 with its small battery (half way between old bolt and old roam) would outlast any wahoo or hammerhead even when all but the Edge had their screens permanently off.
Transfletive displays become completely unreadable on a bright sunny day when your body shades the screen. On the twisty AZ desert trails I ride, a third of the time with the 840/1040 I can’t see a thing on the display, even with backlight set to 100. The 1050, also with brightness set high, I can see great whether my body is shading it or not.
Lighting conditions obviously make a big difference, but for me in the conditions I ride, the 1050 screen has been a game changer.
this makes sense
it’s not the sunlight per se. it’s the shadow stopping the screen working as well as it might plus your eyes are adjusted to the general brightness rather than the shade.
Do you happen to wear polarized glasses? Never had a problem with shading the screen (1000 and 1030+), except for certain near-dusk conditions when the auto-brightness curve was a bit too frugal, and only on the map when that happened to be full of deep hill shading gray (wahoo does not even offer any hill shading, not sure about hammerhead)