Compare MagicShine SeeMe R300 to Garmin Varia 515: Which is the better radar light?

Smart trainers, smart cars, how about a smart rear light? … enter the digital rearview mirror, with warnings of fast approaching vehicles it can keep you safer on the road.

MagicShine!, I repeated to myself while thinking about polish… MagicShine is definitely one of those unbranded brands. Turns out they make a lot of lights and maybe for other brands. These products are made right in the heart of China’s electronics manufacturing hub in Shenzhen. The product costs $129.99, which is significantly cheaper than the Garmin or Trek variants. The Garmin review is here

For those new to this game, simply put the SeeMe R300 is a rechargeable, rear flasher, it senses approaching vehicles, flashes rapidly toward the vehicle and alerts you via your cycling computer. On Garmin, Hammerhead and Whoo there is a graphic showing the approaching cars and a indicator noise. It can sense cars as far back as 120metres and up to 8 cars in a row, It’s digital rearview mirror. (Audible alerts can be silenced if preferred)

Packaging

Let’s jump in… the packaging is more than nice, definitely being designed with the more is more vein of luxury thinking. All this while a lot of the industry make the change to the less is more and eco style of packaging minimalism, It seems here MagicShine have been looking at Wahoo’s packaging and taking notes, thick laminated card, soft touch coatings, magnetic flaps. honestly though – I rather wish it was in some no fuss eco packaging that makes for better recycling and lower co impact. Also who needs another USB A to USB C Charging cord? – yeah no one, we have them, knock it off!

Build Quality

The SeeMe R300 looks well made and feels good in the hand, it has a mass to it that feels more quality than the Garmin Varia. The upper black part of the body is metal, the lower part with lens and flasher is polycarbonate plastic, makes sense. The shape is almost cosmetic like, trapezoid section and think oversized lipstick, compared to the Garmin Varia though which is more geometric, planar minimal and I hate to say a bit plasticky feeling. The MagicShine shape grew on me over the days use, theres some rationality into the shape such as the angle of the flashing led’s at the side for visibility, which I like, and also maybe a nod to smoother aerodynamic shapes, which the Garmin Varia certainly is not.

On the tech front, I don’t think there is anything amazing here. It uses similar 25Ghz radar modules that others use, its not a new technology, although over the years the power consumption and configurations have improved of the modules. A key differentiator here between manufacturers is the configuration/programming of that sensor and its sensitivity / view angle, as this has implications on battery life and sensitivity. For people new to radar, it’s maybe worth the explainer on how it works. The unit sends out timed radio frequency pulses and these pulses hit object and get reflected back, with many pulses, the unit can identify what is being reflected and when, ie sensing what size and approaching and how fast. Typical pulses are 25 billion pulses per second. yep a lot. One thing to remember is radar sensing is relative so if you are pedaling at 25kmph and a car is following at 25kmph, the car will be net zero (invisible) to the radar as it thinks there is no differential in movement .The radar modules can only be tuned by the manufacturer. Such radar modules could be purchased for $18-$30 for you and me, made by German engineers like InnosenseT and so a product manufacturer may pay around 1/6th of that price. Bottom line, theres marginal differences between a module Garmin uses and one MagicShine uses. One thing to note here on empirical evidence is that the Garmin has a slightly wider cone of radar vision of approx 40degrees by estimate. Meaning theoretically you have 2.5 degree more sensing when riding round corners.

The interfaces and experiences are quite nice. Pairing with my Wahoo Roam 2 was thoughtless, the MagicShine unit has a vibration sensor, so it wakes when it senses bike movement. The unit has two buttons on the top for turning the light and radar on / off, but really you don’t actually need to use due to teh vibration sensor. It’s pretty smart. Turn on your head unit, press start for the ride and the SeeMe R300 automatically turns on to the last mode you used it. At the end of your ride, press Finish and the SeeME R300 automatically turns off. Nice touch.

On the Whoo settings screen, you can change the alerts, flash mode and on/ off. This is the same with the Garmin headunit. On the Wahoo the light modes are listed as 80%, 40%, S(low), F(ast) Flash and RND (Random) Flash

Mounting; the SeeMe R300 comes with an aero mount and a round seatpost mount which are both easy to use and install. The mount has a 90 degree lock twist on one side, just like your headunit. The strap is a perforated stretch around rubber bungee (as shown in pictures). The GarminVaria mount looks and functions a lot nicer using an o-ring style band and a better designed and shaped plastic mount for various seatpost geometry. Just on some quick testing The SeeMe R300 aero mount prefers thiner aero profiles better, yet the Garmin mount accommodates more variations on thicknesses.

Easter eggs

In the software industry an easter egg is a hidden feature built in but not commonly talked about, Some Eastereggs of the SeeMe R300 include anti roadie annoyance, if you are a group/bunch/club road rider you will know what im talking about here riding in a peloton. The R300 senses other R300’s near by and if two or more units are sensed it goes into 5 lumen low power, synched flash mode, so it doesn’t burn the eyeballs of others. I couldn’t actually test this as I didn’t have another unit, and that my friends might be its downfall in real life.
Power lockout, because it has a vibration sensor the SeeMe R300 has a transport mode. Remember it wakes with vibration, so if travelling a long distance by car, you may wish to lock out the radar and save the battery. Press and hold both buttons on the top. My mind says I will forget this when needed. Maybe an icon on your buttons engineering folks at Magicshine?

Feature Comparison

SeeMe R300 – $129	Garmin Varia 515 – $199
MagicShine on Amazon	Varia 515 on Amazon
Vibration sleep / wakeup mode	no
Auto light on / off with Start / Stop Yes on Wahoo, No on Garmin Headunit.	No on Wahoo, Yes on garmin headunit!
6 Flash Modes	4 Flash Modes
Solid high, solid low, night pulse, day flash, rnd flash, peloton	solid, peloton, night flash, day flash
50(80%), 15(40%), 10-50 (slow flash), (0-100 Fast Flash), and 0-3-3-10 (RND Flash)	20 solid, 8 peloton, 29 night flash, 65 day flash lumens
Side visibility – View angle of led’s is wide due to shape of case and position.	Side Visibility – Wide view but a lot less obvious than MagicShine
Detection distance back : ~ 120metres*	~ 140metres*
Radar beam cone width ~35 degrees	~40degrees
Cosmetic Style looks	Modern geometric / planarity
Metal alloy and polycarbonate plastic casing	Plastic ABS and polycarbonate lens
Aero and Round seatpost Mount	Better Aero and Round seatpost Mount
rnd flash = eco flash = Published 24hrs (Reality ~20hrs*)	Published 16hr Battery Life (Reality 14hr*)
Charge USB C	Charge USB Micro
Waterproofing IPX 6	IPX 7
113g	71g
2.5yr manufacturer warranty	1yr manufacturer warranty

In Use

Ok, heres a little bit of a wet blanket on things, the unit I have gave a lot of false positives. Meaning it sensed things that weren’t there or were not approaching vehicles. It seemed worse when riding around areas with lots of metal content, which kinda / sorta not makes sense, as part of one of my regular rides is through a train yard. Although the Garmin seems to work out that the trains were not moving the SeeMe R300 didn’t and provided a lot of false indications.

It did not however provide false negatives (an object approaching but not seen by radar) which would be worse. Estimating I would say this unit gave 25-35% more false positives than the Garmin. It seemed like the Garmin was a little better tuned and knew how to discriminate static and object that were travelling the other way.. On occasion the SeeMe R300 would sense vehicles in the other lane passing away from me, it certainly should not be doing that. Making me think, Did I get a faulty unit? A quick e mail to customer service and this is to be determined. Stay tuned.

The battery life was slightly better than Garmin. I was using the unit on RND FLASH as shown on my Wahoo headunit, which is also known as Eco flash which lasted me about 22hrs.

Summary

It’s not over yet until I hear back from customer service. Assuming the unit is not faulty, the big question would be is saving $70 worth it? . My riding was certainly not impaired by the false signals but it was annoying at times. A little bit stating the obvious here, but still slightly annoying are the flash mode descriptors, the MagicShine ones don’t match the Wahoo ones, I guess this is a little because they were programmed by different companies. But a common language here would be nice, matching packaging to consumer expereience.

UPDATE: Just after Chinese New Year, Customer service got back to me, they are working on firmware updates which control the parameters of the light and radar. I didn’t get an ETA for the improvement, but the updates can be delivered via app on the phone updating by bluetooth. Finger Crossed.

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