Wahoo has laid down its marker for what it believes will be the future direction for cycling computers with the release of the all-new Elemnt Ace.
The new computer, which retails for $599.99 / £549.99, is packed full of new features, including the slightly peculiar 'Wind Sensor', and features the biggest display of any cycling computer on the market.
The Ace takes aim directly at the new Garmin Edge 1050 Solar and the most recent Hammerhead Karoo. But does it pack enough performance and a large enough feature set to go toe-to-toe with the competition, and what does the Wind Sensor really do?
What exactly is the 'Wind Sensor' and what does it do?
Let's waste no time in explaining what totally sets apart the new Wahoo Elemnt Ace from any of its competitors - the ‘Wind Sensor’. A first of its kind in the cycling computer space, the Ace’s Wind Sensor simply measures air pressure going into the front of the head unit.
Why, you may ask? Well, by measuring air pressure, the Wahoo can calculate wind speed, allowing for several new metrics to be calculated and used as excuses in the post-ride Strava debrief. Wind speed is compared with ground speed to indicate, for example, how strong a headwind is, or how well you are sitting on the wheel in front of you.
Crucially, however, the wind sensor does not calculate CdA, and therefore you won’t see this head unit replacing multi-million-pound wind tunnels anytime soon. When the device was leaked on a Reddit forum a few weeks ago, it was met with speculation that this new sensor may end up being a competitor to the likes of the Body Rocket system, but this will not be the case.
The applications for this, I feel are fairly limited. I can see time triallists potentially using the device for reconnaissance to figure out pacing strategies perhaps, or for team time trial teams or track riders honing their bunch skills to become more efficient - but for you or me on the club run? I'm not quite convinced just yet, and certainly need more time with the device to figure it all out.
New display, new controls
Wahoo has taken the launch of the new Ace, as an opportunity to completely overhaul the device's screen and in doing so change the user interface too. The new computer marks the brand’s first touchscreen cycle head unit.
The Ace does still feature six physical buttons too, with the traditional buttons across the bottom of the device, a power button on the left-hand side, and two buttons on the right-hand side which can be used for scrolling around the device.
The panel itself measures up at 3.8” across the diagonal, making it the largest on the market, and it features a 3:2 aspect ratio. Where Gamin and Hammerhead opt for a more widescreen aspect ratio, the Ace appears rather more boxy than much of the competition, but for mapping in particular this works very well, giving great periphery vision.
The real trickery though comes from the transflective thin-film transistor (TFT) screen. The panel has anti-glare and anti-reflective properties, improving viewing angles, while its high resolution increases sharpness making metrics easier to read and maps easier to navigate by.
Out of the box, the display is certainly impressive. It's super easy to view from all angles and does handle what sun glare I have managed to throw at it - though I will confess that hasn't been much, with the bulk of my vitamin D currently being ingested in capsule form.
Just how big really is it, and is it an issue?
At this point you might have a 400lb gorilla in the room might have been noticed - it's got a bigger screen than the Garmin Edge 1050 Solar - which already got stick for being pretty large - so just how big really is it?
The new computer measures 125x69x19mm, which is 9mm longer than the already large Garmin 1050, and a full 23mm longer than the Hammerhead Karoo, which isn’t exactly small. It’s genuinely comparable to my iPhone XR, which is great when it comes to mapping, but I'm not convinced it's the way forward for everyone.
It's far from light too. At 208g it is three times heavier than the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2 and sticks out a huge amount further on the handlebars too. I would be very surprised if we see many professionals using this next year for this very reason, however, it has its perks too.
The larger form factor allows for more battery. Wahoo claims up to 30 hours of usage can be eked out from a single charge on the new Ace, which, in conjunction with better mapping functionality, makes me wonder if the best use case might be for ultra athletes and those who endeavour to explore above all else.
Pricing, features and future updates
It's not all about the hardware though, Wahoo has also been pretty busy on the software side of things, which is just as important, if not more.
The new Ace is the first of Wahoo Elemnt bike computer range to set up and sync via the cloud-based Wahoo App, which Wahoo claims will increase the functionality and speed of the user experience.
So far, I have to agree with this. I had the unit set up in a matter of minutes, and tweaking there on after is pretty straightforward too.
Wahoo says it has also improved the user experience too, by bringing commonly used functions out from behind the curtain of multiple menus. They have also equipped the Ace with a digital bell, similar to the Garmin Edge 1050.
The Elemnt app integration is something that Wahoo is aiming to improve as time goes on, and create a 'seamless experience for all things Wahoo'. It is, however, still being developed, and as such certain features are still missing, or aren't quite optimised yet.
In the first half of 2025, Wahoo has said it will be focusing on updated LiveTrack, enhanced Route Management in Wahoo app, multi-language voice turn-by-turn support, in-ride navigation improvements, UX/UI, and tuning battery optimisation.
The second half of the year will then focus on additional third-party app integration, 'aero sensor additional functionality' as well as additional map layers and more.
And while this does all sound rather promising, it leaves me wondering if the release of the new Ace is a little rushed. This is the brand's halo cycling computer, and at present, it doesn't feel as polished as you might expect.
That said, I am looking forward to properly putting the Ace through its paces over the next weeks and months, and I will be back with an in-depth review of whether the new Wahoo really is the Ace in the pack...
