Name: D. DeKeyser
Location: San Jose, CA
Date: 2007-11-06
Customer Rating: -
Summary: The Bomb!
Comment: This is nearly the perfect GPS. I previously owned the Garmin 12MAP.
The 12MAP is a much larger unit with a fixed (SMALL) amount of memory.
With the eTrex Venture Cx you can buy a microSD card and put as many
maps as your heart desires.
I do almost all of my hiking/backpacking in The Sierras. With the
Garmin TOPO and Garmin National Parks West I'm golden.
With the NP West maps you can AUTO-ROUTE the TRAILS! With 1 click I
can see how far it is to my destination AND a profile of the elevation.
The unit is very small and fits into my front pocket. I keep it on
all the time while hiking. When I get home I can upload the tracks
and bring up Google Earth and see EXACTLY where I was hiking.
(All this is built into MapSource from Garmin)
With the Garmin 12MAP I would only bring a GPS when I knew I was
going off-trail or during the early spring months when there is
still snow on the ground. Now I bring the eTrex on every backpack
trip. By the way, the National Parks Maps are 7.5 degree so they
are as good as any USGS map.
If you are thinking of getting the more expensive Legend or Vista
I don't think it is worth it IMO. You can get the elevation from
the main screen and you can get a compass reading by just walking
in straight line.
You may want to consider the high sensitivity receiver but getting
a lock on satellites has never really been a problem. It's too
bad that they don't have an Venture HCx.
Anyway, I hope I helped some. I love this device! And Garmin customer
service is incredible if you have any issues.
Just looked and really the Legend HCx is pretty much the Venture Cx with
high sensitive receiver. It has 25hrs or battery life compared to
32hrs for the Venture Cx. The price is almost the same. I would buy
the Legend HCx at this time if I was buying a new GPS unit.
Name: spoonie
Location: Atlanta, GA USA
Date: 2008-06-09
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Garmin has the BEST GPS.
Comment: We purchased these four Garmins for our four grandchildren so that they could go geocaching this summer. We have purchased other Garmin GPSs and have been extremely pleased so Garmin was our choice. The eTrex Venture CX was the particular product we chose because if offered the long battery life, color display, compass, high number of way points and tracks and fantastic price. You can't beat Garmin on the road but especially for geocaching we have found them to be the best. From our own geocaching experiences we knew it was best for each player to have his own GPS - hence the purchase of four. These eTrex Venture CXs have continued our satisfaction with Garmin. Even the youngest at age 7 has no trouble using the device. The children had experienced geocaching in their school so their learning curve was less than for a person that had not had that experience, like me. I can do the functions but I'm slow. Still I have a lot of fun. A little more experience and there will be no stopping me.
Name: notofthisworld
Location: California
Date: 2006-12-25
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Great for GeoCaching!
Comment: We got our unit a few weeks ago and we are 100% satisfied!! We use it mainly for geocaching and it has all the features we are looking for. We really recommend this unit. The size and weight are small, and the unit is very rugged and has all the ells and whistles. We actually ordered second one last week.
Name: Salty F
Location: Tempe, AZ
Date: 2007-09-01
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Solid Versatile All-purpose GPS
Comment: This is a device I currently own, after having experience with
Explorist 210, StreetPilot 2720, and Nuvi 360. I'm completely
satisfied with my choice and it is the best compromise I was able to
find to suite my needs.
I don't really need GPS very often in my regular life, so I didn't
want to spend a ton of money on something that will be sitting in a
closet most of the time. But when I do use it I want it to be an all
purpose "swiss army knife" kind of tool, and this tiny unit is.
Although, that required putting a 2GB microSD card into the unit and
loading it with MapSource US Topo and City Navigator 8 maps.
Every time I go out of town I take it with me, no matter if it is a
road trip, if I fly to another city, or if I go hiking, or do other
outdoor activities.
This unit has autorouting capabilities for using as a standalone GPS
unit for road navigation. It can be connected to a laptop and work
with more sophisticated mapping software (unlike the Explorist). And
it is also small, rugged, lightweight, waterproof, and totally
suitable all kinds of outdoor use.
And outdoor use is where it shows its best. The screen is bright, the
controls are quite suitable for one hand use. I liked the USGS based
topo maps much better for outdoor use than what Magellan has to offer
for the Explorist. They may not look as good on a PC and are
definitely outdated for use in populated areas, but that only helps
you to find old roads and other small terrain features missing from
Mapsend maps.
The stand alone automotive use is more of an emergency feature. It
pales in comparison with StreetPilot 2720. The screen is small, the
controls are by far less convenient, the route recalculation speed is
several times slower and the results are noticeably less optimal.
Entering destinations and browsing the POI database while driving is
almost impossible. Text-to-speech feature could have saved the
situation somewhat, but it's not supported. All in all, you will
probably need another person to do the navigation, and there will
still be a lot of reasons for your copilot to get angry with this
device. That being said, if you just want to get from point A to point
B in an unfamiliar city and program your destination before you drive,
you'll be just fine. It's looking for detours, or trying to find the
best place to stop for food or gas while hurling down a highway that
will get you frustrated.
Fortunately, if I go for a road trip there is usually another person
and a laptop with me in my car. And with this unit hooked up to a
laptop and with a good electronic map, navigation becomes a breeze.
The biggest disappointment was, after all, the sensitivity of the
receiver. It is on par or with the Explorist and maybe just slightly
worse than in StreetPilot 2720, but after seeing what Nuvi, and other
units high sensitivity receivers can do, you get a bitter taste in
your mouth. The reception is adequate, but it is not solid, you loose
signal indoors, close to high-rise buildings, in mountain canyons, -
the usual places. There are also quite a few dead places inside my
car, so I place it under the windshield to be safe. It's just sad to
know that there are a lot of units now, that don't have this problem.
Another down side is that software is fairly slow. To the point where it becomes annoying. You can see the progress of how different features on a map are drawn and the screen is updated, it is much slower than StreetPilot 2720 where the map is redrawn almost seamlessly (even in 3D mode, which eTrexes do not have). But at least the software is very stable and there are periodic updates with new features coming out regularly, even now, several years after the product was released.
To summ it up. This is a great GPS for outdoor activities, it can be your "swiss army knife" for all your other GPS needs. The only thing I would wish for, is if it was a bit faster and had a higer sensitivity reciver. But, then, for less than 200 bucks this is the best thing you can get, anyway.
Name: Dr. Roger S. Harrington
Location: Summerland, BC
Date: 2007-11-25
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Garmin Etrex Venture CX
Comment: This is a nice system if you like a GPS that is compact, lightweight, has long battery life. Screen may be small for some applications. I wanted this unit mainly for backpacking into remote flyfishing lakes and it was perfect. Computer/map interface works well for planning routes into the backcountry and recording trips after the fact. Newer technology is less susceptible to losing satelite when in deep, narrow valleys.
I've also used it for sea kayaking trips and on the highway.
Great TOY!!!
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