Concur. I have, but no longer use, an Edge 500. Worked well enough, but since I'm a geographer and a techogeek, I usually have to have the latest and greatest gadget around. When the 800 came out, I jumped on it and have been more than satisfied with it. I can construct a route with RIDEWITHGPS, uplaod the ride to the 800, and get turn-by-turn directions. Don't do that for most rides, just new ones and in areas of which I am not familiar.

When the 810 came out, I didn't see any new features that I just had to have. Same with the 1000. The 800 is that good! If you can find one, you will be very happy.

I use mine with a Bontrager heart rate monitor and a Stages power meter. Being a GPS, it will have all the geolocating information you would ever want. With an accessory micro USB slot, I have all the maps I want or need, even European ones when I went there. The only time I really can't read the screen is when the sun is over my shoulder. The reflection on the screen is pretty bad. A quick hand movement to shade the sun will give me whatever I need. Or, I just move my head slightly to cast my head shadow over the unit. I have backlighting turned off, so I can't see very well at night, for those times when I'm stuck out in the dark. Simple enough to turn backlighting on, but that will wear down the battery pretty fast. Good battery power. Only time I came close to depleting the battery was on a hilly double-metric century. I was in the saddle about ten hours that day, and the battery was getting pretty low. Not sure I could have gone a couple hours more.