Garmin Colorado 400c Portable GPS System with Preloaded Coastal Waters Maps

by Garmin

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.4 x 2.4 x 5.5 inches ; 7.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00128EJ74
• Item model number: 010-00622-61
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description--January 21, 2008

Amazon.com Product Description--January 21, 2008 Whether you’re sailing the high seas or hiking the backcountry,Colorado 400c is your all-in-one adventure guide. Preloaded with BlueChart® g2 coastal charts, Colorado is made with the saltwater mariner in mind. Packed with features, it includes a high-sensitivity receiver, barometric altimeter, electronic compass, SD card slot, color display, picture viewer and more. Even exchange tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches wirelessly between similar units. Slim, lightweight and waterproof, Colorado is the perfect companion for all your outdoor pursuits.

Watch an interactive demo.

Share Wirelessly
Share your waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with other Colorado users. Now you can send your favorite hike to your buddy to enjoy or the location of a cache to find. Sharing data is easy. Just select "send" to transfer your information to other Colorado units.

Keep Your Fix
With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, Colorado locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. The advantage is clear — whether you’re in deep woods or just near tall buildings and trees, you can count on Colorado to help you find your way when you need it the most.

Explore More
	The Colorado 400c comes with built-in BlueChart g2 coastal charts and a worldwide basemap with imagery — perfect for all your outdoor pursuits. Map detail includes includes shorelines, depth contours, navaids, harbors, marinas, port plans coastal roads for the U.S. and Bahamas.

Expand Your Horizons Colorado also accepts SD cards, so you can use Garmin preprogrammed SD cards to add maps that serve any and all of your outdoor activities on land or water.
Streets	Inland Lakes		Terrain	3D Terrain
Conveniently plug in optional preloaded SD cards for all your outdoor activities on land or water. Just insert a MapSource card with detailed street maps, and Colorado provides turn-by-turn directions to your destination. Add select topographic maps to take advantage of Colorado’s 3-D map view which gives you a better perspective of your elevation. The card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment, so you don't have to worry about getting it wet.

Rock on. Find Fun
		Colorado's innovative Rock ‘n Roller input wheel for easy one-handed operation and intuitive screen interface make it as easy to navigate the device as the outdoors. Customize Colorado's interface based on your favorite activity. Even show off photos of your excursions with its picture viewer.

Experience Paperless Geocaching
	Colorado supports Geocaching.com GPX files for downloading geocaches and detail straight to your unit. You'll have at-a-glance cache descriptions and details to aid in your search.

Get Your Bearings
		Colorado has a built-in electronic compass that provides bearing information even while you're standing still. Its barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. View elevation data before you begin your ascent or descent. You can even use the altimeter to plot barometric pressure over time, which can help you keep an eye on changing weather conditions.

Interactive Demo

Product Description

Saltwater mariners will love the built-in detailed BlueChart g2 coverage for the coastal U.S. and the Bahamas in the 400c. The chart detail includes shoreline,depth contours, navaids and port plans.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CHANGED MY REVIEW. WOULD MAKE IT ZERO STARS, June 15, 2008

By 

Conrad B. Senior (Easton, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garmin Colorado 400c Portable GPS System with Preloaded Coastal Waters Maps (Electronics)

Second update: I've tried once again to get my Garmin functional. I've been unable to use this GPS on both a charter trip in the Caribbean and for a delivery from St Thomas to Mystic Connecticut. I've been unable to receive technical support on this item. Calling Garmin is a maze of voicemail prompts. Then when you do reach someone, you are passed around like a cheap whore and no one can help. The last person I spoke to would not stop talking and listen to my problem. Finally I asked to be passed back to the second person I spoke to, but put in a que with a 30 minute wait time. I called back and asked for the corporate office at 913-397-8200 and when I chose 0 for operator, one of the options, my call was disconnected. Clearly Garmin does not want to talk to anyone. I rate their customer support below ZERO. They treat you horribly. WOULD I PURCHASE THIS AGAIN? NO AVOID AVOID AVOID

UPDATE: I USED GARMIN'S FIRMWARE UPDATE UTILITY AND LOST THE SMALL SCALE (small scale=small detail) CHARTS FOR THE CARIBBEAN, WORLD, AND ALL COASTAL AREAS. ALL US CHARTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN THIS UNIT. ZOOMING IN WILL RESTORE THE CHARTS, BUT IT ALSO MEANS THAT ZOOMING OUT WITH THE SCROLL WHEEL TO THUMB OVER TO A NEW LOCATION AND THEN ZOOM IN AGAIN NO LONGER WORKS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SEE THE LOCATION TO PICK WHEN YOU ZOOM OUT. BASICALLY I LOST MUCH OF THE FUNCTIONALITY OF THIS UNIT BY DOING THE UPDATE. IT IS NOW AWKWARD AND UNUSABLE.

ALL OF THIS WORKED FINE BEFORE THE UPDATE. DO NOT EVER RUN ANY UPDATES ON THIS UNIT OR IT WILL RUIN IT.

IF YOU DO NOT UPDATE IT, I STILL STRONGLY ENDORSE THE PURCHASE OF THIS UNIT.
HOWEVER, MY EXPERIENCE WITH GARMIN ON OTHER PRODUCTS IS THEY SAY TOO BAD WHEN SOMETHING BREAKS LIKE THIS. I HAVE NOT RECEIVED A REPLY FROM GARMIN.

I'm a US Coast Guard licensed Captain and do, among other things, delivery work. I've tried several of the other charting GPS units recently to upgrade my 1995 era technology Garmin GPS's. This is the best bang for the buck.

Pros:
1. It is WAAS capable, for extreme accuracy. More on this below.If you don't know what WAAS is, look it up. You want it in a GPS.
2. Thumb wheels is fast and easy to use. it really is a one hand device. I didn't believe that in the write-ups, but it's true. I particularly like spinning the wheel to zoom in or out. To move around the charts, zoom out to see the spot you want to find, press on the edge of the wheel to move the cursor where you want it and zoom in a bit, refine your cursor, zoom more--all in all a very impressive method of moving around a chart. far better than other methods I've seen that were slower and more tedious.
2. Carbiner clip on the back. Great for securing the device to your person or anything else. That will stay on there permanently, except to change batteries.
3. Speaking of batteries--only two AA needed. Half of what I'm used to. however, there is no external power provision. But, given the super fast acquiring of satellites, who needs to leave it on? It acquires satellites so fast, that you will routinely turn it off after checking your position. My old Garmin, was so slow to acquire positions, leaving it on was the only practical option.
4. SD Card Option. So far I have found all the charts I need built into the device. It find it reassuring I can use a common CD Card to supplement the existing charts. CARD SLOT IS IN THE BOTTOM AND VISIBLE AFTER REMOVING BATTERY COVER.
5. external Antenna option. It is there. I don't think you will need it. This thing works indoors. i can see my track made while moving around inside the house. WAAS is truly amazing.
6. I've read you can wirelessly pass waypoints to other similar units--never tried that. With a mini-USB--that might be a better method. Software available for PC but not MAC. I hope my friends who are Captains, get these so we can share waypoints. I often sail in areas with rocks. Now I can mark and update my digital charts with even more information. I love it.
7. USB connector. Works only with more current version of Windows like XP and above and MAC OS X 10.3 and above.
8. Topo maps are cool. At some point I'll try it on dry land. It has a Compass and Altimeter--which need to be calibrated--useful I suppose for trekkers.
9. Trip computer is fun to play with on longer voyages. It gives you something to do on boring watches.
10. Few buttons= bigger screen. There are two menu buttons, the tilt wheel, the spinner wheel, and the hub button. Screen size is about 3". Great for a device you can fit in your shirt pocket.

Negatives:
1. UPDATE: EXTERNAL POWER IS VIA MINI-USB. NOT A NEGATIVE--I am correcting an early review error. If you want to keep your track updated--useful if you lose someone overboard on the ocean--you can follow your track back only if you have the track stored--hence you need to leave it on all the time--this means you must have external power. A weakness it there is no large battery and cabling to keep this on 24/7. I am going to build my own and use a PWC battery. USB power connector is not suitable to wet conditions.
2. Display is a bit dark. I find it usable. I don't need super bright. It works. It is visible in daylight.
3. Do not use rechargeable batteries in this device--check the manufacturer website for details.
4. Lithium Batteries last about one day if used frequently at night. The backlight kills batteries. For daytime only use, I've gotten three 12 hour plus sessions out of one battery (no backlight used)
5. I would not use any other type of battery than lithium. Be sure to use the lithium setting to get an idea of battery life. Otherwise it shows good until it fails.
6. For trip planning I find this device hard to use. But for on the spot use, which is what I do, it works great.
7. BlueCharts are crazy expensive. Do not consider buying them. It would be better to shoot yourself than try to install one of these. Why pay to suffer? If you have tons of CD-RoM charts--none of these will work. A laptop is not a convenient, but at least you won't feel screwed over every time you need chart area outside of the US--like Bermuda $180 for one island?, or the Virgin Islands, $150.


The bottom line is this. If you are like me and always working on other peoples boats, or if you don't have a boat and want your own GPS this is the one to get. Hopping from boat to boat, I rarely take the time to learn a new yachts navigational system. First, what good is it without pre-programmed routes and way points? Second, what a pain it is to always be on the steep part of the learning curve. I'd much rather bring along an accurate pocket sized GPS and add waypoints quickly and easily, or view routes I've built up, or particular buoys I use often. Racers will appreciate being able to whip this puppy out and call out a range and bearing to a fix navigational aid/mark.

It works great, it is fast, and once you learn how to use it, you will carry it with you whenever you are on the water.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars better than sliced bread, April 25, 2008

By 

Jay Lowenstein (boston ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garmin Colorado 400c Portable GPS System with Preloaded Coastal Waters Maps (Electronics)

Just throw out consideration of any others, the screen redraw is as fast as any commercial unit I have seen (in fact it's better than the system on the Boston Harbour Ferry I drive). I bought it for my boat bag for the east coast, ended up in Los Angelis for a race around Catalina Island, marked the exact slip in Marina Del Rey I left from and found it on my return. Tide and current charts at your fingertips, played with it on the plane back (watched every marina in the country go by at 540kts) identified all the rivers enroute, bought the street maps for north america (~100 or so dollars) loaded all of north america onto a $10 2gig card and used it in Cali and Boston with out having to touch a thing. This 400c is the same price as the cheaper units after you buy maps for them and just blows everything else away performance wise. Just better than sliced bread. Plus its rugged as heck.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars really lousy screen ie unreadable and odd interface, May 31, 2008

By 

Michael Daniec "stop torture" (new york) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Garmin Colorado 400c Portable GPS System with Preloaded Coastal Waters Maps (Electronics)

very disappointed with the brightness level and size of the screen. What genius though of REDUCING the brightness of this screen versus the previous model just to save battery juice? (that was the explanation the Garmin people gave me when I complained) I found it HARDLY READABLE under most circumstances and practically unreadable in way too many.
The interface is weird as well, the scroll wheel should work but they made access to common functions go through too many steps.
I am re-selling mine on eBay.
Just so you don't think I am some kind of Garmin hater I have their 5212 chartplotter and that is absolutely GREAT, way above the Raymarine and others, even if the jumping between menus could be simplified, ie who ever thought of putting MOB (Man OverBoard)in a secondary level of menus that would take you three menu selections to get to? When you have the need you won't have the time to go through three levels of selection!!!