Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx Handheld GPS by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $189.99 You Save: $346.00 (65%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: GPS or Navigation System See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx Handheld GPS
Digital camera Review: A good buy
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted a hand held device that would work well in a car and this does both very well. No external antennae needed in the car either. However, an external power cable is needed because batteries do not last long. Accuracy is excellent.Digital camera Review: BOATERS DO NOT BUY!!
Summary: 1 Stars
To say this thing is designed for boaters is as big a joke as a lie!! The included database does not even include the basic outline of local lakes smaller than the Great Lakes. Minnesota - the "land of 10,000 lakes" has been reduced to the land of 2 or 3 lakes. The map that came with it is from 2001. Perhaps the glaciers had not done their work by then. Truthfully, the Garmin 430 that we use for our car has a far, far better database. This unit was designed for one purpose - to make you buy additional databases. The picture on the 76Cx page shows an image of a lake with depths and navigation aids. Nowhere does it say the image requires optional addons to get that kind of detail (or even see the lake) although on the box (once you've shelled out the money and it arrives) you find that in very small print on the back. The only claim that may be realistic is that it is supposed to float and I am sorely tempted to put that to the test. To get maps of two popular lakes in MN, Rainy Lake and Lake Superior, I need to buy two addon charts at over $200. If I want to see a handful of the other lakes I can pay another $89 for the Lakemaster addon (which conveniently doesn't include the other two lakes). Grand total - over $500 including buying the initial piece of junk which feels like a 80's vintage cell phone. Large color display? Maybe for geocaching but not nearly big enough to be mounted in the cockpit of a boat and the resolution is very poor. Save your money and buy a better unit - preferably not a Garmin as their business practices are suspect at best. If you do buy it, good luck with support. I couldn't even get on the web site and I gave up on the phone after 30 minutes. I'm a pretty easy consumer usually but this is a major rip off!Digital camera Review: Complete rip off
Summary: 2 Stars
The Garmin GPSMAP76Cx is very disappointing. Garmin recommended this unit after I contacted them about wanting a GPS I could transfer from my boat to my car and vice versa. It was more money than I had expected to pay but then it looked like it had everything I needed and although I knew I would have to buy a Bluechart map I was assured these were readily available on micro SD card. I was assured that the included Metroguide Europe software had detailed maps of the UK and therefore I would not need to purchase additional maps for using in the car. However when the unit arrived it became clear that the Metroguide Europe software does not do "auto-routing" (you can't get the GPS to find places and direct you to them) unless you have first worked out all your routes on a PC and uploaded them to the 76CX unit. If you want the 76CX to behave like a proper automotive GPS unit you have to purchase the City Navigator software which is another ?150! This seems completely crazy as dedicated car sat nav units are available for this price with auto-routing and all the bells and whistles as standard. The fact that Garmin didn't include the City Navigator software rather than the completely useless Metroguide software seems very mean spirited to me. At this point I was starting to feel a bit ripped off so I thought I would just buy the Bluechart Micro SD card and use the 76CX on the boat, and probably buy a proper dedicated road GPS separately. However when I tried to buy the Bluechart map on Micro SD card I couldn't find anyone in the UK who had them in stock. Garmin will only sell them directly within the US and eventually when I found someone who said they could order the card for me they said it would be "at least 10 days" to get it to them and it would cost 50% more than Garmin charge their US customers! After contacting Garmin's support team I was told to buy a blank SD card and the Bluechart map on CD - even more expensive! The Bluechart maps are also for quite large areas which is useless for me as I only have a small boat with a 10 mile range so really wont need such a large area but still you have no option to just buy the bit you need - you have to purchase an entire section! All in all this unit is fine - the screen is smaller than I would have liked and there's no voice directions, it also feels a lot flimsier than I thought it would, but the additional costs of maps and poor availability of pre programmed micro SD cards mean this is incredibly poor value for money - I really regret buying it now and wish I had done more research.Digital camera Review: Customer Support Hung Up On Me
Summary: 2 Stars
After providing unhelpful recommendations, Garmin user support got frustrated with my questions and hung up on me. This was a first for me.Digital camera Review: Garmin 76 Series GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
Great device at a great price. Came with 1GB MicroSD instead of 128MB, pretty nice.