Friday, April 1, 2011

Garmin eTrex Vista Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)


This review is from: Garmin eTrex Vista Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)


The eTrex Vista has all the features one would want in a small hand-held GPS. The small size is nice, and the 24 MB was enough storage to put in my US TOPO for MA, ME, and most of NH. Couple problems with the unit - the small display makes for difficult reading when moving - I used it on a boat and basically had to stop to see what was on the display - also it is just too small a display to see in the car (although it does fit nicely in the steering wheel between the air-bag and the outer rim) The big complaint is that the small size makes for a small antenna, and poor reception. I also tried to use the unit for mountain biking un-marked trails in western Maine, and it just doesn't do well in tree cover - 75% of the time it just said "need clearer view of sky" - so my path was marked with way to few waypoints to be useful. I found the same results when hiking in the woods around my home in Lunenburg. I tried downloading the latest firmware, but it made no difference ... I returned the unit and plan on trying the Garmin 76s - it has the same feature set (a few more), and a much larger display and antenna - it also accepts an external antenna which the the Vista does not.
Garmin eTrex Vista Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics) at amazon.com
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