Garmin Oregon 400T 3-Inch Touchscreen Handheld GPS Unit with Preloaded Topographic Maps
by Garmin
Our Price: $699.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $259.99 (click here)
Category: GPS or Navigation System
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Digital product summary information
Manufacturer: GarminBrand: Garmin
Edition: Electronics
Format: CD
Model: OREGON 400t
Publisher: Garmin
Studio: Garmin
Music Label: Garmin
Product features:
- Rugged, waterproof handheld GPS with 3-inch color touchscreen
- Preloaded U.S. topographic maps, 3-D map view and a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief
- Wireless exchange of user routes, tracks, waypoints, geocaches and images
- Features microSD slot for easily updating maps; supports GPX geocaching files
- Extras include barometric altimeter, electronic compass, picture viewer
- Case Logic GPSS-1 Neoprene sport GPS Case (Red)
- Case Logic GPSS-1 Neoprene sport GPS Case (Dark Blue)
- Case Logic GPSS-2 Neoprene sport GPS Case (Dark Blue)
- Case Logic GPSP-4 Professional GPS Case for 3.5- and 4.3-Inch GPS Navigators
- Case Logic GPSP-2 Professional GPS Case for 4.3-Inch Flatscreen GPS Navigators
Digital camera reviews of Garmin Oregon 400T 3-Inch Touchscreen Handheld GPS Unit with Preloaded Topographic Maps
Digital camera Review: A major advance, but dangerously flawed
Summary: 2 Stars
I have an extensive outdoor history reaching back 40 years, but a much shorter history with GPS devices. My family owns three other Garmins; I also have the Vista HCX.
GPS devices are a classic example of an industry that has been a monopoly for far too long. If ever there was a product poised to be obliterated by better, cheaper competitors, it is Garmin GPS handhelds. If you don't need one just yet, I'd advise waiting. But if you need one, you need one.
This review will be choppy, to get you to the crucial parts fast:
- I did a 6-day, half off-trail, 70 mile, backcountry wilderness hike, wanted a bigger screen and easier operation, bought a Garmin Oregon, here on Amazon.
It failed a day later, with no hard use, in just about the most dangerous way possible: at the first battery change, one of the four battery contacts inside broke in half. Unrepairable, in the field or at home, and the unit is utterly dead. I immediately went out and bought more detailed print maps ( I am not dumb enough to travel without a real map and compass; that's what 40 years teaches you. But I was about to rely on the GPS for 1 to 24,000 scale maps. )
Since I had also bought the 1: 24,000 scale maps on a separate SD card ( the maps that ship with the Garmin are only 1:100,000 which is pretty good, but not enough for off-trail ) I decided to give it another chance. I went to REI and bought another Garmin Oregon.
The expense of the topo maps is one sign of a dying industry; we live in a world where Google maps are free. My iPhone has much better maps, weighs less, has a GPS, costs less... Garmins may soon be dinosaurs. On the other hand, the value of data like "stream" versus "intermittent stream" in the wilderness in August is hard to overstate.
I carried the Oregon for a week. Fundamentally it is a big advance over the older units, but there is enough plain stupidity to give a person pause. Specifics listed below:
- It took an absurdly long time to find me when I started the hike, more than an hour and a half. First several miles of my GPS track is missing.
- The bigger screen is a major advance. Garmin took the iPhone design, and since formerly Garmin might have been the worst user interface ever invented, it is a big improvement.
- Touch-screen is a big help, but it ( the hardware ) works poorly. You can drag the map with your finger, like on an iphone, but you usually have to try 4 times before it notices your finger. Then, more than likely, it will think you touched instead of dragged, put down a big red pin where you did not mean to put down a pin. It is extremely hard, essentially impossible, to drag or touch the point of the pin accurately enough that it will land on a marker ( which will pop up to indicate a place name / information.
- The screen is indeed very difficult to read in some conditions. Unfortunately, the worst case is daylight outdoors, which tends to happen a lot to a GPS. You choose between max brightness while hiding it under your shirt, or zero brightness and direct sun. Neither is good, but you can mostly read it. I had better luck with backlighting off.
- Battery life is fair, but still embarrassing. These are receiving devices only, with lithium batteries, so they ought to last forever with the screen off, but only last 2.5 days or so if you are careful about screen brightness and turn them off at night. Garmin needs new hardware engineers. I was EXTREMELY careful when I changed batteries in the field, due to the broken battery contact mentioned above, but on my second unit had no issues.
- The thing seems to be built like a battleship, but as a result it weighs three times as much as it should, and if one fragile part like a battery contact breaks off, the strength of the casing is useless. Did I say dinosaur earlier? Yes, I guess I did.
- It has a simple screen-lock feature that would be perfect except that it is utterly defeated by stupid design. You press the power button once, and touch "lock screen". After that, unless you unlock the screen, it ignores bumping things in your pack, EXCEPT that bumping or touching the screen TURNS ON THE BACKLIGHT. Now, how dumb is that on a device where battery life is both crucial and inadequate?
- It is a bit hard to find things in the menu system, having been designed by Origami experts, but it is far better than older Garmins in that regard. An example:
- On default settings, at a zoom level where the preinstalled topos are visible instead of the 1:24000 purchased ones, the map has so many little rectangular elevation tags ( 10,231 ft ), in opaque white boxes, that you barely can use the map. There is no doubt a way to turn 'em off, and when I am done with this review I will go search for it, but in six days in the field I never found it.
Summary of my advice: If it weighed half as much ( backpacker speaking! ) and cost a third as much, you should definitely buy one. For the moment, unless your need is compelling, you should not buy this generation, but hope that they read these reviews. I work for a major hardware / software company that makes things, so I know they read them. The negative reviews don't get passed along as much as they should :)
If your need is compelling, ask a lot of questions about the battery contacts. I don't know if the Colorado is more robust, having never owned one. The bigger screen is a huge help.
More Garmin Oregon 400T 3-Inch Touchscreen Handheld GPS Unit with Preloaded Topographic Maps reviews:
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Summary of Garmin Oregon 400T 3-Inch Touchscreen Handheld GPS Unit with Preloaded Topographic Maps
Get in touch with your wild side with Oregon 400t. This next-generation handheld features a rugged, touchscreen along with preloaded topographic maps, 3-D map views, a high-sensitivity receiver, barometric altimeter, electronic compass, microSD card slot, picture viewer and more. Even exchange tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches wirelessly between similar units. Oregon 400t leads the way with a tough, 3" (7.62 cm) diagonal, sunlight-readable, color, touchscreen display. Its easy-to-use interface means you?ll spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time searching for information. Both durable and waterproof, Oregon 400t is built to withstand the elements; bumps, dust, dirt, humidity and water are no match for this rugged navigator. Oregon's preloaded U.S. or European topographic maps, 3-D map view and a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief give you all the tools for serious climbing or hiking. Map detail includes national, state and local parks and forests, along with terrain contours, elevation information, trails, rivers, lakes and points of interest. Just in case you're wondering how steep that hill really is, Oregon's 3-D map view helps you visualize your surroundings, giving you a better perspective of the elevation.GPS & Navigation
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