The Coospo CS500 is the brand’s top-of-the-range bike computer. Size and functionality-wise it is closest to the likes of the Garmin Edge 540 and Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2, but significantly cheaper than either. However the black-and-white screen and slightly more limited mapping functions make it a bit more of an in-between of the Edge 540 and the Edge 130 Plus. In terms of buttons and screen setups, again this is very similar to Garmin and very easy to use.
The Coospo app is a breeze to navigate and makes setting up the computer and data screens very easy. A long battery life, high-accuracy GPS, included screen protector and very fast turn-on time are all great positives, as is the sub-£100 pricetag that makes it exceptionally good value. It’s not perfect though, with the mapping lagging behind the competition and upload issues to some third party apps. As standard the GPS is also set to a more limited function, so speed data can be patchy.
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Coospo CS500 GPS bike computer design and specs
The Coospo CS500 comes in at 85 x 53 x 19mm with a 2.6in LCD screen. This makes it very similar in size to the Garmin Edge 540, but at 72g it is a little lighter.
It uses an automatic backlight that is activated by the ambient light conditions. It doesn’t feature a colour screen, instead just black and white, but does have a claimed battery life of 45 hours while using GPS, with a charge time of two hours until full from empty. Charging is done via USB-C, and a charging cable is included along with a Garmin-style stem mount, elastic bands to secure the mount, glass screen protector and a lanyard for security.
The positioning system uses a combination of GPS, BDS, QZSS, GLONASS and GALILEO but you can reduce the number of sources being used to preserve the battery at the expense of GPS accuracy.
Coospo says the device has over 140 parameters that can be displayed on the computer with power, heart rate, cadence, speed, shifting, elevation, time and directional-based metrics all selectable. These can be displayed across five standard customisable screens, as well as five additional screens for navigations, smart trainer, trainer, radar and lap data.
The customisable pages can be set up to feature up to seven different display metrics in different formats with 11 different options. These are all able to be adjusted in the Coospo app, which connects directly to the device. This app also allows for updates, route synchronising and activity uploads to third party apps such as Strava. Sensors can be paired on the CS500 device itself, using the left side power/back button, right side select and up and down buttons, and bottom lap and start/stop buttons.
Coospo CS500 GPS bike computer performance
As with any new system, getting used to using the Coospo takes a little bit of time. If you’re coming from Wahoo, you’ll find the setup to be more of a departure than if you’re switching from Garmin, which shares a lot more similarities with the Coospo hardware as well as inbuilt settings.
Fortunately, the Coospo app makes setting the bike computer up an absolute breeze. As with the Wahoo app, which is what I’ve been using since 2019, all the data screens are customisable. My preference is to have a general ride screen, intervals screen and navigation. My only preference with Wahoo over the Coospo is the ability to zoom in and out of screens to add or remove data fields on the fly.
This is however the same on Garmin, and to mitigate this you can just have two screens, one cluttered with information and one with very few metrics as I did. The Coospo does have more buttons than the Wahoo, although personally I find the Wahoo setup a bit more intuitive and easy to follow. Although that is easy for me to say coming from using it for a long time, I did instantly prefer the Wahoo setup to the Garmin 510 when I switched from that. The 510 did have a similar button setup to the Coospo as well.
Pairing sensors was also very easy. As with any bike computer, spin up or use whatever sensor you want to use and the connection shows up in the sensor menu. You can then choose between ANT+ or BLE connection, useful if running concurrent connections with say a smart trainer where BLE connections can be limited. There was no need to re-pair when starting a new activity and each device was named, which made it easier to go between various HR monitors or power meters.
One slight faff was when it came to putting routes on the device. To do this requires the app, rather than downloading from Strava or Komoot directly to the computer itself. It’s a little added step, but an added one nonetheless that other computers make just a little bit easier.
The other pain was uploading activities. I had synced both Strava and TrainingPeaks to the Coospo app, but rather than auto-uploading, you need to sync the computer to the app where it then uploads. However it only ever did this to Strava, while TrainingPeaks activities needed to be manually uploaded.
Maps are an area that does need some work on the Coospo. Being in just black and white isn’t an issue for me, as personally I find it makes very little difference to my ride experience if the map shows colours or not. However, for marking out changes in road surface or other elements, the colours can add some more pop to these and make them more vivid, which the Coospo lacks. This also lags behind the Wahoo computers and the Garmin 540 which both feature colour display.
They also feature a full map profile, whereas the Coospo has a line to follow with directions based on distance to go to the turn. This was not easy to follow when riding off-road trails, as I wasn’t easily able to judge the distance to turns, and missed a few quite regularly. I prefer a proper map screen where I can see the trail or road layouts ahead. In this regard the Coospo is more like the Garmin Edge 130 Plus, Garmin’s budget offering. If I were following an unfamiliar route, I would be far more comfortable using a device that featured proper mapping functions with a base map.
Another gripe is the GPS, due to a little feature that I hadn’t initially noticed until I dug around in the settings more. The first few rides I noticed some very patchy GPS-derived speed data. It was either massively slower or faster than what I was doing. It appeared to occur mainly when under tree cover, but the numbers were more accurate on the open roads with no overhanging trees.
Looking into the setting, the Coospo was initially set to using the lowest GPS setting with just GPS + BDS active, rather than the full profile. I changed this to include all sources and the issue was resolved. However this was not intuitive and could provide an issue for some people. Yes it’s an easy fix, but it’s not really one that should be required.
This GPS reduction may have been a way to prolong battery life, but again that doesn’t seem necessary. Frankly the battery life on the Coospo is superb, with about ten hours of use with power and heart rate connected reducing the battery down to 78%. That roughly tracks quite nicely with the claimed 45 hour battery life, as this riding was also done with the full whack of GPS sources and backlit for a lot of it riding in the dark plus following routes.
One final thing I really love is how quickly the device turns on. My usual Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2 takes a reasonable amount of time to warm up and switch on; the Coospo takes less than five seconds. It’s a little detail, but one that I like and means less time standing outside on my street in full lycra looking a bit clueless.
The feature that dwarfs all other though is the price. Even if the functionality was limited to that of the Garmin Edge 130 Plus, at under £100 the Coospo beats that by a big margin even with the Edge discounted. Add to that a screen that is larger than the Elemnt Bolt and the same as the Edge 540, and it’s an incredibly good value for money bike computer.
The mapping is a limiting factor, and I would suggest looking elsewhere if that’s something you really want. But when it comes to being a great functioning bike computer, the Coospo has most of what you could need for activity tracking, interval management and basic mapping.
Coospo CS500 GPS bike computer review verdict
The Coospo CS500 is not the most functionally impressive bike computer and the mapping functionality is more limited than the main players. However, it does a very good job across most areas that you want a bike computer to be effective in, and does so at a price that massively undercuts any of its competitors. If you want brilliant mapping features, look elsewhere, but for everything else the Coospo CS500 does a superb job at exceptionally great value.
- Buy it now from Coospo (£87)
