Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $295.94 You Save: $187.05 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Garmin yes, Amazon no!
Summary: 5 Stars
Product is super, upgrade from older model already owned. Owned Garmin before. Knew what I was getting. This new model was birthday present for 65 year old dad, to match mine. Placed order and paid for overnight delivery on Thusday May 21. Thought that all was well. Within minutes I realized that I made a typo when entering my credit card expiration date. I immediately re-entered my data and re-submitted my order. As Amazon web page indicated that any order placed within the next four hours guaranteed overnight delivery. I rested easy. As hours went by I noticed that no order shipping confirmation came. I inquired. Amazon investigated, reported that my order will not ship overnight after all, that the typo I entered created a pay decline, affected re-submission (punishment?). Their computer then automatically recalculated my shipping terms at their discretion, upon my re-submission. A $15 credit was offered for my inconvenience. It was still Thursday. Item ships from Phoenix. Needed it for weekend. I live in Arizona. Delivery on time was easy, NO air required. Ground service via UPS is 3 hours. Amazon made NO effort to deliver on time at all. What was particularly annoying was that every email communication from Amazon was a one-sided conversation. The customer is prohibited from answering back. Any issue cannot be discussed. Amazon exercises control over whole transaction, terms and delivery in spite of my payment or my wishes. Amazon emails full of euphemisms thanking me for my cooperation and understanding, none of which I expressed. Amazon did not budge. Purchase did NOT make it for birthday event. ALL Amazon's fault. I have purchased from Amazon many times before and shopped Amazon many times before as demonstrated by the SPAM email advertisements I receive from them "knowing" what I recently viewed. I've lost all respect for this overbearing retailer. This behavior has alienated me completely. I don't need a supplier that spies on me and controls me when I pay up in good faith. Amazon doesn't care. Hype rules.Customer Review: excellent package & function, difficult interface
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this 60Cx, my first GPS, 6 weeks ago. My principal use is to determine location when hiking. The performance of the 60Cx is excellent, the hi-gain antenna and sensitivity give multiple satellites under almost all conditions. This is true deep in tree-shaded canyons and inside my house. The device works best when the antenna is vertical or nearly vertical. I get good reception when the GPS is clipped on my belt. This critical characteristic gets 5 stars. Battery life with continuous operation, no screen back lighting, is a little disappointing at 12 hours using NiMh re-chargeables. Not a big deal, just bring plenty of spares.
Interface, or how easy is it to use: Not very! The small cursor control, a wheel with 4 arrows on it, is hard to use. Trying to move the cursor frequently results with the desired plus the unwanted adjacent movement. For example, using the up arrow frequently gives up plus left or right. I do have man size fingers and have to use my fingernail or a stylus to prevent this problem. Accessing menus, navigating and entering data ignores conventional wisdom, in favor of an awkward Garmin version. This aspect gets 2 stars.
Miscellaneous: The packaging, excluding the small cursor wheel, is excellent. Rubberized controls and gaskets on the battery door are probably adequate to protect the device from splashes of water and rain. The belt clip is magnificent. The GPS hangs pendulum style securely in its holder, which attaches to belt or pack. It is removed easily using the release button and is reinstalled with a reassuring click. The on board map that comes with the unit is a joke. Most users will want to purchase an additional map so figure an additional $80-$100 onto the purchase price. I purchased the 24K Topo Oregon / Washington map on micro SD and find it awesome. In conclusion, I would not recommend this GPS unconditionally to a friend. The difficult interface and expense of adding maps must be individually evaluated. Four stars for this aspect.
Customer Review: GPSMAP 60Cx doesn't cut it
Summary: 2 Stars
After 4 months with this critter, here's my experience based on the Garmin 'technical advantage', or whatever we consumers like to see in products we want:
* High-Sensitivity GPS Receiver
Fast to acquire satellites, but degrades in position accuracy thereafter, to as much as 0.2 miles, lots of wandering. When compared to my old Magellan and great Streetpilot, this 60Cx likes to take long pauses between refreshing display data (up to 15 seconds once!), varies wildly on speed (eg, 65 to 75 and back, as though confused). And the list goes on.
I compared this 60Cx to a lower end DeLorme: the Delorme took a little longer to acquire its position, but steadied on my fix; whereas the 60Cx acquired fast, then began wandering further and further in various directions.
This product is not what you might want in the backcountry unless you have confidence in your whereabouts or an alternative way to navigate back out.
* Color-Handheld Mapping Ideal For Both Marine & Outdoor Use
Sorry, wildly off on position, I can no longer trust it. Looks pretty though.
* Bright, Sunlight-Readable Color Tft Display
True, easy to see, and display size nice.
* 64 Mb Micro Secure Digital Card For Storage Of Optional Map Detail
Hmmm, I opted for the 2GB SD card out the gate, seems like a good option.
* Fast Usb Connectivity Makes Loading Charts & Maps Quick & Easy
Nope, kept hanging the PC, the software and completely unpredictable. My review of TOPO USA for this unit is not complimentary either.
Manual: in spite of 35 years running everything from mainframes to PCs, and all those electronic gadgets we now take for granted these days, this book is not helpful.
So, while I am delighted with the Garmin Streetpilot, I cannot recommend this 60Cx or the underlying TOPO USA map software, or the SD Topo chip. Buy a map.
Customer Review: Nice unit, but not for hiking or kyaking, Etc.
Summary: 2 Stars
My second GPS unit. First one was a DeLorme attached to a PC, which worked well but was VERY slow to start up, and cumbersome.
I agree with all the 5 star review comments about quality of construction and sattelite capture speed of the GPSMap 60CSx. I am, however, greatly disappointed in the "Base maps" sold with the unit. These maps are so limited as to render the unit useful for city to city navigation only. The base maps show major highways only (state/county highways or larger roads-interstates), and include no local roads, a fact Garmin does not disclose in any of the sales material I read. They should be clear that you must buy more detailed maps, and where to get them.
After looking over the Garmin web site, I purchased the suggested MapSource Topo maps on CD for almost $100, and was stunned at the poor detail on these maps also. On first use in my back yard, the unit indicated that I was across the street in a neighbor's yard perhaps 100-200 feet away, and that was in New Jersey with eight satellites in view. The unit also could not accurately locate the 100+ acre lake near my home. These maps cannot be useful to anyone attempting to navigate off road, hiking on trails, or travelling on streams/small rivers. The maps simply bear little resemblance to actual geography except they do seem to indicate location of 25 foot topogtaphical elevation lines fairly well (not too useful). I kayak a great deal and had hoped to use the unit to navigate around New Jersey rivers and the sedge islands in Barnegat Bay. Forget about it! There is no correspondence between the Topo map and the actual geography! Totally useless for kayaking intercoastal bays or any of south Jersey's fabulous streams. As it stands, I have invested just under $400 and have little to show for it. I wonder if my ten year old DeLorme maps will work on the Garmin GPSMap 60CSx? I don't know what to do. At this point the unit is practically useless.
Customer Review: Good device, but pricey on the maps
Summary: 3 Stars
After using this unit for just under three years I have very few real complaints about the unit itself, but am a little disapointed in the mapping software.
You must use Garmin's propietary mapsource maps to upload to the unit, nothing else will work, and you have to have a seperate copy of the software for every unit you own, so if a unit dies on you or you decide to upgrade to a newer model, you have to re-purchase all the maps that were loaded to that particular unit.
The street maps come as a complete set for North America at $100, and 1:100k topo maps for $120, but if you want 1:24k maps they come in sets of two states at a time for $100 per set with only four sets released as of Feb 2009 (eight of the most western states in all). Or you can buy sets of four states at a time on DVD for $130 (same eight western states). Even at that, from the description there are only a handful of trails on the maps, all near metro areas, though they are supoosed to be able to use the routing function. If you only want 1:24k for the National Parks they have a better version of those with most of the trails marked and able to use the routing function, but you'll need to buy three seperate sets at $116 each if you want the whole USA.
Physically I found the battery cover a little flimsy. The tab that holds the bottom edge in place broke off after the first year destroying the 60Cx's water proofness, and the words on the most of the buttons became illedgible after about 18 months.
All that said, I've been happy with mine for the most part. I use the 1:100k topo maps and get my trail info from other users as GPX files of trails they have been on. There is plently of free software that will allow you to download and edit the tracks of places you've been, from any brand of GPS, and send them to other people as "routes."