Hey everybody, Welcome to the channel!
While we're not Strava crazy type of riders, we do ride with a GPS computer
and the one that I use is this older model Garmin Edge 530 which is very good, offers great features,
however if you were to buy that for the entire family you'll go poor rather quickly.
That is why I started to look for alternatives and I found something like this: iGPSport iGS630.
This seems to offer pretty much the features of the Garmin 530 but in a much more affordable package.
So let's take a closer look and see what this iGS630 is about!
Early in the year I looked at their more basic computer, this iGS320
and while this is a more basic GPS computer
it does offer that 72 hours of battery life which is definitely appreciated.
In comparison, the iGS630 comes up with 35 hours battery life which I also got to appreciate more and more.
The Garmin 530, this one gives you good battery life. However we were talking about 20 hours in comparison.
Garmin also talks about onboard maps, Strava and Training Peaks connections, and a few other things that they provide over here.
And in comparison a product like this iGS630 offers something that's very similar
even though it's not really listed here on the box.
However up here you're gonna see that this guy can connect to all available satellites these days,
it's a slightly bigger screen 2.8 inches versus this 2.6,
uses a Type-C connector for charging, this is Micro USB,
and then you have ANT+ and BLE connectivity and also 8GB of internal memory.
I really don't know how much memory the Edge 530 has in it.
Garmin will also mention Wi-Fi here for connectivity something that this iGS630 doesn't have,
and this is supposedly made for iPhone, I don't know what that means exactly
but the app for the iGPSport can be downloaded quickly here just scan that QR code and get to the App Store.
And this is made in China and the Garmin 530 is made in Taiwan.
From a user experience standpoint Garmin didn't seem to pay that much attention to it,
the unit is right here in the box.
As opposed to that iGPSport give you this fancy looking sleeve,
but then you get to the magnetic cover box,
and inside you're gonna get some of the features of the unit, here's the device itself
and here on the right hand side you have a little box with all the accessories in it.
You're getting a little user manual that Garmin includes as well,
and then you get the bar mount and you get a lanyard, something that is provided with the Garmin as well obviously.
One thing that Garmin doesn't provide is this protective film for the GPS itself,
so again this comes from the factory you don't have to buy it aftermarket.
The GPS comes right out, side by side it's pretty obvious that the iGS630 has a slightly bigger screen,
but it also has a different form factor.
However on the back these are pretty similar.
As in the mount that these guys use, it is identical with the mount used by the Garmin
and here at the bottom you have the charging port of the iGS630.
And talking about the mount, this bar mount with the two rubber straps is the only one provided with the iGS630
Garmin will provide you this bigger mount in the box.
iGSport does have something very similar< however it will be sold to you as an accessory.
I'm using my Garmin with a screen protector with this rubber sleeve and I am using the little lanyard attached to the bottom.
The iGS630 device is no different, I already showed you the little screen protector that's provided.
The lanyard attaches here at the bottom as well and in their accessories you're gonna find this silicone case.
And I have both the screen protector and the case installed right now
and not surprisingly these fit really well, they don't make the unit any bulkier necessarily so I'm glad to have them both from the get-go.
To set this up you're gonna need their iGPSport application
and to fire this up you're going to use the same button that Garmin uses, so top left long press,
they say 4 seconds, here we go it comes right up,
and you're gonna have up and down, English is fine, this is okay, Celsius and here we go the unit came right up.
The unit provides you with these graphical icons which is pretty interesting,
use the arrows to move from one to the next okay is the top right button
Going to my app, add a device, obviously is going to be this iGS630, connect.
Application allows you to manage your data set up, workouts, routes, add sensors.
Here under firmware check is where you're gonna find the latest,
I highly recommend that you go and download the latest updates as they not only fix bugs but they also add new features to these GPS's.
Going into right mode is what we would be interested in, and you can see the various options here for profiles.
Interestingly there's no MTB profile, something that I would add right away.
And also, something you might be interested in doing is linking this up with Strava and Training Peaks both of them listed over here.
Outside you can see the two units side by side, visibility of the screen - very good,
you can change the parameters displayed here as well just like you can on the Garmin.
Unit connects to the GPS satellites very quickly
and you can see how that more elongated form factor fits on the longer stem of a road or gravel bike very nicely.
Display is very visible and as I mentioned, highly configurable.
On the screen you can display one of the many pages you can configure by using the up or down arrow just like with the Garmin.
The top left button also the back button opens the menu with a few options like you see here on the screen.
Top right button ,also the enter button, allows you to save the ride and also provides a few shortcuts for other menus and options.
This is very similar to what the Garmin provides and you can see the two units here side-by-side.
Once you stop you can save the ride and you can see some of the details displayed here on the screen.
However if you just paused, once you start again the ride is going to resume,
and this Auto function configuration is something that I really like with the iGS firmware.
Is the ability to set up these Auto-configuration settings.
If you go in, something that can be very important
especially for mountain biking is this: the Auto Pause, at which speed the GPS it's gonna pause.
That's a problem usually with mountain biking and you can decide here when is this gonna pause.
One of the features of this GPS that you might want to use is the included Maps.
If you are like me in Canada, there is no maps on the GPS from the get-go.
However it's very easy to get them installed you just go onto their website, look to download the Maps, find your region
download them to a PC, connect to the GPS using a USB-C cable and upload it that way.
You can create and download routes on this GPS just like with the Garmin,
you can use it for navigation, turn-by-turn if you want.
Overall I think this is very useful if you're doing a lot of Road cycling, and you can see the two maps side-by-side.
If you're a mountain biker, the Garmin wins only because it does have off-road trails
whereas on the iGPS you get some idea of the trails but they're not marked
and you don't have any level of details that the government provides.
Otherwise just using them as a simple device to record distance, heart rate, cadence and things like that they seem to work equally well
I kind of like the display of this because it is a bit bigger but obviously Garmin is perfectly fine
Also remember, like with any GPS, when you go on single track up into the woods,
make sure you have a speed sensor installed on the bike if you want accurate distance information.
And one last thing about this, what I like is that in the last few firmware releases
they didn't just fix bugs, but they added new features
so who knows, maybe they're gonna add some off-road trails one day!
So what kind of GPS computer do you guys use?
Do you use a GPS computer or just use your phone?
Let me know in the comments below.
Hope you found this kind of information useful if you did don't forget to like and subscribe, it really helps my channel,
and until next time, hope to see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!