Garmin eTrex 20, Worldwide

This is update to prior review. I liked the eTrek 20 a lot but a question from Amazon got me looking at the Oregon 650t as well. Got question on review saying was comparing to Oregon. My kids ended up getting me that for Christmas. It IS more expensive (a lot!) but the t model includes the 1:100K map preloaded so I can have that for travel while keeping my 1:24K map inside for use locally. Also has a camera with flash that I can use to geocashe and general use. Nice when sailing and do not want to take regular camera. The Oregon 650t has a touch screen and its screen is quite a bit larger (3 inch diagonal vs 2.2) and only slightly larger overall(.3 width and .5 length with same depth). But it is more expensive so if price a factor (and when isn't it!) then the e Trek 20 is a great choice. At the moment Oregon 650t is 4 times as expensive as the e Trek 20 on Amazon so you have to really want those added features (or get as a gift!) to choose the Oregon 650t over the e Trek 20. On other hand it does include the 1:100K topo which goes for $80-100 but even so it ends up more than double the cost. But for those of us with Kindle Fire and I Pad (have both) and used to touch screen having that is very nice. Writing this before Christmas so have not tried the Oregon yet as it is sitting under the tree. Will repost after using a while and give comparisons. As mentioned below I found the toggle on the e Trek 20 bit awkward and I kept hitting the menu button when wanting to zoom in or out (same side) but once you get used to it works great. Manuals are not great but if you are adept at all with equipment like this you will eventually figure it all out. I suspect manual issues will be same with Oregon. For less than a third the cost of the Oregon (half if you want the 1:100K topo of US) it is a great device. Old review: Use this while hiking and sailing. Took a bit of getting used to with toggle vs touch screen. Kept wanting to touch the screen. Also menu can be bit confusing until you figure it out. Lots of features did not plan on using such as the area calculation (useful in measuring grass area of yard for fertilizer) etc. Bought with both 1/100K topo of entire US which is nice while traveling. 1:24K nice for my particular area. Did find installing the maps in the micro SD bit of a challenge. Overall extremely pleased and would buy again.

Update 3/8/2014 Just returned from a hiking trip in Patagonia, my Etrex 20 performed extremely well. I viewed my trails on Google Earth and Map using the GPX files I recorded while walking in the cities, sailing in the lakes, hiking on the mountains and even trekking on the Perito Moreno Glacier. The maps I used are downloaded from the web links shown below. Update 8/19/2013 I have extensively used my Etrex 20 during my recent trip to the Pacific Northwest visiting many national parks with excellent performance. Both GPS and GLONASS were turned on. With full view of sky, the accuracy is 7-9 ft. During the hikes in the Olympic NP rain forest with tree tops over head, its accuracy is 20 to 30 ft. Etrex 20 is an excellent GPS unit with many features but requires a steep learning curve for a first time GPS user. These are my lessons learned: 1. Make sure to download Garmin's BaseCamp and update Etrex's software via BaseCamp before doing anything else. BaseCamp is a PC program complimentary to the Etrex. BaseCamp is an excellent computer application for viewing maps, storing and organizing data, planning outdoor activities, and creating and sharing your adventures. With BaseCamp, you can: * Import and view maps in 2-D or 3-D, including your TOPO U.S. maps and City Navigator® maps. * Create, edit and organize routes, waypoints and more on your computer. * Create and share Garmin Adventures. * View playback of routes, tracks and adventures. The manual and the intro videos for BaseCamp: static.garmincdn.com/basecamp/en/Default.htm youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz_3EG42rRDx6sN-eyPK7Gx05xYranmvv 2. Free Garmin-compatible maps can be downloaded from garmin.openstreetmap.nl, gpsfiledepot.com, openmtbmap.org/download/odbl/#maps, and wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download 3. There is a 3000-tile limit for the maps installed on the unit. Since installing maps to the "Garmin" folder on the SD card using MapInstall takes a long, long time, here is my trick to just install once all the maps you want and you can get access to all your maps quickly using a PC. Create a folder named "Extra Maps" inside the "Garmin" folder on the SD card, and move all extra maps you will need later into the "Extra Maps" folder. This will largely avoid exceeding the 3000 tile issues because Etrex only loads the maps in the "Garmin" folder but not the maps in the "Extra Maps" folder. You can then move maps between the two folders based on your needs. 4. These programs will come in handy: GPX Editor, GPSBabel and JaVaWa Device Manager in addition to BaseCamp.

Update: i see a lot of people complaining about using this while driving (one even saying it didn't call out directions). Read the product description before you buy this! Others question why you would use this instead of a smartphone. Again, this is designed for use outdoors in the hills - if you do not require a rugged, waterproof unit that runs on AA batteries and is not reliant on a daily recharge, and that you can operate in cold temps wearing gloves (try that on a touchscreen) then don't buy this. If you do need those features hen this will serve you well. I've now used this on multiple overnight hikes in below freezing conditions. I have used it effectively while wearing gloves and have found it simple to generate waypoints on google earth and transfer them through the basecamp software (OSX version) onto the device, where the show clearly on the colour screen. I recommend it to anyone who wants a rugged reliable unit for use in outdoor conditions. Not for driving - a smartphone would be better. But for hiking or outdoor work, which this is designed for, it performs very well. original: This is a great GPS unit for hiking. I don't do geo-caching and if I am driving somewhere I just use the maps app on my smartphone. So this review is about using this device for actual hiking out in the hills. I bought it to replace my old and trusty Garmin GPS12 which finally gave up the ghost (LCD screen died) after ten years of reliable use). This one is a real step up, of course. In use: . i downloaded Basecamp and it is simple to plot routes in Google Earth and export them into Basecamp and upload to the device. Its pretty intuitive and you don't need a manual. . operating the device is easy - it took half an hour of playing around with it to work out where things were. It's easy to specify the order you want the options to be displayed, and which data various screens will display. Again, it's intuitive and I didn't refer to a manual. . using the little joystick is pretty easy, it has a positive feel. The other buttons are fine, if small, and can be operated wearing gloves. . navigating to waypoints you've uploaded is easy enough and the compass screen guides you effectively. I have a few very minor criticisms which mostly boil down to "it isn't the same as my old one". These are just matters of taste, like which screen displays which data. I won't mark it down for that because I can already see it's logically laid out. Note: you need to actually know how to navigate with a GPS to get the most out of a GPS. If you don't know how, then take the time to learn. This device will give you good service, or so it appears from my short use of it, but like any device, you need to know how to use it properly. It's light, the battery replacement is simple, it seems as rugged as my old GPS12, and overall I am pretty satisfied so far.

I needed a small and light gps with great battery life for a 9 day climb of Kilimanjaro. I own a bin full of GPS devices for hiking, aviation, and photography, but didn't have anything that could go for a long day on one set of batteries. My primary concern was to capture an accurate track in order to encode my photos with location information after the climb. I didn't need the fancy mapping capabilities of many of my other, more battery-hungry, units. I also didn't want to rely on some of the tiny gps loggers I sometimes use for photography, which don't have very good displays or indicators, and have often disappointed when something went wrong and it wasn't obvious. The eTrex 20 was small, light, reliable, and most of all, it was very easy to see that it was working and recording my track. I used lithium batteries, and was surprised to find that one set lasted several days, despite being on for long days of climbing in cold conditions. For safety, I changed batteries every other day, even though the battery level display indicated nearly full before each change. Granted, I wasn't doing a lot of button pushing during the day, and I kept the backlight on the briefest interval, but I'm still amazed at the great battery performance of this unit. I didn't count on this unit for anything other than recording tracks, but I was still pleasantly surprised that major roads in Tanzania displayed on the map during a safari after the climb. Back home, I found all the tracks were stored in the more than adequate memory, and exported the gpx files easily. In the future, this unit will accompany me whenever I take photos on a hike, even if I'm using another more capable unit for mapping and route finding. It's small enough to shove in the top of my pack and forget about, and is a great backup for any other camera gps I'm using.

I bought this for backpacking in the Rockies and doing fieldwork in Texas. This review is only based on initial familiarization and I have yet to use it much. I'm a little underwhelmed so far, but hopefully will like it more later. PROS: Nice size and good light weight for backpacking. Seems well made and durable. The controls and user interface are fairly easy to figure out. CONS: The enclosed "Quickstart Guide" is fairly useless. When you go online and actually find the appropriate real User's Manual, it's not much better. The manual for this eTrex20 model is also the manual for the eTrex10 and eTrex30, so some of the features are not applicable and it doesn't tell you this. The documentation also has errors. For example, both guides explained that you need to calibrate the compass. The menus they instruct you to follow do not exist on my model ("compass>menu>calibrate compass>start" vs. "compass>menu> and four other choices, none of which are "calibrate"). So you should expect to fumble around some unless you want to call tech support. Also, Garmin makes a big deal out of this model including their pre-loaded 1:100,000 scale topographic map. Unfortunately, its pretty useless. I don't see how you could use it for any reason. If you want a useful map, you will need to buy their 1:24,000 scale maps at around $100 each. These are not transferable between other devices, so figure the total cost of the GPS and the extra maps you are going to have to buy when you are doing comparisons with other products. As a minor note, the package does not include a lanyard. Amazon's advertisement says it does, which is an error.

This is my first GPS, so I don't have a benchmark for comparison. Still, here are some thoughts about this device: - some people complained about accuracy. I don't have any means to test that. Still, I noticed that, when in tough situations (like indoors, at a window), the registered position wobbles a lot, registering a speed of 2kmph. Also, when I'm walking straight and I go past a taller building, the registered position tends to move away from the building. This might be due to the gps system, not to this particular device. - the preloaded basemap is useless. Instead of buying Garmin maps, I loaded free maps from openstreetmap or openmtbmap (for hiking/biking). Using Garmin custom maps is impractical due to the 1 mpx limit of the image size. - the battery life is as stated in the specs. I used the Etrex 20 while skiing (-5 degrees C) and it behaved very good. - the device behaves poorly when providing turn by turn navigation - the menus work very slow or freeze. Still, keep in mind it is not built for this. - the display cannot be turned off (the backlight can - saving the battery). The display is viewable with the backlight off even in direct sunlight. - no way to lock the keys. I had the gps in a backpack pocket and it recorded a couple of waypoints (probably when I fell off my skies). Overall, the Etrex 20 does exactly what I want it to: help me not get lost and give me some basic info about my trip.

The only reason I chose to leave a review was for the poor folks who bought this thinking the only available topographic maps must be purchased by Garmin. This is false. This was my first GPS unit ever owned and I downloaded a home made topo of California from a fellow online who has many more available, and as a plus If you feel they are incorrect you can email him and let him know. I took this bad boy to yosemite, and with the aforementioned topo that I downloaded, I had access to a motherlode of landmarks. From the road that leads to the trailhead to halfdome, to any and all garbage cans located in the park which were labeled and precisely marked, other well known geological features, and low key trails that you will find on NO park map that I've ever viewed. The sd card is definitely usefull but not a must. The actual GPS unit can hold map files which can be switched between during use. I originally bought this for geocaching but have not gotten to use it for that purpose yet. There are so many great features that I doubt I could ever need them all. Obstacles in the water for maritime use. Nearby lodging, or entertainment. Sunrise and sunset Times. "Best" Times for hunting and fishing. Dozens of HUD options, such as elevation, distance to destination, ETA of destination based on speed, compass, and so much more the list truly goes on. This is a fantastic piece of equipment, I personally keep it in my mini go bag that I keep in my car unless otherwise needed. This GPS in my opinion has a long way to go before it's obsolete.

Covering eTrex 20. Used it almost every week for about a year now - mostly biking; also hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, bushwhacking. I used the old yellow (non-mapping) eTrex for years before upgrading, and I also have a Nuvi in the car. With all these 300 reviews let me just mention what I like and what not Hot -Fast and reliable lock. That's what matters most on an outdoor GPS. Thick forest cover (I'm in Northwest), canyons, cabins, even caves. Locks with no issues where the old eTrex fails and Nuvi is useless. That thing alone is BIG (credit goes to Russia for GLONASS I guess) -Solid and reliable. Dropped it many times, it falls mostly on the battery cover just like the old one so all the scuff are there and not on the screen. After heavy drop on hard surfce (5'+) keeps working with no issues -Battery life. With all the fancy colors and menus I was expecting 8-10h on Eneloops. Comes out I can easily get 2 full days (16+ hours)of tracking if I mostly keep the screen light off, and 3 days on Li -Up to 16GB expandable space - just plug a microSD card and never delete a map again Not so hot -Small screen, small letters. That's what you get for the solid construction and good battery life. And no Retina display here, resolution clearly lacks in iPhone era -Slow(ish) with maps; forget about moving around, zooming etc - it's slow -No(usable)maps incl in the price - you either settle for free maps or you splurge $99 for the 24K Garmin TOPOs - and these are not perfect either, mind you. Bad -USB - old outdated USB 1.1 It takes ~3h to D/L 1.5GB map; so for faster service pull the card, put it in a caddy, plug the card in the notebook and copy the map in the Garmin folder I can recommend the unit if that's what you need - a solid, reliable outdoor unit, the true ancestor of the eTrex Vista, Legend, 60 etc. Not a car GPS, not a fancy toy but a reputable tool for exploration. It's comes at a premium price and it does have some serious limitations but it's as good as it gets for a consumer product.

ho fatto parecchie ricerche e alla fine (complice anche un'occasione nella sezione warehouse deals di amazon) ho deciso di portarmi a casa questo gioiellino. che dire: ottimo prodotto nonostante sia ormai un modello vecchio (se non sbaglio 2011 o giù di lì). avendo letto parecchie recensioni del prodotto mi permetto di puntualizzare alcune cose sperando di fare un pò di chiarezza. 1 - non è un navigatore per auto. si può usare come tale, ma non è il suo scopo, quindi risulta scomodo. non da indicazioni vocali e il monitor è piccolo. si può utilizzare per escursioni a piedi o in MTB, o anche bici da corsa. se per caso volete usarlo per escursioni estreme in cui ci sono pezzi in macchina (tipo rally o che so io) vi conviene avere qualcuno che lo tiene e vi fa da navigatore. 2 - non è difficile da usare, ma certo non è nemmeno intuitivo come un cellulare o un lettore mp3. il punto è che ci sono molte funzioni e configurazioni, quindi per sfruttarlo al 100% è indispensabile leggersi il manuale. manuale che però non viene fornito con il prodotto... però è facilmente reperibile su internet gratis e in modo del tutto legale. viceversa, per un utilizzo base (andare da un punto A a un punto B o per seguire qualche traccia già fatta stile google maps) basta poco, a seconda della vostra dimestichezza con la teconologia. 3 - il navigatore funziona molto meglio di un cellulare con gps attaccato, è più preciso e più veloce nel seguirvi. senza contare la batteria, che nel cellulare dura molto meno. può fornirvi una serie di dati all'apparenza superflui ma che risultano molto utili quando siete per sentieri che non conoscete. un esempio: può fornirvi l'altitudine di qualsiasi punto della mappa. il che vuol dire che potete calcolare il dislivello tra dove siete ora e dove state pensando di andare. utile se magari state esplorando un sentiero per la prima volta o se volete ampliare il giro di qualche km. assieme a questo potete sapere quanto manca al tramonto (in modo preciso), quanto manca al punto di arrivo (in tempo e km) eccetera eccetera. 4 - le mappe. ho letto di enormi difficoltà nel reperire mappe decenti, nel costo eccessivo di quelle della garmin.... su openstreetmaps trovate mappe gratuite e legali di tutta italia, compresa anche quella per trekking e mountain bike. ci sono anche ottimi tutorial per installarle sul dispositivo. ottime mappe perchè oltre alle strade contengono i principali sentieri escursionistici del CAI e le strade sterrate che magari su navigatori normali non ci sono (e a volte nemmeno su google maps). oltretutto potete inserire dei percorsi già fatti che vengono inseriti nella mappa, così da permettervi di seguirli senza sbagliarvi. 5 - le batterie. il problema della batteria in teoria non esiste, perchè usando pile stilo basta portarsene dietro alcune di ricambio e sostituirle nel caso si scaricassero. il navigatore garantisce un autonomia di circa 25 ore, ma dipende molto dalle pile e dalla luminosità (regolabile) dello schermo. io posso dire che con le pile "amazonbasics" ricaricabili appena comprate ho fatto parecchie ore (forse una decina) e le batterie segnano ancora 2 o 3 tacche su 4. io lo uso per la MTB e devo dire che dopo un paio di uscite non saprei come fare senza, non avrei mai trovato certi posti o certi percorsi, se non dopo svariati tentativi, col rischio di perdermi o di finire in strade scomode. in conclusione, amenochè non abbiate esigenze particolari legate ad un particolare modello consiglio questo prodotto anche per il suo prezzo contenuto.

Super and accurate also Thanks ## Seller Modern Survey Instrument Great Service

Un GPS polivalente, los mapas que traen incorporados son poco útiles, por suerte podemos instalarle mapas gratuitos de Topohispania, tanto o más detallados que los que podamos comprar a Garmin. Cuenta con una memoria interna de 1,7Gb y slot para microSD. La visibilidad de la pantalla a pleno sol es muy buena, así como en sombra con retroiluminación activada. Por contra, si no la activamos y estamos en sombra, veremos muy poco. Aparentemente se desenvuelve bien con los mapas de Topohispania y la pantalla es lo suficientemente grande para poder verla en plena ruta de MTB. Por contra, es un GPS aparatoso, de tamaño y peso similares a los antiguos móviles Alcatel One Touch Easy. Funciona con dos pilas AA que en estos menesteres, casi que lo prefiero a las baterías de litio recargables. Es una compra acertada a un precio realmente ajustado. Si buscas un GPS con un precio económico, resistente y polivalente, éste es tu aparato.

Diese Navi ist ideal für Menschen, die gerne ihre Touren am PC planen. Ich nutze zur Planung "komoot". Hier habe ich die Möglichkeit meine Touren nach meinen Wünschen zu gestalten. Anschließend speichere ich die entsprechende gpx - Datei auf meinem PC. Danach übertrage ich diese Datei auf eine SD-Karte, die ich ins etrex eingelegt habe. Als Karte habe eine von Kleineisel (kostenlos im Netz, basierend auf open street map) auf dem Garmin hinterlegt. Die gpx - Datei von komoot wird problemlos auf der Kleineisel - Karte angezeigt. Ein weiterer wichtiger Vorteil dieses Gerätes ist die Benutzung von handelsübliche AA-Batterien (Ich benutze aufladbare, diese halten ca. 5 h. Anschließend erfolgt ein Wechsel der Batterien, und weiter geht es). Ich benutze mein Gerät mittlerweile 1,5 Jahre und habe schon Touren von insgesamt über 10.000 km zurückgelegt. Bislang hat mich das Gerät noch nicht im Stich gelassen.

No tenia idea de que tanta diferencia podia hacer un posicionador geografico satelital, pero la verdad muy a gusto, su opcion de buscar locales excelente. lo recomiendo para situaciones donde no haya caminos y sin señal, ya que google maps funciona mucho mejor.