Handheld GPS Reviews - Customer reviews - GARMIN 010-00364-01 Foretrex 101 GPS Receiver

Manufacturer: Garmin

List Price: $139.99
Our Price: Too low to display
You Save: $NaN (NaN%)
Refurbished Price:
Used Price: $121.84

Average Customer Rating: -

Product details

Offers (48)

Page:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of 8

Spotlight customer reviews:

Name: McConnell Franklin
Location:
Date: 2007-01-18
Customer Rating: -

Summary: Great device!
Comment: This is a great GPS device. My only complaint is that it is hard to turn the GPS tracking off. This is only an issue when you are downloading to a computer in a building where you can't get a signal.
It is easy to use and gets great accuracy!

Name: P. Beal
Location: Maine, USA
Date: 2004-10-07
Customer Rating: -

Summary: Nice Product
Comment: Like the product. Great idea. The only problem is trying to find a telephone number for Amazon once you do order it and have a problem with your on-line account that can not be solved via email. I had to use "Google" to find the number. It was on a web site called "Amazon.com: The Death Of Customer Service". Might want to find a phone number before you order.

Name: Simone Roncali
Location: Italy
Date: 2004-10-22
Customer Rating: -

Summary: great product with minor faults
Comment: I've been using the Garmin e-trex gps for a few years so it was very easy to use the Foretrex 101 out of the box. It's very accurate and intuitive, satellite reception is good, even when you have it at your wrist and you're driving the car. Of course heavy forest on cloudy days or city canyons do block the signal, but are there portable gps that don't have this problem?
Although Garmin makes a running specific unit, the Foretrex is perfect for runners as not only keeps track of speed, average speed, max speed, time, distance, total distance, vertical speed etcetera, but it also plots the track, so it's always easy to return to the starting point even in unknown places or in the countryside. Plus it has all the navigation ability of the classic portable gps, like compass, route, bearing, time to destination and so on.
So it's great for hiking, boating (with small boats) but it is also an extraordinary cycle computer (no wheel measure to insert or magnets and pick-ups to fix) and a motorbike navigation aid.
I can't wait to check my speed down the ski slopes, wearing it over the jacket, with the wrist band extension.
Talking about wrist band, I have a 7"/18cm wrist and I use the wrist band at maximum elongation, so a guy with an 8" wrist would be *******. The extension is good to wear the gps over thick sleeves but too long for big wrist people (over 7").
Also, the interface cable is optional (standard on the 201) and you do need it in case you want to download software upgrades.
The back light works very well.
Oh, one great thing is that you can actually program the screen to display the information you want, so basically you can quickly adapt the GPS to the actual use.
It works very well with NiMH batteries and can be kept in battery save mode all the time without significant accuracy loss, so to extend battery life. I do recommend rechargeables as nowadays you can get two AAA 750mA NiMH for 6 bucks.
To summarise, the unit is great and I detracted 1 point for the short strap and for the interface cable which in China cost 30 cents to produce and I think should be included in the package.

Name: john weidner
Location: Saint James, NY
Date: 2005-01-30
Customer Rating: -

Summary: decent unit
Comment: I just got the foretrex 101 for christmas. I have a garmin gps 12 which has worked great for me for years. I chose this model because I wanted something I portable to easily wear on my wrist and handlebars. I also chose the 101 because I didn't want to have to remember to charge the unit. I think it lasts 15 hours on 2 nimh AAAs. Anyway, so far as a data cable, you can easily make one with a 2.5mm phono plug (like the end of cellphone handsfree kit) and a female db9 connector. The tip and middle sections of the plug go to pins 2 and 3 (if it doesn't work just swap 'em) and the back section goes to pin 5. I use EasyGPS among other programs to communicate with it. The advantage of RS/232 over USB is that you can communicate with other GPSs and certain other non-host devices. I hooked it up to my pocket PC for satellite navigation. Negatives: it may be my particular unit, but I get inadequate reception unless I have the screen pointing up. Same thing if I'm near trees. My gps12 works much better in these situations, and based on other reviews here, I feel mine may be defective. Hope someone else posts more detail about satellite reception.

Name: P. A. Visme
Location: Algarve Portugal
Date: 2006-05-25
Customer Rating: -

Summary: Worth the research!
Comment: I did a lot of internet searching for reviews on the Foretrex and other handheld GPS's before I plunged, and having been the proud owner for three weeks am happy to say that the 101 I have is close to perfect for my needs - recording long distance hikes and geocaching. I live in Portugal, where detailed maps for hiking are almost non-existent, and motoring Sat Navs give up as they cross the border (well except in cities), so I can live with the lack of mapping on the device. Signal strength is good and even though WAAS is not available here I often get accuracy figures of about 4m. The Field option list for display is very comprehensive, and I haven't thought of anything else I might need, except a capability to do split times on the Timer - and you probably could if you knew how!! If the Timer worked more like a conventional stopwatch it would have been better for me, but sailors etc probably think it is perfect.
The only other gripe is re the PC connectibility - my laptop doesn't have an RS232, and if it is possible to connect using the Garmin Interface 232 cable AND a 232 to USB adaptor, why don't they make it a USB2 connector in the first place. The Garmin USB adaptor costs currently about $60 US, the 232 Interface cable $16 - both plus postage, yet the whole unit itself only cost $114 including free delivery when I bought it. That cynical marketing, when an essential item is left out of the 101 box (the 232 interface cable is included in the 201 for some reason!!!) is why I dropped a star. Having said that, I think it is the best value and best functional unit that I could have got at present. I suggest readers write to Garmin direct and let them know about the connectibility shortcomings! They may not read these!!

Page:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of 8