NEW Hammerhead Karoo 3 Cycling GPS // Key Features // What's New?

The long awaited update to the Hammerhead Karoo cycling computer! Hammerhead (now owned by SRAM) have adopted the more ambiguous naming convention with this release, choosing to call it simply the 'Karoo', not the Karoo 3, Karoo 2024, or Karoo-With-a-Better-Battery. It's inevitably going to be called the Karoo 3 so that's what I'll stick with. In this video are all the updates and key features you can expect to find with this new hardware refresh.

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Video Index:
0:00 Intro
0:22 Key Feature Updates
1:34 Hands-On Look
2:05 K2 vs K3 Hardware Specs
2:19 Battery Claims and Tests
3:10 Ambient Light Sensor
3:26 Altimeter Updates and Tests
5:09 Weight
5:32 Screen Coverglass / Brightness
6:06 Rain Tests (Garden Hose Test)
6:30 Boot Time Comparison
6:41 Android 12
6:56 Multi GNSS Multi Band
7:06 GNSS / Positioning Tests
9:58 Groupset Integration
10:50 Hammerhead Companion App (BLE Data)
11:19 New Workout Screens / Integrations
11:37 Updated Mount
12:09 Pricing
12:32 Field Testing: Pin Drop from App
14:42 Field Testing: Routing
15:16 Field Testing: Re-Routing
16:10 More K2/K3 Similarities
16:37 Summary / My Thoughts
18:50 Wrap Up
19:05 Zwift on the Karoo 3

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#Cycling #Karoo #Hammerhead

[matthias-L]

It's more of an update than a new device and I find a 25% price increase for Europe quite harsh, so I'm deciding against it! I'm looking forward to the review of the Igs800

[johnhickie]

I'll stick with my current Hammerhead. As a long distance tourer, a few extra hours is little bit nicer but really not nearly as nice as I would hope for. I still carry a 30, 000 mAH battery for remote riding away from recharging places. For long day rides I carry a 10, 000 mAH battery if the battery poops out. Much cheaper to carry a spare battery than a $700 CDN outlay for a new bike computer with a few more hours of charge. Compare this with the Garmin 1040 solar which gives heaps more battery life - which means I wouldn't have to carry an extra battery at all for most of my riding (see Joe Pavlik's post below).

Next point of course is that the computer is $50 CDN less expensive in the US. This is the same for Australian Dollars as well where the unit is $50 AUD cheaper in the US. Do they have something against Commonwealth countries? I'll wait till a solar charging Karoo with an even bigger battery comes out - which would simply catch up a bit with what Garmin already has. As I don't race, better battery life is far more important than shaving a few grams.

Either that, or I'll simply go to Garmin.

[postiez]

Thanks Lama! Always love your reviews! So satisfying

[ChrisMillerCycling]

I’m a size medium for the “SRAM-A-HEAD” t-shirts

[CycoWarriorx]

I’ll keep rolling with my Wahoo Roam… 🍻

[joaoletelier]

Love that you're calling it Karoo 3 instead of Karoo, but to be honest it looks like it should be called the Karoo 2S. My biggest gripes with my K2 are the laggy UI and the battery life, and it looks like both have been improved only marginally.

BTW, you don't need to go through all the steps you went through to drop a pin. You can just long press straight onto any part of the map to drop a pin and start navigation there.

[adammcintosh]

Great review Shane. I really like my Karoo 2 to the extent my Garmin was handed down to the daughter. Given the short battery life, slow startup and lack of non wifi connectivity surprising how much this unit has become a definite favourite. The 3 looks like it will be better down the track when it’s better processing and memory power will support improved UI but for now staying with the 2.

[barrydaniel]

I had the karoo 2 a while back, at first before it was known of srams involvement. The di compatability was great, they liked weekly updates and suddenly one week the release notes was were removing all involvement with shimano di2. I soon got rid and went for a garmin 1040 which is fantastic. Never understood why a head unit would associate themselves with one brand. Seems a bizarre move
Great video as always Shane . Thanks

[stuschwark]

Sad to see no change in the mount. My K2 mount only lasted 60 days, one of the reasons I just went back to the 1030/1040 series - really wanted this unit to succeed

[arrogantbliss]

I was looking forward for this Karoo, but the price jump from US$400 to US$475 is really steep! The lack of battery improvement is not good as well.

[rOmzOOm]

A quick note for potential buyers regarding pin drops through the companion app: This *only* works with an established internet connection, bluetooth alone is not enough. Finding this out after buying the new K3 was a bummer for me since it's a feature for example Garmin units have had for quite some time. Most people probably won't find this too big of an issue since it's rare to not have signal but I still feel like it's a handy bit of information/limitation worth mentioning.

[teunluijbregts]

Thanks for the review 👍
Based on this, I think I need a new pair of shoes more urgently so will be looking for those first and from what’s left maybe a Chinese nav unit.

[sxsignal]

no upgrade option this time, too bad. But based on the review, it doesn't look like there is really that much more that I'd want to upgrade

[TheJoePavlik]

Wow, I'll never ditch my 1040 solar. While bikepacking I can get at least 5 days at 12 hours of ride time and navigation out of it with good sunlight.

[damFr]

My experience from Karoo 2 was degraded by battery life, screen visibility and UX. For a long ride I always had to switch screen off which was very annoying when riding. I sent it back to wait for next iteration. Karoo 3 don’t seem to have really upgraded all of those perfectly and have added a big price increase.

[Nizz]

They should make an absolute crazy capacity battery to be competitive. I bet most of thier clients are long distance gravels

[neilk]

they're canabilising the one USP they had which was the SIM independence feature. I was honestly expecting more on the line of an application market place too. I love my K2, wouldnt bother with the K3.

[postman]

my karoo 2 had serious elevation issues had to grab the new one, pretty good so far

[SvenfromKiel]

I expected to get a better map like I had with my old Garmin 1030...more details/differences between trails, little roads, pavement...everything is still a dashed line. I will not upgrade from my actual Karoo2 which is very okay for the half price i paid here in Europe...Thanks for the review!

[jeffreyastjohn]

Can’t tell if it’s just turned up but the screen looks night and day brighter than the other two