GPS Devices Life

INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGY - Garmin eTrex Legend® Handheld GPS Receiver Until I got this unit I had owned a Magellan. It was a second generation generic GPS. At the time it was a pret...

Affordable, but missing some features - Garmin eTrex Venture® Handheld GPS Receiver I owned this unit for a few days before upgrading to the ETrex Vista. I have written quite a long review on the V...

There are several models of eTrex GPS receivers - this review is for the ETrex Vista model, the top of the line eTrex with 24MB of memory, built-in altimeter, built-in digital compass, and ability to store Topo maps or street maps (with additional software).

Pros: Garmin has done a great job on the user interface, LCD display, functionality, and optional software for this GPS radio - all of them are top notch, and packed into a tiny, easy-to-hold unit that is fun to use. There is a tiny joystick in the upper left corner, used to navigating the menus. The menu navigation takes a while to get used to, but after that, it’s fine. The maps are crisp and detailed, but of course the small size of the radio also means the maps are small. You *will* need those reading glasses to see all the detail in the maps. When the Vista draws a map, it also draws an area off-screen, so you can pan around in real time over a limited area. If you pan too far, you have to wait for the Vista to redraw the map. A serial computer cable is included with the Vista, so you won’t have to buy anything extra to use the Garmin street-map software or Garmin Topo maps. I highly recommend both of these programs - they are easy to use, contain a lot of detail, and are far superior to other mapping software (I own 3 different topo map packages from 3 different companies). When hiking, I have found that the best way to use the downloadable topo maps is in conjunction with paper maps: I bring up the map on the eTrex first, then use this view to quickly find my location on a large 7.5′ paper map. By the way, 24 Megabytes hold a LOT of maps. You can store more Topos than you’ll cover in 2 or 3 weeks of backpacking. If you’re storing street maps, you can store close to the whole state of Colorado (maybe the whole state - I haven’t tried yet).

Garmin has done a great job of continuously updating the internal programming for the eTrex. It was trivial to update the firmware for my unit over the internet. Garmin has added several features during the last year, which they offer over the web for free. The Vista now comes with a built-in calculator and several other handy accessories. Users of older units can quickly upgrade their units to have all of the bells and whistles of the latest eTrex.

Garmin has oriented the LCD display so that it works perfectly polarized sunglasses.

Cons: The biggest Con is clearly the built-in antenna, which has much less gain than Garmin’s older, GPS12. I’ve decided to keep my GPS12 for just this reason. The eTrex will loose the signal in even lightly forested areas, whereas the GPS 12 will never miss a beat. For this reason, and battery life, trying to use the track logging feature just doesn’t work well with the eTrex. Even with the unit mounted on top of a backpack, it would loose lock in the trees. My brothers eTrex (the low end model) does the same thing. If you are willing to stop, take the unit out, hold it away from your body, and wait, you will usually get a lock; In other words, the eTrex does a great job of giving you location; it just doesn’t do that great a job at logging a track of your path over the course of several hours.

While it is nice that the Vista has a built-in altimeter, you have to go out of your way to display the GPS-calculated altitude. It takes several button pushes, and is not displayed with longitude and lattitude.

eTrex radios now come with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation Service), which improves the position accuracy using signals from extra GPS satellites that broadcast differential correction signals. I have never seen WAAS work on my eTrex here in Colorado - even on top of high mountains. This is probabaly due to a combination of where the WAAS satelites are located (low on the horizon), and the low-gain patch antenna used in the eTrex radios.

Better than I’d hoped. - Garmin eTrex Vista® Handheld GPS Receiver The eTrex Vista has a lot of good features, but when I read reviews on Epinions some people were concerned abou...

Garmin eTrex Vista® C Handheld GPS Receiver Product 010-00368-00 Key FeaturesDesignationOutdoorForm FactorHandheldMap capabil...

Great for Hikers and Geocachers! - Garmin eTrex Vista® Handheld GPS Receiver I compared the Garmin Line with the Magellan Line - Garmin eTrex series is much smaller and lighter than equivalen...

eTrex Great for the average outdoors lover. - Garmin eTrex® Handheld GPS Receiver The Garmin eTrex is the best GPS unit you can buy for its price range. Its advantages are numerous including its ...

A Rider’s Point of View - Garmin eTrex Venture® Handheld GPS Receiver Pretty nice little gadget. Like I said, there is no way to recharge it, which bothers me. If you use it a lot, you...

Must have Gadget for under $100 - Garmin eTrex® Handheld GPS Receiver Must have Toy for under $100 If you are an avid skier, mountain biker, hiker, mountaineer, boater, or you hav...

Garmin eTrex® Vista® Cx Handheld GPS Receiver

Great little GPS receiver - Garmin eTrex Vista® Handheld GPS Receiver