Gps Hand Held Navigation

Price:$357.84

Garmin Approach G5 GPS-Enabled Golf Handheld Product Reviews

I’ve owned a SkyCaddie SG3 for some time and, weary of its annual fees, glacial operating speed, and pedestrian display, I decided to go color. I purchased the Garmin Approach G5, but its display is very difficult to see in normal outdoor conditions. So I also purchased the Callaway uPro. I played an entire round on my home course, with all three GPS units mounted on the cart. My findings:

Build quality: All three units are rugged, with great fit-and-finish. The Garmin gets the nod, because it’s waterproof. The Callaway is water-resistant, and you can purchase a watertight skin for an outrageous $24.99 to protect it further. The SkyCaddie is not recommended for use in the rain.

Size: The Callaway uPro is the smallest and thinnest, about the size of an LG Chocolate phone. The SG3 is similar height and width to the uPro, but much thicker and heavier. The biggest of all is the Garmin, the size of an iPhone and four times as thick. It’s wide, heavy, and not good for the pocket.

Accuracy: The three units properly mapped my home course, agreeing on nearly all distances (within 6 yards of each other) and hazards.

GPS acquisition: The old-technology SG3 takes forever to acquire GPS, sometimes more than five minutes. Both the Garmin and the uPro acquire satellites almost instantly. The uPro has technology that, once it locks onto satellites, it really keeps them. After locking on, I took the unit indoors, and even put it in my pants pocket. It never had to re-acquire. Advantage: uPro.

Getting courses: The Garmin wins handily. All 10,000+ available courses come preloaded in its 1GB memory. No annual fees, no paid memberships. The Garmin Approach G5 offered every course I cared to search. Of course, your mileage may vary.

To make the most of your SkyCaddie, you need to pay for an annual membership on their website, and download courses individually. Some SkyCaddie memberships allow you to download as many courses as you want from all over the world…however, the unit’s paltry memory will only hold a few at a time. The uPro also requires that you sign up on their website (no annual memberships, though). With the uPro, Basic Mode (an alphanumeric color screen that resembles that of a SkyCaddie) is free for unlimited courses. For Pro Mode (the nifty aerial photography view of each course) you pay for only the courses you wish to play, a la carte. Your first Pro Mode course is free.

Information: All units show distances to the front/middle/back of greens. The SG3 also shows hazards on the same screen, but it doesn’t give you hazard carry distances, like the uPro does. The Garmin shows the entire hole, including hazards. But showing the entire hole means that the illustrations of hazards are tiny, as is the accompanying yardage text. Coupled with the Garmin’s dim display, it’s pretty useless. Curiously, the Garmin apparently doesn’t consider trees to be obstacles, so they’re not represented at all on the graphical display. The uPro (in Pro Mode) shows every tree and hazard – in fact, the entire hole, as photographed from satellite. It’s like viewing my actual course (including my house!) from above. There’s absolutely nothing like it.

On the home screen, both the SG3 and the uPro also give you the time of day, battery strength, and GPS signal strength. The Garmin gives you none of the above. You need to briefly press the power button to see the time. It also shows a battery icon, but that never moved during my round.

Battery: The Garmin and SG3 both take AA batteries, whether alkaline, NiMh rechargeable, or lithium ion. With any AA type, both units easily complete at least two rounds. The uPro uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Unlike SkyCaddie models that use internal lithium ion batteries, which are a real horror show to replace (SkyCaddie recommends you send the unit back), the Callaway uPro battery easily drops in. Callaway says it takes three hours to charge, but it didn’t take me anywhere near that long. UPro battery life is 6-12 hours, depending on how bright you set the display’s backlight. With my display settings (see Display, below), I easily completed a round with plenty to spare. As far as battery preferences go: For some, constantly recharging and changing out AAs is a grind. For others, recharging (and eventually, re-purchasing) internal lithium-ion batteries ($27 for the uPro) is just as bad, especially considering that the battery can leave you high and dry mid-round if you forget to charge it the night before. To each his own.

Display: The SG3 is monochrome, so it doesn’t stand a chance. Its display is dim and boring, but it does give you a button on the side for a backlight. The screen sizes on the SG3 and uPro are nearly identical. The Garmin’s touchscreen display is nearly iPhone-big, and drop-dead gorgeous…when you’re at home. Take it outside, and it washes out to the point of uselessness. Worse yet, to save power, the display times out a few seconds after you touch it, making it even dimmer. You touch the screen to wake it up, but when you touch the screen, the unit thinks you want to measure a distance, so the measurement feature pops up. You need to hit the “Done” button to exit that. There’s no way to increase the screen timeout or disable the screen dimming feature. Also, since the Garmin is a touchscreen, it’s a massive fingerprint magnet, so it only looks pretty for the first hole. The uPro wins the display contest handily, with a bright and functional screen. You can play two ways: graphically (Pro Mode), showing the course via aerial photography, or with big, bright alphanumeric text (Basic Mode). Since golf courses have very low contrast (lots of green color and not much else), I defaulted to the Basic Mode for easy readability. For the aerial view, you can always hit the Pro Mode button on the side of the unit, as it’s much more useful around the green. The uPro’s default setting is to power-save the display after (I think) 45 seconds. Unlike the Garmin, which dims its display, the uPro goes blank until you hit a button, which is an enormous buzzkill. Fortunately, you can get around this. You can change to a longer timeout, or disable standby altogether. As the uPro has a very bright display, what I did was take the backlight down to 25% (from a default 70%), and disabled standby completely. I easily completed a round with plenty of battery life to spare this way. The uPro and the Garmin use a reflective LCD technology that actually makes the display brighter in direct sunlight. The uPro’s version of this technology worked far better than the Garmin’s. The only time the Garmin display looked remotely readable was when you aimed it directly at the sun.

Just for fun, I took along my iPod Touch 2G, to compare all the displays outdoors. I figured that the iPod’s conventional LCD wouldn’t compete with the reflective technology of the Garmin and the uPro. Wrong. The iPod destroyed both of them. It wasn’t even close. So, if you have an iPhone (the iPod Touch won’t do GPS), you may want to look into the golf GPS apps at the App Store. If you do decide to use an iPhone, just remember, it won’t stand up to being dropped, kicked, and tossed around like these three ruggedized units, and it for sure ain’t the least bit water-resistant.

Hole-to-Hole: The simpler SkyCaddie wins here. It automatically advances to the next hole. If there’s any confusion (you’re playing past the current hole, for example), it’ll ask you if you want to move to the next hole. If you’re starting on Number 10, for example, the SkyCaddie makes that selection easier as well, with a grid from which you can select holes via cursor. The Callaway Auto Hole Advance is kind of a drag. If you’re anywhere near the green, Auto-Advance jumps to the next hole. You can’t measure your 40-yard pitch to the current green. And when they say Auto, they mean Auto. In Auto-Advance mode, there’s no way to back up to the current hole, or any previous hole, for that matter. The only way out is to go to either Manual Advance, or Manual A
dvance With Prompt (it asks you to press the center button to advance). Hitting a button on each hole is tedious. The Garmin Auto-Advances sequentially, but if you jump around (skipping a couple of holes to get around slow play), you need to touch the screen arrows for each hole advance.

Settings: The Garmin gives you almost nothing to customize, as it is both very intelligently designed and extremely automated. It would have been nice to be able to crank the screen brightness, or at least extend the timeout. Both the SG3 and the uPro give you a host of settings to mess with, including screen brightness (contrast only with the SG3), hole advance preferences, and much more.

Cost of ownership: The Garmin and uPro are color, so they’re not cheap. If you want to compare apples to apples, you could go to the color SkyCaddie SG5, but be advised that the SG3, SG4, and SG5 are virtually identical in functionality, screen size – basically, EVERYTHING – so you’re paying almost $150 more for color alone, which is the cost of a whole 20-inch color TV. (My SG3 is discontinued, so now I’m quoting price from the replacement SG4.) Couple that with the amazing wow factor of both the Garmin and the uPro, and the top-of-the-line color SkyCaddie SG5 is a terrible deal. To the SkyCaddie’s cost of ownership, add their totally outrageous annual membership fees. SkyCaddie also charges ridiculous sums of money for stuff like plastic cart mounts and batteries. The Garmin wins here, hands-down, with all available courses preloaded into memory. No fees whatsoever! For accessories, RAM Mounts makes a rock-solid, relatively reasonably-priced cart mount for the Garmin. The uPro, while not requiring you to pay for a membership, makes you download each course. They’re all free, if you want to use only Basic Mode. But if you want what makes the unit famous and awesome, which is Pro Mode video previews and flyovers of each hole, you need to pay. If you go for a 20-course package, for example, that’s $60. It’s still cheaper for most people than SkyCaddie, because there’s no annual fee. And the more courses you buy, the cheaper it gets per course. However, uPro accessories such as cart mounts are rarely discounted, and you’ll pay more for their little plastic add-ons than you would pay for a complete multi-handset cordless phone system or a new DVD player.

Extras: Each unit has (or will soon have, in the uPro’s case) the ability to track scores and aggregate player information. I don’t use any of that stuff. No amount of button-pushing or touch-screening could beat the ease and speed of marking stuff down with a pencil.

Wow Factor: The SkyCaddie is deadly dull, with zero Wow Factor, but highly functional. One would think the Garmin, with its big, beautiful touchscreen, would win. However, the screen is just too dim to view the image-based interface in normal outdoor lighting. The Callaway uPro, with its unique video flyovers of every hole, is the winner. While the flyovers may not be great outdoors (golf courses are green-on-green-on-green, so there’s little contrast), they’re great for previewing new courses in your home before you travel. Beyond that, the uPro comes with several preloaded video tutorials to help you get the most from the unit, and an earbud is in the box, so you can listen to the video narration. Voice Recognition, to allow you to change settings, holes, etc. by voice command, is built into the Callaway uPro, and they say it’ll be activated by late 2009.

Summary: Not one of these units is perfect, but the Callaway uPro is the runaway winner. It’s simple to use, highly customizable, deadly accurate, super-fast, and gorgeous to view. 2nd place goes to the SkyCaddie, even with its monochrome screen, pokey operation, and 20th Century technology. The Garmin comes in last, even though it’s the most sophisticated, intelligent, beautiful, automated piece, made by people who really know GPS. The thing is just too dim to use outdoors.

My son and I used this on a local course for the first time and it performed great. No more looking for markers or taking the time to walk off an estimate (er, OK – especially when I’m not in the fairway). We have some large greens thankfully and being able to simply move the flag on the device for a much more accurate reading is super. Also, those few great drives I had – the G5 made it simple to get the exact yardage (did not break any records though). Only 1 of my 7 (regular home area) courses is not programmed in yet but I see it’s on schedule in the next update. If yours isn’t, simply let Garmin know like I did. Great unit, now if only my golf got better
Update note: Today (4/26) I downloaded Garmins latest course database to the device and now all my courses are available.

It’s Sunday night as I type this review. I have had my Garmin a total of three days now. It arrived on Friday, so I put in batteries, connected it to my PC, downloaded the OS upgrades and most current course file (about a 76MB file). I played with the preview function, using it to check my local courses, and also checked out Warwick Hills, where Tiger was storming back on day 2 of the Buick Open. Very cool being able to preview 1000s of courses across the country!

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and took it out to a course I had never visited before to see just how well this investment would pay off. Looking at the top-down, color view of every hole from tee to green, I knew everything I needed to know to reach the green in regulation–it didn’t matter that I hadn’t been here before.

On a par 5 with a sharp left dogleg, I used the Garmin to determine the distance to the middle of the left bend. I touched the screen and pinpointed a spot 190 yds to the center of the fairway, with bunkers on the left. I grabbed my 3I hybrid and let ‘er rip. Perfect shot! Right in the center of the bend, and a straight shot at the green 250 yds away. A 3W got me to about 50 yds, and then a (lucky) little pitch and I was up and down for birdie!

A few holes later, the Garmin showed me a par 4 that goes out straight and level for about 200 yds. There the fairway ends and it’s about 100 yds up a hill to the right with about 20 yds elevation difference to the green. Again, I grabbed my 3I hybrid and whacked the ball about 190 yds just short of the fairway’s end. Then I grabbed my PW and knocked the ball up the hill to the elevated green and 2-putted for par. Sweet!

Eventually, it’s the 18th hole (par 4) and the grand finale–there’s water on the right and fronting the green, with bunkers on the left of the fairway and behind the green. The center of the green itself is about 260 yards off, and while the other 3 golfers in my foursome decide to break out their drivers and go for it, I used the Garmin to determine the best lay up point–about 180 yds to the widest part of the fairway past the water. I grabbed my 4I hybrid, plopped the ball perfectly in the fairway, and I had an easy wedge shot to the green to par the hole, while two of my compadres were flailing away in the bunkers, and the other was digging his ball out of the deep rough beyond and left of the green (I was willing to share my Garmin with them, but they’d all played the course before and “knew” what to do!).

Those are the three “highlight” holes of my first round at this course. The Garmin does everything but hit the ball–that part is still left for me to do, and, unfortunately, I don’t always hit the ball so perfectly, or there would have been more highlights!

Nonetheless, the Garmin was the perfect aide for course management, and I know it saved me several strokes. Even though I had never visited this course before, each time I walked up to the tee box I was filled with confidence because I knew exactly what club to use and where to aim. I could see the shape and depth of every green, and I knew where my margin of error was when making my approach.

Sunday morning, I got up early again and took the Garmin out to a course I have visited several times before. Unfortunately for me, my shots were rather inconsistent, to say the least, and I shot a miserable round. However, that was entirely my fault–the Garmin was still an excellent guide throughout. On the rare occasion I did hit my shot straight and true, my distances perfectly coincided with what the Garmin was telling me. And again, each time I made an approach shot, I knew the depth of green and the locations of the hazards, and whether I should err long or short, left or right.

Additionally, I should mention that I’ve had a competitor’s golf GPSR for a couple years now. It’s been adequate for the job and was half the initial purchase price of the Garmin, but it was severely lacking in many ways because it:

– required an annual subscription to download courses;
– only held 10 courses in memory at a time, so I would have to connect to my computer and download courses if venturing out of my “home” area;
– only showed distances to a handful of landmarks, e.g. bunker, end-of-fairway, water hazard, etc.;
– had a monochrome LCD;
– was NOT a Garmin (I admit, I have a pro-Garmin bias, as I’ve had two of their hand-held GPSRs and an in-car unit, all of which I’ve been impressed and satisfied with)!

On the flip side, the Garmin:

– does NOT require a subscription;
– provides a touch screen (no confusing manual buttons that do different functions at different times);
– holds THOUSANDS of courses across the US;
– shows the ENTIRE hole from tee to green with bunkers, hazards, and distances clearly marked;
– has a COLOR display;
– allows me to target specific locations through the fairway, with distance to the target from my current location and remaining distance to the green from the target.

Both units were basically equivalent in the following ways, both good and bad:

– display shape of green;
– display front, center, and back green distances;
– allow movement of pin location for more accurate estimate to pin itself;
– last about 2 complete rounds using AA rechargeable batteries;
– allow measuring of shot distance;
– do not display trees or other obstacles;
– do not display elevation changes.

I am incredibly satisfied with my initial experiences with the Garmin Approach this weekend. I’ll be using it on many more outings this summer and fall, but I especially look forward to visiting more new courses. Now that I’m no longer restricted to 10 courses in memory at a time, I can pick up and go anywhere on a whim, and with the great top-down view of the entire hole from tee to green I’ll know exactly where to aim and what club to hit, as if I’ve visited the course dozens of times before.

A few other notes:
– I did not use the scorekeeping function–I prefer to use a real scorecard to track some stats.

– Need to change batteries in the middle of a round? The unit will remember what “page” you were on and return you to it.

– Manually navigating the holes when previewing a course is a bit awkward–there are “next” and “previous” buttons on the page, but no way to jump from, say, the 1st hole to the 14th without pressing the “next” button 13 times. I think Garmin could improve this by popping up a menu if the user were to press and hold the “next” button for example. This would also be a big help if the course you’re visiting decides to flip the front 9 to the back 9, so you can start on the right hole.

– In the Settings page, the unit lets you enter what type of batteries you’re using, e.g. alkaline, NiMH rechargeable, etc. Curious…

– When previewing a course, go to the “about course” (hole number) button to see the address and phone number of the course, convenient for making your tee time!

– The ability to target anywhere on or about the fairway is EXCELLENT! Most GPSRs just give you the distance to the green (front/center/back), but that does you no good if you’ve got a tree or other obstacle in the way. Knowing what the distance is to any part of the hole can really save your bacon when you find yourself blocked and need to get back to the fairway.

– The map will zoom in automatically as you are playing the hole, showing your current position (a golf ball) and the remaining fairway to the green, so you are not stuck with a view of the entire hole as you approach the green.

Bought the unit after reading good reviews here. I downloaded the latest database and was pleased to find that it covers all local courses. Very easy to use with touch screen, still have not had to read the manual yet after 5 rounds Knowing exact distance (to target, hazards, etc) seems to help build confidence and my game has improved significantly. Played a local private club today (Fazio design), the Approach G5 was so convenient and accurate that our caddy ended up using my GPS instead of his laser range finder. Have not tried Lithium batteries yet, Energizer Max AA lasted 27 holes, Duracell Coppertop lasted longer, 2-3 rounds. Only thing I have not figured out yet is that since my home club has 27 holes, I had to quit each time after first 9 and restart the round by choosing another 9 hole course instead of playing 18 continuously. Maybe time to read the manual

Update (7/1/09). Tried Lithium AA batteries from Energizer, after 4 rounds the indicator still shows 3/4 power left. Also, the latest database has 9400 courses!

I received the Garmin Approach G5 GPS golf unit from my husband as a gift several weeks ago. We had debated between this unit and the Upro but finally decided on the Garmin because it seemed more intuitive and quick to use on the golf course. It only has one real button used to turn it on or off (also used to lock/unlock the screen) and everything else is controlled via the touch screen.

I had checked and most of my local courses were already mapped. I’ve used it for at least 10 rounds and have found it to be very easy to use and the distances are quite accurate. It acquires satellites quickly. I like the ability to place the flag where it actually is. I also like to be able to measure my shots (although I always think I’m hitting a longer shot than I actually do but that’s not the unit’s fault).

I really enjoy keeping score on the Garmin – also a very intuitive process.

I have played rounds where someone in my group has used a rangefinder and I find the Garmin to be just as accurate and much quicker to use – I just look at the screen to see the distance to the flag without having to line it up or press any buttons.

The screen is easy to read in sunlight even with my polarized sunglasses.

I have been using rechargeable AA batteries and find they last over two rounds.

I like the sturdiness of the unit and don’t feel I have to be delicate with it. Occasionally, I have placed it in my pocket and have not found it to interfere with my swing.

I found a few bunkers missing in the mapping of my local course and I sent a request to Garmin from their website to correct these. I also requested two courses (which I play occasionally) to be mapped.

Overall, I am really enjoying using this unit and have found it very helpful in determining distances that I was semi-clueless about before.

Update: There were some bunkers missing on the Garmin G5 mapping of my home course. I had contacted Garmin sometime in June to indicate which holes should be corrected. Today I downloaded a new course update (7/1) and found the bunkers on my course had been corrected. Very good response by Garmin.

I played my first round with the Garmin Approach G5 today. I was very satisfied.

Strong points:
–finds satellites quickly
–lists golf courses by order of how far you are from them…closest first…makes finding local courses easy (you can also type in names, but I don’t see why you’d do it this way)
–automatic hole advance worked flawlessly
–tap-screen feature to zero in on the green and the area around the green (incluing traps and stuff) was very helpful…I used it on most holes
–distances to hazards like traps was very helpful…it’s good knowing that you can aim at a trap (because you know you can’t reach it)
–tap-screen feature to “place” the flag on the green is very useful…greens can be quite large, and there can be a 1-club difference between hitting to a front flag rather than a rear flag…I credit it with getting me a par on a long par-3 by indicating to use an extra club for a rear pin position
–with July’s update, there are 4400 courses mapped out
–all courses are stored in the device, not on your PC
–monthly course updates are free, never(?) a subscription fee nor disabling of courses you’ve already received…this makes up for the initial high price of the unit, in my opinion
–course downloads are handled by Garmin as a “purchase” of an item that costs $0.00, very straightforward once you understand that’s what’s happening
–once the unit is registered and you “purchase” this month’s course updates, the downloading process itself took only about 5 minutes, which seems remarkable for 4400 courses
–color screen easily visible in bright outdoor light
–very sturdy and waterproof
–only one physical buttton (on-off switch)
–all other functions are handled by the touchscreen, and everything was pretty intuitive
–measuring a shot was easy and fun (I do hit my 3-wood as far as I thought)

A couple of drawbacks:
–I walk and carry my clubs, and was not satisfied with using the belt clip to attach to my bag; I was afraid it would snap off
–Clipping the belt clip to your belt makes the unit hang in an unuseable position…you’d have to keep unclipping it
–It seems a little too big to put in your pocket without noticing it
–So I’ve ordered the separate slipcase with caribiner clip to hold it to my bag…I think I’ll feel more confident with that setup
–Got just one round out of pair of batteries…you’ll definitely want to order a couple sets of rechargeable batteries and a recharging device
–Quick-start booklet contains little information…it tells nothing about the initial steps of registering your unit online, how to find the serial number, or how to order course updates
–That said, the website has all the clues you need, although a few were hard to find and not entriely intuitive

Overall, my first impression is very positive. I formerly used a first-generation unit from iGolf, which just gave distances to the green. On this unit, the course map showing the shape of the hole, distances to hazards, closeup of the green, and ability to place the pin anywhere on the green were big improvements.

I’ve used the Garmin approach for several rounds so far. I generally score in the low to mid 80s on average difficulty courses (slope 124-126). I have not had experience with any other golf GPS device. My decision to purchase the Garmin Approach was based on golf course map availability for my area, durability in wet weather, screen view on bright days, and the reviews of others. I live in Chicago and found that every course I could think of in the area, city to suburbs, was included in the list of courses mapped. Once I had the Garmin Approach out on the golf course, my first thought was to gain the trust of the GPS. As I played my first round with the Approach I continually made comparisons to the yardage markers on the course, and found the displayed information on the GPS to be very accurate (within a yard or two). I paced off several hundred yard lengths and compared the number of paces to the GPS and, again, the device was very accurate…or vice versa, my paces were very accurate in comparison to the GPS : ). I’ve gone through this routine for every course I’ve played so far, with similar results. I have not had any issues with viewing the GPS display on bright days. As other reviews mention, the Garmin goes through a set of batteries in about two rounds so rechargeable batteries are a must. I purchased a set of four Enloop AA rechargeable batteries (the Approach requires two AA batteries) that claim up to 1,000 recharges per battery. That works out to be roughly 80 years of use out of a four pack of batteries if you play 50 rounds a year….suffice it to say, battery life is not a problem if you use rechargables. The auto hole change has worked flawlessly on every course. Green size is displayed accurately and the ability to move the pin to the actual location on the green is extremely helpful as many greens could be 30 or 40 yards deep….or more. As has been mentioned in other reviews, the touch screen is great and the menu is intuitive. I often use the movable crosshairs to locate a target that is 100 yards from the pin as this is the ideal position for a full 60 deg. wedge into the green for me. The shot measuring feature is easy to use and works well. Once you have set the shot measuring feature to start measuring your shot, you can navigate back to the course view so that you can study the map to plan your next shot (or help others in your foursome with yardages) while you walk to your ball. When you get to your ball, switch back to “measure shot” and it will display your shot distance. I choose not to use the belt clip (or carabiner clip) for the Approach because the device is small enough to put in my pocket or throw into one of the small pockets in my bag.

The Garmin Approach G5 is an extremely useful tool and I am pleased with the accuracy of the information it provides. I can’t claim that it has lowered my scores but I will say that it has changed my club selection on many occasions as I am still in the habit of determining club selection in my head based on the center-of-green. With the adjustable pin location, the GPS lets you know exactly how large the greens are and often times I will change my club selection by one or two clubs. No more guess work on distances, or where to hit the ball (or where not to hit the ball) on errant shots into the rough or next fairway. Sand and water hazards are displayed accurately. All said, I am extremely pleased with the Garmin Approach and ultimately I believe most serious golfers will have a golf GPS in their bags as prices drop.

The Garmin Approach is in my opinion the best GPS based golf rangefinder available. I have been using it for a month and find it accurate and easy to use. If you need an absolute yardage to the pin, this might not be for you. But for those golfers happy with yardages to the middle of the green there is nothing better. (It is possible to move the pin around in the detailed green view, but its a guesstimate as to where the actual pin is on the green. Useful for large greens or courses you know well.)
The score card, shot measure, and preview course are all great features that work well enough, but don’t buy it for anything other than easy to read, accurate yardages from anywhere on the course to hazards and to the green. You don’t need line of sight to the pin like you do with the laser range finders. And there are NO additional fees.
There is only one problem with this device; it is not rechargeable! This is the only reason I didn’t give it five stars. Alkaline batteries last a round and a half. I purchased two sets of rechargeable batteries, an absolute must. One set will last around two and a half rounds. That this thing doesn’t recharge as easy as a cell phone is a big let down. I guess you can’t have everything.

No downloads. No annual fees. Good battery life. Locates courses nearby. Easy to see screen. Touch screen and no instructions needed! I love it and am selling my (3) previous models to friends. This makes course management so simple when a tap on the screen shows distance of next shot instantly. Playing an unfamiliar course like you know it makes golf more fun.

I didn’t plan this comparison, just turned out that way. After reading a lot of reviews here and elsewhere, I decided on the Garmin Approach as the best Golf GPS device but I also wanted to try a rangefinder and picked up the Leupold GX-II, based on similar reviews. Leupold GX-II Digital Golf Rangefinder
Overall, I find the GPS easier to use for most of what I want in these devices. The Garmin has all the courses I play available and there is no annual fee. (The purchase price is high, but all the course maps are included.) So, if you want to know distance to a trap, to clear a hazard, to get to the middle of the green, that is all there for you with the Garmin at a glance. No need to stop, sight the target (and check a few times to make sure the rangefinder is picking up the exact target you are looking for). So, more convenient and faster for sure. Obviously, the one thing that the rangefinder does better is distance to the pin. With the Garmin (or any GPS), you are guessing where the pin is on the green and estimating distance based on the information you get on front and center of the green. You can move the flag to the location on the green where you think it is, but that is an estimate. For me, that’s good enough. If I am off by 5 yards, that is a lot more accurate than my shot is likely to be. But the Leupold does a great job of picking out the flag (at least inside 225 yards) so if you want accuracy to the flag, it is better. It also will adjust real distance based on slope to the green, altitude and temperature and suggest a club based on what you enter for your normal distances for a few irons. Note that this feature is illegal in tournament play or in rounds that you use to determine your handicap. But it does help you get a feel for how much you need to compensate for that long downhill to the island green, which is 213 yards, but will play like 165. And, if you’re willing to stop and sight your targets, hazards, etc., you do get that improved accuracy. So, convenience – GPS, absolute accuracy – Rangefinder. And I do think these 2 devices work great on the course.

However, during my 3rd round with the Garmin, the battery died and locked up the device after new batteries were put in. This was on a Saturday. Garmin support is not available over the weekend. When I got them on Monday, they promised to send a new unit out that day, 2nd day, so I would have it for my next round. Unfortunately, someone screwed something up, so it wasn’t shipped until after I emailed a few days later, so I started looking at other options for my next round and found Golfshot, a $30 iPhone application. Seemed to have similar functionality to the Garmin, similar number of courses available, and no subscription. I downloaded it and tried it and it was great. Everything the Garmin did plus a bunch of scoring options so you can track clubs used off the tee, fairways hit, greens in regulation, number of putts, sand saves and penalty shots. (The Garmin only allows basic scoring.) Golfshot also shows you a list of the likely interesting distances on every hole (front and back of bunkers and hazards, front, back and center of green) as well as an aerial view. The only drawback is the GPS sucks iPhone battery. They suggest turning off wifi, 3G and bluetooth (which you don’t need on the course) and also to turn off auto-lock so you get continuous information. The other good suggestion is get an auxiliary battery like External Battery for Iphone, Iphone 3g, Iphone 3gs, T-mobile G1, Ipod, Sidekick, Blackberry, Nokia, 5400 Mah. And this will get you through the round with plenty of battery left.

So, if you have an iPhone, Golfshot is highly recommended. For $100 you get the app and the extra iPhone battery. If you have no iPhone, for convenience, the Garmin is good, the Leupold for absolute accuracy. Any of these will help your game.

Price:$69.95

Apisphere Geomate Jr Handheld GPS Geocacher Product Reviews

I purchased two of these, one for my kids and one for a friend.

THE GOOD
For my kids, this is the perfect unit. We use the geocaching app on my Iphone as our main geocaching tool to get us into the vicinity and then the kids use their Geomate Jr to get them to the cache. My 6 year old can run into trees with it, fall on it, etc and it takes a licking and keeps on ticking (much better than him doing that with my iphone!) Because we have already been geocaching, we were able to understand how to use this tool after a few button pushes. We did a side-by-side test with my iphone and the Geomate jr and the Geomate updated faster than my iphone and was more accurate under heavy tree cover conditions. Under normal conditions, both the Iphone and Geomate Jr updated at similar times and had readings within 2 feet of each other.

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
This tool is billed as the Grab and Go geocaching tool, so easy that it will encourage everyone to get in the game. Well, not quite. If you aren’t already very familiar with geocaching, trying to figure out what these buttons mean will just be confusing. You will need to read a book or go on the [...] website before you’ll understand what a GC code is or have any clue what those coordinates mean. After you do make a find, you can only mark 20 caches as found. You need the update kit to mark up to 99 caches as found (though they represent that it will eventually be up to 1000 found). However, these issues are not a big deal because after you buy the update kit and do some reading, you’re as good as gold.

NO MAPPING
But perhaps the biggest feature that is lacking that truly prevents this unit from being a true Grab and Go unit is the the lack of a mapping capability. For this reason, this is best as a supplemental unit. Mapping is important in geocaching because trying to find a geocache by going 3.6 miles NNE is about impossible to drive to. Roads generally don’t travel in the direction that your compass happens to be pointing. And by the time you take a road in that general direction, the compass will be pointing .6 miles West. You could drive around like this all day. The Iphone app shows the map of the area and where the geocache is located on the map so that you can drive to the general vicinity and then get out and hunt. The work around for this lack of a mapping feature on the Geomate Jr. is to go to the geocaching.com website and print out the maps to the geocaches you want to seek. Of course this relegates you to only planned geocaching trips instead of geocaching on the go because you happen to have a few extra minutes like you can do with the Iphone.

SUMMARY
This is a great supplemental unit and a must have for kids in a family of geocachers. However, unless and until they provide a mapping capability on the Geomate Jr., this is not a true Grab and go unit and may not be the best choice as a stand alone unit.

Well built, SUPER easy to use! Nothing negative to say…. if your looking for a unit to give to a child this is absolutely the one. It is well built, rugged, and does not cost 200 or more like other GPS units. SIMPLE controls, but has everything you need.

The only drawback (not that it is not clear already with this unit) there are no maps on the display. So particularly if your in a urban area it will give you “as the crow flies” distance to the cache your looking for, without a map on the display it is not always clear which street to go down, or what is between your current location and the cache. REALLY not a big deal.

GREAT family fun!!!!

This is the perfect device for on-the-fly geocaching.
I travel alot with work, and I used to find myself wishing I could go geocaching but I didn’t have the time or the means to upload caches. With the Geomate.jr, I can just pull it out, turn it on and go. It travels everywhere with me, in fact it has a permanent place in my bag. I would be more upset if I left it behind, than my cell phone!

I have found over 100 caches with the geomate.jr, it is a shame it doesn’t give the description of the cache, but with the “found’ list, I just log online and read about interesting caches after I have been there. The information it does provide, such as cache size and difficultly is very helpful. I still shy away from small caches! Sometimes I am just not up for the challenge!

I found the navigation to be very accurate, I have never been mis-directed, even in the woods where you would expect coverage to be spotty.

I really would recommend this product to anyone who wants to start geocaching, anyone who has kids and to any seasoned geocachers for the moments when you haven’t planned. It is light weight, small, inexpensive and so easy to use! This would make a fantastic gift for young and old!

We actually use two GPSs. My husband uses his and I use this one. This one has been great for geocaching on the fly when we are somewhere and what to see if there are anymore around the area without going back onto the internet. Really easy to use. Only some minor problems when you get into the woods, but problems with all of them. Makes for great family fun and we use it all the time.

It was a sunny pleasant day when we tried this puppy out. We tried five different locations. All of which implied that the geocache was not what we were looking for. We would stand still and the geomate jr would say we were jumping and moving sixty feet. We went into woods and we lost signal the GPS unit seemed to have given up. We set the home base standing next to the car door, outside the door, took three steps (that of a nine year old)and it was up to 61 feet away from home base. Save yourself some money and do not invest in this one. Our scouter was very unhappy with it.

This is an update to my first review, below…Apisphere responded to my email concern, same day, and on a Saturday at that. Using the update kit required us to turn off Norton Utilities to run the update. It worked and we were off and running. It’s been muddy in our area so we have simply stopped by a place that we know there are caches and tested out our new Geomate Jr. Worked like a charm. Gave us cache size, terrain, distance, and pointed us in the right direction. We can’t wait to put it to field use.
Original post: We received our Geomate Jr two days ago. It may be a great device, however, you need the update kit. The update kit does not work with Windows 7 or Vista. We found that out today. See my review there. This item will be returned if a software fix is not in place. Awaiting response from Apisphere Help Desk.

Bought this and the update cable. Use the Geomate Jr, for the grandkids. Have to admit I use it as well. Great unit to take on a trip, as the caches are loaded on the device by the updates. The unit is very accurate and just the right size for the young hands. Really nice to get a top level device and at very affordable price. Yes there is no mapping but, thats what makes the Jr. affordable. Can’t have all of the features at the price one pays for this.

The down side is, I have to get my granddaughter to look up and look for the cache instead of staring at the arrow on the screen.

Thanks for the superb unit.

for the first time I could get out there with the kids and have fun geocaching – it was super easy

I bought the Geomate to take on vacation in Maine. It is great for casual, spontaneous geocaching. But, besides lacking any coordinate info, my biggest complaint is that the little arrow doesn’t lock in until you actually start moving….and you have no idea which way to head off. So you end up LITERALLY walking in circles for the first minute or two. Last weekend my family decided to use it….well, it was the funniest thing ever to see a group of 5 moving around the campsite like a swarm of bees moving continuously back and forth, until the arrow finally locked in and they headed off!!!

This is an awesome handheld GPS unit! My whole family loves it. We love the fact that you can just turn it on and locate the 20 closest caches. My brother-in-law goes geocaching with us, and I get much closer to the cache than his iPhone GPS feature gets him. My Geomate Jr often gets me within 1 foot of the cache. It has very helpful features, such as the terrain difficulty and size of the cache. I totally recommend purchasing the update cable. All in all, the Geomate Jr is one of the best items I’ve purchased in awhile. You won’t be disappointed.

Price:$52.82

Bushnell GPS BackTrack Personal Locator Product Reviews

This item is great for both the backwoods and shopping mall. I got it for my wife to find her car when she exits the mall… Yes, some of the parking lots are huge! The day that we received it, we went to a new park and brought the Backtrack along. By the time we got to the field that our grandson was at, we couldn’t see the parking lot, and there were 4 of them.
When the game was over, I pressed the automobile icon and followed the direction that the Backtrack pointed us to. It led us to within a few feet of the car!
It works great and is easy to use.

The Bushnell Backtrack is an interesting concept. An idiot simple dirt cheap GPS intended to do only one thing… Get you back to your starting point. If you’re constantly losing your car in huge mall parking lots, then Bushnell thinks it has a solution. Simply set your Backtrack and go shopping. At the end of your day of mall bliss your Backtrack should lead you right back to your car. Does grandpa get lost on walks? The Backtrack hanging from his neck is designed to get him home. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work….

I’m a long time user of automotive GPS systems so out of curiosity I took a Backtrack device to the mall. Before I left my car I turned on the Backtrack and within five minutes it had located itself. To be fair it probably would have taken half that time outside my car but how many customers, especially seniors, will stand outside in the rain so their GPS can find satellites a bit faster? I set the location of my car by finding the car icon and holding the set button until it memorized the location, and then I went shopping.

While I was in the mall my Backtrack went into sleep mode. No big deal, and I just woke it up as I left the store and waited a couple of minutes for it to find satellites. GPS devices depend on movement to orient themselves, so if you turn on the Backtrack and don’t move it will know roughly where it`s at but will have no clue what direction you’re facing and the built in GPS “compass” will point pretty much at random. In this case it was in `find my car’ mode and it had no clue what direction to go so I started walking. It took about 100 feet of walking at a good clip for it to get its bearings and point vaguely in the general direction of my car. If course if you stop to get your bearing and turn to look around then it won’t know that it’s now pointing the wrong way. And if you’re moving too slow it might not even realize that it’s moving and will remain lost. So I walked another 100 feet at a good clip to get another bearing, etc, etc, etc. It only took about three times longer to reach my car than it would have with dead reckoning. Somebody less tech savvy might have made an afternoon of the search if they depended solely on the Backtrack.

What I don’t think the designers took into account are limitations of GPS technology, especially technology compatible with a $70 retail price. And the limitations of the people that will be looking to the Backtrack to find their car for them. At the technology end the processor and display are way too slow, and updates are so slow and jerky that I think many people will find themselves confused. The fact that you have to be moving at a good clip to help the Backtrack orient itself is also impractical especially for seniors. Grandma’s Hoveround had better have a turbo! Bushnell should have incorporated a digital magnetic compass to keep the device oriented while stopped. As it is it’s just going to confuse a big chunk of its target audience and leave them lost.

Where it may be useful is as a low cost way to help the older kids find their way back to a camp site, or help very tech savvy adults that are healthy enough to walk fast enough to keep the device oriented. But to do either of those it needs more complete directions. Such as directions explaining that you need to be moving and moving at a good clip.

As a side note the lanyard intended to keep it securely around grandma or grandpa’s neck broke the instant I tried to use it for the first time.

The Back-Track does what it says, holds 3 waypoints, with 3 icons, a house, a car, and a star, so if you were on a hike you can set your car or the house icon as the base, and use the other two as waypoints, so it’s not bad for day hikes. The unit has two buttons a mark/backlight button, and an on-off/waypoint button. You turn on by holding down the on/off button, then tap the on-off button to cycle through the waypoints. To mark say the car, just hold the mark button down and it clears it and sets it to 0yds. Once you start walking it shows how far in yards and then miles you’ve walked and the arrow points back to where you started. It turns off automatically in 10 minutes if you don’t touch any buttons, and when you turn it back on, resumes where you left off so your waypoints stay intact until your reset them. It does seem to acquire fast with the sirf-star chipset, it’s accurate as long as you keep the unit horizontal. Once it’s vertical the arrow tends to point downward, so sometimes if it’s tilted in your hand the arrow will move off true north or not exactly at your car, but as you walk closer it’s dead on. The blue backlight isn’t that strong but is clearly visible at night. All in all, it does what it says. It does lead you back to your car, house, campground, and the built in compass could help you on a hike. A built in clock with gps time would have been nice, maybe next version? Well worth 50 bucks though.

The Bushnell Backtrack is a must have for the hiker or hunter. Very simple to use and gets you back to your starting point very easily. Just mark it and forget it until needed. MUCH easier to use then the conventional GPS.

i have been looking for something like this for years. i hunt rabbits with dogs in cedar swamps and it is very easy to get turned around when everything looks the same in this type of terrain. now i just punch in my wearabouts at the truck before i get in to the woods and presto it points me to my truck everytime ,no matter what,weather ,hills ,trees . i wouldn’t go hunting without it again now that i have one and so simple to use ,its just what us hunters needed .i have tryed to use the hand held gps like e-trex and this backtrack is so much nicer for what hunters need.standing still is not how it works properly , you have to walk with it so it can determine your direction.i see bad reviews about this product ,idiots. but people would bitch about being hung with a new rope too.thanks bushnell

I just took my new Backtrack out for a trial run to hunt squirrels after an ice storm. I didn’t really expect to get anything but just had to play with my new toy. I marked my trucks location (I took my truck in case I got a big one) and headed off into the crystal forest. Just as I thought animals are smarter than humans and were holed up for the day but the ice coated trees were spectacular!!! After crunching around for about an hour I headed back to the truck (no squirrels) using the GPS as a guide rather than using known trails. Knowing where I was I questioned the pointer arrow but soon realized it was pointing me in the general direction of my truck. Following the average direction I came to within 15 yards of my truck. This GPS will not magically transport you to the exact footprints you were standing in when you marked your spot but it will get you very close to it. For the price and for a person like myself that has NO sense of direction I LIKE IT!!!

I got my backtrack a few days ago and I immediately wanted to put it to the test. I’m a gadget freak so I tested it in several parking lots and it took only about one minute to lock the satellite signal every time, I was pleased about that, I went to do some errands and it took me back to my car missing it for about 20 feet, 7 out of 10 times. I tested the compass when I was inside of a building and it kept pointing at the wrong direction, a different occasion I had a visual of the direction of my car through a window while I was in a building, and the backtrack was pointing me into the wrong direction, it corrected the direction as soon as I stepped out of the building. I was driving around and wanted it to direct me back home, it was giving me the right distance, but pointing in the wrong direction while driving. So in conclusion I can say that it works pretty good when you are outdoors, but if you are inside of a vehicle or indoors, is not very reliable. I like it anyway and it’s specially nice when you go hiking. It will get you back to the camp or to your car in the middle of the woods, but in a parking lot, it might miss it for a line of cars, that’s not nice when you have a cart full of groceries and you have to go around to the next lane of cars because the backtrack missed it for 20 or 30 feet. If you are in a mall and want the backtrack to point you the direction to exit the mall to get to your car, you might have to wait until you are out of the mall to redirect you to your car, finding out that a different mall exit was much closer to your car than the one that you took following the indications of the backtrack.

Great low price for a quasi-GPS. Yes, indoors it does take about a Minuit or even two to lock on to the satellite signal but faster outside with a view of the sky. One VERY important issue is that POINTER IS sensitive to magnets or large metal objects just like a hand held compass. The distance seems unaffected which is probably determined by satellite (I assume). So keep all large metal objects and especially magnets away from the thing while using it or the POINTER will point in the wrong direction. This is in any mode, both the compass and location modes. I alternated direction of a bar magnet about a foot away and it causes (only) the pointer to change wildly. Hunters watch your metal firearms. Just use it like any normal compass (hold away from large metal objects) and it will be fine. I like it very much.

Real GPS technology is a large number of satellites 12,500 miles in orbit sending a very weak time signal for a computer processor to calculate the holders position in space. Most users don’t know or understand that the receiver is not getting blasted with 50,000 watts from their favorite rock station ten miles away, or even a cell signal two miles away. Interference from structures will stop the signal, period.

I recently purchased a Backtrack as an economical aid for deer hunting and travel cross country. At the price, Brunton and military compasses can’t and won’t do the same job without a geodesic map and literally days of training – training I’ve had repeatedly in 22 years in the US Army Reserve. Much of where I hunt has no decent map, and overhead satellite photography is remarkably low quality in these less densely populated areas. If there is any difficulty in the woods, the real issue isn’t which way is north, it’s the actual distance and heading from a known point.

For the price point, the Backtrack works fine. It does not have an extremely fast response time, but given reasonable patience, it will orient you to the compass and let you know what heading and distance you are from the start point. Reasonable is up to two minutes – which is all it needed the first startup. At that point I set the home icon with the extremely simple two button controls.

I tested the unit at distances of yards and miles, and found when handled properly like a compass – held parallel to the ground with no motion – it would show equal distances and complementary headings between two points. At about 700 yards it changes to tenths of a mile, and when between home and say, a parking point, you can measure the exact distance between – straight line.

When traversing rough terrain with a unscaled pictographic map, such as printed by the conservation department for most areas, it was simple to keep aware of our position on that map and get a basic idea of the scale involved. I felt more secure with the Backtrack telling me my car was 739 yards away at 356 degrees than trusting my memory of which way an old wooded ravine might go. Again, a compass would have only told me which way was north – something I checked using a Silva Ranger model I purchased while in the Infantry school. It can’t tell me a distance and heading to a known point unless I literally pace it out and recognize it on an accurately scaled map.

As for literally following the arrow, even a compass won’t help you make a better decision to avoid the rough patches and get on a trail heading in the general direction. The Backtrack can’t do your thinking for you.

Will a GPS show you your car’s location in a parking lot? Yes, and for the price, it should. But you will have to learn the menus, operation, and still set the start point where you parked it – raining or not. Just put it on the dashboard and wait. When you’re done, give it a minute, hold it flat, don’t wave it around, and use normal routes. Walking through walls is asking a bit much. The Backtrack will get you there – if you can remember what you drove. At that point, you might try your keyfob.

Being a gadget nut, had to have this.Go dog walking and never get lost.Mark your spot on a beach where you have your gear set up to find after boating/swimming/touring.Mark your cruise ship dock spot when you land and go shopping and need to get back to continue the cruise.Going to some crazy night party? Mark it once arriving and if you lose something you can find the place next day to go back and get the item.Wish it had more marking spots, but 3 is still nice. Reasonable price a big plus.

Price:$344.54

Garmin Oregon 450 Handheld GPS Navigator Product Reviews

As of May 6, 2010 I have had and used this product extensively for about six weeks. The software on the unit has been updated to the latest which is version 3.40. I do a lot of cross-country driving and I go off road several times a week especially in remote locations with no trails.

For those that do not wish to read the rest of this review let me just say that THE OREGON IS AWESOME and I recommend it to anyone for both On-Road and Off-Road.

Runs on AA batteries which is a godsend when traveling as you can purchase them anywhere around the world. You can also utilize rechargeable batteries. Keep in mind the unit will not recharge batteries but you can make your unit run off of external power conserving your batteries. You can utilize any charger with a USB connection to do this. You must however have the unit set up to Garmin Spanner in Setup>System>Interface setting configured, otherwise the unit will go into USB mass storage mode and you will not be able to use the GPS.

This unit will support navigating to geo-tag photographs. This technology is becoming more prevalent as more and more digital cameras are now geo-tagging their photographs. Not to mention Google has a ton of geo-tagged photographs that one can download. Now if you ever find a photograph you like that is geo-tagged all you have to do is click on the picture in your Oregon and it will take you directly to the spot where the picture was taken.

The size of the Oregon is amazing and it will fit into a pocket quite easily and comfortably which may not be an issue when you’re outdoors and have a pack but when you are walking the city streets it is a huge advantage over the Garmin 60csx.

Let me just say I have owned the Garmin 60csx as well and I will make some important comparisons to that unit that are relevant for everyday use. Please note that the Garmin 60csx is also a phenomenal GPS and this review is not meant to discredit the unit in anyway.

Let’s get to the point of accuracy. Plain and simple the Oregon is not as accurate as the 60csx. Having said that it is plenty accurate. In most situations I will get around 13 feet of accuracy on the road on the Oregon. The 60csx in a similar environment will get about 9 feet of accuracy. For driving it is not that big of a deal. For outdoor use in most situations it makes no difference. This unit will lock on to satellites indoors in most structures just like the 60csx.

As far as locking onto a signal I never have problems with the Oregon. The first time out of the box took maybe 2 minutes for it to lock on. Ever since then it takes less than 2 seconds even when I have a few days that goes by without using the unit which is not often since I love my Oregon.

Addressing the screen. As far as brightness goes, again the 60csx is definitely brighter in direct sunlight. In other environments you really cannot tell the difference. What most people don’t realize is that the Oregon screen has a much higher resolution then the 60csx which is a lot more crucial for reading topographical maps and for general navigation. It is because of this higher resolution screen that you have less brightness associated with the Oregon.

The brightness in direct sunlight is not an issue for me with the Oregon as a matter of fact I turn the brightness down to zero and the display can be read perfectly well in direct sunlight (you will have to play with the angles in which you view the device more so than with the 60csx). The capability of having a touch screen is a huge advantage over the 60csx in my opinion. The one thing that the Oregon doesn’t have is a dedicated Mark Waypoint button that I miss from my 60csx, this is a huge feature missing from the Oregon.

The actual software is pretty good on the Oregon however I wish it would have used some of the neat features they developed for the 60csx. Having said that the software and the trip computer are for the most part completely customizable. There are too many to get into in this short of a review but there is plenty of information comparing the two software versions on the Internet.

The Oregon does have profiles which can be set and this is very useful not only for setting up the GPS for different environments such as Off-Road and On-Road navigation but also for the preferences of different users.

To anyone interested in how this unit performs in the car the answer is simple, GREAT. I have no issues for using the Oregon to navigate the roadways anywhere I go. Although the Oregon does not speak the street names it will give an audio beep for upcoming important notifications. You can have custom POI. You can have proximity alerts.
There are routable maps available which means the unit will notify you when you need to make turns and on what side your destination is located on. You can send addresses from Google maps directly to the unit with the Garmin plug-in installed.

Off-Road this thing is AMAZING. In a lot of the aspects I liked it a lot more than the 60csx. I have had no issues with the unit off road. I will not comment more on Off-Road use as there are a lot of other positive reviews addressing the Off-Road capabilities of this unit.

The 3-axis Compass is AMAZING. It works phenomenally well and is extremely useful. One thing that I love is that you can actually insert it into the trip computer which for me works a lot better than the dedicated compass screen as you can see a lot more useful information along with the Compass.

This unit is marine capable but I have not tested the unit out on the open water.

For the most part the Altimeter on the Oregon is completely useless.

I’ve used a 60 CS and the CSX versions since 2004. It is probably the “Gold Standard” for hand held mapping gps’s. So I was expecting great things from the Oregon 450. The learning curve was quick and easy. The Oregon has a lot of new features that make navigating easier — shaded topos, increased memory, different user profiles, great ergonomics of the unit, increased screen size and resolution.

BUT…
If you plan to use the unit for some serious backpacking or day hiking, Beware! The Oregon does not accurately record distanced traveled and associated data on the trip computer screen when travelling below 3mph (20 min mile). It does however record accurately only when you save the track and then call up the track and check the distance traveled, or if you upload the data to your laptop. I just don’t normally carry my laptop when I’m hiking.

I have contacted Garmin about this about 10 days ago and heard nothing back from them except that they are looking into the matter. For some self help try [...]. It is a good discussion website for the Oregon series.

This was my 4th Garmin unit. I use the primarily for geocaching. Amazon had it for a fair price and I received it much faster than I expected. After learning what did what it became second nature.It so far seems to have very good accuracy. I was really excited for the feature of it holding 5000 caches. I will recommend this.

I have been waiting on the side lines for literally years for a hiking GPS. Decided to finally take the dive. After now months of internet studies I decided on the Oregon 450 (550 was my preference to have the camera but cost played a factor). My biggest concern purchasing this unit “sight unseen” was screen visibility. I am sensitive to this because I have had retina issues and my contrast is not a good as I would like. I am convinced I made the right choice and really love this unit … nice job Garmin.

The screen was very readible and I think this is a non issue. I firmly believe Garmin trully engineered this screen considering vital factors like direct sunlight (which actually enhances visibility on this unit), touch screen technology and (very important) battery life. Is it bright like my HDTV? … no … is it more than effective in the field? … absolutley yes. I love it … case closed for me.

Last weekend I took my daughter and nephew to Mackinaw Island, Michigan for a day of mountian biking and ended the day searching for a geocache which I downloaded off Garmin “Extras” site. The Oregan made the day lots of fun because we all learned to use the GPS to guide our adventure. I started Tracking once off the ferry and stopped once we left the Island. When I got home and downloaded the trip the Garmin site displayed a very cool summary of the days ride trip … elevation and speed strip charts, Track overlayed on a map of the Island and a great summary of time, distance, ascent, descent and then even an dynamic review of the track.

So far the only annoyance is software user friendliness. If I wish to calibrate the compass my intuition is to find the option under “Compass” … nope … look under the “Heading” softkey on the main menu. Not sure if I can customize by relocating such actions but I will have to look into it more.

Note: I have an 8GB Kingston micro-SD card in the back with 1:24k Northeast U.S. Topo maps installed with just under 4GB left for more.

I purchased this to replace my failing eTrex. I have been watching the Oregon since the 300/400 series. Took a chance that the display on the 450 would not be as bad as many have said. Must say that the display is acceptable in all lighting conditions. Could be brighter in clear sun but is by no means unreadable. In fact in direct sunlight it is very good. Everything about this GPS is brilliant. Highly recommend. I have been using it for several weeks with zero problems and nothing but satisfaction. The compass is spot on…I have three very expensive compasses to compare against.

This is the 3rd GPS we bought for geocaching and by far the most userfriendly, don’t even need to look at the directions and I’m pretty much computer challenged. It makes geocaching so fun, gets us within 6 feet every time without doing the fish hook dance that the magellan has us doing, you know, go forward 5 feet, now turn 180 degrees and go 6 feet and turn 180 degrees and go 9 feet now do this about 10 times, My son was holding the GPS and I was following him looking like Mrs. Gomer Pyle. The Oregon just omits the little dance so you blend in and no one was wanting to call the guys with the white jacket to pick me up. The only complaint I would have would be it is not very bright in the sun light but I can work with that. You get all the hints and logs when you download from [...], it saves the title (which the Vista did not) can mark it as found or not found, easy on batteries, can’t get much easier then this. When my son goes off to college he gets to keep the Magellan, momma gets this one, lol. If you’re on the fence this is the one I would buy again, no hesitation.

The Oregon 450, as well as the 550, has important software problems: The trip odometer readings are about 15% less than the real distance. The stopped time shows absolutely wrong values, sometimes the stoping time is longer than the total trip time!

It seems incredible that Garmin delivers such expensive products with bugs like these, while older units as the GPSMAP60CS(X) performed well. Most e-mails about the problem are not answered.

We bought the Oregon 450 as an upgrade from our Garmin GPSMAP 60CS. Here is a quick summary of the relative benefits of the Oregon 450 for geocaching:
Pros:
– Much better position accuracy
– Does not lose signal as quickly under tree cover
– Holds thousands of caches (60CS just had 500)
– Includes[...] information, including logs and hints (go paperless!)
Cons:
– Basemap appears to just have major roads, with no lakes or rivers. This is just silly for a hiking/caching handheld. We would have been perfectly happy with something like the basemap on the 60CS. If you are deciding between the 450 and 450t and don’t want to load custom maps, go with the 450t. If you don’t mind about an hour of work, you can download free topographical maps and save $100.
– Touchscreen could be better than buttons, but the logic in getting from page to page is often not intuitive. It will take some getting used to, and you will find yourself making multiple taps to, say, go from the compass to the tracking to the satellite strength. (On the 60CS, the “PAGE” button would scroll between the important screens.) I think the Oregon series could be improved if Garmin added just one button for key functions.

Summary: A huge upgrade for us on the key things we need for geocaching. The map and interface issues are a little frustrating, but we are happy with our purchase.

I like the 450 in all aspects except for display visibility in daylight, sometimes you just can’t read it. I also had to send the unit back because of poor battery life. Even with NIMH batteries, I could get only 3-6 hours from a set of batteries unless they were fully charged and I used them immediately, then I could get 8-10 hours. Garmin technical support acknowledged something is probably wrong with my unit, and is exchanging it. On the positive side, it maintains contact under poor conditions and the ability to make maps from Google Maps and Google Earth is extremely helpful. I used that capability to generate a city map for Budapest that turned out to be very accurate. All in all, I would highly recommend the unit assuming the battery problem is unique to my unit.

Garmin’s engineers have created a great handheld GPS with good features. Unfortunately, they only did half of the job. The documentation is incredibly poor lacking any information on important details. For instance, the device has a set-up feature to tell it whether you are using Alkaline, Lithium. or NiMH rechargeables. Why? Does it recharge the NiMH batteries when externally powered? Are there different functionality/preferences for the different battery types? Nothing in the documentation to indicate why it cares.

Another example is the MicroSDHD card device. There is no indication of what size cards are supported. I installed a 16GB and it allowed me to install maps and such onto the card; however, when I attempted to install two DVD’s worth of 24K quads to the card the basemap application crashed and required me to reformat the SDHD externally before the GPS would recognized it again. Ok, so maybe the map files are limited to 4GB? Well I installed just shy of 4GB of topo onto the 16GB card and everything worked fine. However, when I attempted to install some geocache files and waypoints, it tells me that the drive is full (even though there is 12GB left). So I guess the GPS only supports cards up to 4GB.

As I said a great device, and the above limitations are something I can live with, but it would be nice if they put in a modicum of effort in writing a decent manual.

Price:$183.54

Garmin eTrex Legend HCx Personal Navigator Product Reviews

Excellent and versatile GPS that I use for geocaching, driving, mountain biking, and hiking. I previously owned the Venture Cx and the display cracked due to my carelessness in the airline luggage. I upgraded to the new Legend HCx with the high sensitivity receiver and this unit significantly outperforms the older units. The new receiver fixes your location much faster and provides much better signal coverage. I noticed this as soon as I turned the Legend HCx on, as I was able to get a fix inside my house.

The expandable memory option (Cx) of the etrex series allows you to store a tremendous amount of map info. I installed the TOPO and City Navigator Mapsets for the entire state of CA and I am able to switch between mapsets. When I am on the trail, I “hide” the other mapsets and “show”/use the TOPO mapset. When driving on the road, I switch to City Navigator to get turn by turn navigation to my destination.

The only cons about the etrex series is that they have a small screen to view while driving and the menus/control button configuration are complex. I had to install my unit right on the steering column for driving. It took me awhile to learn and use all the features of the City Navigator and to switch between mapsets. But, for a pocket size all around GPS with excellent battery life, these are acceptable compromises.

This is the second mapping GPS I have owned, and it is nearly perfect for my needs. I can’t believe how much better this eTrex Legend is than my old eMap unit. First, the bright color display is clear and readable in direct sunlight. My laptop wouldn’t even be visible in those conditions. Battery life – there is no comparison! I haven’t yet changed the alkaline batteries in 4 weeks of use (modestly heavy as it is a new toy). Finally, it is so sensitive that it has never failed to get a satellite position while indoors. Again, the HCx is a major improvement over the previous model where I could lose reception inside my car with glass all around and in open countryside.

Pros: Light weight, small size, fits great in one hand.
Can be operated completely with one hand.
Display is amongst the sharpest and brightest I have ever seen.
Very intuitive and simple to use for anyone except possibly a newbie to GPS navigation.
Battery life seems endless.
Ability to map a route to a destination address entered at the unit with the City Navigator software installed – the entire U.S. and Canada detailed road maps and POI fit on a single 1 GB micro-SD flash card.
Useful in your car or outdoors for hiking, boating, fishing, snowmobiling, motorcycling, etc.
A true all-in-one GPS solution for a low price.

Cons: Small display compared to Nuvi series and other non-outdoor GPS units.
No voice directions – it has two types of tones to alert you to pending and imminent turns.
You need to add $120 worth of City Navigator mapping software to enable the auto-routing by address or point of interest functions.
The click-stick 5-way joystick navigation device is not the easiest thing to use to move around the maps and menus.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase and I expect to get at least 5 or 6 years of good use from this before I will be looking at replacements. Garmin quality and service has been excellent in my opinion; my eMap still works, though it will likely be relegated to a desk drawer.

I’ve been using the HCx Legend for about a month now and I’ve been very, very pleased with it. I use this unit mainly for hiking and backpacking; anywhere from well established trails in state parks to the deep back-country of southern California. This is not a unit I would suggest for use while driving. Maybe in the hands of your navigator, sitting shotgun, but this not a drivers GPS unit in my opinion. For hiking, and some casual Geocaching, it’s been an excellent companion and tool.

Some of the things I really like about it are, for one, that the buttons are located on the side of the unit near the top. This becomes particularly relevant when the unit is actually in use IN your hand. Your fingers are at the top, the display is at the bottom and you can manipulate the buttons without your hand blocking the display. This may sound like a minor thing, but it’s not.

Another thing I’ve come to appreciate is it’s relatively small size and… well… “roundedness”. The Legend doesn’t have one of those protruding antennas which, for some reason, always seems to be a problem for me somehow; always poking something or taking up space. The Legend is small, round and “pockets” easily (yes, I’m using a noun in the verb tense, deal with it; you know what I mean).

Let’s see… What else to say about this unit. Well it’s got WAAS. Believe me, you want that in a GPS unit. It acquires satellites quickly and I’ve never been at a loss for a good, solid signal (very confidence inspiring when you’re deep in the back country). The color display is nice, details are easy to read and work with. The little thing that looks like a button on the top left of the units display is actually a tiny joystick, or mouse, that you use to move the pointer on the display and/or make menu choices by pressing down (much like a mouse-click). I find this a niftier solution than using buttons or a scroll-wheel sort of thing. Battery life seems pretty good to me using either alkaline or NiMH (I prefer to use the latter) and there’s a setup option where you can choose which type of battery you’re using in the device since the two types of batteries have different discharge profiles. Sweet that it also accepts SD cards for additional map storage.

Regarding the use of 4GB memory cards: Previously my review stated that this unit worked with 4GB memory cards. Well, now it appears that while the unit will in fact ACCEPT a 4GB card, it will only RECOGNIZE 2GB. That’s still a ton of maps but a little disappointing nonetheless. However, just to give you an idea of how many maps that is: I have 24K TOPO maps for ALL of CA, NV, UT and AZ, as well as street level maps for just over half the United States (west to east from California to around Kansas and border-to-border north to south), all loaded on a single 2GB card with around 300MB of memory remaining on the card. This is using Garmin TOPO maps and free street-level maps from gpsfiledepot dot com (an awesome source for free maps for your Garmin GPS by the way).

If you like to go geocaching this unit should get your consideration. Lots of options specifically for geocaching in particular. I can easily upload cache locations right off geocaching dot com, modify the entry if I need to, add a quick note and be off ‘caching in no time.

The Legend also has a lot of cool features that are just plain sweet to have even if you don’t use them every day. The only thing missing on the Legend that I can think of that some of the pricier units have is the Altimeter. The Legend has the Compass, the Tracking/Backtracking options (“bread crumbs”), the Odometer, a Proximity Alert… All the cool “bells-and-whistles” type stuff.

Map facts you should be aware of: 1) The unit ships with a VERY basic install of maps. By this I mean interstates and major through-streets and that’s about it. If you want TOPO maps and/or city navigation (residential & side streets, points of interest, stuff like that) you’ll have to buy, and install, Garmin map products. 2) Garmin map products are NOT cheap. You might want to research how much they get for their TOPO maps and/or City Navigator software packages if you’re new to the whole GPS thing. With a little research you can also find places that offer Garmin-compatible maps that are (legally) free to download and install. The proprietary nature of GPS units and the maps they work with is not unique to Garmin either. If you go with, say, Magellan, you’ll need Magellan map products; you can’t “mix and match” as far as I know.

All in all I love this unit. It does it all and does it with a nice, compact form-factor. I really can’t see spending more on a GPS unit. This one does so much for the price it really feels like I hit the sweet spot between price and performance.

Pro-Tip: Get a screen protector, one of those tough plastic sheets that people put on their iPods and such. The ones designed for the Microsoft Zune work well, even if a bit too small to cover the entire display, they do protect the essential part you really need protected. A set of protectors will set you back about $8 or so. That’s pretty cheap insurance.

Regarding the use of 4GB memory cards. It appears that while the unit will ACCEPT a 4GB card, it will onlyr recognize 2GB. That’s still a ton of maps but still a little disappointing I guess. Still, to give you an idea of how many maps that is: I have 24K TOPO maps for ALL of CA, NV, UT and AZ as well as street level maps for just over half the United States (west to east from California to around Kansas and border-to-border north to south) loaded on a 2GB card) with around 300MB left over.

I bought this unit to replace an older eTrex Legend model that I mount on my bicycle handle bar. As noted by other reviewers the HCx unit has enhanced sensitivity and very long battery life. My rechargeable AA’s last at least 5 times longer than in the old unit. Also it never loses track when outside, and it will find lock in the house, something the old unit never did.

As also noted by others, the built in base map does not provide much data. It’s the same map that was in the old unit. I purchased separately the pre-programed street maps on micro SD card which provides full street and point-of-interest data for the entire country. (Google search “010-10679-50″ for the best deal on this essential accessory.) I didn’t by Garmin software maps because I use a Macintosh and Garmin has never supported the Mac. (They now have something they call “Bobcat” which is supposedly a Mac program to allow map manipulation and transfer. I haven’t tried it.)

Anyway I use National Geographic TOPO! maps on my Mac and can download (eTrex to Mac) track data and plot maps of my outings and obtain elevation profiles and ride distances. It’s also possible to transfer waypoints and routes both ways with TOPO!.

Another note regarding cycling; in the old unit I had to purchase a special back plate to allow it to clip to the handlebar mount. The new HCx comes with a clip that attaches to the back and allows it to slide into my old mount. (If you don’t already have a bike mount kit, you’ll need that accessory as well.)

Another problem with the old model that’s fixed in this new unit is that the batteries are securely clipped in with damping material attached to the clips. My old unit would shut down when I hit even mild bumps until I damped the battery clips with small bits of handlebar tape.

Bottom line is that I’m very pleased with this device, but note that it is not complete without detailed maps. The street maps work for me; you may want other maps for other types of use.

This is my 5th GPS unit, and my 4th Garmin, including etrex Legend, eMap, Legend C, and now the Legend HCx.

The Legend HCx is an ok GPS, but not currently good for hiking/backpacking. It has a bug in it that makes it inaccurate at sensing your speed when you walk less than about 2mph. While usually easy to walk faster than 2mph, when you’re backpacking in the woods, it’s often tough to average faster than that. The result is you can walk indefinitely at <2mph and this GPS will record that you’ve been standing still the whole time. It’s odometer, moving time, and stationary time records are all incorrect when you’ve been traveling under 2mph.

Mainly just a pain. It does consistently give your position accurately though, so it’s primary purpose is fulfilled quite well.

I’ve spoken with Garmin and they say they’re working on a firmware update to fix this, although no commitment date was given.

Let me start off by thanking Garmin for making such wonderful products and Amazon for guiding me too them. Now, on with the review. Ok after looking at various reviews for many a different kinds of gps i had narrowed it down to 2, this of the Vista HCx. Now folks lets me lay it out for you. Unless you really need the altimeter, there isn’t any point of getting the Vista for the $50+ that it is. Or unless you really like unity in your products, ex. all-in-1 design. The Vista comes with a electronic compass too but lets be realistic here folks who goes out and about without a REAL metal compass. what happens if the GPS dies on you? (although that be hard with 25+ hours of battery life, hehe) anyways unless you are committed to the all in oneness or have to have the other features then this is one awesome gps, it has everything you could ever need. You will need to buy maps separate but you can find them on amazon for cheap so its all good. Either way buy this gps, don’t settle for less.

This is my second Garmin and I like the unit in general. The built-in maps though are beyond useless. I was on the Colorado River with this unit, and it showed me as being 400 feet off of the river. That is a pretty major error. My friend’s GPS showed the exact same coords but his map actually showed us as being on the River. Yes, I know I am free to spend a ton of money on add-in map data, but really the base maps should be able to recognize the CO River.

I bought one of these expecting it to be useable out of the box. After all, the various much less expensive, Nuvi models all come with excellent street maps of high detail. Well, dream on, buddy boy. This thing comes with only the most rudimentary map of very gross detail (i.e., none). So, other than being able to plot for you your track on a pretty blank display, it is useless until you buy some maps. Fortunately, you can get the 100k Garmin Topo! US map DVD or SD card for not too much money. I bought the DVD for sixty dollars delivered and it covers the entire US. There are 24k (slightly, ~16x, higher resolution maps), but they cost over seventy five dollars each and each only covers a few states. Simply not worth the added cost. Garmin really got greedy with the 24k maps…and that is saying something!

Bottom line, when you are shopping for these, just add at least sixty dollars to any price you see if you want something useful.

It is supposed to be possable to get free maps for these Garmin gps’s using, USPS maps, and some conversion gymnastics. However, after a few eveneings of looking into that, I found no easy way to do it. If you want a new hobby of converting free maps into Garmin format maps, go for it. me, I just want to use the thing.

I use my Garmin eTrex Legend HCx almost on a daily basis. It’s true what people say about the base maps; they’re not really good for getting around. With that said, this thing comes alive when you install the City Navigator Maps. Turn by Turn directions (not spoken), Points of Interest Locator, find and route to an address, locate a restaurant and more.

Great example of use: I was not in my town and needed to find a Bank of America ATM so I wouldn’t have to pay ATM fees at both banks. I whipped out my eTrex, clicked Find then ATM and it showed me all banks with the closest first. Scrolled down to the first BOA and clicked Navigate and the Turn by Turn directions popped up. Awesome.

I also began Geocaching with my kids. We love it. Nothing better to a kid then finding hidden treasure.

I am an avid mountain and dirt bike rider so I also own the handlebar mount on both bikes. Flying down hill and blasting across rocks, mud, and water this thing stays with me. I take the recorded Track and upload it to my favorite trail riding websites using the GPX format.

There is plenty of onboard memory to save your “Tracks” and I never filled it with any ride I did. But I bought a 2G micro SD just in case. (I believe you’ll need the SD card if you install any maps.)

I am knocking off 1 star because my eTrex shuts down while dirt bike riding (not mountain biking). I am pretty extreme and do intense climbs over rocks which are jarring. Jumping down cliffs with harsh landings must be shaking the batteries loose and causing the unit to shut down. I’ve googled this problem and other people have experienced this too. There are workarounds with which people have had success. Like I said, on the mountain bike, it works great.

Overall though, if you’re in the woods a lot but still want to get somewhere using your car, the eTrex Legend HCx is a great unit. I am very happy with my purchase.

This was my first time buying a GPS and I bought the eTrex Legend HCx after trying out two other models and returning them. The Magellen Xplorist 210 and the eTrex Legend (non HCx).

At first I found the Garmin models to be a bit awkward in that the buttons and joystick are located above the display. However after some use they ended up getting more comfortable. One handed operation is a bit awkward. This was the only reason for a 4 star rating.

It was definitely worth it to upgrade to the high sensitivity model and colour display. The maps are much easier to read and reception is greatly improved when inside a vehicle. The magellen model could not get a position fix while inside my truck while the Legend HCx can get a fix while inside my apartment!

The autorouting feature is very useful and accurate, although it does not always take you along the quickest path.

All in all I am very happy with this unit. Spending a little extra on the HCx model was definitely worth it. This unit is very versatile and functions great both on the road and on the trail.