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This is my third GPS unit over a period of the last 15 years and it is by far the easiest to use. and get the product in less than a week. The Garmin has capability for easy downloading of topo maps and even turn by turn directions while driving. In the GPS realm, in my opinion their are only two companies to consider, they are Lowrance Electronics and Garmin. I highly recommend it to all. Both the Lowrance Endura GPS and Garmin Colorado 400i GPS lines retail around $500 from the factory and their foo foo outlets. Upon a close review of available products, the Garmin wins hands down because the 400i Colorado has all of the cadilac features of those of the Lowrance Endura products but at a price that will shock you. Thru this site, you will find you can purchase a Garmin Colorado 400i for $312.
I thank Amazon for making the purchase a breeze. I use the Garmin to scout and locate my deer stand hunting spots. I purchased a Garmin 400i from Amazon, it has been a excellent product, the shipping came to my home in and near the time frame that was mentioned. I used the Garmin handheld Gps for month and I must say it has been fun and useful, since I am a bowhunter.
I have not used this in the field but have practiced with it extensively here in my home area. Both opinions are accurate. It was measured in hours, not minutes. I turned on the receiver, left the back light on the low setting, and checked it periodically, noting when each set failed.
This unit is basically the same at the Colorado 400t, with a different preloaded map set. So far it is a great unit, better than my old Magellan. I wish that the unit ran longer on a set, that is a fact, but I will just carry spare high capacity batteries. In the reviews for the 400t some folks have mentioned that the battery life is a tad short.
Obviously this is an approximation and I won't report the details but there was a significant improvement with each step up in mAh. The technology has improved over the years. Others have suggested using high capacity batteries. I like to use rechargeables and I have tested Duracell NiMH with an 1800 mAh rating, Sony NiMH with a 2500 mAh rating, and Duracell NiMH with a 2650 NiMN.
Useless. The menu wheel/push button/rockers are easy to use, After a few minutes of use. Not enough detail in the lakes to know for sure that you are looking at the right islands. Fine without the back-light in the day.
Normally the wheel is the zoom control.Calibrating the compass and altimeter was easy. Useful. But it would be a lot more useful if the map was any good.All in all, good product badly let down by bad maps. If the maps had been any use I'd have given it 4 or 5 stars. First, the pictures above are a collage from all the various base maps. This unit can not show the 3D images and has little detail.First impressions after one day of use. And easy to find. It has little detail, few roads, few geographical features.
In general the built in map is poor. It's just a questionable tool for managing trips and waypoints, it says. But what's the use of a GPS that can't tell you where the there you are at is on a map.While the GPS is made in Taiwan the case and all else that I ordered with it, all Garmin, are made in China. I expect they hope to rip-off the early adopters and then include the topo maps as a package later.The geocaching site allows you to transfer direct to the connected GPS, including the descriptions if you paid the subscription to the site. All the setup seemed easy.The geocaching works well with the built in compass.I checked the navigation marks on Lake Winnipesaukee in NH. They really should have supplied a better map with a $600 GPS.
The screen is good and the back-light makes it very readable at night. The supplied CD shows even less detail than the preloaded base map. They certainly don't show the whole picture, they miss shoal detail which is absolutely essential if anyone were going to trust this as their main navigation. It's just a case of pressing one of the menu buttons and selecting the appropriate item. They seemed right, from memory, but the map detail is inadequate to be certain.
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