Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver
Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver
With the eTrex Legend, GARMIN has loaded a full basemap of North and South America into one small unit. The Legend is also designed to provide precise GPS positioning using correction data obtained from the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Brightly colored translucent blue case Power Source - Two AA batteries (not included)
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Bare bones GPS with no feature improvements in last 5 years
I bought an Etrex legend 4 years ago, for the last 18 months I’ve had intermittent problems with it not working.
Now it’s dead.
Negatives:
Not very durable
Very poor reception under tree cover, Magellan is better here.
Bare bones map, for a good map you pay $100 more.
Minimum memory, only 8 MB, so if you do buy the map, you can only put
a small portion in at any given time.
Comes with a serial cable, most USB to serial adapters don’t work
so if you don’t have a serial port you have a problem.
If you’re using it for geocaching, you can’t mark which ones have been
found.
Also the screen shows the gc.com GCxxxxx code which isn’t helpful.
You need to have a PDA or paper printout of all the caches prepared
ahead of time
Drilling down thru the menus to get to the trip computer page is a pain if there are several caches nearby & you’d like to see some info on each of them.
After 5+ years Garmin should improve the features,
they have done nothing.
2 Stars It was ok for geocaching but…
I bought the eTrex Legend three years ago to replace an older model that I passed on to my son. The price was right and it came with Garmen’s software, a car lighter power cable and a protective case. A big improvement was the ability to run the unit off of the car’s DC power while driving toward the final location and then run off of battery while on foot. However, I did notice that it seemed to be less capable of getting a good signal and would frequently bounce all over the place in the woods. Now it has a propensity to lock up after a few minutes of usage. I’ve read from earlier postings that this has something to do with outdated WAAS protocols. Clearly if this is not something that Garmen has fixed in the firmware, the product will be useless. I found that the only way to unlock the unit was to remove the battery cover and pull out a battery and replace it. Sometimes the “reboot” and reacquire process takes a longer period of time than the unit will function before locking up again. I am now looking for another replacement, hopefully one that will make it easier to go paperless.
4 Stars great for geo-caching
I bought the Garmin Etrex for basically an extra GPS for myself. We have gotten hooked on the geo-caching and a GPS is important to have. My husband has a Garmin 350 and what is bad with that is that it is a touch-screen, so when you are walking with it in your hand, you will most likely hit the screen. So it’s really a pain. With the Garmin Etrex, that won’t happen. You have to push a button in order to move from one screen to the other. I have used it now eight times and the coordinates were right on the money!!! Would recommend it if you are wanting to geo-cache!
V. Longworth
5 Stars Garmin Etrex Legend is a Hands Down Winner
Being a boater/explorer I’ve seen,tried,owned,reviewed,researched & studied about every handheld gps unit there is. I bought the Garmin Etrex Mariner when it first came out.At that time I also found the Garmin MapSource Points of Interest (POI) CD on sale (~2001) for ~ $[...]. I paid $[...] for the Mariner and used it for several years just fine. The Mariner only has 1mb memory, so one is limited in how much detail can be installed, and there is no mapping. The etrex Legend has 8mb onboard memory (no ssd card) and can do selective mapping, but I have found that to be quite adequate. With the POI CD (now costs > $[...] and maps are at least as much) I have downloaded on the Legend complete data (Points of Interests, Businesses, Marine databas with lights, ramps, lakes, rivers,& landmarks and still have ~ 40% memory left for recording tracks, routes and waypoints. The secret here is to use the POI CD on your computer and select only the map areas you will use. You don’t want the whole world,just where you are going. To fully utilize the Legend you have to study and practice with it for at least 8hrs, then use it frequently to stay tuned up on it–there are many layers of resources in this little unit. Its not a turn by turn deal, but a true navigational poi database guide. Pocket sized, long battery life (controllable power consumption), attractive, really easy to use once learned. I find the grey scale (adjustable contast/brightness) easy to read in any light == why pay another $200 for color?
5 Stars best value
This is my 2nd one. The 1st one has been pounded for 3 + years on the handle bars of an ATV and still working. Of all the lower priced GPS pocket units this one is a great value.
NOTE: Get the Mapsource TOPO software to take full advantage of this unit !
Filed under: Portable GPS Reviews