GPS

(4 of 4 customers found this review helpful)

Comment:

I tried to like the Colorado 400t, I really did. It has a great display. Unfortunately, everything else is terrible. 2000mAh NiMH rechargeable AA batteries last 6 hours or less. Alkaline AA cells aren't much better.<br /><br />If you try to hand-enter UTM coordinates with the rock-and-roller input hardware, you'll find yourself ready for a rubber room. You need to enter EVERY number and character in the easting and northing perfectly, or you get to re-do the entire location. And there's no separation between easting and northing - you need to keep track of where the easting entry ends and the northing begins, or start all over again when you mess up. You won't always have a computer to download locations from in the field, so the kludgy entry is a show-stopper. The user interface for entering other information is similar - there's no way to correct errors without re-entering everything.<br /><br />I bought this unit a long time before I found out its worst shortcomings, but tried to use it anyway. After a wilderness navigation course this summer, I discovered the problem with UTM entry. Fortunately, I bought it at REI, so I could still return it for a full refund after 18 months. I wasn't sure they'd take it back after so long, but they did.<br /><br />Even if someone gives you one of these, AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE! There's a good reason Garmin discontinued the Colorado series. <br /><br />If I could give it no stars, I would.

(31 of 34 customers found this review helpful)

Comment:

Beware when buying Garmin preloaded mapping software. Buried deep in Garmin's website is the disclaimer: preloaded mapping is NOT VISIBLE ON YOUR COMPUTER. This applies to the preloaded Colorado 400 i-t-c series. If you want to plan or replay a trip, transfer tracks, waypoints, & routes, you are confined to view mapping only on the unit, NOT on your computer. Booo. Garmin says (after email chat with tech staff) you'll have to buy the CD version of the software in order to view it on your PC.<br />You can adapt to the low (except in sun light or when backlit) luminosity of the display and menu complexity. But return tracking is important whether boating, biking, or hiking; and it's VERY difficult to do on the Colorado 400.<br />I occasionally experienced various glitches, including processor lockup, no response to soft keys, no response to OFF button. Presumably these will self-correct in due time with updates.<br />But the deal breaker for me was Garmin's undisclosed business decision to not allow viewing of their preloaded mapping on the computer. I had to return the unit despite its other great features like fast satellite acquisition and quality display.

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Anonymous

User has 2 Months of experience with this product

I have used this GPS now for almost 2 months for both Cycling and Geocaching. For Cycling it's a tad big, but on my mountain bike it works fine. I do like that it maps my tracks as well as my elevation. I also like that I can upload my tracks and then overlay over satellite maps. For Geocaching it's a great little unit. It seems to be very accurate AFTER FIRMWARE UPDATE. While I am new to this, I have found it to be a great unit. I have 6 cache's to my name thus far and growing. I can't stress this enough. UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE WHEN RECEIVED. There are many sites out there about issues with this unit. I am using v2.60. This update seemed to make a big difference for me both in accuracy (wandering) and some bugs that would cause the unit to shut down. Seems very stable now and I am loving it. There is a new version out with a touch screen (Oregon 400T). I did try that unit at an REI, but honestly like the wheel better.

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Anonymous

User has 1 Month of experience with this product

I really like the elevation charts since I was usually using it while hiking. It seemed to take some time getting a satellite signal. Not sure if that was because I was using alkaline batteries the first few times. It seemed after about a 6 hr hike it would complete about the batteries being dead. I have switched to lithium (non-rechargables) and have been able to go much longer. I am still trying to use all of the features and figure I need to open the manual to get everything out of the device.

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Anonymous

User has 1 Months of experience with this product

I started geocaching with a Garmin Vista HCX GPSr and constantly found myself needing to print out the cache info sheets. This took a lot of time, paper, and I didn't always have the page I needed. Although the Vista was perfect for everything else, I wanted something I could paperless geocache with. Enter the Garmin Colorado 400t. The initial release of the Colorado was more than disappointing. Talk about having some serious buyer's remorse. The Colorado took way too long to start up, find its satellites, and was missing a few features which my beloved Vista contained. I was on the brink of returning it when I downloaded latest (beta) firmware. All of the sudden the Colorado became a joy to use. Pretty much all of my complaints were addressed. All but one of the features I constantly used on the Vista appeared and worked great. The one feature the Colorado still lacks is waypoint averaging. The paperless geocaching features are excellent... thankfully, since that is the primary reason I purchased this device. The only weakness the Colorado has is the battery doesn't last as long as I would like and the screen isn't very bright. I would definitely purchase this GPS again.

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