Garmin Edge 540 Review

This review is for the Garmin Edge 540 Bike Computer/GPS.

And I want to say here that I am going to be doing a lot of comparing of the 540 with my older 520 Plus, which I previously reviewed.

Indeed for this review, I started out with the thought of a much less comprehensive review than I normally do with electronics and other things. The reason is that many of the basic fundamental core functions of the 540 are pretty much the same as the Garmin Edge 520 Plus, which as I said above I have previously thoroughly reviewed. But as I wrote the review I guess I added a bit more than I was going to, though I’ve tried to keep it from “book-form”.

That’s in no way to say that many of these basic core functions have not been upgraded, enhanced, and made easier to use and run much faster with this newer 540.

So I might as well dive right in here with that segue.

There are two things I noticed right away with the 540 over the 520 Plus – the size of the 540 and the redesigned interface. I’ll get to the size later.

The interface is a much-needed, somewhat more modern breath of fresh air. It’s far far from perfect and would benefit from a touchscreen like the more expensive Edge 840. On a side note about the 840 -my friend Mike mentions that the touchscreen interface works just fine in wet weather, in case you are wondering. In the past older models had an issue with this. However, the 840 can also have the touchscreen disabled temporarily as needed.

Sure, as a longtime user and very frequent user of the 520 Plus, I knew how to get to each setting, function, and menu item like the back of my hand. But I remember how complicated it was originally to learn how to get to some of those functions (even as a longtime tech user) and how hard it sometimes is for others who have similar models but aren’t as familiar with all of the functions and navigating it.

But the old interface was clunky, even to an experienced user, and navigating some functions with the buttons was very awkward. Generally, these functions have been improved, at least as much as they can be without the addition of a touchscreen.

That’s not to say that it didn’t take me a while to get familiar with the new interface and how things work differently, and again some of the things can be a little clunky or hard to get to or awkward. But I was so used to the old 520 interface and how it functioned and how to get to things that a bit of a more common sense interface (for some functions) was so outside my experience of navigating that it seemed harder than it probably actually was to get used to.

It’s certainly true that the new interface sometimes becomes a little confusing at times, and occasionally even finding a setting that you THINK should be here or there can require some searching around, or even going to the online instructions for the 540 – instructions and manual here. These instructions BTW, are just fine – they cover the basics of every function and setting, typical of Garmin instructions. But out on the road a few times I did have to say that I used Pi.AI or ChatGPT to summarize and quickly find what I was looking, for rather than searching through the online instructions.

But overall it is much better.

And once you understand what buttons do what when navigating the menus then you’re part of the way to figuring out how to get to places on the Edge menus much better. 

The other thing that is really good about the interface is that some functions now can also be accessed in the Garmin Connect App on your phone or other device itself, or partially accessed (some functions still have to be set on the Edge itself, but most are available in the app). This makes it a lot easier for those things and sometimes gives you more options than you have on the Edge menu interface itself. 

For example – on the Garmin Connect app you can easily drag data screens around and sort them in any order that you wish. Maybe not something you do often once you have everything set up to your liking – but I did find that I use it once in a while, like when I want to move a climbing screen up so that it is just one click away from the home screen or if I am doing zone training and want to move a zone training graph screen up so that it instead is one click from the home screen, versus farther along the data screen list to push buttons to get to. You can’t do this on the Edge itself, only in the Garmin app.

As usual, there are a few more advanced functional items that you need to plug into a computer and use Garmin Express to do, like updating maps.

One of the most useful things is that on things like data entry fields that require entering text or numbers, like the address search field – you have the old-style ability on the Edge itself to scroll up and down through the alphabet and numbers but also in parallel, you can use the Garmin Connect app where you can type the text directly in and it appears on the Edge. This damn sure makes it much easier!

But, for each improvement like this, there can still a few awkward things that can’t be improved without a touchscreen perhaps. Like if you need to zoom in and out or move the onscreen map around manually the buttons still function about the same, way, though smoother and faster. It is ahead of the 520 interface in that aspect, but still not perfect.

So on to the size, and other hardware-related stuff. I know I shouldn’t keep comparing the 540 to the 520 Plus but here I go again, the 540 is somewhat larger than the 520 Plus, it is quite noticeable but certainly not ‘large’ by any comparison. But if you come from the 520 or other smaller bike computers you will notice the larger size and especially the larger display size, which is sweetly nice. Like all of Garmin’s stuff – it is very very viable whether it is in the evening (with the backlight on) or in bright sunlight.

BTW, I have friends who like the much larger Edge versions and other types of bike computers much better than the smaller ones, but I personally like to be as minimalist as possible, and the smaller size appeals more to me and seems perfect. But to each his own! And, of course, if you have eyesight issues that’s going to affect your choice obviously.

The overall size of the 540 is 2.3 x 3.4 x 0.8 inches (57.8 x 85.1 x 19.6 mm) and the 520 Plus has a dimension of 1.9 x 2.9 x 0.8 inches (4.9 x 7.3 x 2.1 cm). So it is a bit larger in width and length but not thickness.

Screen size of the 540 is 2.6 inches (66 mm) diagonal with a display rez of 246 x 322 pixels while the older 520 Plus is 2.3 inches (38.4mm) diagonal with a display rez of 200 x 265 pixels. Of note here – the Garmin Edge 530 is the same size as the 540 and even is the same size as the touchscreen 840.

These of course are much smaller than the larger Edge 1040 and similar models. But outside of things like touchscreens and some hardware differences (which also give you some additional software options and analysis), they are very similar in features.

You can also get the solar charger version of the Edge 540 (as well as the other models), which is the same size and is hard to distinguish as different visually, except for a little bit of darker area around the outside of the display (I have been told).

There are also a number of cases for the 540 for protection from dropping (some are full covers, some are just around the outer edge) and screen protectors of either plastic of armored glass.

Weight is 80.3 grams, again a little heavier than the 520 but still very light.

I find the 540’s screen to be visibly much higher rez and more colorful than my old 520. But maybe I am not the best judge of that as my 520 was exposed to lots and lots of use and especially lots and lots of sun, so I suppose its display may have faded somewhat over the years.

Battery life is crazy, absolutely crazy.  

It has a 26-hour battery life according to Garmin, I have not tested this in any way except noticing that it does indeed have a very very long battery life and it would take weeks of riding to run it down, for me. Though my old 520 was getting pretty short on battery life so anything new seems like a long battery life to me. But obviously, from looking at the 540’s battery display it has a hell of a life. And in battery saver mode that can be 48 hours!

I always charge all of my devices far far from being out of juice, to keep battery longevity to the max so I have never run the 540 down.

The range of GPS systems the 540 can connect to is very broad and comprehensive also, multiband GNSS GPS which means it can receive GPS signals from multiple GPS systems all at once, for more accuracy (at the expense of a bit more battery usage). This lets you get a better signal in woods and cities. There is an auto mode too which seems to work well, it will use the range of sats that you need for your particular riding conditions and smartly adjust as needed – saving battery and using fewer sat ranges on open spaces, and vice versa. There are also multiple manual modes ranging from very accurate to very battery-saving.

And as I said earlier – the 540 has a somewhat faster response time when doing anything due to its fairly okay processing ability via faster hardware and more memory and optimized software.

The bootup time is fast, and it’s ready to go in no time from power up.

The Edge 540 has 16 gb of storage, enough for a ton of maps and the ClimbPro maps that have to be installed in parallel. Unfortunately, from what I have read the latter addition does take up a lot of additional space, I noticed when playing around with the maps while the Edge was connected to the computer. Plenty for, say, all of the US and Canada but if you are traveling it is worth noting that you might have to swap out some maps if you are going from one largely covered country to perhaps another, depending on the maps.

It can store 200 waypoints/locations, and a 100 routes. It also has a real magnetometer compass, barometer accelerometer, ambient light sensor and a gyroscope that helps in incident detection, along with the accelerometer, etc.

In addition to transferring data via Bluetooth to your phone/Garmin app, the 540 has WIFI! This works pretty much flawlessly and very quickly. For me, when I get home from a ride and even though I have a router in my garage – sometimes my old Edge might not transfer a ride once in a while if the phone hadn’t switched routers or connections, and I would have to manually tell it to upload it.

The Edge 540 has a nice USB-C and on the front, which makes charging it pretty easy. Though with the included quarter-turn mount on my stem I do have to rotate the Edge very slightly to the side to fit the charging cable in, but it’s much better than taking it completely off to charge it. The port has a cover over it that is waterproof or water-resistant, but internally the Edge is supposed to be water-resistant too. The lanyard slot is right in there too. 

Speaking of that – in the box you get the lanyard, USB-C charging cable, the typical (ugly but serviceable) out-front mount, some quarter-turn mounts and their rubber grommets, as well as the rubber bands of various sizes for the mounts, and the small manual. You can also get various bundles – both official from Garmin as well as third-party. Basically, if it has ANT+ or Bluetooth and is for biking or related – it will probably work the the Edge.

Instead of the included lanyard, I use a plastic-coated stainless steel fishing leader line through the lanyard slot and down under my stem. In case of an accident, or accidentally hitting the Edge while taking it off the car carrier, or not situating it correctly on the mount, or stepping away from the bike for a few minutes – the leader used as a lanyard is a good sense of security and it can’t be just pulled off or easily cut with a knife or something. May be a bit paranoid, but you never know. And I have had friends whose Edges have popped off while mountain biking or whatever. A little piece of mind.

The bottom of the mount also has some contact pads that let it connect to Garmin’s new Charge™ battery pack/mount or other clones of the pack, as well as their older model. And the mount now has little screws if you look closely enough, so it can be replaced if the mount lugs get broken.

And of course, it has Bluetooth and ANT+. It will connect to all the “regular” biking stuff like any ANT+ or Bluetooth speed, cadence (see my reviews here of a few), power meters, heart rate straps, smart trainers, and Shimano Di2, Vector power meters, Varia, Virb, etc. But it supports a ton of all sorts of sensors and other devices, just a crazy amount now. For example, you can connect it to Garmin’s Inreach devices.

There are some new e-bike functions also, not something I am familiar with.

When setting up your new Edge it has a really nice ability to transfer sensor pairing from other Edge’s as well as activity profile transfers, this sure makes setting it up much easier. And quicker.

Around the outside of the Edge are the seven buttons that control its functions. Top left for power or sleep (also a quick press for screenshots if you have that function enabled), middle and bottom left side buttons for navigation through the menus, front (facing the rider) for stop and start and lap, right buttons for menu, etc.

There are also some long-press functions on some buttons for getting around the menus easier. I’m still learning these and it can be a bit confusing as to what does what. 

One of the greatest things about the Edge series from Garmin is the ability to have multiple data screens, a customizable number of data fields per page, and the ability to add Connect IQ data fields and mix and match them with the stock included ones – the latter of which I think is unique to Garmin. This gives you access to a plethora of items that you can add.

When I first got the 540 I was continually adding new data fields to different screens to try out things that weren’t available on the 520 plus. There are soooo many options to add. Some of the things are pretty interesting, some are useful, some are fun to look at but aren’t something I need and other things are for people who maybe train a lot harder than I do, and other things are available through a few menu clicks and aren’t necessarily things that I need direct access via a data field while I’m riding. Lots and lots of choices though.

And the ability to move around screens in the Garmin Connect app is a nice much-needed addition as well as the ability to add and change data fields to each screen in the app. This kind of is similar to some other bike computer manufacturer’s app options.

There are a number of warning options, nice feature. These pop up as you are riding, with a quick reminder at the bottom of whatever screen you are on and then a floating small icon in the corner for a time until it disappears on it’s own. Any of the warnings can be turned off and I did in fact have to turn off the one that warns of entering a highway or high-traffic area, as it was a bit annoying since I ride in and out of those roads often. 

Other warnings are sure useful, like when it shows a sharp corner ahead. Some are great additions but maybe their reliance on people’s submissions can be the downfall in a few cases, when it comes to transitory things. Like the animal warning – for a dog that is always out and running after people it’s great, absolutely a top-notch addition and the ability for the user to submit is a great crowd-sourced ability that is much needed.

But I was on the Erie Canal trail and someone apparently at some point reported a random wandering dog so now that pops up for anyone with a newer Edge and with the warning turned on, and there doesn’t seem to be any dog nearby. It popped up each time I went through that section. I haven’t explored whether there is a way to submit modifications of crowd-sourced warnings if one is out of date or needs changing. Or perhaps it times out at some point.

A short time ago I was out on my gravel bike and while I was throwing on some miles (adding in a bit of higher-speed miles after lots of low-speed rough trail riding) I decided to ride around a local state park campgrounds. Real fun, going around the sharp curves at high speed with the knobby tires that gripped well even with a few leaves here and there. And the Edge continually warned me about sharp curves ahead 😉 I didn’t bother stopping and turning it off but I guess I was also impressed that it had the entire park’s roads on its map system and was able to warn me before each sharp circular curve, including when I was going the ‘wrong way’ on the park roads.

One of the best features, for some people – others might not really use it at all; is the detailed mapping capabilities, and the rerouting works so much better than the 520 plus, which at times really didn’t work in a useful way, depending. You also get more of a choice in rerouting, with the ability to even pause route guidance and off-course notifications. Which can sometimes be very very nice – so as not to be nagged about being off course often.

But mostly the big thing here is that it really works and works well.

There are options like highlighting popular roads and trails with trendline popularity routing, and it can access Trailforks in various ways and much more integrated-wise, with routable MTB maps from Trailforks and trail searches.

You can also search for map POI categories like bike shops and water access, and other types of points of interest as well as actual addresses. And it even shows surfaces like whether it is paved or unpaved, and the warning system can notify you if you want it to; to whether there is an unpaved section ahead.

Some things like your own favorites are still a bit harder to edit outside of on the Edge itself. Favorites can be accessed with Garmin’s Basecamp program, otherwise you are stuck with accessing anything about them on the Edge itself. Favorites work the same as they do on other devices, I don’t belive there are any actual updates to their functions.

You can also share favorites and courses and workouts and such using the Garmin Share option on the Edge, a pretty comprehensive system. This replaces the device-to-device transfer that was on the 520 and other older models. You must be within about 10 feet or so of someone else and then you can share. This system is backward-compatible with the older device-to-device transfer.

And along those lines, the Edge has the newer live tracking and incident detection, a possible literal lifesaver so set it up! It works much better nowadays than the old days with significantly fewer false positives for sure, I haven’t had any with this new Edge at all. There are also some more advanced things like Live Event Sharing to send real-time data.

The whole group ride system and is oh so much better than the old ones, allowing pre-canned messages and tracking and even leaderboards for climbs and postride ‘awards’, etc.

You can also transfer courses mid-ride from your phone, which is certainly nice. Though this is listed as a feature that the 520 did not have and I specifically remember doing it anyway and it worked fine. Generally, not always. And of course you can transfer courses from other connected services like RideWithGPS.

The 540 also has a handy bike alarm that detects if the bike has moved and lets you locate it. Something to keep in mind when stopping and stepping away from the bike in iffy situations. It works fine but more experimentation is needed for me. Better than nothing for sure.

This Edge also has a hugely more comprehensive set of cycling metrics (for the road and for MTB-specific categories like jumps and Grit and Flow metrics), power analysis, real-time stamina (very nice!), load analysis training status, daily suggested workouts,vo2 max and power guide, and a host of other things. It also shows heat acclimation, which I am still figuring out a bit. And altitude acclimation.The same as what is on other Garmin devices.

And when syncing the Edge you will find that your other capable Garmin devices share all health, fitness, and ride data via Garmin’s ecosystem.

There is also Garmin Targeted Adaptive training with Garmin Coach (which I know very little about) and cycling ability which should show your strengths and weaknesses for events or targets or whatever, that helps you focus on different aspects of training that you might want to. Power guide for those with a power meter to get recommended power targets when on a course.

And you can use the Edge 540 to run your smart trainer – either manually set resistance or run a Workout from Garmin Connect, either one you created or imported from elsewhere or from Garmin’s own list.

The widgets and glances are all customizable, within certain limitations. This is definitely useful, but sometimes some of these features take a few more keypresses to get to than I like.

It can also notify you to hydrate or refuel as needed on intervals, miles, and with a smart auto option – that calculates calories and needed fuel to tell you when you need food and hydration according to your conditions that day, like outside temperature (though parameters like trying to calculate your sweat loss for example, can be somewhat a calculated guess obviously). And at the end of a ride you can even enter hydration and fuel intake amounts.

In fact, you can set up tons of reminders for all sorts of things for not only food and hydration but distance and power and time and a reminder to turn around after a certain distance, and various things like that. Pretty much anything you’d need.

As on other devices, if you start pedaling without starting a ride it will let you know with a symbol and beeps, so you haven’t started riding miles without pressing the start button, if you don’t tend to glance at it that often.

Just like other Edges this will do the Strava Segments, if you have a Strava subscription, as well as Garmin Segments that you have starred.

Climebpro is pretty cool. I’ve always had a “climbing” screen but I always had to manually switch to it at the foot of a hill. With ClimbPro this pops up automatically (unless you turn it off).

In stock form, it shows the remaining ascent and grade for each climb, and the climbs that Climbpro will pop up and display don’t need to be on a course like older models – totally free ride.

When getting to the foot of a hill that fits the parameters of what Climbpro will display (the types of hills can be selected also), you get a pre-summary screen of the hill’s stats, and a real-time display of data as you climb (okay, maybe it can be a bit laggy sometimes as it tries to calculate everything, but not bad) and then a summary of your stats after the climb. After a bit that screen disappears and the Edge displays whatever was your last screen.

You can also find nearby climbs with the climb explorer widget on the Edge. And route yourself directly to them.

Climbpro is crazy good, I mean if you haven’t tried it or don’t have a device that supports it – borrow someone else’s and give it a try!

When you finish a ride you get a nice comprehensive summary of multiple types and screens available, and if you have the options turned on you can also add hydration and food intake amounts.

Really here, there are so many functions and abilities I can’t go into detail on everything because I’d be writing a book here, plus some things I just haven’t gotten to play around with in detail. So you will have to excuse the perfunctory manner of some of the above as this post is getting longer than I had planned.

So outside of wishing it had a touchscreen occasionally, there is just one buggy issue and two slightly nitpicky annoying things for me – 

When I first got my Edge I immediately updated the maps and, well, I ran into a known problem bug where a map update might break ClimbPro. So the fix is to plug the Edge into a computer, use Garmin Express to delete the existing maps, let it restart or whatever it needs to do once that is finished, and then re-install the maps. Restart it (sometimes it can stick, long power off and then start it again to fix that problem) and it’s fine.

This is NOT something that happens to ALL Edge’s, and for mine I don’t believe that it will ever happen again, I just happened to have bad luck right off from the start but after that all updates were fine, no further issues. So don’t let this affect your decision on whether to buy one. Simple fix if it does happen, but very very unusual bug.

A minor thing that probably isn’t something that is reasonable to think that could be different or 100% accurate is the internal thermometer.

The thermometer seems to be somewhat high, I noticed this on the 520 plus also but I assumed that it was because I had a black silicone cover over the whole thing.

But with this 540 it still is a fair amount higher than the actual outside temperature. I just kind of compensate in my mind for the difference and to be fair; there’s probably no way to actually get an exact accurate temperature because the sensor is somewhere on the device itself and the device is going to generate its own heat at the very least. Likely the only 100% accurate way is to use something like the Garmin Tempe external sensor.

In cold temps the onboard thermometer does start to resolve a bit closer to the real outside temperature. If you are cycling in very very cold weather it is pretty much correct.

I also might check the internal Garmin Weather widget display or the AccuWeather app I installed so no big deal either way, and let’s face it – I’m going to feel what the temp is as I am riding in it, just useful sometimes especially when it is VERY hot. But not a deal breaker by any stretch.

One annoying thing I found that I use sometimes (though likely many others will never use) is the Back To Start route list turns in text form, something I used occasionally on my old Edge especially when rerouting back but wanting to extend my ride while still meandering somewhat in the correct direction. This is moot I suppose, as instead of using the Back to Start in my particular case of wanting to meander – I instead created a Home favorite and I will select that and allow the Edge 540 to create a route back using that method, which DOES show the turns in text form. Of course, if I am not starting from home I either only have the Back to Start available or I would need to save a temporary favorite from that location. But as I said I use it once in a while but not often.

So the above is a bit nitpicky, both of the latter items really. Most people aren’t probably going to care nor run into these particular things.

I have another sort of kind of maybe issue but it’s not anything to do with the 540 itself really, more with Garmin and/or Accuweather. On the 520 Plus I had the Garmin Connect IQ AccuWeather widget, which was easily accessible while riding. I installed this widget on the 520 Plus long ago and it looks like they stopped making the widget form of it, and only make the app version now. Accessing the apps versus the widgets on the 540 take some extra key presses where having a widget on the 540 is right on the easily-accessible menu. A real PITA. 

I contacted Accuweather but they say that the app uses their data but is actually by Garmin, and Garmin says that it’s Accuweather’s issue. So no widget. Again, not the fault of the Edge itself, but of either Accuweather and/or Garmin’s developers.

For me, the Garmin Edge 540 is a great purchase and upgrade.

Initially buying a new bike computer was mostly about the decreased battery life of my previous Garmin Edge 520 Plus (I considered just buying a new battery and installing it – a pain at best, at worse the possible loss of full waterproofing if not done correctly).

But also the 520 Plus is definitely a bit lacking in some of the features on newer Garmin’s. That’s not to say that the 520 Plus isn’t a great bike computer still, and it is certainly a very capable unit and still very relevant and usable.

But the newer functions like a better user interface, ClimbPro, better integration with the Garmin Connect App, upgraded mapping system, a bit of a better screen, and all of the amazing newer abilities, functions, and options innumerable made the 540 a deal I had to take.

For the most part I couldn’t ask for the device to work any better than it does, except the touchscreen might be nice in some circumstances.

Function-wise and ride-wise it is the same high-quality experience you get with most Garmin devices. It is certainly not cheap, but for the money it is a great addition to your biking experience and training and has nearly everything the upper models have.