Best Garmin Handheld GPS Units
Garmin eTrex
The device itself is OK but getting a map onto it is a slow hair raising nightmare – The unit is OK for getting your coordinates to use on a map. For Navigation , its hopeless. You may get lost and leave some trail but at least… Read more
you’ll know where you are Alltrails won’t let you download a map to a file location that you can export. YADAYADAYDA
Best affordable GPS bike computer – No wires is the main reason why I bought this model. The next is the easy attachment to multiple bikes (via rubber bands) as opposed to cable ties,… Read more
takes less than a minute to swap it to my other bike. Backlit and backlit time can be turned to constant. After a ride I plug it in to my PC and then am given lots of vital data. You can create a course in the garmin connect software then transfer it to the device. I'm a recreational rider / commuter so the heart rate monitor and cadence sensor weren't relevant. If these are important to you then buy the next model up (500 or newer 25). The only thing it doesn't do is display the clock time constantly on the screen. Apart from that I give it 17 thumbs up.
Good after service from Garmin – I have owned one for over 3 years and as I work as a Courier in Melbourne, it has been a tool of my trade. I am on to my third unit in this time,… Read more
which is still working but keeps spasmodically in car charging and comes up with the on screen message "Low battery-needs power source". The other two had similar issues, though the first simply froze I recall.The procedure has been to return the unit to jb hifi where I bought it and within a week a refurbished replacement is provided. Then you have to register the new serial number with Garmin to claim the free map upgrade.My point is that it is a nuisance to have to do this and that is why I purchased a Tomtom today to replace the one that was stolen from my van 4 years ago. Maybe I am unlucky? Can program several destinations and view the route easily switches off every time you leave your vehicle, can not tell it to avoid certain roads in its route,does not take into account time spent at traffic lights in its routing
Great idea but terrible to use – I have had an Inreach explorer + for over a year now. I bought it because of the SOS function and the ability to send texts to my family when I am… Read more
out of cellular range. This works well but that's about it. The inreach.explore is lousy to say the least. The way point limits are way too low. I have many KML files that I use for prospecting that work perfectly with All of my other mapping software but will not import into my maps on the garmin site?? I have tried everything to make this work to no avail. I am looking for alternatives but Garmin have a monopoly on this lousy tech.
Glad I bought this – Needed a GPS for a 8 day Adventure bike trip that was reliable, easy to install and easy to use. Very happy to have chosen this machine. I didn’t see… Read more
the point in the 680 as it only offers a camera compared to the 610. Recommend hardwiring into car/ bike etc. The touch screen work with standard bike gloves. Good supporting software. I made a decision to get one from the US (Amazon ) and while it was hundreds cheaper it came with US Topo maps and Global maps which had little detail for Australia. Need to buy $200 worth of AU/NZ Topomaps. Goes well with a RAM mount onto handlebars.
Excellent for rugged terrain – This GPS is very practical with big touchscreen. It is rugged and protected so easy to use in rainy weather. The datastorage is limited and the… Read more
memory needs to be emptied every so often as the search is impossible when there are too many points located on the instrument.
Poor after sales service from Garmin – Bought Garmin 76 in Feb 2012 from a Gladstone fishing store. Took to Heron Island. The unit never worked, failing during intitial start up. Returned… Read more
to store via colleage in July 2012. Claimed 4 weeks turnaround. post 8 weeks, store said Garmin stated store did not have an account with Garmin.
Store re intitulised account claiming Garmins fault for dropping them of list. Store said there were 10 units at Garmin for repair infront of mine. Expect 2 weeks delay. Now a few days out from Decmenber 2012 with still no word and no GPS product that was paid for 11 months ago.
Never worked
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Garmin Striker Plus 4 Fish Finder Including Transducer and Built-In GPS Really good compact unit to fit a variety size of boats kayaks etc, very… Read more
clear instructions for installation vary user friendly when out on the water Purchased from BCF @ $239 have recommended to a number of my family friends which have also purchased this unit highly recommended
A great little unit let down by sub standard controls – I've had this little unit for about 5 years now, received it as a gift. Worked great until recently the power button and the button just below it… Read more
disintegrated and has left 2 holes where the buttons used to be. A really good unit, let down by sub standard hardware. Disappointing from the world leader in electronic GPS.
Niche product, excellent for what it is – Lets start with obvious: you only buy Garmin Rino 700 if you need it, and there really no other options anyway. By itself, it is essentially a… Read more
lowest Etrex GPS in the lineup strapped to 5W CB UHF radio. Make no mistake - Rino 700 was engineered to a price point, to serve as a cheap entry or additional handset to Rino 750 or as a way of providing core Rino features to someone who doesn't need full 750 package.
GPS-wise, It can store/show waypoints, tracks and pre-defined routes that you will need to make yourself. It doesn't have any usable maps and they cannot be added to it. Neither it does have any of modern handheld GPS bells'n'whistles, those are all delegated to it's bigger brother 750. Can you navigate with it? Yes, but you will need to know what you are doing and prepare for it before any need for navigation occurs. It doesn't have newest sony chipset, but otherwise GPS chip is pretty decent and is dual GPS/Glonass. Fix is fast, and works everywhere except caves/buildings/other places where GPS not supposed to work anyway.
Radio-wise it's a very solid UHF handpiece. Reception\sensitivity is very good, better than any other UHF handhelds with stock antenna that i use/have, and i do have a few. That said, antenna is not replaceable and you can't use external one. Transmission is bright and clear, power seems to be very true. All radio controls are menu-based, which is somewhat of a pain, but there are shortcuts to most important items. Radio can be turned off leaving just GPS, and vice-versa.
Battery is built-in and not particularly field-replacable, so for long stints it will require some way of charging (which is done by MINI usb cable, funnily enough). Lasts for one workday/field day/daylight+, which is sufficient for my needs.
What sets this device apart from radio+gps combo is when you start adding them up. Each can request/transmit it's location to other Rinos, and this is really what the whole thing is about. I often use mine strapped to kids or dogs when we go to the woods - in one request of location i know where they are and can talk to them while i'm at it.
There aren't any lanyard or belt attachement (or anything attachement) in the box, so pretty much you have to buy something straight away.
Summarizing, if you need Rino group location functionality, this is an excellent choice, as group location features are exactly same as 750. Without other Rinos to talk to it's a very expensive basic GPS + radio. I found that the concept of one 750 + several 700 in a group works pretty well as not everyone need full 750.
I've got mine on sale for 249$ (499$ RRP) and at that price it's absolutely brainless purchase as this is pretty much a price of 5W CB radio alone. For a full RRP it kind of awkwardly close in price to 750, and frankly a bit too expensive for such a basic device.
Do I recommend it? Yes, i do, but try and see if any are available on discount.
Given up on it – Not all that intuitive to use and rather fiddly. When buying be aware that the subscriptions are a bit of a rort. The first time I spoke to a… Read more
member of the support team I was told that the annual fee would cover the emergency locator function, even if message service is suspended, but this turns out not to be the case. So you need to pay the monthly fee on top to be covered for an SOS, which is miserly considering you pay an annual fee. Another annoyance is that they send out the invoice each month a day after they charge you which doesn't remind you ahead of time in case you want to suspend message service when you know you won't be using it. All in all it's a lot of money for very little service.
How do you create a route? Terrible! – read the instructions and thoroughly disappointed! You can not enter Latitude or Longitude! Nasty to enter any details. Can't even enter a track… Read more
and get it to work.
This is the worst I've ever seen, frankly it is unbelievably bad.
Maybe it's good for the city but for what else I can't see it being of any use.
Garmin, you're a shocker!
Edit a way point doesn't seem to work either, perhaps you can only use tis unit with a computer input? oh well back to the instructions that don't even correctly tell you how to enter a way point.
wasted 2 hours so far, I would give up but 'm trying to help a friend who gave up after he did a long expensive trip only to find this unit useless. Couldn't enter a track either.
I have a diploma of electrical engineering and am computer literate, (you thought I was an idiot, didn't you ha ha.)
lifetime updates no longer available – I purchased this with free lifetime updates. Map updates will be phased out july 2023. Well, I'm still alive and the GPS is still working and yet… Read more
they are no longer updating the maps.
Apart from that it seems to work ok. Traffic monitoring Ok, screen picture for its time was Ok,
Slowest GPS device I've used – This $950 device was like using a VIC 20 or dot matrix printer; slow, outdated and cumbersome. I paid $5.49 and got a classier faster google maps Motion X GPS iPhone app.
Think twice before you purchase Garmin products. The service is miserable – I enquired about a GPS Rino 750 that was out for a South Polar Expedition; unfortunately, the front screen was scratched. I called Garmin Australia… Read more
and waited 45 minutes on the phone without getting an answer from the product support service. I then phoned a distributor J. Appleseed in Sydney and was told that Garmin does not repair any items but replaces them for a reasonable price. I phoned Garmin Australia again with the same dilemma and waited a long time without success. Garmin wants to be a market leader. Yes, they are in unreasonable phone waiting times and outdated products that cannot be repaired but only be replaced regardless if the item has just some cosmetic defects. To exchange an item against a new one you have to purchase for nearly the new price is not the way good business is done nowadays as to a waste of materials and the pollution to manufacture new products. Garmin wants to be at the forefront and cater for environmental products but forgets that one of the most important facts is customer service and caring about resources. People should think twice before purchasing Garmin products, I have a late Fenix watch and several other GPS products but must admit that most of this items I would not purchase these again as they are not correctly supported and if only in the interest of selling, on the other hand, these products compared to other manufacturers are often outdated.
Garmin Edge 530 failed just after warranty expired – Initially bought the Edge 530 only that failed just shy of 13 months and Garmin refused to replace under their warranty of 12 months which is pretty… Read more
poor for a $400 item. After about 5 weeks the retailer finally stepped up and gave me the Edge plus sensor bundle to compensate for the delay. I couldn’t get the speed sensor to work so back to the retailer and they finally got it going by reversing the polarity of the battery (to the incorrect polarity) shocked it into life! Overall very disappointed by the quality as I have had a number of Garmin products but it appears that the quality has slipped.
I've bought this computer when it first came out and have used it continually for well over 6 years. I bought it as a package with mount, heart rate… Read more
sensor and auxiliary controller. Overall cost was North of AU$700, which was a lot of coin back then. They have dropped in price since, but still costs around AU$500 now.
In a nutshell this device is a useless for navigation because of the hard to use software and cramped hard to read display. I have tried to use it for navigation, saving routes, and recording the stat's for my rides. It's good for recording ride stat's but that's all.
I have mounts for it on my 3 bikes but the lousy Garmin software does not allow you to configure the bike it's on at the start of a ride. Therefore, after the ride I have to edit my Garmin Connect and Strava files if I've used a bike other than my default one. I definitely do not recommend this device. Use a cheap sports watch to record heart rate and route, and if you need guidance on a road or mountain bike ride, use a mapping or hiking app on your phone to see where you are.
I'll end with one positive and that is that the device is reasonably durable as I've had a few crashes over the years without damaging it. The battery life is also okay. I have owned other brands of bike computers with much better ease of use than this Garmin edge.
Garmin GPS 1030 Plus / Complete Rubbish – What a piece of rubbish/junk (Garmin GPS 1030 plus). The units screen is very dull (set to 100% brightness). The advert has a coloured screen (unit… Read more
is nothing like the advert picture). It’s almost a mono coloured screen.
I have purchased several Garmin GPS’s over the years. This Garmin GPS (1030 plus) is complete rubbish.