Garmin etrex Summit HC

This is the best GPS that you can find in its price range, it has all the capabilities of a Etrex Vista for less price, the only difference between this and de Summit HC is the memory, Summit has 24 Built in Memory and Vista you need to buy a SD card for it.

I purchased this GPS for hiking. The GPS quickly aquires satelites (Much more quickly than my antiquated Garmin III Plus). The Barometric altitude feature is great for anyone interested in hiking in the high country. Very Accurate! The electronic compass is a nice feature as well. Over all a great product from one of the leaders in GPSr.

I am a mountain biker and suffered with having to make frequent stops to get a map out of my back pack and then spend a few minutes working out where i was........painful! The etrex became choice number one because of price mainly, i was not too sure how it would work on the trail but other reviews seemed favourable. Linked up to some decent software it performs like a dream, one minor problem is spending too much time "Heads in" looking at it to find out where on the planet you are, not ideal on a bike!! When loaded with a route it is dead easy, the compass page gives you a big red arrow to point to your direction of travel, and you get an audible beep when approaching a change of direction. Plusses are price, functionality, connectivity, battery life and ease of use even for a biff like me. Minus point is the fact that you get a bit engrossed in it when hurtling downhill!!!!!!

Product Hardware: 9/10 User Interface : 9/10 Scale-ability : 7/10 (No Memory card Slot) Precision : 6-11 mts in normal conditions. Supplied Software and MAP: 9.5/10 Overall : Justifies the cost paid. Other Advantages: Power Supply: The best part is that it is powered by 2 AA cells which can be obtained anywhere. We can use chargeable cells. Electronic Compass: Though does not function well, when unit is stationary, but extreamy helpful. You don't have to carry a compass. Altimeter: Very good feature. I found it pretty accurate. Final Reccomendation: Go for a slight higher range model which has SD card slot. For daily users, this model is more than sufficient.

I bought this unit for use on hikes, bike rides, and other similar outdoor activities. I've had it for a few months now, and overall, I'm only somewhat satisfied. Here's a list of pros and cons that have stuck with me so far: Pros: -easy to read/see color screen (even in bright sunlight) -highly customizable screens (types and amount of data shown on each screen) -fairly easy to learn and operate -many features, including barometric altimeter and electronic compass Now, the cons to this product may not be specific to this unit. It may be more a function of the limitations of GPS: -inaccurate (sometimes highly) "tracking" of horizontal position or trail actually traveled (I've compared to trail maps and Google Earth visible trails, and some of my tracks are inexplicably way off) -inaccurate barometric altimeter (sometimes hundreds of feet off. I've turned it on, and had elevation readings of -200 feet!!) which must be constantly calibrated. Also, if you calibrate at t... Read more