Garmin Etrex GPS Reviews, Garmin Etrex Venture HC, Garmin eTrex Vista HCx, Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver

Garmin Etrex GPS Reviews

GPS Reviews | GPS Software Hub | January 21, 2009 at 3:53 pm

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Garmin Etrex Venture HC GPS Receiver

An essential for any outdoor excursion, the Garmin eTrex Venture HC helps you navigate through the toughest terrain. The unit is equipped with a high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, which locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. The advantage is clear: whether you’re traipsing through thick woods or strolling near tall buildings and trees, you can count on the Venture HC to help you find your way when you need it the most.

At the same time, the Venture HC’s easy-to-use menu lets you create and view waypoints (up to 500), save and view 10 track logs, access setup features, and more. It even offers 24 MB of internal memory and a detailed basemap, so you can load waypoints and routes from the included MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager software and add map detail from Garmin’s entire line of optional MapSource mapping products.

Besides appreciating its small size, outdoorsmen will also be happy with the Venture HC’s unique button layout, with five buttons located on either side of the unit. The benefits of this design are twofold: First, the Venture HC is a breeze to operate with just one hand, and, second, with the buttons on both sides of the unit, the bulk of the front is dedicated to the 256-color, sunlight-readable TFT display. This makes it easy to distinguish map details regardless of the time of day.

The Venture HC’s basemap, meanwhile, contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads, and coastlines–in short, a host of helpful details for your outdoor adventures. Other details include an IPX7 waterproof housing, a built-in patch antenna, a USB interface, a hunt/fish calendar, sun and moon information, and a geocaching mode. The Venture HC, which runs for up to 14 hours on a pair of AA batteries (not included), measures 2.2 by 4.2 by 1.2 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty.

Main Features of Garmin Etrex Venture HC

High-Sensitivity, WAAS-Enabled GPS Receiver Provides Peak Performance In Any Environment
Built-In Basemap Includes Lakes, Rivers, Cities, Interstates, National & State Highways, Railroads & Coastlines
Features A 1.7-InchH X 1.3-InchW Screen With 256-Level Color Tft
Usb Compatible For High-Speed Map Downloads
24 Mb Of Internal Memory Allows User To Load Waypoints & Routes From The Included Mapsource Trip & Waypoint Manager Software

Garmin eTrex Vista HCx GPS Receiver

Neither deep foliage nor steep canyons will faze the rugged Garmin eTrex Vista HCx navigator. Equipped with a high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, the unit locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover. The advantage is clear: whether you’re traipsing through thick woods or strolling near tall buildings and trees, you can count on the Vista HCx to help you find your way when you need it the most. The Vista HCx also includes a built-in electronic compass that provides bearing information even when you’re standing still, along with a barometric altimeter that tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. You can even use the altimeter to plot barometric pressure over time, which can help you keep an eye on changing weather conditions.

Adding maps to the Vista HCx is easier than ever thanks to the device’s microSD card slot, which accepts cards preloaded with MapSource data for your land and sea excursions. Just insert a MapSource card with detailed street maps, and the Vista HCx will provide turn-by-turn directions to your destination. Plus, the card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment, so you needn’t worry about it getting wet.

Besides appreciating its small size, users will also be happy with the Vista HCx’s unique button layout, with five buttons located on either side of the unit. The benefits of this design are twofold: First, the Vista HCx is a breeze to operate with just one hand, and, second, with the buttons on both sides of the unit, the bulk of the front is dedicated to the 256-color, sunlight-readable TFT display. This makes it easy to distinguish map details regardless of the time of day.

The Vista HCx basemap, meanwhile, contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads, and coastlines–in short, a host of helpful details for your outdoor adventures. Other details include an IPX7 waterproof housing, 1,000 waypoints with names and graphic symbols, a built-in patch antenna, a USB interface, a hunt/fish calendar, sun and moon information, and a geocaching mode. The Vista HCx, which runs for up to 25 hours on a pair of AA batteries (not included), measures 2.2 by 4.2 by 1.2 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty.

Works great, but even better with a basemap

Garmin Etrex Vista works great. WAAS, waterproofing, and the classic Garmin design all work great in one small, easy to use package. However, there are some improvements that could be made but can easily be fixed with aftermarket products.

Pros

Waterproof: I took this for a remote week-long canoe trip as well as geocaching, all with plenty of rain; and the vista hxc held up well, no problems in it’s first year of use.
WAAS: This is a feature that acts as a correction for poor satalite signal. This unit works great for the common geocacher, hiker, camper, hunter, etc. I wouldn’t get a handheld GPS without it.
Program: the program that comes with the program is very easy to use and straight forward. If you can operate a cell phone, this unit will be a piece of cake.
Memory: This receiver allows for expandable memory, or micro-SD cards preloaded with maps. Great feature in my opinion. Other receivers with the same memory don’t have enough memory for full GPS capabilities.

Cons

Basemap: The basemap this GPS reciever comes with is limited. I highly recommend buying an aftermarket basemap (especially a topo map) to make roads, terrain, and stream location much more accurate.

Recommendations

I would recommend a cover to buy with this receiver as well as a clear protective coating for the screen to keep it from getting scratched, especially if you will be in the woods. This receiver is built to take everything thrown at it, except for scratches.

Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver

There are now enough handheld global positioning system (GPS) receivers on the market that you can be choosy when it comes to price, features, and design. Garmin–a leading manufacturer of car, boat, and personal GPS receivers–has a complete line of eTrex handheld receivers, with our Legend falling about midrange.

With Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) support, the eTrex Legend offers extremely accurate readings (rated to within 2 to 3 meters). (For more on WAAS, see the Frequently Asked Questions section.) A good-size screen–288 x 160 pixels–makes it easy to see location details, and the Legend redraws maps quickly when zooming in or out of a position.

Its 8 MB of memory means there is also plenty of room for waypoints, routes, and saved tracks. The Legend will hold up to 500 waypoints, complete with a name and graphical symbol, 20 routes with 50 waypoints each, and it contains slots for 10 saved tracks. You can also download maps from Garmin’s MapSource CD-ROMs (thorough but expensive accessories for the GPS receiver) to see street-level or topographic detail (depending on the CD-ROM title).

But one of the most striking attributes of the Legend is its comfortable and efficient design. While it rests easily in the palm of either hand, it’s most suited for the left hand, where its handy click-stick can be manipulated with the thumb. The click-stick works like the pencil-eraser nubbin on laptop PCs and is handy for moving through screen icons and menus. It also works as a button when pressed down.

The Legend is coated with a waterproof, rubberized plastic shell that grips nicely. Weighing in at only 5.3 ounces, it fits into a pocket or clips onto a belt loop, going almost unnoticed.

The internal trip computer of the Legend provided a range of data about our hikes and drives, including current speed, average speed, trip distance, and time traveled (both moving and stopped). For those interested in checking out their foot pace and distance traveled, it’s a handy GPS to have in hand.

Our only major beef with the Legend is that the receiver sometimes seemed to grow weak. Even when it wasn’t in WAAS mode (which can be tough to maintain a signal in), it dropped the signal from time to time. We even lost the signal once while walking along the streets of San Francisco–it seems that the medium-size buildings were enough to interfere with the reception.

But this only happened on a few occasions. Most of the time the well-designed Legend was able to keep us in touch with up to 12 GPS satellites for a strong-enough read to maintain a tight handle on our location.

Pros