Introductory GPS units don’t get any better than the Garmin eTrex 20. This small handheld GPS unit builds on the incredibly successful eTrex line of GPS models by improving the interface and ergonomics, as well as adding paperless geocaching and expanded mapping abilities. It’s still waterproof and ruggedly built, but it’s also easier to use than ever. The 65k color display is a full 2.2 inches and is easily viewable in all lighting conditions. Garmin offers a wide variety of mounting options fo
$ 161.10
Overall much improved but lost a bit in the process,
Presumably atypically I use eTrex units nearly exclusively for road navigation and often calculate long routes.
I’ve used a Legend Cx extensively and it’s showing its age so I was glad to see the introduction of the 20. I toyed with buying a Nuvi but don’t care for the design as it lacks configurability and water resistance, uses a touchscreen, doesn’t lend itself well to a motorcycle or kayak or walking when you want to walk.
The Legend Cx routinely takes several minutes to calculate in addition to slow map `drawing’ times and I’m pleased to note Garmin improved calculating speed significantly. I’ve been running the two side by side for quite a while and the 20 calculates in roughly 1/3 the time (still noticeably slower than the Nuvis I’ve used). Additionally the map drawing time is much reduced.
Satellite acquisition and retention is quite a bit better: if you turn on both simultaneously the 20 will acquire enough signal to navigate in a fraction of the time; if you compare the ‘Satellite’ pages there are usually at least half again as many ‘bars’ on the 20 (and that’s all before the GLONASS thingy is turned on).
The former mushiness of the perimeter buttons has been replaced by buttons which ‘click’ and the notorious rubber gasket (prone to eventual loosening) is gone.
The various menu screens are changed: previously you had 12 options to select on the `Find’ page – now there are 6. They are more legible and you can arrange them in the order you prefer.
I’m still disappointed Garmin makes you cough up $80ish for a functional (read: turn by turn directions) road map but they’re making progress on that front – you can now buy `lifetime’ maps instead of having to purchase `updates’. And I guess I can’t blame them for capitalizing on what they can capitalize on, while they can.
Plus I have to admit: Garmin’s phone customer service is usually well above average (thanks, Rocky!) and that costs something.
They changed the mounting connector design so you can no longer use your old car/bike/whatever mount.
And they took the `Exits’ category out of the `Find’ menu: why, Garmin? Such a useful tool it was.
To sum: if you’re an eTrex fan this incarnation is IMO an impressive advance RE processing and map drawing speed. The maps more closely resemble the Nuvis.
I have no reason to believe it won’t be as reliable (IME close to bulletproof) as previous units. And the rustish/red/orange color is cool.
I like mine a lot.
*****
Update: one VERY useful feature for travellers the old eTrex units didn’t have is now you can ‘Search Near’ a ‘A Recent Find’.
I also discovered if you ‘Review Point’ the phone number if available is provided – nice, although the microscopic font errs on the side of ‘white space’. 🙂
It crashes occasionally (I reckon I’m asking more of it than it was designed for); less often after I updated the software but there’s no apparent rhyme or reason.
Still and all after using mine for many scores of thousands of miles I remain well pleased with the improvements.
*****
Another update: after spending some time (Garmin’s customer service came through again) downloading NT South America City Navigator and flying to Chile my 20 has been indispensable: it would be virtually impossible for me (ignorante el norte Americano) to navigate around Santiago specifically and the country generally without electronic help from the sky.
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|Garmin Etrex 20,
I ordered this unit just as it became available on Amazon after conducting assessments of several units. Works just as expected. It takes a little getting used to the menu system, but after playing with it on two different occasions for about an hour total, I’ve figured out the more advanced items. Worked great right out of the box, quickly acquiring a full complement of satellites while I sat inside the house (accuracy within 10-14 feet inside). Screen has good color and is clear to read. I like the paperless feature and easily loaded a gpx file from geocaching.com. I find the the ability to read all of the logs very helpful. UPDATE: Used it to search and find severla nearby caches, and it worked great! It was very accurate and brought me to within a few feet of each cache. The receiver allows me to mark a cache found and to include comments. When I returned home, I easily uploadedd my finds and comments to geocaching.com. I am very pleased with my purchase.
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|A good choice,
My 30 arrived a few hours ago.
As you read this review, note that Rocker refers to what Garmin has now renamed the Thumb Stick.
Pros:
o The on-screen keyboard is much better designed than the old eTrex (and this issue was important enough to me to pay for a 450 last year):
…..o Stays in upper case (hallelujah) rather than, with the old eTrex, the first alpha triggering the on-screen keyboard to change to lower case and special characters, which then necessitated navigating to the shift character to restore the keyboard to upper case and numbers.
…..o DONE is easier to access as are cursor left and cursor right.
…..o Can use the Zoom keys (top left side of GPS) to switch between the three keyboards: alpha and numbers, special characters; numbers.
o The display is nice and crisp.
o Can load maps to internal memory without using an SD card (56MB of maps tested leaves 1.68GB of internal memory). The old eTrex required an SD card .
o A distance proximity alert can be created on the 30 using any waypoint or POI as a source (more info below).
o Can load maps, waypoints, and routes from MapSource (see Bugs below).
o Smaller than the eTrex Legend HCx.
o Includes place to affix a lanyard (but a lanyard is not included).
o Garmin tech support was excellent. Michael spent and hour and a half as we researched four issues including the bugs mentioned below.
o As mentioned by other reviewers, satellite acquisition is fast: first power on to location: 45 seconds.
Cons:
o The new interface seems cumbersome when compared to the old eTrex. The old interface was quicker to navigate with more data being displayed on menu screens, but maybe it will get better with more hands-on time. The new interface seems to have been designed for a touch screen, which the 30 is not. On some screens, such as the Map Information page there is a lot of wasted empty space. Tip : Use Setup > Page Sequence to add pages that you want to quickly access using the Back button; those pages will then disappear from the Main Menu.
o Testing indicates that proximity alerts for POI’s loaded using the POI loader do not work. On the old eTrex Legend HCx, POI’s containing speed or distance proximity alerts could be loaded using the POI Loader and the Legend HCx would issue the appropriate alerts. The POI Loader works with the 30, but testing indicates that the alert is not issued. This test was for a distance, not speed, alert (speed alerts are of no interest to me, so I’ll leave that testing to someone who wants that functionality). On the other hand, proximity alerts can be manually created on the 30 using waypoints or POI’s as sources. This is definitely a big Pro and is listed in the Pros above. When the user creates a proximity alert from a POI, a waypoint is created with the same name with a “1” appended at the end of the name. So, it appears that to mass load distance proximity alerts onto the 30 will require loading them as waypoints with the proximity distance set, rather than loading them as POI’s. And, it appears that waypoints only support distance alerts, not speed alerts, in the 30, MapSource, and BaseCamp. A minor point: while MapSource can maintain a waypoint’s proximity in miles to 3 decimal digits (0.000), the 30 supports only editing to 2 decimal digits (0.00). And, as we all know, 0.01 mile is approximately 53 feet so this is probably a non-issue for most applications.
…..o To compound the problem of not supporting proximity alerts for POI’s and forcing the use of waypoints instead, Garmin has removed the capability to delete waypoints by symbol, leaving only the choices to (a) delete all waypoints or (b) delete waypoints individually. This means that if I assign special symbols to the waypoints which I want to retain permanently on the GPS while letting temporary waypoints have the default (blue flag) symbol, I cannot delete just the temporary waypoints en masse — as the old eTrex would have supported. In order to retain the waypoints which I want permanently on the GPS, I will be forced to either a) delete the temporary waypoints individually in the field if I forget to do it at home, (b) remember to delete them in BaseCamp before departing for the outdoors, (c) remember to delete the GarminGPSWaypoints_dd-mmm-yy.gpx file before departing for the outdoors, or (d) remember to delete all waypoints and then reload all of the permanent waypoints before departing for the outdoors. (I did not realize this until after my initial review submission. I would now give a 4-star rating, rather than 5, because of this whole POI proximity alert issue and the lack of delete-waypoints-by-symbol.)
…..o Note that some of the newer Garmin GPS’s (e.g., 450) say they support proximity alerts, but the functionality is…
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