Leomo Type S - Bike Computer First Impressions

I have covered Bike Specific navigation units from Sony, Panasonic, and other before, and recently wrote a quick little piece about why smart phones aren't the greatest option for bike navigation.  They do have some advantages, though.  What if you could combine the best of both worlds?  That seems to me what Leomo was thinking.  (Actually, I think they were thinking more specifically about stride and cycling pedal analysis sensors and just wanted a dedicated computer for those).  

At any rate, they released two "fitness computers", the Type R and the Type S.  I know nothing about the type R, except that it is older.  The Type S is basically a full Android smart phone which has been optimized for bicycle/fitness use.  For example, a small screen with lower resolution that something you would find on the likes of the lates Xperia or iPhone, but it is viewable in direct sunlight and lasts a long time on the battery with the screen and GPS on.  There are top rate sensors and connectivity including two bluetooth chips and ANT+ connectivity.  It kind-of sort-of looks like an old Android phone, but old phones don't support LTE and have a Type C jack.  

So let's have a look at that came in the box:

(p.s. I know some of the images need to be rotated.  I can't be bothered for now.)

The first thing to mention is that the special sauce that Leomo is selling is their special sensors and software that connects to them.  This is great for those athletes who want to check the degrees of thigh motion while pedaling, or how the precise angle of their torso changes as they get tired towards the end of a race, etc.  All of that is high tech and fancy, and great for those who want it, but honestly... I don't care.  I am here for the standard bike computer + Android stuff.  

As such, I found it annoying that there are kits with 2 sensors, or 5, but none with 0 sensors.  So you have to buy them even if you don't want them.  Obviously I bought the two sensor version.  

I also bought two accessories, the Yellow version of the bumper case, and the bike mount add-on.  More about those in a moment.

I though the next three boxes were mysterious, and indeed, one ended up to be empty.  

I tossed the empty one aside and opened the two that did have contents:

The one on the left has the sensors and sensor charger.  We will never speak of these again.

The one on the right has the unit itself.  

Taking out the main unit, it is a bit smaller than I was lead to believe by some reviewers who called it "Chunky", etc.  It may be large compared to something like the Garmin Edge 150, but it is around the same size as an Edge 1030, and much smaller than a typical smart phone.

Besides the phone itself, the "Multi Sports Mount" is included.  (I didn't order the battery mount at this time).  

Other reviews tended not to give good photos of this, so... This is the mount as seen from above.

This is the mount as seen from "behind".  Note that the Garmin compatible bike mount is already installed here.  The Amazon Japan page specifically stated that it was not included, but it turns out it was, so now I have two.  

Now onto the yellow bumper case:  This case appears to be soft and rubbery, right?  It's actually pretty stiff.  

After a bit of fighting, I did manage to get it to fit onto the phone:

Note that it is only basically as thick as the device, so if you had the power mount, it wouldn't protect that as well.  (It doesn't even protect the regular mount, but.. it's just a mount).  

Upon powering the device on, it takes a while to go through the typical Android setup, and the on screen keyboard is impossibly small - but amazingly it actually wasn't really difficult to type on.  

Here it is mounted to my Tacx Neo Bike Smart using a standard Garmin Mount.

As for size, here is a comparison between the Type S and the Edge 1030.  

Some examples of running "normal" Android apps from the play store:

Jitensha Navitime - Japanese bicycle specific navigation app with lots of routing options.

Google Maps

Standard home screen with Karoo, Tacx Trainer, Zwift Companion, Waze, etc. installed.

Leomo's special app!

Here is the app connected to my Tacx trainer via ANT+.  

It took me a moment to figure out how to add ANT+ devices since this isn't something I usually do in Android.  

The heart monitor shows blank here, but I did manage to connect it up afterwards via ANT+ and it works fine.

Here's what it looks like mounted horizontally on my bike.  

Note that if you want to mount it vertically, the Leomo app does have an option to switch orientation, but it is disabled by default.  You need to hunt through the menus and enable it if you want to use it.  (See my separate write-up of the app for more details on that).  

Another Real-World shot with an Edge 1030 for size comparison:

Size comparison with a typical smart phone (Xperia XZ3 in this case):

Other Notes:

1. It will be interesting to see if the bluetooth data from my Yamaha bike shows up nicely including power, etc.  (Note: Pairing works in the Android Bluetooth settings menu, as would be expected - I am curious as to whether the Leomo app will recognize the data, since it shows ANT+ sensors only by default).  

2. LTE - I tested with an OCN SIM Card.  It detected it and set up the APN automatically.  

3. I tested bluetooth connections to my Aftershokz and Sena R1.  Both work fine.  

4. Once you save your rides here, they can be uploaded to Leomo's site for analysis, but I haven't gone that far yet.  (See my separate app write-up for more into).  

5. There seems to be no support for Varia Radar or Lights, but there is the possibility to run the Varia Radar app.  

6. There is no support for Felica, so mobile Suica, etc. can't be used.  

7. For information on various software tweaks, see: Leomo Type S Bike Computer Tweaking.