Garmin eTrex 10 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator..
GET Garmin eTrex 10 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator By Garmin
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149 of 165 people found the following review helpful.
By LaredoHeat
The Etrex 20 is a nice step up from the Legend H. Satellite reception is very sensitive. I compared the Etrex 20 head to head with the Magellan GC...The Etrex 20 locked on to 18 satellites under a sky with no obstacles vs. the 5 locked on by the Magellan GC. The Etrex was showing an accuracy of 7 feet (Glonass satellite constellation added to U.S. + WAAS and European satellites allows for this type of accuracy) while the Magellan GC was showing 56 feet. Inside a building next to a window, the Etrex 20 found 14 satellites. The Magellan GC was unable to find any satellites.
The aquisition of satellites is quite fast. From a cold start out of the box, the Etrex 20 found my location in about 30 seconds. Once the unit has found it's location, subsequent aquisition times (given that one hasn't traveled several hundred miles since last turning it on) is almost immediate.
Garmin tech on the phone helped me put my identification on the start up screen.
The unit allows for one to choose the order that screens come up... I liked the Legend H's progression of boot up screen into satellite screen into map screen...I have set my unit to power up on the satellite screen, and then when I am satisfied with the satellites that have been found, pressing the back button puts me into the map screen. Pushing back again gets me into the menu screen.
The basemap is worldwide in scope for major highways (the Legend covered North and South America as far as major highways are concerned. The rest of the world consisted of primitive outlines of countries, no highways, only capital cities), and the coverage of towns and cities around the world is impressive. I looked for the little city of Turfan in the Gobi Desert of northwest China on the old silk route and found it! The world basemap actually shows more towns when on the 5 or 3 mile scale than my New York Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World in the U.S. and around the world (even more towns than the NYT Atlas in Mali!). If a dot is not labeled, you can move the arrow to the dot, and the display will identify the town (highways can similarly be identified). One can seach for worldwide cities by direct spelling...the Etrex usually comes up with the intended choice before one spells out all of the letters of the name. When the town is found, the user is free to examine the map for the found town's setting. This is neat for looking up a town that comes up in conversation or on the news! The Magellan has street level coverage within the U.S. The Etrex 20 does not include this. That said, downloading and SD cards with street level mapping inside and beyond the U.S. is available from Garmin as well as topographical maps. The Magellan GC does not have downloading or SD's available.
The color screen is actually quite readable without use of backlighting when in a lit environment (backlight can be lowered to none if one wishes to make the batteries last 25 hours). The color screen shows the physical relief of a region at the 3 mile scale and above (white background for 2 miles or less). I like the daytime screen much better than the nighttime screen. I went into settings and made the daytime screen the default screen at all times.
I found that I could go to the trip computer option, and change one of the fields to display battery condition. I have made this a page now...unit now powers onto the satellite page, pressing "back" takes me to map, pressing back takes me to trip computer, and pressing back again gets me to the main menu. Great stuff!
I'm thrilled with this unit.
Updated by internet to version 2.4
Got the North America Roadmap...it has every road in the U.S and Canada, and most in Mexico. The unit allows one to search for an address anywhere in the continent...it will prompt for state (or province), city, house (business) number, and finally street. The unit often comes up with a list of choices before entire entry is fully typed in. You can then see a map of the selected address (and zoom in and out and pan), and if desired, ask it to navigate to the spot. If you wish to search for places of interest such as restaurants in a city far away, go to settings,system, then select the satellite listing and place the unit in demo and exit out . Then select "Where to", find "city", and select move to city. Now you can search for places of interest in the chosen city, and if desired, navigate to it. Remember to go back and activate the satellites, and WAAS. When on a scale of 300' or less, the unit displays points of interest, often with business logos! (update Dec 4...this works on the recreational profile. On the automotive profile, one cannot move location to the city of interest. In the automotive profile, the emphasis is on navigating to the city of interest)
I have no interest in geocaches, and cannot comment on how the unit does with this!
Update 11-24...
At or above the 20 mile zoom, especially 30 miles and up, the topographical detail shown on the physical relief map is quite vivid. Below that zoom level (12 miles or less...and at the higher 20+ mile zooms when there is little in the way of relief to display), I prefer the blank white background allowing for the roadway networks to be highly visible. I just realized that the settings/map menu choice offers the option to not display physical relief at any zoom scale! Until now, I was disappointed to have the blank background only at the 2 mile zoom or less. Nice! I do wish that the option to display highest density of towns/data allowed for even more towns to be displayed in rural areas where towns are far apart.
Update 12-02...
Tech support helped solve the density of towns shown not being as full as I expected when unit is set to display "most" (as in most towns that the unit will display). I was operating the unit in the recreational profile. On the automotive profile, the map will show all of the towns in the data base on the map on the 3 mile scale choice (or dots that the curser can be moved over to call up an id if the map is too crowded), and a good many towns at the 5 mile scale.
Update 06-11-12...
Version 2.80 made a huge difference on the response of the unit when traveling at a walking speed. I would imagine that folks that use this for geocaching will find this latest version a great improvement. Previously, (even after allowing the unit to get a solid lock on all available satellites with an estimated 1 standard deviation radius of 9' or less) when navigating the last several dozen feet to a target, the unit would lag behind. I might walk 10-15 feet before it would impact the remaining distance/bearing to the target. The lag would also result in overshooting the target. The new upgrade makes the unit respond almost instantly and smoothly, and allows me to "softly land" upon the target down to the last foot! I also notice now that after the unit has locked in on the available satellites with most reception bars showing "d" as in good lock, the etrex will discern the elevation difference between being held at eye level vs. being placed at groud level, and then back to eye level. Outstanding!
167 of 187 people found the following review helpful.
By rockwallrick
I ordered this unit just as it became available on Amazon after conducting assessments of several units. Works just as expected. It takes a little getting used to the menu system, but after playing with it on two different occasions for about an hour total, I've figured out the more advanced items. Worked great right out of the box, quickly acquiring a full complement of satellites while I sat inside the house (accuracy within 10-14 feet inside). Screen has good color and is clear to read. I like the paperless feature and easily loaded a gpx file from geocaching.com. I find the the ability to read all of the logs very helpful. UPDATE: Used it to search and find severla nearby caches, and it worked great! It was very accurate and brought me to within a few feet of each cache. The receiver allows me to mark a cache found and to include comments. When I returned home, I easily uploadedd my finds and comments to geocaching.com. I am very pleased with my purchase.
197 of 224 people found the following review helpful.
By M. J. Grace
Presumably atypically I use eTrex units nearly exclusively for road navigation and often calculate long routes.
I've used a Legend Cx extensively and it's showing its age so I was glad to see the introduction of the 20. I toyed with buying a Nuvi but don't care for the design as it lacks configurability and water resistance, uses a touchscreen, doesn't lend itself well to a motorcycle or kayak or walking when you want to walk.
The Legend Cx routinely takes several minutes to calculate in addition to slow map `drawing' times and I'm pleased to note Garmin improved calculating speed significantly. I used the two side by side for quite a while and the 20 calculates in roughly 1/3 the time (still noticeably slower than the Nuvis I've used). Additionally the map drawing time is much reduced.
Satellite acquisition and retention is quite a bit better: if you turn on both simultaneously the 20 will acquire enough signal to navigate in a fraction of the time; if you compare the 'Satellite' pages there are usually at least half again as many 'bars' on the 20 (and that's all before the GLONASS thingy is turned on).
The former mushiness of the perimeter buttons has been replaced by buttons which 'click' and the notorious rubber gasket (prone to eventual loosening) is gone.
The various menu screens are changed: previously you had 12 options to select on the `Find' page - now there are 6. They are more legible and you can arrange them in the order you prefer.
I'm still disappointed Garmin makes you cough up $80ish for a functional (read: turn by turn directions) road map but they're making progress on that front - you can now buy `lifetime' maps instead of having to purchase `updates'. And I guess I can't blame them for capitalizing on what they can capitalize on, while they can.
Plus I have to admit: Garmin's phone customer service is usually well above average (thanks, Rocky!) and that costs something.
They changed the mounting connector design so you can no longer use your old car/bike/whatever mount. The new design is an improvement, though: more secure and not a piece you have to screw on.
And they took the `Exits' category out of the `Find' menu: why, Garmin? Such a useful tool it was.
To sum: if you're an eTrex fan this incarnation is IMO an impressive advance RE processing and map drawing speed. The maps more closely resemble the Nuvis.
I have no reason to believe it won't be as reliable (IME close to bulletproof) as previous units. And the rustish/red/orange color is cool.
I like mine a lot.
*****
Update: one VERY useful feature for travellers the old eTrex units didn't have is now you can 'Search Near' a 'A Recent Find'.
I also discovered if you 'Review Point' the phone number if available is provided - nice, although the microscopic font errs on the side of 'white space'. :)
It crashes occasionally (I reckon I'm asking more of it than it was designed for); less often after I updated the software but there's no apparent rhyme or reason.
Still and all after using mine for many scores of thousands of miles I remain well pleased with the improvements.
*****
Another update: after spending some time (Garmin's customer service came through again) downloading NT South America City Navigator and flying to Chile my 20 has been indispensable: it would be virtually impossible for me (ignorante el norte Americano) to navigate around Santiago specifically and the country generally without electronic help from the sky.
A Satisfactory Karaoke Mic
It works
Not worth the time or the money