Garmin Edge 130

Garmin's new Edge 130 offers a lot of performance in a small package, with ANT+ and Bluetooth sensor and smartphone connectivity, decent battery life, an easy-to-use button-controlled layout and, perhaps best of all, an absolutely pin-sharp display. You don't get fully fledged navigation like the pricier Garmin models but the basic setup is usable if that's not your top priority.

• Pros: Compact, easy to use, pin-sharp display, buttons not a touchscreen
• Cons: Basic navigation, no mapping

Garmin's GPS computers have been getting bigger and more feature-packed over the years, but the new Edge 130 harks back to the iconic 500. It's not only compact, but the stripped-back features focus on offering the core functions and fewer superfluous ones that, in my opinion, have been bloating some of the bigger and pricier Garmins at the expense of solid reliability.

It's an all-new product line too, sitting above the smaller and cheaper 20, 25 and 200 computers, but below the 520 Plus, 820 and 1030. It will appeal to performance-minded cyclists as it pairs with a whole bunch of sensors, but shuns a lot of the features found higher up the range, which keeps the price down and makes it easier to use.

Button-operated

No touchscreens here, the Edge 130 is operated by five buttons located on the side. That means no touchscreen reliability issues to worry about, plus it's good for battery life. It doesn't take long to be fluent in using the buttons to navigate around the Edge 130, it's very simple and intuitive. The user interface is a breeze, so much easier to use than any of the 'better' models.

The screen is 1.8in in size. It's not as indulgent or colourful as Garmin's bigger devices but it is pin sharp and legible; reading the numbers at speed with a quick glance is simple. That's true in any light conditions as well, from gloomy low light to bright sunlight. It's probably the crispest display I've used on any computer, Garmin or other brands.

Its screen might be small but the Edge 130 lets you pack up to five data pages with eight data fields, so you can get all the important ride information you need. I was easily able to set up a data page to show speed, distance, power, heart rate, cadence, elapsed time, timer and total ascent, all I really need for an average ride. It's quite handy to have a couple of other screens set up with less data, especially for racing when all you might need is speed, power and time, with the subsequent larger numbers making it easy to glance at in the heat of a race.

You have to determine the configuration of the data fields in the main menu of the Edge 130, which isn't quite as easy as setting up a Wahoo via a smartphone app, but it's pretty straightforward and it's likely to be something you only do once. In fact, setting up the Edge 130 out of the box for the first time is a simple affair. And every time you add a sensor you get a prompt to add a relevant data page, which saves mining through the menus.

Packed inside the small unit are sensors that use GPS, GLONASS and Galileo satellites for positioning with a barometric altimeter. I found it picks up the satellites very quickly so there's no delay to starting a ride, and it hasn't shown any sign of dropping signal during any rides so far. That's using just the GPS mode, which the Edge 130 is set to by default. It worked fine. For more challenging areas you could try either the GPS + GLONASS or GPS + Galileo but they come with a battery penalty. Unless you're having issues in the stock mode you shouldn't have to worry about changing anything.

Recording and connecting

Recording rides is a doddle. Once the Edge 130 has locked onto a GPS signal, which I found it did impressively quickly, press Record and it starts tracking your ride. When you're done, press the Stop button and you'll be prompted to save or discard your ride. Hit Save and then you'll have the opportunity to categorise your ride with options including road, mixed surface, mountain and gravel. It's a nice touch, given the diversity of cycling these days. You only get one activity profile compared to the multiple profiles on the 520, say, but it's not something I missed.

Like all modern Garmin computers, the Edge 130 supports both ANT+ and Bluetooth. The latter means you can connect a smartphone so you can get alerts for incoming text messages. I like that; it lets you know if it's something important that you need to stop and respond to, or just some junk mail. It doesn't work with WhatsApp, though, which is a shame.

Bluetooth also means easy uploading to Garmin Connect or any other training package. I found the Bluetooth to be reliable and worked fine every time, which is an improvement on my experience with some older Garmin computers which were frustrating, to say the least. You can use LiveTrack if you want to share your route with friends and family.

Strava Live Segments is supported if you like to challenge yourself that way on a ride. It also supports Strava routes but you have to plug the Edge 130 into a computer and manually copy across the files, there's no easy way of doing it via the smartphone, which might limit its appeal with dedicated Strava fans.

Sensors

The Edge 130 is compatible with sensors including heart rate, cadence, power meters and more, and the Varia radar rear light. You get a reasonable selection of metrics for monitoring these sensors, but if you're a data-hungry performance-focused cyclist then you might prefer the full suite of power metrics you get with Garmin's more expensive computers.

You don't get proper navigation like on the 800 or 1000 series, as there's no base map installed. You can still download a map, easily done from the Garmin Connect app, and you're presented with a line you can follow, with prompts to upcoming turns. It can be hit or miss; for countryside riding it's doable, but in urban and city areas I found it tricky when you get to a roundabout with lots of possible exits.

As well as downloading a route, you can use the 'back to start' via the same route or in a straight line – handy if you need to get home sharpish.

Battery life

Garmin claims 15 hours of battery life, but that is in the best possible scenario. For real-world riding with everything turned on and connected to a smartphone and a couple of sensors (heart rate and power meter), I found I was getting in the region of 10-12 hours. That's enough for a week's worth of riding for many. More sensors will drain the battery quicker; turning them off will increase it a bit.

Any issues?

I know Garmin users have had their fair share of issues. I've had plenty – most recently with the 820 and it's unusable touchscreen, thankfully fixed with firmware updates – but I'm pleased to report the Edge 130 bucks this trend. It's been solidly reliable and free of gremlins and bugs during the couple of months I've been testing it. It's not once thrown a wobbly or had me cursing it, it just does what you expect of an expensive computer and works all the time. So well done Garmin on releasing a product that is bug-free.

Price and rivals

Garmin asks £170 for the new Edge 130, which is £90 cheaper than the also-new Edge 520 Plus, though that offers a lot more performance data metrics and navigation. If you need proper navigation and you're seriously into tracking your fitness and want the full suite of performance data then it's worth the extra, but if you know your way around then the Edge 130 does everything most cyclists will probably need, and in a very compact and sharp looking computer.

Shop around and you can find the regular Edge 520 for about the same price as this new 130. It's an older design but does pack more performance metrics, though it doesn't do a proper map. The 130's small form-factor and more modern design tip it for me.

Tougher competition comes from outside the Garmin stable: Wahoo's increasingly popular Elemnt Bolt is pricier at £200. It's a chunkier unit and, to my mind, not as smart looking as the Edge 130, and the display is not as crispy sharp, but it does offer proper navigation with a base map and it matches all the same performance parameters as the Edge 130.

Usability is a little better with the Bolt, too, especially when first setting it up as you conduct all changes through the smartphone app. The Edge 130 is still cheaper, smaller and has a nicer screen, and if you don't need navigation then pocketing the change might be reason enough to choose the Garmin.

Conclusion

The Edge 130 pretty much does everything I want in a computer. It tracks rides reliably, provides all the data I need being compatible with heart rate, cadence and power meter sensors, has a decent battery life, is easy to use and is contained in a small and sleek package.

There's no navigation but it's not something I miss as I rarely need to navigate on unfamiliar roads. What I really like is that it provides all the key features I need for my regular riding, with a sharp screen, compact form factor and, finally, solid reliability with no software issues.

Verdict

Possibly the best Garmin yet if you don't need mapping