As a new ELEMNT owner I'm going to order an Edge 810 from Performance or REI with a one-year return policy. I'd have bought a Garmin instead if I knew I'd be unable to access it as a USB storage device from Golden Cheetah under Linux or email myself .fit files. I'd also have passed if I knew the ELEMNT didn't show street names as in marketing/packaging material mockups and allow panning as on competing devices with maps.
I knew it did not yet support basic turn-by-turn from .tcx files but could wait weeks for that. Turn-by-turn is scheduled for release this month (March 2016).
I'll return the ELEMNT in two weeks (comfortably within the 30 day return period) if those issues are not yet resolved and hope Wahoo sorts things out before I get fed up with my next generation of Garmin software problems. Android share-by-email is in the feature back-log (iPhone works); street names are something the development team is thinking about but not publicly committed to.
The software developers' online-presence, responsiveness, and transparency is great. That should lead to a product lacking the software issues which plague Garmins and are the reason I'd love to use something else.
The high contrast screen is very visible in all light conditions, even better than the black and white Edge 500 LCD, although I failed to capture that in pictures. Battery life should be excellent with that display. It can run off external power on long rides although the power connector is on back not the bottom so that limits mounting options. It provides a menu of my ridewithgps routes, and uploads rides automatically or manually to it based on settings (which apply to all authenticated web sites). Live tracking via the website works. It can display phone text message/call alerts when the companion app is running. Full Open Street Map maps onboard simplify setup.
Sometimes you can see where other ELEMNT users are when they've enabled live tracking and started a ride, and occasionally you can see each other at the same time. Harliv and I wandered around with our ELEMNTs but were unable to figure out what caused one to be visible to the other or not. Currently this is all or nothing, and some people will want their location visibility limited to "friends."
Unfortunately, its software does not yet have core features necessary for a GPS bike computer minimum viable product.
My paleolithic Linux kernel (2.6.32) doesn't recognize it as a USB storage device, which means getting data into Golden Cheetah requires jumping through a lot of hoops - either sending to ridewithgps and downloading .tcx files one at a time, or attaching it to a different computer and emailing .fit files. Macs have the same problem. Windows 7 does treat it as a storage device.
Sharing .FIT files via email is an iPhone only feature missing from the Android app. Android email support is now in the feature backlog.
It beeps and the top LEDs flash red when going off-course, then beeps again with green LEDs going back on. Otherwise the navigation features are less useful than on the Edge 500 which predates the ELEMNT by 6.5 years. Unlike the Edge 500 it does not do turn-by-turn directions from .tcx files. It does not display cue sheets from loaded .tcx courses. It does not show scale on the map screen or indicate distance to a course. The off-course indication could be missed because it does not stick like the Edge 500's until dismissed with a button press. Turn-by-turn directions are scheduled for March.
The maps are of limited use. Unlike competing units and the mockups on the box/web site, it does not show street names. Unlike competing units it has no way to scroll the screen to find alternate streets which are invisible when zoomed out. The buttons would work well for this - center bottom: toggle mode route/page on left/right button, zoom on left rocker; pan with left/right buttons and rocker moving in those directions. The team is thinking about street name display.
The dithered grey line is my 200k route from February. Blank space appears the same whether people didn't build roads because they're far from population centers (bottom right) or geography interferes like ocean (Pacific coast on left) and mountains (including Boulder Creek).
It only shows up to two user-defined fields on the map page not the four Murray said might happen. That'd be acceptable if it gave turn-by-turn alerts on other data pages but otherwise stops short - I need to simultaneously navigate, know I'm working at a sustainable pace, know I'm not burning matches, and notice time to eat at reasonable intervals. I also like to see speed and distance so I can guess at when I'll be home or at the next stop and text my wife or reroute as necessary.
It has a nice sensor pairing mode which looks for the strongest signal. Sensor signal strength shows up on the configuration screen. It cannot trigger power meter zeroing, display the calibration value, or display raw torque. That calibration functionality is now in the feature backlog.
