Originally Posted by
New_IA_Rider
I use my (older model) Samsung Galaxy phone, on the Sprint network, for Strava when I'm riding. Sometimes I just CAN'T find a GPS signal.
Have you found Garmin units to be more reliable at finding GPS signals than smartphones, or does it matter? It would eliminate the no internet problem, as I'd be manually uploading rides.
I've never had that problem with any of the Garmins I've had, or any of the other dedicated GPS units. The only times I've been unable to get a GPS lock were when I've been indoors or inside a tunnel. But I can't remember having that problem with my phone, either; the problem might be in yours.
You asked about reliability, and you have to know that Garmin doesn't have the best ... quality. They make great hardware units and bug-ridden software with features that are missing for some bizarre reason. Any new Garmin unit is going to have a lot of bugs for the first several months of its life. Seems like things stabilize after a while, but it takes their programmers some time to make a good firmware.
Finally you don't actually have to manually upload rides. I'm using a GPS watch, as soon as I finish a ride it uploads through my phone or my wifi network. I think all the Edge units that pair with a phone do the same thing. Your data uploads to Garmin Connect, you just have to go in and tell GC to copy your data to Strava and it's all automatic.