iGPSPORT BiNavi review: Big brand rivalling performance for under $250

iGPSPORT's competitively priced bike computers have made me sit up and take notice this year.

iGPSPORT was founded in 2012, and its products are now available worldwide. It caught my attention earlier this year when it began sponsoring the FDJ WorldTour team.

I reported on that news at the time, as a pair of Chinese computer brands entered the top flight in the form of iGPSPORT with FDJ and Magene with Astana.

Like various other sectors, such as the automotive and coffee industry, this is another strong example of Chinese products challenging established Western brands.

I called in the BiNavi unit to test and to see if the performance, along with the price, justifies a seat at the big table alongside the likes of Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead in our best bike computers guide.

The BiNavi retails for £219.90 / $239.90 / €239 and possesses a spec list that on paper takes the fight to the big manufacturers.

The unit sits amongst the ‘bike navigator’ section of the brand’s computer offerings, alongside the six-unit-strong ‘GPS computer’ section. The Bi Navi units just place a little more emphasis on navigation.

There’s a colour touchscreen, app, 32GB memory, claimed 35+ hour battery life, certainly everything the average rider and this tech writer wants in a unit.

I’ve used it exclusively for several months and for the odd hill climb event. I’ve been impressed and won over; this review will be enough to help you leap to an unfamiliar system if you like the look of the unit and the price tag

Design and aesthetic

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The BiNavi arrives in a neat box, and the standalone unit comes with a charger cable, tether, O-rings for mounting to a bar or stem, and something I’ve never seen before in a bike computer: a silicone case and screen protector to install to keep the screen looking fresh,

The brand also offers a BiNavi Air unit, which you might spot. It has a slightly smaller screen and costs a little less, but has a similar spec list.

The unit has six buttons and, size-wise, is roughly the same as the Hammerhead Karoo; official dimensions are 101×60×14.5 mm. There’s a picture comparison with a few units below for you to look at.

In terms of specifications, the BiNavi on paper at least is pretty much up there with various premium smart computers on the market, and it makes a strong opening case for the amount it costs. The full spec list is here, but the unit has a 3.5" colour touchscreen, a claimed 35-hour battery life, 32GB of memory, USB-C charging, an IPX7 waterproof rating and supports dual-band GNSS GPS.

In terms of additional desirable add-ons, there's music control, smart notification updates, Komoot, TrainingPeaks, and Strava integration, along with DJI, Insta360, Aerosensor and Tymewear, etc.

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There's also training support, and the unit provides training analysis and training plans if you want to try and tackle more structured work.

This is the brand's navigation-focused unit, but its nav capabilities are on a par with a range of other smart computers. Routes can be planned or created from rides in the app and sent to the device; POI navigation can also be used, and you can see and access other local routes created by iGPSPORT users in the recommended route section.

Voice navigation for turns is also an option as long as you are connected to the app, and you can choose to have Chris Froome's (a global brand ambassador) voice as an option via your phone speaker/headphones, which I obviously tested out. You can have the multiple Grand Tour winner as your SatNav man/lady, it's a fun feature.

iGPSPORT has an app, and this is used alongside the unit using Bluetooth, just as you would with Garmin Connect or apps from any other brand. Activities are stored in the app, and routes can be transferred across to the BiNavi unit

The unit takes about two seconds to power up, and once on, you are met with the main home screen; 12 widgets take up the sreen from navigation, training, group riding, and weather, etc. Along the top is where you can select your ride profile screen; there are seven stock options for you to customise and set up. I've used two of them: one for my general road riding with lap screens, etc., and a pared-down race version.

There are two theme options to choose from, which dictate the layout of the computer (pictured below). I found the ‘dynamic widgets’ option a lot better than the ‘colourful cards’; it would be my recommendation and is a bit more like your average smartphone layout.

Slide down from the top on any screen, and a kind of settings screen comes up; from here you can toggle screen brightness using a slider bar, access your sensors and pairings, check the weather, etc.

Operating the unit and using the touchscreen to scroll through pages is very easy; the touchscreen is great and works perfectly, but the unit is very fast too; there’s no waiting for it to do anything. It’s great to use.

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Performance

So, is it any good, and is it worth spending your money on? I would say yes, absolutely, but there are a couple of points to consider.

I’m well over 700 miles into my testing period with the BiNavi now and have been very impressed with the unit. I’ve used it for all my riding and training and a local hill climb.

It’s easy to use and generally very fast; the touchscreen is great, it charges quickly, and it does everything I need it to. There isn’t much to not like about it; I’ve bumped into two riders locally recently who use iGPSPORT units too, and they are converts.

My very first impression was that the screen wasn’t as bright or vivid as the other well-known units on the market. It’s more than fine, and I adapted within days, but it's just not as bright.

I found it easy to set up my pages, adjust them on the fly and set up a new one for a hill climb where I just wanted power and time on the screen for the short, all-out effort. It’s on a par with the Karoo for how easy it is to customise ride screens.

One detail I really like is the speed at which laps can be executed, and the lap ‘interval start’ screen is removed from the display; hit the lap button; the message comes up on screen; simply touch the screen to remove it, and it’s gone straight away.

I’ve found this a really agreeable feature in training. Don’t forget the unit is also compatible with TrainingPeaks, so your sessions can be uploaded to the platform straight away as well.

Battery life is quoted at 35 hours, though the brand says it will, of course, depend on your own use case. For my roughly 8-ish hours a week of riding, I haven’t come close to being caught out by a low battery; I've also found charging to be very fast. It will start to get used up quicker with all sorts connected and navigation on, but it will be fine for pretty long rides.

I've had a couple of ride upload issues to Strava where the device seemed to get the date wrong; rides I completed on a Monday came out as being done on a Sunday at a different time. I couldn't figure this out, and it seemed to be a glitch.

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Navigation is generally good using the BiNavi, and I like the clear map layout, even preferring it to the Garmin format, I think. The device gives you turning warnings in advance, and you can customise nav screen metrics like speed and power.

There are a few points on navigation worth mentioning; the first thing that caught me out was that you can't use the touchscreen to zoom in on the map; instead, you have to use the + and - buttons on the screen.

The device froze on me once whilst calculating a route start; I was struggling for a few minutes before finding that hitting the power button sorted it out. Niggles can happen on any device, and it was isolated.

You can also only use the iClimb climbing metric feature whilst riding a pre-loaded route; again, no biggie, but it's not as comprehensive as something like Wahoo Summit can provide climbing metrics for every climb you ride.

You can navigate a pre-ridden route from the device, but you will need the app to save a route and send it across to your unit. It’s done in seconds, though.

I didn't find the one-click navigation function amazing in the app either; this is where you can search for a location and route to it. A simple search for a McDonald's (we've all been there) would only throw up one 100 miles away (there's one three miles from my house), but the unit located the nearby cycling track successfully, for example. The system seems slightly hit-and-miss and could be an issue on a bleak winter ride for some riders.

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Verdict

At £219.90 / $239.90 / €239, this computer offers fantastic value for money; it’s on a par with units twice its value, and personally I’d take it over the Garmin Edge 550 due to that excellent touchscreen and save myself some cash.

The screen isn’t as vivid and bright; that’s it. I quickly got used to that though, and it’s not an issue.

Some of the navigation and UI performance from the unit and/or app seems slightly subpar, but for the price and overall performance, it doesn't bother me too much.

Verdict

For the amount of money it costs, I think this is a really solid computer unit from iGPSPORT. It's very fast and easy to use; the touchscreen is good, and it does all I need it to for my riding.

The map quality and navigation itself are good, and if you don't make new routes several times a week and really ask a lot of your computer's navigation tech, I don't think you will have much to worry about. If you're the sort of rider that generally knows your routes off by heart, and every so often downloads a GPX route for an event, you will be laughing.

At final count: over 800 miles of riding have properly tested the BiNavi. Some aspects of the overall system and app are slightly clunkier and less refined than some competitors in places, but there isn't too much in it.

Excellent performance at a very attractive price point; what's not to like. iGPSPORT deserves a seat at the big table.