skyview18's Full Review: Garmin eTrex Vista HCx Handheld GPS Receiver
I bought this unit with Magellan Meridian at the same time so I can do a side-by-side comparison. (See my review for the Magellan Meridian on this site as well).
If you wondering why I pick up the top of the line eTrex along with low end Meridian to do the compare, these are the reasons; from the point of a GPS receiver, they are basically the same; and since the eTrex does not have the memory expansion capable, I want get a unit have bigger build in memory, on the other hand Meridian only has 2 MB build in memory but it can be expanded by adding SD card up to 128MB now (With the new software upgrade).
The Vista looks very attractive, compact, very nice button layout for one hand operation (It’s designed for left hand operation, so you can free your right hand ).
The display is a very nice high-resolution screen, it can display as much information as possible without overlay the screen even in the bigger scale map. Compare to this, the Magellan Meridian display looks ugly. The only problem is that if you have vision problem for reading the small fine fonts, you might not like it, but still there is an option to use big font if you like.
The unit has the build in digital compass and barometric, very useful if you doing a lot of hiking. It can be setup so that it automatically switches to the build in compass for navigation instead of using satellite when your moving speed is below certain number.
The base map came with the unit is very detail and I am very impressed. I live in Canada and the map has most of the major roads, highways, airports and the small towns in the surrounding area of my city, much better than Magellan.
However, the reception of the unit does not make me happy. I take both Vista and Magellan for a bike ride about an hour, they both sitting in my back pack, after the ride, when I look the track log, Magellan has no problem and shows me the entire track continually. But the Vista lost the satellite several times and the track log shows that I am jumping from one place to the other several times. I notice several times that Vista shows I was driving in the parking lot doing cycle but in fact I was sitting in the car and the engine was not even running! I am not sure what exactly is behind this but I believe the other people said that this is because Vista uses patch antenna and the Magellan has the quadrifilar antenna. My house is in a woods area, and I bring both units (Vista and Magellan) into the woods to take a walk. No surprise, Vista had hard time working under the heavy woods, and the Magellan is much butter (lost the satellite lock once or twice as well but much better).
So finally I return it back to the store, because first I am not feel comfortable to rely on something that I know will not functional under some condition. I am working at the satellite search and rescue business and I know this can be critical when you are in the middle of no where and try to ask for help. I am sure people will not get them into trouble most of the time but if something happens and you found out it can't help you at that time, you will be regret. Second reason is I don’t think it worth the money (550CAD$ + 15%TAX) when I can spend less for Magellan (350CAD$ + 15%TAX) and have better performance (in terms of it act as a GPS receive, which is the fundamental).
I only recommend this unit if you mostly use it in an open area (or you don’t care about reception), and you can get a good price (or you have a lot of money to burn), since it has a lot of feature on it. You might want to get some NiMH rechargeable batteries for it since the battery only last for about 8 to 10 hours (on fully charged NiMH batteries with compass on), if you use the back light a lot then the battery last even shorter.
The next one I gonna try is Garmin GPSMAP76S, still waiting for the order to come in.
With 1,000 programmable waypoints, this portable GPS receiver helps you easily find your way from here to there on your next hike or trek.More at Best Buy ®
Ideal for serious hikers and climbers, the rugged eTrex Vista H features a high-sensitivity receiver, detailed basemap, barometric altimeter, electron...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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