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We bought this unit for geocaching, and we really like it so far. It is a huge improvement over our old Garmin eTrex Legend.
On the con side, to fully take advantage of the unit's extended features you must purchase additional expensive mapping software. I primarily use it for recording fishing spots and water-related waypoints. This is the my third handheld gps unit and without a doubt it's the best I have used or seen on the market to date. I also use it to download my many other personal POI files. It's fast when acquiring-refreshing, accurate and reliable and integrates nicely with related Garmin Mapsource products. I'm extremely pleased with the unit's overall performance and would highly recommend it to anyone.
+ Great reception+ Rugged (get a screen protector)+ Reliable- Hard to remove memory card, which makes the next negative even worse.- For the US Topo Mapsource CD set, you can only can transfer 2026 of the 7000 US map segments per memory card. The 2003 Mapsource Topo CD set is missing streets that are 20 years old in southern St Louis. It is too small for almost all handlebars. You need 3 512MB memory cards. :(Overall, I love it for hiking, find it occasionally useful for biking (prevening me from getting lost), and dislike it for car use, city exploration.
An example, if you install City Navigator, your topo will disappear bc the City Navigator covers the topo maps. Don't surprised if the forest you are hiking thru leads to an undocumented MegaMall.- Poor UI for driving directions, etc. If you have multiple maps, good luck figuring out how to change the map in use. This was revolutionary 3-4 years ago, but with new handheld devices like the iPhone, etc showing how a handheld interface should work, this begins to feel ancient. - The Mapsource data is OLD. The new 2008 Mapsource DVD is missing streets that are 15 years old. You have to turn off City Navigator, but it's buried deep in the menu system.- Worst designed bike attachment mechanism ever. - Map Management is TERRIBLE.
This means you cannot simply load the entire US (7000 segments) on a memory card. Google/Yahoo/MapQuest find these streets easily. Google Maps on an iPhone or Windows Mobile is much better. This is a hiking boating device, DO NOT buy for exclusive use with your car.- Searching for POI is very difficult.
As everyone else here has said, the unit is great.I just wanted to highlight that it uses A) standard AA (or NiMH) batteriesB) MicroSD memory (mine came with a 128 MB card, but for $8 I bought a 2GB)C) MicroUSB cablePretty much anything you will ever need to replace is available everywhere for cheap. It's as if the heavens above smiled on Garmin and the perfect GPS was born.I even like the turn by turn better than my TomTom.
On top of that the unit is versatile and works well for trail hiking, geocaching and driving so long as you have the required maps. Although it was a nice unit the functionality was just not there and the unit lacks a lot of features. Negatives are all minor - purchase a screen protector, electronic compass needs constant recalibration and geocaches can't be loaded directly onto the unit via GPX files. I originally had a old Magellan Explorist 500 that I used for geocaching and hiking. I first purchase a Magellan Triton 400. That was a bad move. The unit has a very rugged design and has taken quite a few falls and still works great. All in all a great unit and top of the line if you are going to be geocaching.
Unfortunately it just became a little to outdated and I wanted to upgrade to something with the new SirfIII chip. I then purchased the 60CSx from Amazon and have been incredibly pleased with the unit. If you don't want to spend the big bucks on one of the underdeveloped touchscreen models this the tried and true GPS of choice. The unit has quick satellite acquisition, good battery life, great accuracy and a very impressive feature set.
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