Handheld GPS Reviews - Customer reviews - Garmin eTrex Vista CX Color Handheld GPS

Manufacturer: Garmin

List Price: $374.99
Our Price: $198.95
You Save: $176.04 (47%)
Refurbished Price:
Used Price: $120.00

Average Customer Rating: -

Product details

Offers (6)

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Name: Jeffrey C. Dyrek
Location: Illinois
Date: 2007-07-10
Customer Rating: -

Summary: I took this to the Geographic North Pole
Comment: I used this GPS system on my second and third expeditions to the North Pole. It is interesting that on the actual Geographic North Pole it almost instantly locked onto twelve satellites. As I walked just a couple of feet, it would show a very accurate distance of my movement. One day, while I was eating, I just let the GPS unit run so we could watch the drift of the ice. We were moving at .2mph Then suddenly our direction changed by almost eighty degrees and we were now moving in a different direction at .1 mph. In a few minutes we again moved back to the original direction and speed. When I stepped outside of the tent there was a huge crack in the ice, lead as is called on the pole. I actually measured the breaking of the polar ice cap and seen it live on this GPS receiver. It worked very well at extremely low temperatures of minus thirty five degrees with wind chills that were hitting minus seventy degrees. If you are thinking of buying a GPS, buy one of the newer ones, they have better displays. C. Jeff Dyrek, Expedition Leader 2005 North Pole Expedition, Look at my exhibits on the web.

Name: Dr D
Location:
Date: 2006-12-31
Customer Rating: -

Summary: ...and the birds won't eat your breadcrumb trail
Comment: Despite all the annoying aspects of it I'd have to say that I'm glad I had this little toy while traveling in Costa Rica. It was nice to know that I couldn't get lost anywhere. I now have my tracks downloaded on my laptop and it's really neat to see the route I took and all the waypoints marked on the map (even the entrances to the parks).

The upsides - huge storage with the 1 gig microSD card, nice display, pocket size (not for teeny tiny pockets like the Razr but fits in standard sized front pockets), user friendly for the most part, and long battery life (AA batteries so you can easily have a spare handy if it's getting low). And it's fun to leave virtual breadcrumbs along your trail.

The downsides to this unit are numerous but I would be surprised if most are not simply limitations in the technology. To name a few - takes a loooooong time to acquire satellites when you turn on the unit and takes even longer when going to a new location (though the latter bothered me much less than the former); loses GPS signal very easily - under forest canopy, under any roof (even just at the gas station under the tiny shelter), and even in my pocket or the center of the car in fully open skies - it gets really annoying when you're walking outdoors and realize that for the last 5 minutes you've had no GPS signal because the unit was in your pocket; expensive accessories and maps, and poor detail on maps for locations not well covered (Costa Rica for example) - don't bother with the preloaded base maps, get the maps for the area you need and if there are none for that area get the world map. Also the anti-piracy stuff on the software is really annoying - it's a whole long process to unlock after installing and it's device specific.

Oh by the way, the customer service agent was really helpful when I called (though limited business hours make it not too convenient) but very slow by email.

Name: David L. Cheung
Location:
Date: 2006-12-20
Customer Rating: -

Summary: A few words for cyclists
Comment: If you're a cyclist and you're buying this because you want the hiking functions as well as using it on your bicycle, then you need to read this:

The "Bike Mount" that comes with the unit as advertised is only half of the actual part used to mount it on a set of handlebars. It is the slider part that bolts on to the battery cover. If you're looking into mounting it on your handlebars, you will need to buy the other half of the accessory, which costs around $11+. This is the actual handlebar clip. You can find the handlebar mount on the Garmin website, as well as all the mapping software in their online store.

Other than that, I agree with most reviewers here, this unit is awesome. 4 stars because of the lack of mapping software included and the fact that the advertising was a little misleading (always a catch!). I really like this thing!

Name: Allen S. Nygren
Location: Maine!
Date: 2006-08-28
Customer Rating: -

Summary: Great Unit
Comment: Unit is well constructed, controls are fairly intuitive, backlighting/screen are also very good. My unit was working great and then would only power up very briefly and then would go out. The unit acted like it had dead batteries put in it even when it had brand new alkaline. Unit is about 28 days old. I will get to see how good the Amazon.com replacement policy is! This was the first thing that I ever purchased from Amazon.com.

Name: Marcelo
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah USA
Date: 2007-01-31
Customer Rating: -

Summary: It worths the extra dollars
Comment: I own a Garmin eTrex Legend, a Magellan eXplorist 210, and a Garmin eTrex Vista Cx. I really think that the Vista Cx worths its price. It has a nice display, lots of features and USB interface. The GPS Track Maker, that is a nice free software to manage tracklogs and routes, promptly recognized the Vista Cx (I had some problems with the Magellan). The display is pretty much more readable than the Legend. Overall, I would say that this GPS is one of the greatest things for the outdoor enthusiast.

I gave it only four stars because I think this GPS is not able to calculate an area using only some waypoints, as the Legend was. Currently, the area calculator feature requires me to follow the whole perimeter of the area (this is not always possible due to several reasons). The Legend had a "Route Area Feature" that I did not find on the Vista Cx. I minimized this issue building a PC program to calculate the area (but it only works for some specific cases and I need a PC to calculate the area).

In general, it is a very good product.

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