The Garmin Edge 540 and Edge 840 cycling GPS computers became available on April 11, 2023. Both devices now offer a solar model. But even the standard models have improved battery life along with even better GPS.
Read through this quick article to find out what’s new, all the features packed into these two mid-range bike computers, and what sets them apart.
NEW Solar Charging & Improved Battery Life: The Power Glass™ solar-charging lens on the solar model extends the Edge 540 and 840 battery life—up to 32 hours of demanding use or up to 60 hours in battery saver mode. Non-solar models get up to 26 hours of battery life in demanding use and up to 42 hours in battery saver mode.
NEW Multi-Band GNSS
NEW Targeted Adaptive Coaching: View daily suggested workouts and training prompts on screen; get personalized coaching that adapts based on your current training load, recovery, and upcoming events.
NEW Power Guide: Recommends power targets throughout a course when paired with your compatible power meter.
NEW Real-Time Stamina: Get stamina feature insights while you ride so you can keep an eye on how much longer you can really push it.
NEW Cycling Ability: Classify your strengths as a cyclist, and compare your cycling ability to the demands of a specific course so you can focus your training and improvement in the right areas.
NEW ClimbPro Ascent Planner: See remaining ascent and grade when climbing so you can gauge your effort with the ClimbPro ascent planner, now available on every ride—no course required; view on your Edge device and in the Garmin Connect™ app on your smartphone for ride planning.
IMPROVED Setup & Mapping: A streamlined interface for quick and easy access to the information, courses and tools you need. Updated ride type-specific maps highlight popular roads and trails plus searchable points of interest.
Dynamic Performance Monitoring gives you insight about how your body is responding to training. Track VO2 max, recovery time, training load, training load focus, and more.
Training Status lets you automatically evaluate your recent exercise history and performance indicators to see if you’re training productively, peaking, or overreaching.
Cycling Dynamics provides you with insight on how your performance changes based on variable conditions such as position, bike setup, ride duration, and more.
MTB Dynamics gives you the details of your epic rides with new mountain biking metrics like jump count, jump distance, and hang time.
Sync Training Plans, indoor and outdoor, from the Garmin Connect™ app or sync seamlessly to your Edge from other apps including TrainingPeaks® and TrainerRoad.
Nutrition and Hydration helps you stay fueled and hydrated throughout your ride.
Grit and Flow rates the difficulty of a ride using GPS, elevation, and other data and shows how smoothly you descend a trail, so you have a score to beat next time.
Ride-Specific Mapping shows key map information on road, gravel, or mountain, based on ride type. Easy-to-interpret bike-friendly routes are more visible, so you can find what you need in a snap.
Garmin Cycle Map gives you preloaded maps that have wider coverage than ever before, including worldwide MTB trail data from Trailforks. Also get elevation data, points of interest, and searchable addresses.
The Trailforks App allows you to import planned routes directly to the preloaded Trailforks app on Edge 1030 Plus.
Forksight Mode (in the Trailforks app) automatically displays upcoming forks in the trail and gives you context by showing where you are.
Turn-By-Turn Directions alerts you of upcoming turns.
Back to Start guides you back to where your route started, even if you deviate from it or stop early.
Route Calculation now calculates faster and caches so you can spend more time riding and less time waiting around.
Trendline Popularity Routing uses the billions of miles of ride data that cyclists have uploaded, allowing the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus to find the best route from roads (and trails) most traveled.
inReach® Compatibility allows you to stay in touch wherever you ride by pairing Edge with an inReach® device. View and reply to messages, share trip data, and trigger interactive SOS alerts (requires inReach subscription).
Varia™ Compatibility lets you see and be seen by pairing the Edge 1030 Plus with Garmin's Varia rearview radar and lights.
Bike Alarm will notify you on your smartphone if your bike is moved when you make a pit stop.
Incident Detection automatically sends your location to preloaded emergency contacts if it detects an incident.
LiveTrack lets friends and family follow your real-time location and even view your entire preplanned course.
GroupTrack can keep tabs on up to 50 of your riding friends at once. Just look at your screen to see updates.
The Edge 540 and Edge 840 are the mid-level options of Garmin’s popular bike computer lineup offering advanced features for serious cyclists. And now they both offer solar-charging options, Garmin’s superior multi-GNSS positioning, exciting new training tools, and improved mapping, setup, and battery life.
These Garmin cycling GPS computers are the same in every way with one key difference: the Edge 840 offers a touchscreen along with button control. With this upper mid-range option in Garmin’s bike computer series, you’ll be able to tap, pan, and swipe on your ride.
This key difference, of course, is why the Edge 840 is $100 more in the non-solar or solar options than the 540.
And that’s it! The basic difference between these two comes down to:
Otherwise, these loaded Garmin bike computers are the same in every way!
