Garmin today unveiled its new Varia RearVue 820, a radar tail light that promises “advanced vehicle tracking, superior battery life and a brighter tail light than ever before”. At £259.99, it costs considerably more than the Varia RTL515, so will it set the new standard for radar rear lights? Here’s what we know so far.
In 2015, Garmin brought a “first-of-its-kind” radar system to cycling, launching the Varia rear view bike radar with the aim of alerting cyclists of approaching vehicles. While many people are sceptical about whether they need a radar, those of us at road.cc who’ve tested one have usually been genuinely impressed.
The Garmin Varia range has long been considered the gold standard for radar rear lights, setting a benchmark for both its radar accuracy and light output. Now, Garmin has expanded the line-up with the new RearVue 820, described as “its most innovative radar tail light that can help cyclists be more aware and visible while riding on the road”.
So, what has Garmin added that makes it £90 more expensive than the Varia RTL15 radar rear light? The headline claims are:
- Cyclists can now be seen up to 2km away
- Widest rearview radar detecting vehicles up to 175m away
- New advanced vehicle tracking detects a vehicle’s size, speed-matched tracking
side-to-side movement and categorises threat levels - Brake light alerts
- Up to 24 hours of battery life in day flash mode and up to 30 hours in radar only
Vehicle tracking
Garmin says the RearVue 820 uses more powerful and precise radar technology, capable of detecting vehicles over 175 metres away – 35 metres further than the Varia RTL515.
This also outperforms competitors such as the Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light which detects vehicles up to 140 meters, and the Wahoo Trackr Radar Rear Light with a range of 150 metres.
A new feature of the RearVue 820 is its ability to detect a vehicle’s size and asses its threat level based on speed and path of travel, with alerts delivered to a compatible bike computer or the Garmin app.
Improved battery life
Battery life was one area where the Varia RTL515 was starting to be overtaken by competitors. Garmin claims up to 16 hours in day flash mode for the RTL515, while the Coospo TR70 offers a claimed 30 hours in day flash mode and up to 40 hours with radar only. It’s therefore good to see that battery performance is a key area addressed with the RearVue 820.
Garmin now claims up to 24 hours in day flash mode – still short of the Coospo’s figures, but a 50% improvement over the previous model.
Brighter rear light
The RearVue 820 is described as Garmin’s “brightest and most powerful radar tail light”, claiming that cyclists can be seen from up to 2km away. For comparison, the Varia RTL515 offered up to 65 lumens in day flash mode, while the RearVue 820 delivers up to 100 lumens.
It offers multiple light modes, and the RearVue 820 can also detect when a rider is slowing down or stopping, triggering a flashing brake light pattern to alert other road users.
Our tech writer Paul Grele has been using the Garmin Varia RCT715 (with camera), which shares the same radar and light output as the RTL515 for many years. The main differences lie in weight, USB connector type, and battery life. The RCT715 has long been his benchmark radar tail light, only recently being matched by the Coospo TR70 – particularly in terms of battery performance (full review coming soon).
Looking at the improvements with the RearVue 820, Paul highlights longer battery life, the ability to detect vehicle size, when a car stays the same speed it doesn’t drop off the screen, and brighter rear light as the standout new features.
The Garmin RTL515 was also starting to show its age by still using a Micro-USB socket but the RearVue 820 has been updated to include a USB-C charging port. We’ve requested a unit for testing, so a full review should be arriving on the site in the coming months.
Pricing and availability
The Varia RearVue 820 is available to order from Feb 6th for £259.99 – £90 more than the Varia RTL515. In comparison, Coospo’s TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light is £89.52, the Wahoo Trackr Radar Rear Light is £179.99 and the Bryton Gardia R300L Radar with Tail Light can be picked up for around £90.
For more information, head over to garmin.com
12 thoughts on “Garmin releases the new RearVue 820, its “most powerful radar tail light”: Is it still the gold standard?”
Thats a hell of a lot more
Thats a hell of a lot more money than the old gen can be picked up for and although there are some nice upgrades, the older one is brilliant and can usually be had for £110 ish. I don’t think the update is worth another £150
That’s comparing RRP of the
That’s comparing RRP of the new one to street price of the old one though; I would imagine that this new one will be available for at least a bit less than full list fairly shortly.
Awaits mark1a review…
Awaits mark1a review…
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Yesterday that was an emoticon not a ?
But you do like new tech though !
Yeah one of mine this morning disappeared and turned my comment into a question.
That’s right, it was the eyes emoji (this has my interest), either the new comments don’t support emojis, or the database migration didn’t support unicode characters…
I’m in two minds, I have a RTL515 to use when not using the RCT715 with camera, and so I’ll most likely get the new RearVue 820 (and move the 515 on), but it’s highly likely that the new stuff in this will find its way into a camera version replacement for the RCT715, and I’ll definitely have that.
This new model seems to have a longer range, detection and display of lateral movement (lane changes), individual speed assessment of individual objects, and interestingly, it’s stated to not drop vehicles off when they’re at the same relative speed. This means it’s not just using doppler effect radar. I also quite like the expanded display available when paired with x40 & x50, that will also be interesting to see how that goes in real life.
is the US the Garmin 850 is
is the US the Garmin 850 is $599 and this is $300. Partly helped by our idiot and cirminal president and his tariffs. I’m keeping my 840 and looking at the Cospoo which is $69…
I would be only too pleased
I would be only too pleased to buy useful tech from Garmin, who are pretty good, if it would be any use on UK roads. This tech, however, won’t be.
https://upride.cc/incident/po19utj_maxdacx5_closepass/
https://upride.cc/incident/sm23jpj_daf_closepassdwlcross/
https://upride.cc/incident/mm75kbp_tesla_closepass/
Those are my last 3 close-pass reports. Radar would have been no help at all. It would be alarming all the time in Lancashire
It will tell you their
It will tell you their closing speed and distance, giving you time to take the lane or abandon on to the pavement.
It’s not the radar that’s
It’s not the radar that’s useless, it’s the police.
So now we need a device that removes the highest threats, a missile launcher attached to the rear stays? It would be good if the camera version of this new radar was able to integrate those threat assessments into output suitable for uploading to opsnap and reduce the police laziness to act on dangerous passes.