Karoo 2 - First impressions
Answered
I received my Karoo 2 two weeks ago and did some first test rides in snowy winter conditions in Germany. I had, and also still do have, a Wahoo Roam Elemnt.
I'm impressed by the screen, the mount and the overall quality of the unit. There are some useful function which I was missing with the Wahoo. But there are also some downsides which make me think about returning it and going back to Wahoo... So I'd be curious what your thoughts are regarding the following topics and if you are working on some of them?
- Map screen: One of the major improvements seemed to be the big high-resolution screen. Now I noticed that there's only one Map page available per profile. Of cause in most cases I want to have a small map together with some data fields. But in this setup, I'm not able to have a full screen Map for real navigation purposes. So, this seems to be a big bug and the only workaround I found was switching between different Profiles with Fullscreen and split screen map layouts - which is kind of annoying...
- Routing: Karoo seems to have grate navigation abilities. Rerouting, routing back to start/home and even creating a route just using karoo should be possible. Sadly, there seems to be no way to define road types. Karoo just takes any kind of road for navigation which makes it completely worthless for navigation purpose...
- The battery life is really at its lowest limit. On a standard one day ride with ~12 hours of ride-time you already have to really care about power consumption to not run out of battery at the end of the day. Why is there no way to set up auto display brightness? This could save a lot and reduce the batterie lifetime problem?
- Live tracking seems to be way worth compared with Wahoo. It shouldn't be necessary to sign up into a Karoo account to see the ride because else just no one will follow. Live tracking also shouldn't require a Bluetooth connection, as this will again increase power consumption. Also using a SIM will decrease batterie life a lot, but as live-tracking using a SIM doesn't work that's not really a problem.
Finally, I'm a bit disappointed as I noticed how many of the basic features are not really implemented. And that although the software had already had a long development phase thanks to Karoo 1...
-
Hi David,
3. Elemnt Roam has auto brightness. The battery dies after ~13 hours of riding with "display always on" and Livetracking via BT. connection to Smartphone.
4. Wahoo Live-tracking works great. Free access for everyone, nice map display and lots of data field information. No SIM card slot.
1. + 2. is where Elemnt Roam doesn't perform good and the reason why I decided to order Karoo 2. The Wahoo display has a pretty low resolution and is more like black and white instead of realy colored. Thats why it's hard to see any details on the maps or getting an overview of eg. the next 50 km. This would be a lot better on Karoo 2 if there was a way to have a fullscreen Map without loosing the small map with aditional datafields.
Another thing I forgott to mention is the USB-C rubber cap. I really couldn't believe it when I saw this for the first time. With the Karoo 2 it is not connected to the device, so you have to remove it when charging and put it somewhere. It's only a matter of time before it's lost. Of course the USB port is waterproof and I like that it is USB-C, but without a cover mud will immediately enter and the plug does not fit in anymore...
Nico
-
ditto on the USB-C cap being kinda joke. I can imagine loosing it mid-ride, when the cap just falls out after riding over few bumps.
ad 1. Map screen. I'd say this is subjective matter. I personally don't mind having full screen map with no data fields. Or even the "two fields+map" layout is enough. You can always zoom out/in the map if you wanna see more of the route.
-
sure, these are all subjective matters. I don't like switching around between different pages while riding. So 90% of the time I use one page including all information necessary for me - a map, and 4 or 6 data fields. ~8% is a page for climbing hills including the elevation profile and 6 data fields. For 1% I use a page with 8 data fields showing the summary of my current ride and the last 1 % would ideally be the Fullscreen map to see exactly where I am, what's coming next or to reroute if I want to cancel the current track...
-
#5 um, attach cover with lil' piece of thread to tether , cover or bike?
#4 I don't have any friends and no one will ride with me, after that last episode, so I don't use the Live/Group feature, but lack of a phone app limits current use. It is problematic that all the LiveTrack features are platform specific and don't cross talk , but a phone app helps even with platform limitations between iOs and Android. I always though Group Ride was there so you can find your buds when they dropped you while you played with your unit. The use of the SIM for this will help with part of the situation , when implemented, but propietary hurdles may persist.
#3 Battery life for 12 hour rides is just going to require interval charging or pluggin in for everything with much of a screen. that's why the other guys use low power screens rather than phone like ones.
#1-#2 It's just going to need several steps to get both a full screen and split screen. Not a hideous task going APPS-> Profiles swap, as it sounds like you are doing. If the second profile just has map and maybe one other screen, it's not too painful, and may have low enough demand that I wouldn't expect much priority. Since you need a phone anyway, maybe use two screens? Grate or great? Mapping is so personal, most demanding folks find something they like and import hassle though it is.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
6 comments