Garmin GPSmap 478 GPS Receiver by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin GPSmap 478 GPS Receiver
Digital camera Review: Not great
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought and used this plotter over the summer of 2008 in Maine. While better than nothing the screen is really too small to be useful. If you zoom out to get a range of a few miles, you lose chart detail. The screen keys on the cursor, and it can then be difficult to find the arrow indicating the boat position again. I would have returned it, but Amazon has only a 30 day return policy on unused items. So you buy it and try it, you own it. Unless you have a very small craft, buy a plotter with a larger screen.Digital camera Review: Okay unit, but a few problems after using
Summary: 2 Stars
I've owned the Garmin 478 for a couple of years and while I've generally found it to be a good unit, there are a couple of problems I've encountered. First, the power/recharge plug is very poorly designed (as others here have noted) and isn't sealed against the elements if you use this on an open boat. Second, and more problematic, is that the unit is held together with small steel screws that have begun to corrode and will over time expand and cause the plastic case to crack. These should clearly have been made of stainless steel. After trying unsuccessfully to get someone from Garmin tech support on the phone, they emailed me to say there was nothing they could do about the corrosion...Digital camera Review: Outstanding product!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best Sea to Land to Road GPS I have found and certainly the best GPS I've ever owned (and I've had many). I seamlessly use the 478 on my Sailboat, Motorcycle and Car. The XM Weather feature is outstanding, which I use both on the boat and motorcycle. It is an advanced unit and therefore, will take a novice a bit of experience to work through all the sophisticated functionality vs. some of Garmin's mass market-oriented products like the Zumo or Nuvi, but there is no other device that can do everything that the 378/478 units can do, so it's absolutely worth the extra learning curve.
Garmin's new 640, which is apparently aimed as a new replacement/upgrade for the 478, is a major DOWNGRADE in functionality - so do not be fooled into buying the 640 (XM only with Marine mode, not Automotive mode. Also, the 640 regrettably removed the critically important Tracks Saving/Routing function, which the 478 has). The 478 ROCKS!
Digital camera Review: Quality Control???
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought the unit NEW from Amazon and received it on Jan 3 2009. The sound didn't work, so after dealing with Garmin's customer service I sent my 12V cord/speaker to Garmin waited three weeks and received a replacement. Still no sound. Garmin then told me to send the unit back to them for replacement. About three weeks after sending the unit to them, I received a replacement, only this one had a loose antenna. The GPS worked fine at first, then it started having trouble finding satellites. Garmin then told me to send the GPS back to them for inspection and sent me a replacement about three weeks later. Now this GPS does not charge. The battery is dead.
All of this within seven months of spending close to $700.00 for a NEW GPS and an additional $30.00 in shipping and insurance.
Digital camera Review: Really Great Unit for both Water and Land
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been using this unit for about a month now. It is really great. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend this much for a GPS and so I almost went with a handheld model (GPSMap 76CSx) instead, but by the time I added up all the extras I needed for the handheld (memory card, maps, etc.), it was almost as much as this unit. I am very happy with this purchase and would heartily recommend it to others.
The BlueChart g2 marine charts are really great, and this unit comes with everything preloaded. I love being able to move from my car to my boat with this unit without even turning it off. The battery keeps her going. In fact, I haven't even installed the power cord yet on my boat yet because the battery keeps this baby going for many hours just fine. The boat mount keeps it pretty secure, but I did have it fall off once when hitting some rough waves. Because I didn't have a power cord plugged into the unit, it dropped about 4 feet to the deck. The unit held up fine from being dropped like this. I just put it back in the mount and kept going as if nothing happened.
The g2 charts are impressively detailed, giving island and reef names, showing contours of channels, rock piles, channel markers, depths, etc. The unit tracks where I go both on land and sea and has plenty of memory for keeping the tracks for many trips.
The unit acquires satellites pretty fast and is very accurate. I can tell immediately what part of my driveway I am on. Amazing. The speed this unit reports corresponds almost exactly with the speedometer on my car and instantaneously tracks with it. It will even tell me how fast I am walking as I carry it to the boat from my car. The voice prompts work very nicely through the included car power cord with speaker when navigating to destinations. I like the sand bag mount for the car because I can use it in any car without installing anything. It nicely sits right on the dash. The unit has a very nice option to power on automatically when the car is started and to power off automatically when the car is turned off. There are many points of interest preloaded into the unit. If I want to find the nearest McDonalds, Burger King, Walmart, etc., it is as easy and scrolling through the menu to navigate right to it. I find the menu system very easy to maneuver. This GPS includes tide tables for numerous locations near me. It reports sunrise & sunset times, moon rise and set times, as well as fishing quality prediction. I really like that I can later buy sonar and xm satellite antenna to work with this unit. I'm interested in the weather information, but the satellite subscription price is the thing keeping me from adding it now. The price is $30 to $50 per month depending on the amount of weather information that I want. If that price comes down, I could see myself adding it in the future.
The unit comes with MapSource software that lets me backup my waypoints, routes and tracks. I haven't used it too much yet, but I did notice that it would not backup the maps. I waiting for an e-mail from tech support to find out why. I used the Web Updater from Garmin and had a problem where the g2 maps seemed to disappear. It was very easy to get a tech support rep on the phone who helped me turn off the automotive maps in order to see the g2 charts. For some reason, the updater left both maps enabled when only one should be enabled at a time. Tech Support response from e-mail has been very quick and good. I'm comfortable that Garmin is standing behind this product.
Cons:
I live near sea level in Florida, and I have seen the elevation drift sometimes by as much as 90 feet even when I'm sitting still. This does not happen all the time, but it has happened a few times, and so if it tells me I'm at 20 ft elevation or 2 feet elevation, I'm not sure I can believe it.
The power plug seems rather difficult to plug into the unit. I wish it was easier.
The little rubber covers also don't always fit nicely over the holes they are suppose to cover.
My street name changed about 6 years ago, and the unit reports both names depending on where I am on the street. Mostly it reports the wrong name. I assume that newer maps in the future would correct this problem.
All these negatives I mention are relatively minor. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and heartily recommend it to others.