Wahoo has laid down its marker for what it believes would be the future course for biking computer systems with the discharge of the all-new Elemnt Ace.
The brand new laptop, which retails for $599.99 / £549.99, is packed full of recent options, together with the marginally peculiar ‘Wind Sensor’, and options the largest show of any biking laptop available on the market.
The Ace takes intention instantly on the new Garmin Edge 1050 Photo voltaic and the latest Hammerhead Karoo. However does it pack sufficient efficiency and a big sufficient function set to go toe-to-toe with the competitors, and what does the Wind Sensor actually do?
What precisely is the ‘Wind Sensor’ and what does it do?
Let’s waste no time in explaining what completely units aside the brand new Wahoo Elemnt Ace from any of its rivals – the ‘Wind Sensor’. A primary of its form within the biking laptop area, the Ace’s Wind Sensor merely measures air stress going into the entrance of the pinnacle unit.
Why, you might ask? Effectively, by measuring air stress, the Wahoo can calculate wind pace, permitting for a number of new metrics to be calculated and used as excuses within the post-ride Strava debrief. Wind pace is in contrast with floor pace to point, for instance, how sturdy a headwind is, or how properly you’re sitting on the wheel in entrance of you.
The Wind Sensor is housed throughout the small opening on the entrance of the machine.
(Picture credit score: Wahoo)
Crucially, nevertheless, the wind sensor doesn’t calculate CdA, and due to this fact you gained’t see this head unit changing multi-million-pound wind tunnels anytime quickly. When the machine was leaked on a Reddit discussion board just a few weeks in the past, it was met with hypothesis that this new sensor might find yourself being a competitor to the likes of the Physique Rocket system, however this is not going to be the case.
The purposes for this, I really feel are pretty restricted. I can see time triallists probably utilizing the machine for reconnaissance to determine pacing methods maybe, or for group time trial groups or monitor riders honing their bunch expertise to change into extra environment friendly – however for you or me on the membership run? I am not fairly satisfied simply but, and positively want extra time with the machine to determine all of it out.
New show, new controls
Wahoo has taken the launch of the brand new Ace, as a chance to utterly overhaul the machine’s display screen and in doing so change the person interface too. The brand new laptop marks the model’s first touchscreen cycle head unit.
The Ace does nonetheless function six bodily buttons too, with the standard buttons throughout the underside of the machine, an influence button on the left-hand aspect, and two buttons on the right-hand aspect which can be utilized for scrolling across the machine.
(Picture credit score: Future)
The panel itself measures up at 3.8” throughout the diagonal, making it the biggest available on the market, and it encompasses a 3:2 side ratio. The place Gamin and Hammerhead go for a extra widescreen side ratio, the Ace seems moderately extra boxy than a lot of the competitors, however for mapping particularly this works very properly, giving nice periphery imaginative and prescient.
The true trickery although comes from the transflective thin-film transistor (TFT) display screen. The panel has anti-glare and anti-reflective properties, bettering viewing angles, whereas its excessive decision will increase sharpness making metrics simpler to learn and maps simpler to navigate by.
Out of the field, the show is actually spectacular. It is tremendous simple to view from all angles and does deal with what solar glare I’ve managed to throw at it – although I’ll confess that hasn’t been a lot, with the majority of my vitamin D at the moment being ingested in capsule kind.
Simply how large actually is it, and is it a problem?
At this level you may need a 400lb gorilla within the room may need been seen – it is received an even bigger display screen than the Garmin Edge 1050 Photo voltaic – which already received stick for being fairly massive – so simply how large actually is it?
The brand new laptop measures 125x69x19mm, which is 9mm longer than the already massive Garmin 1050, and a full 23mm longer than the Hammerhead Karoo, which isn’t precisely small. It’s genuinely corresponding to my iPhone XR, which is nice relating to mapping, however I am not satisfied it is the best way ahead for everybody.
This measurement comparability reveals simply how massive the brand new Ace is
(Picture credit score: Future)
It’s miles from gentle too. At 208g it’s 3 times heavier than the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2 and stands out an enormous quantity additional on the handlebars too. I might be very shocked if we see many professionals utilizing this subsequent yr for this very purpose, nevertheless, it has its perks too.
The bigger kind issue permits for extra battery. Wahoo claims as much as 30 hours of utilization might be eked out from a single cost on the brand new Ace, which, at the side of higher mapping performance, makes me marvel if the perfect use case is perhaps for extremely athletes and people who endeavour to discover above all else.
Pricing, options and future updates
It isn’t all concerning the {hardware} although, Wahoo has additionally been fairly busy on the software program aspect of issues, which is simply as essential, if no more.
The brand new Ace is the primary of Wahoo Elemnt bike laptop vary to arrange and sync through the cloud-based Wahoo App, which Wahoo claims will improve the performance and pace of the person expertise.
Thus far, I’ve to agree with this. I had the unit arrange in a matter of minutes, and tweaking there on after is fairly simple too.
Aesthetically, the pinnacle unit is fairly secure with its gunmetal gray colourway.
(Picture credit score: Future)
Wahoo says it has additionally improved the person expertise too, by bringing generally used capabilities out from backstage of a number of menus. They’ve additionally geared up the Ace with a digital bell, just like the Garmin Edge 1050.
The Elemnt app integration is one thing that Wahoo is aiming to enhance as time goes on, and create a ‘seamless expertise for all issues Wahoo’. It’s, nevertheless, nonetheless being developed, and as such sure options are nonetheless lacking, or aren’t fairly optimised but.
Within the first half of 2025, Wahoo has mentioned will probably be specializing in up to date LiveTrack, enhanced Route Administration in Wahoo app, multi-language voice turn-by-turn assist, in-ride navigation enhancements, UX/UI, and tuning battery optimisation.
The second half of the yr will then deal with extra third-party app integration, ‘aero sensor extra performance’ in addition to extra map layers and extra.
And whereas this does all sound moderately promising, it leaves me questioning if the discharge of the brand new Ace is just a little rushed. That is the model’s halo biking laptop, and at current, it would not really feel as polished as you would possibly anticipate.
That mentioned, I’m wanting ahead to correctly placing the Ace via its paces over the following weeks and months, and I will likely be again with an in-depth assessment of whether or not the brand new Wahoo actually is the Ace within the pack…
