Name: R. J. Paquin
Location: Prospect Heights, IL USA
Date: 2004-06-18
Customer Rating: -
Summary: A remarkable small device
Comment: I've been waiting for this to become available as a gift for my wife, an inveterate walker, but now I may have to buy another. I've been "testing" this wondrous gadget today--this is my first experience with any GPS--and am finding it to be both useful and remarkably easy to use. The unit is small enough to not get in the way while worn on the wrist/forearm, yet the screen is large enough and the display clear enough to use while on the move. I don't seem to be experiencing any difficulty getting GPS signal (I've set it for WAAS), and I've been having a great time driving back and forth over and across my trail all day.
August 5, 2004 Update:
A couple of good questions have prompted me to update my review:
The 101 performs fine at high speed. We've had it on road trips and haven't found the upper end of the speed it will consistently report (>90mph, certainly).
It is not sensitive to orientation or movement relative to the wearer. We've taken in on brisk walks, worn on the wrist, and there's no need to keep it steady or in a certain position. I've even jogged wearing it without loss of performance.
Only problem we've ever had with it is right downtown (Chicago) in cement canyons. We've had some signal loss when the unit can't "see" the southern sky. It does NOT work indoors.
(Thanks for asking, Jim!)
Pros:
Clear, informative and responsive GPS!
Small and lightweight unit
Clear display
Easy to use pages and menus
Uses any AAA battery, alkaline or rechargeable [Update: Very good battery life with regular alkalines.]
[Update: The trackback feature is cool!]
Cons:
The 101 does not come with a PC-connection cable, but even if it did, 9-pin Serial?! Ummmm... Has Garmin heard of USB? [Update: This is still stupid.]
Also, no hint of any sort of PC software is given in any of the documentation, so if I were to connect it via a serial port, what would I do with it? [Update: I'm a GPS newbie, but I've been told that it can be used in conjunction with any standard PC-based GPS software. I still think Garmin should have mentioned it in the owner's manual.]
Name: Christopher Moellering
Location: Fort Hood, TX
Date: 2004-12-29
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Amazing
Comment: I have had a Garmin GPS12 for several years and liked it and saw no need to upgrade for my purposes (hiking and geocaching). But when I saw the Foretrex on Amazon I was intrigued and put it on my Christmas list after looking about both this and the Forerunner.
I am really impressed. It does just about everything my 12 does but in a smaller package. The ergonomic sense of wearing it on my wrist is just awesome. Being able to wear it while running and see my speed, to see my info while hinking without having to dig for my GPS from a pocket or pouch. If it was just a scaled-down 12 it would be worth it.
But, no...there's more. The trip computer page is great. Pick the info you want from dozens of fields and choose where you want them displayed. Simple and easy to configure. It's great. It's like being able to have a purpose-made GPS screen for whatever activity you're doing.
Their is WAAS support as well. In layman's terms it makes the GPS more accurate, which, of course, is a good thing.
Probably my only con on this unit would be the lack of external power connection. This really only comes into play in the car. (Where it mounts handily on my rear-view mirror using the wrist strap.)
Battery life is good for only using 2 AAA's. A Set of rechargables is a logical investment with this unit. Speaking of batteries, the reason I choose the 101 over the 201 is the ability to use batteries. There aren't many power outlets in the woods for recharging and I do enjoy backpacking and longer trips on occasion.
Name: Robert A. Vogel
Location: Berkeley CA USA
Date: 2005-09-27
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Phenomenal
Comment: I have never used a GPS system before - the Foretrex 101 was the first system I purchased and I love it.
I approached this purchase with much trepidation. My experience with techno-gadgets has not been good. Usually I find that I have to learn how some nerd/designer thinks in order to use the gadget. Life is too short to spend it remembering whether to punch the mode key or the enter key.
Yet, I wanted to purchase a GPS system so that I do not get lost while hiking or kayaking in wilderness. I looked at a few GPS models and found the usual techno-insanity: You build a database of maps and routes on your PC, download that information to a small map display in the GPS system, take a hike, then upload your journey back into your PC where you can build and manage a database of journeys. Ugh! All I want is to find my campsite - not learn another database management system.
So, I had almost given up on this purchase when I saw the Foretrex 101. No fancy color maps. Just a simple device which you wear on your wrist like a large watch. It displays a small map of your locale, your present location and the most important information required to travel to your intended destination.
I purchased it, turned it on and took a walk through my neighborhood. It was brilliant: I watched a little walking person on my screen leave a trail which moved as I moved, and rotated as I turned. In order to get back home, I turned around and followed the trail displayed on the Fortrex screen. No fancy commands to learn - just a few intuitive buttons and I was finding my way around my own neighborhood just fine!
But, I wondered, would it work when I went up to the Sierras? That weekend I tested it on trails that I knew - and it was amazing. The ranger station had the longitude and latitude coordinates of the campsite I had reserved - so I punched those into my Foretrex and proceeded to hike to the site. As I hiked, the navigation screen displayed an arrow which rotated as I turned so it was always pointing toward the campsite. It also displayed my present elevation and distance remaining to the site. (Those are two of several possible numbers I could have displayed on the navigation screen.) On the map screen, I saw a perfectly clear outline of the trail behind me as I walked towards camp - along with waypoints of my favorite lakes which I entered into the Foretrex as I arrived at each lake. When I arrived at my destination, it guided me to within 20 feet of my reserved campsite.
The next day, when I hiked out, the Foretrex was just phenomenal. I saw the entire trail from the prior day displayed on my map screen - I followed it all the way back to the trail head. I could see the trail drift off the left of the little walking figure as I wandered off the trail to the right - and it was completely simple to walk back to the trail while watching the little guy on the map screen do the same!
The Foretrex guided me all the way back to the trailhead - in fact, it guided me back to exact parking spot where my car was parked.
Now I'm thinking about doing all kinds of things that I had never considered before: I could hike off trails, I could hike when trails are partially covered with snow, I could kayak in the fog and I am even thinking about giving a Foretrex to my wife - who has a terrible sense of direction - so she can go off on her own in the woods without me worrying about loosing her.
I am finding some the the additional features really useful: It is nice to know my average speed and estimated time to arrive at my destination. I like to know my elevation to get a sense of the effort remaining on a tough climb - or my average paddle speed in the kayak to see the effect of wind and current on my progress. I have even discovered the Foretrex works fine in my car - and it is useful to punch in waypoints to show tricky intersections which I always forget, or the location of convenient Starbucks along the way. I even used it to test the accuracy of my speedometer (and discovered that my speedometer reads about 4% too fast, which probably explains why I never get any speeding tickets).
I do have three complaints about it. First, I was confused at one point when the map screen showed a weird spike pointing off from the side of the trail. It appeared as if I had made a side excursion in a straight line for about one half a mile, and then returned along the exact same line back to the trail. It was obviously an error - the excursion was perfectly straight, and I know I did not make it - so I just assumed that the Foretrex got one position measurement wrong and I ignored it. But since this occurred on the second day I owned the device, at first I didn't know what to make of it.
Secondly, I discovered that it is awkward to save small parts of the day's journey (the "track log") in the Foretrex's list of saved tracks. It is easy to save the entire journey made since the last time I cleared the track log - and with some effort I can select a portion of the journey to save. However, I found it impossible to select just the kayaking portion of my day's journey and save it separately from the car trip to and from the lake.
Finally, I discovered that one pair of AAA batteries lasts only about 12 hours. (I intentionally depleted the batteries without changing them to see whether the Foretrex would loose any information or become disoriented in any way. When I inserted a new pair, the Foretrex picked up right where it left off, without missing a beat!)
These are very minor glitches. Overall, this device has a very simple intuitive user interface and it has opened up whole new possibilities for getting around. It may even save my life some day.
Name: Beowulf
Location: Laguna Hills, CA USA
Date: 2004-12-20
Customer Rating: -
Summary: The best feature set in a wrist GPS
Comment: I like to walk/jog along different routes through my neighborhood. I do have a pedometer, but I do not have complete faith in its accuracy. I have also become fascinated by "Geocaching," a hobby where people hide a cache somewhere, upload its Latitude and Longitude to the Internet, and then other people can go on a treasure hunt of sorts.
GPS units have been around for a good amount of time now, but I consider them to be too bulky to use for everyday jogging. These wrist GPS units (the Foretrex 101/201, and the Forerunner 101/201) offer nice alternatives, but which one did I need?
In my mind, the first criteria for any GPS system is its accuracy. If the device provides inaccurate data, then any information derived from it is devalued. The Foretrex units are WAAS-enabled, which means they use a separate set of ground-based stations to correct the satellite information. This correction results in higher accuracy, and eliminated the Forerunners from consideration. WAAS is currently available only in North America.
The next concern that I had was for battery life: I wanted to be sure that the thing worked when I turned it on! Since I had narrowed my search to the Foretrex 101/201, I discovered that the main difference between these two units was that the 201 uses an integrated battery, while the 101 uses standard "AAA" batteries. I didn't want to have to keep track of a power adapter if I took my GPS on the road with me in order to recharge the unit, but it would be easy to carry an extra pair of AAA's. As a result, the Foretrex 101 was the last unit standing.
In actual use, it has been wonderful. I have been able to track time and distance on my walks, regardless of the route that I take. The only concern I have is that if I am going under trees, the Foretrex can lose its signal more easily than I would expect. The loss of signal also affects my ability to quickly locate some "geocaches." I have read that this problem exists in some of the larger Garmin units as well. I don't expect a smaller device to have better performance, which is why I didn't reduce my rating to four stars.
The only other item that is worth mentioning is that the Foretrex 101 does NOT come with a PC interface cable. It has the capability, but the cable is sold separately. I strongly recommend acquiring this cable so that you can update the firmware in the device, as well as download your track information from it. With the optional cable, I am getting all of the functionality that I expected from such a compact device.
If you are looking for an informational aid for your workouts, then the Foretrex 101 is a great option. I believe that this one device has the features that you will need over its siblings. If you are looking for more robust features from a GPS, including use for Geocaching or for mapping, then you should look elsewhere.
Name: Randy Colburn
Location: California
Date: 2004-12-21
Customer Rating: -
Summary: so far so good
Comment: I just got this gadget and have used it around the neighboorhood but not yet in the backcountry. So far it seems to work well. It actually fits on my wrist without being annoying and bulky. If you feel self conscious it fits under the cuff most jackets.
The first day I got it I went to a local park, marked a waypoint, walked about half a mile away, then navigated back to within 10 feet. So accuracy and ease of use are fine. I have also used it in the car and it is very accurate at tracking speed, distance, etc.
Reception was problematic one day when it was very foggy out. Maybe this is a problem for all GPS units. But beware - this technology is not foolproof!
My only gripe is that the instruction manual, while sufficient for basic operation, does not describe all the features in complete detail. I am still trying to figure out the difference between bearing, heading, and course. But I still gave it 5 stars because it is a great little gadget at a price that seems reasonable.
By the way, I am very happy with Amazon's delivery. The package came to my house less than 24 hours after I placed the order - even though I selected the slowest option (like 3-5 days?) to get free shipping.
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