Hammerhead Karoo 3 Review: Better than Ever, but…

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I’ve tested the Karoo 2, Edge 1040, Edge 1050, and many other bike computers. Naturally, I was curious to see how the Karoo 3 measures up. In this review, I’ll share what I liked, what I didn’t, how it compares to the competition, and more.

My Karoo 3 rating at a glance:
Battery Life 2/5 | Ease of Setup 5/5 | Display 5/5 | Ease of Use 5/5 | GPS Accuracy 5/5 | Maps & Navigation 5/5 | Price 2/5 | OVERALL 4.1/5
More about this bike computer scoring.

Hammerhead Karoo 3: Pros & Cons

These are the main pros and cons of the Hammerhead Karoo 3 that I discovered during use.

Also available at competitivecyclist.com, jensonusa.com, and tredz.co.uk

Hammerhead Karoo 2 vs. 3: What’s New?

Unboxing and Initial Setup

The Karoo 3’s initial setup is straightforward. Connect it to WiFi, and the Karoo will update its firmware. Then, you’ll log in to your Hammerhead account (by scanning a QR code) and provide some initial tips on pairing Strava and sensors.

Unlike the Karoo 2, there is now a dedicated Karoo app. However, it won’t allow you to set up the head unit; you can only use it for syncing rides, activities, or workouts, regardless of whether you are connected to WiFi.

My Experience with Hammerhead Karoo 3

Below, I share my experience with Karoo 3 in the most important areas.

Display

“The 3.2-inch display is incredibly bright and responsive.” That’s what I wrote about the Karoo 2. But the Karoo 3 pushes this even further. I estimate the brightness is about 10-20% higher. See the following pictures in different light conditions.

Both displays have the same resolution of 480×800px (291.55 PPI). This is nearly double the pixel density of the Edge 1040 (156.6 PPI) and still higher than the Edge 1050 (266.56 PPI). In other words, everything looks sharper on the Karoo 2 and 3 (eventually E1050) than on most other bike computers.

Check out the following picture, where I compare the brightness of multiple bike computers. It doesn’t seem like it in the photo, but the Karoo 3 is the brightest, and the Karoo 2 is still brighter than the Edge 1050.

When setting up data pages, you can choose from many page layouts. However, the number of data fields per page is limited to 10 to keep a high level of readability. I like that Karoo’s system shows you a live preview of the pages. This feature inspired Garmin, so they implemented something similar (but not as refined) to the Edge 1050.

You might also be interested in this Edge 1050 vs. Karoo 3 comparison.

Battery Life

Bright displays and powerful systems mean one thing: big power demands. Although the battery size increased from 2800mAh to 3200mAh, Karoo 3’s battery life is still below average. Although it claims that battery life is up to 15 hours, my Karoo 3 lasted about 12.3 hours. I had Garmin Varia RTL515, Favero Assioma DUO, Shimano Ultegra Di2, Wahoo TICKR, and my phone connected to it. I used it on auto brightness and navigation for about 30% of the rides.

Despite the below-average battery life (check out the chart below), I have to give Hammerhead credit because they increased it by about 50 %. The addition of the ambient sensor also ensures that the head unit can adjust the brightness based on the outside light conditions. This was a big weakness of the Karoo 2. You had to adjust it manually.

Hammerhead also addressed the poorly designed charging port cover, which was not attached to the head unit, so it was easy to lose it. You also don’t have to limit yourself to using Karoo’s charging cable; you can use any USB-C charging cable and not worry about damaging the battery due to the higher current.

Also available at competitivecyclist.com, jensonusa.com, and tredz.co.uk

Control & User Friendliness

I was curious to see if the Karoo 3 would offer a better user experience than the previous generation, which was often laggy and full of software bugs. I’m happy to report that the new version runs more smoothly and has fewer bugs. Browsing through data pages or maps is seamless. I only notice minor delays when pulling down the widget panel.

On that note, I’d love to see infinite scrolling added. Currently, when you reach the last widget page, you have to swipe back to return to the first one. I’m referring to widgets, not data pages, which already support infinite scrolling.

As always, I tested the display’s controllability with gloves and when wet. It’s like people from Hammerhead read my Karoo 2 review and tried to address one of the main points of my criticism: bad performance when wet. The display on Karoo 2 went crazy when wet, making it impossible to control. The Karoo 3 solves this to a certain extent. It is hydrophobic, so it repels water. But if any remains, it leads to a reduction in the accuracy of individual instructions. Garmin Edge bike computers still work better. Watch the following video for further reference.

Anyway, one of the main benefits of Karoo 3 is that it combines a touchscreen display with control buttons. This is helpful in winter or the rain. You can use the control buttons instead of trying to hit the exact spot on the screen with gloves. The buttons are now easier to click. But honestly, they feel a bit cheap. When I shake with Karoo, I can hear how they move. That’s pretty weird, and I’ve never encountered this on a bike computer before.

Hammerhead also added a dedicated power-on button, allowing you to turn off the screen in case you need to save the battery. But of course, it also has a dedicated battery-saver mode.

Hammerhead introduced a new smartphone app that only allows you to sync activities, routes, workouts, etc. It won’t allow you to change the settings of your head unit. I am not sure if they will implement this feature (I don’t think they will). The app won’t allow you to create routes, though. You must create them in a different app and then open the GPX file using the Hammerhead app. However, a cool thing is that you can use a location from Google map, share it, and then navigate to it using Karoo.

I did not encounter any bugs, unlike in the previous generation. This is a nice to see improvement.

Also available at competitivecyclist.com, jensonusa.com, and tredz.co.uk

Maps & Navigation

Karoo 3 has the most modern-looking maps, period. I like them more than those on the Edge 1050, but that’s just part of the story. How good is the actual navigation? I’ve tried it in our area, and the selected routes were ok. This means the navigation chose the path I would choose. The same applied to my vacation in Italy, near Lake Como. I could rely on the Karoo, and its navigation prompts were easy to follow. I also like the coloring, which is easy to follow.

Of course, Karoo 3 can still navigate you to points of interest, dropped pins, addresses, and more. It can also recalculate the route when you deviate from the original path. From my experience, the recalculation is quick and accurate.

Browsing maps on this device feels unlike any other bike computer. It’s the closest experience to using a smartphone. You can pinch to zoom in or out and swipe with two fingers to switch between 2D and 3D views. It’s like magic. Watch the video below, where I demonstrate this.

If I had to choose between the Karoo 3 and the Edge 1050, I’d choose the Karoo because it’s easier to work with, and I like it better. Route calculation is similarly fast on both devices.

The only thing that annoyed me a bit was the bottom widgets that overlapped the navigation arrow. This is a disadvantage on descents when you want to see how far you are from the next turn so you can choose the fastest possible line.

Climber Feature

One of my favorite things about Karoo 3 is the Climber feature. It’s similar to Garmin’s ClimbPro and doesn’t require a planned route. It estimates the path you will take and shows the climb data (gradients, distance to the top, etc.) so you can pace yourself better.

Naturally, it’s more accurate for planned routes than free rides, but it seems like the Karoo 3 is more accurate for free rides than the Karoo 2. And unlike Garmin devices, it doesn’t show you the fully dedicated page by default, but only about 1/3rd of a screen using the bottom widget. You can swipe it up to enlarge it. These are the details I love about Karoo. They put a lot of thought into it. Edge bike computers automatically switch to the ClimbPro page, and once the climb ends, you are left with the closest data page, not the one you used before. So, you have to swipe to get back to it. How frustrating!

I would appreciate a different gradient coloring here because a 9% climb marked as green is not particularly easy to ride. Also, more flexibility when changing data fields for the climber page would be great.

I also like that if you have Strava Premium, you can switch between the Climber and Strava Live Segments tabs to see how much time you fall behind KOM and your PR. Here is a photo from Karoo 2.

Check out my comparison of Climber vs. ClimbPro for more details.

GPS Accuracy

The Karoo 3 finally supports multi-band GNSS. I compared its accuracy with other bike computers. I plan to add pictures from my favorite forest segment to have more comparable results. However, the recorded route in Italy was off in an area with a bad GPS signal. See the following pictures below.

Connectivity

The Karoo 3 has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ANT+ connectivity, so you can use it with most sensors. Unfortunately, Hammerhead is owned by SRAM, which is Shimano’s competitor. As a result, Shimano has ordered Hammerhead to remove Shimano Di2 features from their head units. So if you care about seamless connectivity, Karoo 3 is probably not the best choice for you.

Hammerhead Karoo 3 Alternatives

Hammerhead Karoo 3 Technical Specifications

Below, I summarized Hammerhead Karoo 3 technical specifications.

Conclusion

If you care about a modern user experience, I can recommend Karoo 3. Its usage is the closest to a smartphone of all the bike computers I’ve tested so far. Compared to the 2nd generation, it brings a lot of improvements (fewer bugs, more fluid experience, better accuracy, and battery life), so I believe it is worth the extra cost. Plus, since it comes with the SRAM RED groupset, you can often get it for much less than the recommended price because many people sell it. I got mine new for about $315.

Of course, the Karoo 3 is not without flaws. Personally, I am most bothered by the below-average battery life, so I have to recharge it about every week or two. However, the brightness of its display is the highest of all bike computers, so it is clear that this creates high demands on the battery.

I found a few scenarios where the UI is not polished, but Hammerhead can fix them easily with firmware updates. Overall, I am happy with Karoo and plan to use it as my main bike computer for some time.

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Also available at competitivecyclist.com, jensonusa.com, and tredz.co.uk

Hammerhead Karoo 3 FAQ