Garmin eTrex Vista HCx Handheld GPS Receiver

I had originally picked up a Garmin ETrex Venture, which is physically identical to the Vista, however only has a 1mb built-in points of interest database, and has no ability to load in mapsets (point data only).

I decided that if I was going to pay a few hundred for a GPS unit, I may as well pay a bit more and get a unit which had full map downloading capabilities as well as a few other handy options like the built-in magnetic compass and barometric altimeter.

People reading my reviews should note that this is my 2nd (or 3rd GPS if you count the Venture). My original GPS purchase was a Magellan GPS companion for the Handspring Visor PDA. I'll do a few comparisons with that unit as well and show some pros and cons of each in a summary at the end.

Installing 2 x AA batteries powers up the unit which displays an animated Garmin logo, copyrights and disclaimer. Unfortunately this disclaimer appears on every power up - while it's only on the screen for a few seconds, you need to "click" through it to get to the first GPS screen.

The GPS first comes up with it's "Acquiring Satellite" screen, which attempts to tune in the GPS satellites and begin locating your position.

The first time the GPS is powered-up (or if it hasn't been used in a few months, or has moved a significant distance while being turned off), the GPS goes into a "brute force" location mode. Essentially using the data received, it locates itself anywhere in the world, and automatically adjusts itself without any user operation. The first "brute force" location takes anywhere up to around 5 or 10 minutes. Once this is completed, subsequent lockons take around 20-40 seconds from the unit being powered off.

I've used the GPS in a variety of different environments, and it only lost the satellite under extreme forest coverage. A few seconds in a clearing were enough to re-establish the lockon. If you are going to be working in deep forest, you may wish to look for a unit with a more sensitive quad-helix antenna. For the majority of users, it should be quite sufficient. If you're going into a heavily wooded area, it may be worthwhile setting the GPS in the clear for a few minutes to allow it to acquire as much satellite data as possible before going into an area with poor reception. This will allow the unit to lock on faint signals faster. The compass on this unit can also be valuable in these situations as you can take a magnetic compass bearing with the GPS and use that to guide you to a visible target while a lock is unavailable.

The Vista unit includes an average-detail level map of the world in it's internal memory. A vector map covering the world, showing all of the countries, major roadways, lakes, and a few additional details. As this is a rough map the unit is preloaded with, accuracy is somewhat lacking (most likely in a 500m-10km range based on area). Maps for North America are probably somewhat more accurate as this is Garmin's target market for this device. They also sell these units in other parts of the world with different basemaps loaded in (showing more detail) based on different markets.

While you can enter a street address and have the unit automatically locate it for you (if you have the proper map CD installed/uploaded), the unit doesn't include any built-in automatic routing. You can upload auto-routed maps created on the PC however and the GPS will give you navigation prompts as you move through the route waypoints.

The map display is reasonably easy to use, although it make take a bit of poking through the manual to learn how to manage waypoints. Map redraw is a bit on the sluggish side if you're zoomed in and showing a lot of road detail, or if the map is especially complex in your current area. You can configure the map display complexity to reduce detail if you find the display is refreshing too slowly.

The unit stores the following data:

Waypoints: 500 (3d)
Track Log: 2048 points
Saved Tracks: 10 (250 points each)
Routes: 20

On average, the data collection facility is probably adequate for most uses. If users find the memory filling up too quickly, there are options to modify the frequency & distance at which track points are collected.

The navigation display can use the unit's built-in electronic compass to display correct orientation even when standing still. This ability is especially handy when geocaching (in my opinion) as you can maintain correct orientation to a cache while standing still, then take an accurate bearing to your point. The compass must be calibrated whenever the unit's batteries are replaced, but only takes 10 seconds. The compass draws some extra power, so it can be enabled/disabled quickly by holding down a button on the unit's case for a few seconds.

The barometric altimeter also requires an initial calibration which can be done by entering your current elevation (if known), current air pressure, or using the height calculated by a 4D GPS fix. I don't really use the altimeter much myself, however it would come in especially handy in a light plane as a supplementary navigation instrument.

The unit's display is a crisp 160x288 4-level greyscale, back lit LCD display. The display is sharp and the backlighting nice and bright, suitable for night use. The backlight duration can be modified in the setup menu.

Garmin's ETrex line of GPS units use a "click stick" input method which you will either love or hate. The click stick is a 4-direction joystick which can also be depressed (clicked) in to make a selection. I find the stick to be quite useable, making one handed operation possible (although 2-handed is faster). The only thing I wish for here is that it was an 8-direction stick instead of 4-direction to make scrolling on maps a bit easier so you can move diagonally.

For users who wish to increase accuracy of maps, and to get more detail, Garmin sells a wide assortment of CDROMS which offer enhanced detail maps for various parts of the world (North America and Europe at the present time. No maps are available for Asia so far as I know at the time of this review).

Map CDs come in a few different categories, offering city level (street level) detail, auto route planning on some CDs, topographic mapping, and marine charts. Some maps are shipped as totally unlocked CDs which you can load onto any/all Garmin units that are supported. Other map CDs are encrypted, and Garmin supplies "unlock" codes for the regions you wish to pay for.

Pricing for the maps is anywhere from $50-170 US per CD depending on the features selected. While this is quite expensive and may be prohibitive for casual users, people who require accurate maps and navigation aids will most likely find it worthwhile as a one-time cost. I'm not sure if Garmin provides revised map data free to buyers, or if a cost is involved.

Uploading maps is quite slow, and this is where the serial connection on the unit really shows it's age. Loading approximately 12mb of map data into my unit took over 20 minutes. Whenever new maps are uploaded to the unit, the ETrex will flush the memory, which means that if you wish to simply add a small map area from the CD, you need to reload the complete database you want in your unit. Could take up to 40 minutes to completely fill the internal memory. Fortunately that level of map detail covers a fairly large area.

If you are on the move, you can also plug your ETrex unit into the computer and use a variety of mapping software (including Garmin's software) to display your position on a real time scrolling map. Would be great for parents with kids who always want to know "are we there yet?". Then the kids can see for themselves, generate an estimated time of arrival, look for interesting route markers, etc.

Garmin has a specialized data cable for vehicle use which supplies power to the unit from a 12v cigarette adaptor for continuous operation and can connect the unit to a computer at the same time.

Garmin releases firmware updates for their GPS units quite regularly, which fix bugs found in the unit, and add additional features. Firmware releases tend to be released every 2 or 3 months, and can be uploaded into the GPS with the supplied data cable and a Windows PC (As I don't have a Mac, I can't comment on the Macintosh Compatibility). Updating the firmware took approximately 20 minutes on my unit.

Here's a short comparison with my Magellan GPS Companion for the Handspring Visor:

Garmin - Completely waterproof to 1 meter. Screen protected by plastic shield. Uses patch antenna for satellite reception (works best when held horizontal, or at an angle - not as effective when held vertically), uses 2xAA batteries. As this is a closed-unit GPS, if you want to use other navigation software, you need to connect it to an external computer which can be large and bulky.

Companion - Not waterproof, screen of PDA is extremely fragile. Uses a quad-helix antenna for improved reception in both vertical and horizontal orientations. Requires 2xAAA batteries for both the PDA and the GPS module. The big advantage here is that as the PDA is a full computer, you can load (or program yourself) whatever software you require into it. There is a fair amount of 3rd party GPS software available for PDAs, however it's not usually of the complexity of the dedicated mapping software for dedicated GPS units.

All in all, I'm quite happy with this unit, and I think it's a good purchase as a GPS that I'll get years of use out of.

And for those that care, I can be found here (N49.23470 W122.86036) :P