Garmin slides in touchscreen Edge 800 navigation device
Garmin had recently revealed that its mobile segment represented a backslide of four percent in the second quarter of the current year. In order to bounce back on its toes, the company has now unboxed a touchscreen GPS device for cyclists that lets them track the statistics and location for racing, the Edge 800.
The newly unleashed offering boasts of a touchscreen interface while merging features of its predecessors the Edge 500 and 705. The stylish device flaunts a 2.6-inch color display for clear viewing. Users can easily survey the terrain and plan routes with the free BaseCamp software included in the device. After planning and previewing routes, users can send these routes to Edge 800, 705 and 605 with a sense of convenience.
“Whether you’re on the road, in the mountains or around the city, Garmin’s touchscreen Edge 800 puts the most important information of your ride at your fingertips. Thanks to its simple mounting system, improved mapping and route-planning capabilities, and the GPS-based features that make wires and calibration obsolete, we can easily say that one Edge fits all,” remarked Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales.
Cycling zealots can view Team Garmin’s featured rides or download, analyze and share their own rides at the company’s online community dubbed Garmin Connect. This community shows every user’s ride information as well as multiple map representations inclusive of street, satellite, topographic, and elevation maps. Users can upload the searched data to Edge 800 for handy usage.
“At Garmin-Transitions, we’re going to be on the cutting edge of technology, in everything we do,” commented Team Garmin sprinting sensation Tyler Farrar. “Edge 800 can track all of our performance data, and it also keeps things interesting on training rides because we can use it anywhere in the world to plan and follow new routes – on and off road – and always find our way back to the start.”
The Edge 800 tracks the speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, calories burned, climb and descent, by using information directly from GPS satellites. Cyclists can wirelessly sync the device through ANT+ technology to showcase information on Garmin heart rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors. The data can also be viewed on a compatible third-party power meter. Apart from this, the navigation gadget comes with a barometric altimeter to detect changes in elevation while climbing and descending a mountain or a road.
Users can swiftly race and ride their bikes with this device since it equips a quarter-turn mount that fits on the stem or handlebars by utilizing its gripping rubber rings. The offering can be used on multiple bikes without any calibration requirement, thereby rendering flexibility. A high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix ensures constant satellite reception. The new Edge device changes time zones, displays temperature readings plus proffers a battery life of up to 15 hours with one charge.
Furthermore, cyclists can complement the device with optional offerings like TOPO U.S. 24K DVD or microSD card in order to view topographic detail with maps as clear as 1:24,000 scale USGS maps. The optional City Navigator mapping renders streets maps with various points of interest, while Garmin’s Custom Maps displays details, labels and landmarks on the device. Also, the BirdsEye Satellite Imagery quickly transfers high-resolution satellite images to Edge 800.
Users can snap up the Edge 800 for $449.99 (approx Rs. 21,119).
Post Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.