Garmin Colorado 400t Handheld GPS Unit with U.S. Topographic Preloaded Maps
by Garmin
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List Price: Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Colorado 400t Handheld GPS Unit with U.S. Topographic Preloaded Maps
Customer Review: One hand operation...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had various Garmin and Delorme GPS units in the past. I use my GPS primarily in the field while backpacking/hunting, riding a horse or on a ATV. I wanted a GPS that could be operated with one hand, had a bright screeen in or outdoors and a unit that could be stowed easily in a saddle bag or shirt pocket. The Colorado 400t seems to meet my requirements. The screen is excellent in or outdoors although you need to turn up the brightness indoors. The rocker control feature and others buttons are easily manipulated with one hand. These controls are also recessed adequately to avoid accidental activation while stuffed in a tight spot in a backpack, saddle bag or pocket. The menu hierarchy is a bit different from my Garmin GPS V and takes a bit getting use to, but functional. I hope to test accuracy in the near future. I really enjoy the ease of use with one hand. Although I do not have direct experience it appears the new touch screen units like the Garmin Oregon series would be more difficult to operate when you have only one hand available. I found opening the battery compartment to be a bit of a challenge. Once unlocked, I needed to use a coin or screwdriver to initially get the back plate to begin sliding open.Customer Review: Thrilled with my Colorado!
Summary: 5 Stars
First let me say, I purchased this unit specifically for Geocaching so I can't speak to it's usefulness in other ventures. I took delivery of my Colorado just in time to take it to Geocaching's largest yearly event, Geo-Woodstock. I spent three solid days Geocaching and found almost 150 caches! I stepped up to the Colorado from Garmin's 60CSx (which I still have) and I have to say that the Colorado has got to be "the" tool for Geocachers. The "paperless" features have allowed me to carry fewer items on my cache runs as I no longer need the Palm Handheld as all the cache info is right at my fingertips. Speaking of fingertips... I love the ergonomics of this new unit. It fits nicely in your hand and all the controls seem to fall right where they should. I have not experienced any of the firmware issues mentioned by others. I spoke with a friend who purchased a Colorado right after they were released and he confirmed that the more recent units (like mine) seem to have the new firmware already loaded. As for battery wear, it does seem to burn through batteries quicker than my CSx, but I haven't really made and effort yet to see if I can change anything to help that issue. Count me as one of the satisfied customers.Customer Review: Can only view one saved trail. Missing a lot of older features.
Summary: 1 Stars
The older 60csx allowed you to view multiple saved trails at a time. This does not. The 60csx allowed you to modify the color and thickness of your track lines. This does not
So if you are going to a place that you have explored differently, with the 60csx you could see all of your prior tracks like a trail map. With the Colorado, you can only see one prior saved track. Its like looking at a map and only being able to see one road and no alternatives if you want to go a different way.
Also, while the color and thickness doesn't sound like much of an issue, the current tracks shows as a thin black line, which is similar to all of the other thin black lines on the map. The prior track is a huge thick line, much thicker than it needs to be. With the 60csx, you could adjust both.
Finally, there is no cover available to protect this product. There is a hard case, but most people want a cover that allows you to see the map whhile using the unit in less than perfect conditions. The 60csx had sone.
Accuracy is good, however if this product was not $500.00 and these items did not exist in prior versions, I would not care nearly as much.
Customer Review: Not worth the money
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchased this item as gift for my husband and he was so dissapointed in the performance of the software that we sent it back after 1 week. It is not possible to map trails in advance or get estimation of the distance to be traveled. The unit maps only as the crow flies, which can be done with a paper map, which by the way never freezes up and stops working.
However on a positive note, the construction of the unit seemed pretty durable, of coarse with it freezing up we didn't much bother having it out where it could get dropped. The GPS location was accurate and fairly quick when not frozen up. even though the altimeter was difficult to calibrate and inaccurate initially it did work eventually.
the manual was less than helpful. Please note that you must get the city navigator SD card if you want to map a route on the road. The topo map shows streets but it will only map a route without the SD card as the crow flies.
If you do not have lots patience for randomly thumbing through the on screen menu's to try and operate the unit coupled with a innate ability to be computer savy, then save your money.
Customer Review: Cool and fun to use, but inaccurate
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this to use for hiking and geocaching so we wouldn't have to keep using our Garmin 760 - which is great, but not exactly designed for hiking!
The unit was very cool looking and fun to use, but we had real problems with inaccuracy. After looking unsuccessfully for a new cache, I thought it might be a good idea to test it with a few locations I knew. I went to a lamp post cache near home and watched as the Colorado showed me to be 20-30 feet from it and then after a few steps, 20 feet in a different direction. I tried walking away and starting over, but it did the same thing showing me 30 feet off in yet a new direction. I turned on the Nuvi, and it showed me I was right next to the cache (which I was). Frustrated, I went home and did some more testing around the yard. It was routinely off by 30-60 feet, even on waypoints I'd just created. That's probably not too bad for hiking, but for geocaching it's a deal breaker. The accuracy of the Nuvi is so much better, I'm just sticking with it for now after returning the Colorado. Shame, too - because I was looking forward to the color screen, paperless caching, etc.