SENA 20S vs. 50S - anyone compared them in person?

Hey all,

I just heard about the new SENA 50S and was wondering if anyone had personally compared it to the 20S (which I currently own)?

The 20S has performed very well for me but I strictly use it as a Bluetooth receiver with earbuds, have never had the chance to use it as an intercom, and I avoid using the speakers as much as I can. The earbuds offer a degree of sound isolation which allows me to hear my music without blasting it louder than the road noise.

It did take me a Looong time to figure out the pairing order/procedure for my set up but it works great now.

I'm not sure why I would trade-up, but the trade-in deal sounds pretty good.

Ski

I currently use 30k and traded in my old 20s for a 50s, will post as soon as it gets here.....

I just ordered a dual pack of the 50S, for me and a riding buddy. A third friend just did the same, and he actually has his in hand, whereas mine is in transit, arriving mid-week. Mine will replace a 10S. The friend who already has his, replaced his 20S. He likes his new 50S, but he's only ridden with it a couple of times, once with another friend who also bought the 50S (so that's four 50S purchasers in total). He was impressed with the mesh 2.0 intercom. Other than that, it does what he wants, but I don't know any more detail. I considered switching to a Cardo Pactalk Bold, but in the end, stuck to what I knew, and what the majority of my riding friends use. One down side to mesh intercom is the shorter battery life, as compared to regular Bluetooth. That said, the 50S takes only one hour for a full charge, and 20 mins. of charging will add 3.5 hours of mesh talk time (at least according to Sena). I carry a portable battery pack, so I will either use that, if I need to, or charge it while riding.

This Gentleman has done a pretty thorough review:
https://www.facebook.com/norm.kern.1/posts/10219668315676023
https://www.facebook.com/norm.kern.1/posts/10219668328236337
https://www.facebook.com/norm.kern.1/posts/10219668347036807

20S vs 50S

Hi Ski.
I use my Sena 20S the same way as you, most of the time.
My problem with the 20S has always been with the intercom (Bluetooth) feature. It was always nice to use, when only connected to one other unit.
But every time I had more than one connection, strange things happened.
If you are not using it for the intercom feature, I would not waste the money to update to the 30K or the 50S.
Their main advantage is the Mesh#2 intercom feature.
My music and gps directions are transmitted through the Sena SM10 Bluetooth dongle to my helmet. It works with the 50S as good as it does with the 20S.
I have no experience of receiving music from a phone. Sorry can't help you there.
As for an unscientific experience or experiment, can give you this information about battery capacity.
On Saturday 5/23/2020, I rode for 11 hours and had most of the day music and gps instructions connected to the 50S, plus I made one 5 minute phone call. After that ride, the Sena iPhone app said I had a battery sautés of 48% and a useable time of 4:48 left. I did not use any intercom that day. My 3 year old 20S would have depleted its battery after 7-9 hours.
The Saturday previous, I rode with another 50S friend and we also had a Bluetooth intercom connection with a 20S, and we started to get alerts of batteries on the 50S after 4 hours and ran out of batteries (dead) after 6-7 hours roughly. We did talk a lot. LOL