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Bryton’s compact Rider 650 has a lot going for it. Yes, sometimes it can be a little quirky, and some of the user interactions take some getting used to. However, at more than £200 cheaper than its chief rivals, I’d happily live with its idiosyncrasies.
The Rider 650 has a large touchscreen, long claimed battery life and full Bluetooth and ANT+ support, along with compatibility with electronic groupsets and ebikes.
That it gets all this and plenty more for the relatively modest price of £139.99 / $169.95 / €169.95 is quite the achievement. In comparison, Garmin’s similarly sized Edge 550 is £469.99 / $599.99 / €549.99, Wahoo’s latest Elemnt Roam 3 is £399.99 / $464.99 / €449.99, and Hammerhead’s Karoo 3 has an RRP of £450 / $475 / €500.
Bryton Rider 650 specifications and software
The Rider 650's 2.8in colour touchscreen is equipped with a Garmin-style ambient light sensor to enable it to adjust to the conditions automatically.
The claimed 33-hour battery life is longer than that of its more established rivals from Garmin and Wahoo. It has all the features I’d expect of a modern GPS, and connectivity with Bluetooth and ANT+. That means it can connect to radar lights, heart-rate monitors, power meters, ebike support, Shimano Di2, SRAM AXS and Campagnolo EPS.
The software and user interface are a big improvement over previous Brytons, with a maximum of 10 data fields per screen. The Climb Challenge shows the gradient and length of climbs; it’s a rival to Garmin’s ClimbPro and Hammerhead's original groundbreaking Climber function.
It’s worth noting that Climb Challenge only works with pre-loaded routes, unlike Hammerhead and Garmin’s predictive-real time options. For that sort of functionality, you’ll need to step up to Bryton’s more expensive S- series units, such as the S810 (£269.99 / €299.95 / $299.99).
It's certainly something I make use of a lot on Hammerhead’s Karoo, and Garmin’s Edge 840, but because adding this function costs an extra £130 to get an S810, I’m happy to do without and make that saving.
The use of OpenStreetMap provides clear and concise mapping with full navigation, including on-device rerouting, back to start functions (via the Bryton Active smartphone app), and route planning where you can specify how far you want to ride, and the 650 will suggest a route. That's handy if you’re riding in unfamiliar territories.
For safety, it offers live tracking in conjunction with the Bryton Active app, and it syncs with Bryton’s own Gardia radar (and rival radars from Wahoo, Garmin, et al). For indoor training fans, it has an indoor profile and full ANT+ FE-C smart trainer compatibility.
The global positioning comes from a combination of GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS satellites and a barometric altimeter.
Bryton 650 user interface and app
The Bryton app is easy to set up and navigate; it connects quickly with the 650, too.
The unit itself is touchscreen-operated, but in old-school Bryton style, it still has plenty of buttons, with no fewer than five on its flanks. On the top of the right-hand side, there’s a record/pause button to start your ride. The lower button flicks between pages and each page has up to 10 data fields.
There are a further 3 buttons on the left-hand side. At the top is the power button, which requires a long press for on or off. This doubles as a screen lock with a short press. I like that this is assigned to a button, especially when riding in the rain, which can play havoc with touchscreens.
The middle button is the clever function key; you can assign it to jump immediately to your favourite data screen or straight to the map screen, for instance. The lowest button is the lap marker.
Bryton Rider 650 performance
I’ve been impressed by how quickly the 650 connects to sensors; adding a power meter and Force AXS drivetrain to the sensor connections took seconds and was fuss-free. Adding a Garmin radar is similarly easy.
GPS location timing is as quick as the Garmin Edge 840 I’ve been running it alongside. It also locates on the map in line with Garmin, there has been no drifting of position, locating me alongside a road rather than on it for instance. That's something I’ve experienced with ‘budget’ GPS units.
The only hiccup was I needed to manually calibrate the altimeter because, on the first ride out, its total elevation was wildly different from the Garmin's. Since then, though, it’s stayed in step with Garmin’s data.
Navigating through the screens while riding, I defaulted to swiping the touchscreen because that’s what I’m used to with both Garmin and Hammerhead. However, once I remembered to use the lower right-hand button, it became a nice addition, especially in the rain when I wanted to lock the touchscreen.
The side buttons sit prominently, but they are quite close together. On more than one occasion, I fumbled between the screen switch and pause/stop button on the right flank when wearing winter gloves. Ideally, these would be further apart.
The large screen's auto-brightness errs on the side of being somewhat dimmer than the Garmin Edge 840. That’s exacerbated on the map screen, where Bryton uses far more colours than Garmin on its otherwise very similar OpenStreet base maps. In rural areas, the expanse of green on the Bryton can make it harder to see.
A feature I particularly like is the simplicity of customising data screens on the fly. On my first time out, I wanted to add a more in-depth power page and could generate a data screen quickly, showing maximum, average and current, cadence, and left-right balance.
Navigation is good, too. After uploading a few of my favourite routes, the Bryton stayed in-step with the Garmin on directions. The audio alerts before upcoming turns are also good to have, although my preference is to switch them off.
The only thing missing from the 650 compared to the Edge 840 and Hammerhead Karoo is the predictive climb functions on those devices. At the base of a climb, the screen will show a graphic depiction of the gradient alongside the current grade and remaining length. It’s something I love on both rivals and the Bryton 650 sadly doesn’t have it – but you can’t have everything at this price.
Climb Challenge works well on pre-set routes nevertheless, with the 650 giving you climb profiles as you start them.
Post-ride data
Post-ride, the Bryton uploads to the Bryton Active app quicker than my Garmin uploads to Garmin Connect. I had a few teething issues with the Bryton data uploading to Strava, but once I’d updated the permissions on my phone, that was quickly solved.
Looking at the recorded data on the Active app is good, enabling you to use your phone's touchscreen to zoom in on power, HR and cadence graphs. It was also good to see the data was consistent with that on the Garmin Connect app. The Bryton showed no anomalies or spikes.
Battery life is claimed to be 33 hours, which may be possible in theory, if you’re not using routing heavily or connected to plenty of sensors. In my testing, it consistently managed around 14.5 hours with the unit connected to a SRAM AXS groupset, a power meter and a rear radar/light.
In comparison, my Hammerhead Karoo manages around 13 hours with the same sensors/setup. My Garmin Edge 840 Solar manages a little more thanks to the solar screen, but that's dependent on the light conditions.
Bryton Rider 650 bottom line
The 650 is the most impressive GPS bike computer from Bryton to date. It’s quick to locate satellites, easy to use and fully featured.
Some of the user interface takes a little getting used to, but that’s the same with both the Garmin and Hammerhead I’ve used the 650 alongside. All have their idiosyncrasies and unique ways of doing things.
At £139.99 / €169.95 / €169.95, the Bryton 650 costs less than half as much as the non-touchscreen Garmin Edge 550, and far less than similarly specced options from the likes of Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead
It may not be quite as fully featured as the premium Wahoo, Garmin and Hammerhead offerings, but with savings such as this, I’d recommend it highly nevertheless. The Bryton 650 has all the essentials you’ll need and more besides.
That it only costs £139.99 makes it the best-value high-performance GPS unit I’ve ever used.
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