Marketed as a unit for off road use by outdoorsmen. Piece of junk. Difficult to use, controls are not user friendly. I use it primarily for hunting to find my way to and from hunting sites. Does not come with any maps. They are almost as costly as the unit and have to be purchased separately. Has the same tools as the units designed for driving. Is not set up for off the road use. Too many extras that are not needed for hikers, campers, hunters etc... Extras get in the way of using the unit as a compass or locating device. Unit comes on with a dark screen which must be manually brightened everytime. Compass setting is hiden amongst other utilities.

I use GPS systems everyday for my job. I have experience operating systems that cost upwards of $2000, but I must say that for practical recreational use, the Garmin eTrex can do almost anything that you want. If you wanted to have a unit that is capable of having mapping software and built in maps. I would upgrade to one of Garmin's higher end products or go with a Trimble unit. As for price you cannot beat the eTrex. Compared to the Magellan I own it is really easy to use. All in all it is a GreatTTT GPS device that has gotten me out of lots of tight spots.

Similar Products Used:

Magellan units, Trimble Units, Higher Garmins, as well as PDA with GPS Mapping sytems

Great electronics and color detail screen but Garmin should have paid more attention to the engineering and testing of the overall unit. After two years, the black rubber gasket which protects the buttons of the unit began oozing a sticky substance and the rubber is no longer adhering to the unit.

Customer Service

On a scale of 1 to 10 I rate their customer service a "ONE". After explaining the problem, they recommended that I clean off the GOO and go out and buy a special glue to re-glue it. They did however acknowledge the problem and have a fix in the form of an adhesive strip but I would have to send them the unit incurring both forwarding and return shipping costs. I requested they mail me the strip and was told that because this was a manufactured part, they recommended GLUE for customers wanting the make the repairs personally. After several e-mails back and forth and not getting anywhere, I came to the conclusion that Gaemin DID NOT CARE about this customer. I would not buy another Gamin product after being treated in this manner.

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This little thing is awesome.
i have owned it now for about 5 years and it has stayed faithfull since. i have dropped it in creeks, left it outside overnight in the snow, dropped it from my quad at least 20 times and never even a flicker of the screen...it has brought me back every time i have gone out, great features, easy to use and tough as an ox! buy one. now.

I use the Etrex for all my road trips and it is AWESOME. I have tons of useful information in front of me at all times. I even use it as my speedometer! It is a well designed, ruggid device with good battery life and a customizible data screen. Not to mention the fact that when I want to get out of the car it's easy to bring along. The lack of an integrated map is the only thing that is missing, so I will someday upgrade to the Etrex Legend; it looks like the exact same device, except with mapping features (and it's blue).

Customer Service

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I was given an eTrex for Christmas 2006. I've never used a GPS before, so have nothing to compare it with, but my initial impression is of profound disappointment. A gadget geek might like this toy, but anyone who is just looking for a useful tool should look elsewhere. The user interface is dreadful.
The unit has 4 'navigation' buttons requiring iron finger tips to operate. As commented by an earlier reviewer, most of the available features are impractical to use unless you get enjoyment squinting at a screen while labourously entering waypoints the evening before your daytrip.

If the unit had one screen that boldly displayed the current grid reference and lat/lon, and did nothing else to confuse the user - that would have been ideal for my use, but instead it clutters screens with loads of useless information and features

My little yellow Etrex has proved to be a fantastic companion over the past few years. It has been used as a backup GPS on a number of rough offshore ocean sailing trips - receiving continuous dousings of saltwater and general banging around in the cockpit. It has spent dozens of hours sliding around in the bottom of my kayak, canoe, and inflatable tender. We use it hiking, biking, and hooked to a laptop in the SUV while running a mapping program. It has never failed to turn on or quickly establish our position. It has been left on the dash, glovebox, and trunk in the hot summer and the cold winter. I have had a number of other GPS units for the boat and handheld use, but none have been as convenient or durable. I don't need mapping on the unit, so it's functions are more than ample, and I find I use it more and more in place of more sophisticated and expensive units. Batteries last a long time, and a couple extra AA's in my pocket will take care of reserve power for all but extremely long trips, where a couple more in my other pocket take care of that. I love it!!! The best $100 I have EVER spent. It still looks just like new. WOW!

Customer Service

Never needed it. I updated the software at the Garmin site and that was it.

Similar Products Used:

Other older models of handheld GPS units, and fixed mount mapping units of various brands on board a cruising sailboat.

Dont let anyone tell you that the Garmin E trex basic is not a good buy i have one and it's the best investment i have ever made. OK so maby it dont have a built in road map and maby it dont tell you where the fish are biting but its an investment that is well worth. For instance it can tell you what time the sun rises and sets. it has an odometer speedomiter max speed altitude 500 way points 10 saved trackes. let me telly this its DAMN ACCURATE TO. so dont let anyone tell you that its no good its the best in its inexpensive field and thats all i have to say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For $100 you can't beat the value of the Etrex. Easy to use interface and well placed buttons. Easy to interface with a computer and get data from. Great battery life as well. My only complaint is the lack of an antenna. In heavy cover you can usually keep a signal but don't expect to turn the unit on once you get into heavy cover and lock on to satellites. Screen resolution is not as good as the Rino

Similar Products Used:

Garmin Rino

My first model give up completely without a struggle after two days. The shop replaced it without a problem, second one going well for two years. The user interface is clunky, with silly low resolution tracking history that don’t work well. I only use three pieces of information, the satellite signal strength, grid location and the time of sunrise and sunset. I don’t use anything else, so the menu and the repeated key presses to move form one screen to another is an annoyance. However the information the eTrex provides is invaluable, together with a map and compass I don’t got lost. I think every off trail hiker should have one, but a map an compass together with some training in their use is also essential. (The best book I have found on this subject is Mountaincraft and Leadership by Eric Langmuir available from Amazon.co.uk ) Having looked most other GPSs eTrex is by far the best for everyday use. however it could be so much better, if the user interface was more tailored to user needs.

Customer Service

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