Originally Posted by
cafzali
You've never had to purchase Garmin's maps with any of their devices that will accept a card. Many, many people have burned their own maps from the day they bought an Edge or updated them using OSM maps. As far as uploads to Strava, I have no idea whey they enabled it. Could be the reason you cite or the fact that Garmin Connect has generally sucked since it was rolled out -- another thing that truly baffled me. Offering a service like that just isn't that difficult from a technology standpoint and should have been done right from the get go.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there are no useful features that have been added in the new devices. All I'm saying is that features on devices like an Edge are like apps on someone's smart phone -- the vast majority of people pay for capabilities they think they will use, but use very seldom, if ever.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "crude mapping." Maps are maps and haven't changed in ages, for the most part. Now, it's certainly possible that advances in processing power/cost have enabled the new devices to update turn-by-turn faster, etc. I haven't found the speed to be an impediment on the 705. What does sometimes go "awry" is using .GPX or .TCX files that someone else creates and uploads to MapMyRide, etc. I find those sometimes work as advertised, sometimes not.
When the 800 came out, I don't recall OSM being all the rage at that point. By crude, I mean that most bike routes and trails were/are not present on the Garmin maps. If the mapping is limited so is your navigation. When I bought the product at the time, I went with what the vendor was supporting and not a crowd sourced third-party alternative. Since I still have my Garmin, I might try loading an OSM map on it now.
I agree with your statement on the features. If you're not going to use them then think twice before spending that hard earned cash.