Customer Reviews

Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver

5 star:		(131)
4 star:		(113)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

You can see other positive reviews of the etrex Legend here, so I won't rehash them. The short story is that the Legend is a pretty decent GPS unit that works pretty well.

The base map included in the Legend only shows major highways and major streets. This is similar to the maps you get from a car rental agency. It's perfectly fine for doing rough navigation from city to city. At first, I tried using Rand McNally's StreetFinder and TripMaker Deluxe on my laptop with the Legend. The setup worked, but having to deal with the serial cable and using a laptop in the car was not very practical.

After I've had my Legend a while, I had a chance to borrow and use a Vista. The owner of the Vista upgraded it with detailed street-detail maps from Garmin's MapSource "Metroguide USA" CD .... The detailed street map is a really nice feature -- especially because you can look up addresses. Having such a detailed map in a small portable device is a delight! I decided to get the Metroguide for myself.

From my usage comparison, I found two things missing in the Legend compared to the top-end etrex Vista.

First, the Legend has only 8 MB of expansion memory instead of the 24 MB in the Vista. This turns out to be a big issue for me, as I would like to have a complete metro guide of the greater Los Angeles area. With 8 MB, I could only fit 6 of the 18 MetroGuide map sets that I would have liked. This means, I am missing coverage of a large section stretching roughly from Compton to Long Beach to Lynwood to Cerritos to Irvine that I would have wanted. In contrast, the Vista held all of greater Los Angeles area, plus some San Francisco, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

Second, the Vista has sensors for barometric altitude and magnetic compass heading. The Legend estimates altitude via GPS, and calculated heading based on your travel speed vector. If you are a trail-hiker, these sensors improve your navigation.

Used as-is from the factory (i.e., only the American basemaps), the Legend is perfectly fine, and I was quite happy with it.
I could live without the Vista's sensors;

But, having hit the 8 MB memory limit (trying to load Los Angeles), I would definitely go with the Vista now.

The Metroguide maps sizes of other cities may or may not be an issue for you. Go to the Garmin website and use their MapSourec Map Viewer and count the number of "yellow squares" you'll need to cover you area of interest. Each square roughly represents between 500K to 1.5 MB of data (with the smaller, "dense" squares being toward the 1 MB to 1.5MB size). You'll find that most of the big cities will have enough squares to easily exceed the 8 MB of the Legend.

If you are reading this, you are probably considering the Legend for its combination of price & features, along with the overall user satisfaction. That's why I chose it anyhow. ;)

Before I bought, I too read all of these amazon reviews and decided this GPS would be the best one for the money. ($136 at the time I bought it) I read the reviews of the Magellans, but they were pretty mixed, and their customer service NEVER got any kudos. It seemed like only 50% of their customers were happy out-of-the-box. I was initially attracted to them because they are said to retain satellite lock better than these low-end Garmins. But then I read that they have lower resolution displays, and that they're a lot bigger and heavier. A shame, since some of the medium Magellens had expandable SD memory...

Back to the Garmin Legend, bad news first: reception could be a bit stronger. If you follow Garmin's directions and hold the receiver flat under an unobstructed sky, you will always have excellent reception, a good lock, and good accuracy. (WAAS brings it from 27 ft. down to under 10 ft when you are covered by WAAS enabled satellites) But the signal gets degraded easily. For instance, if you don't hold it flat as you walk around outside, the accuracy generally drops from 10 ft to 50 ft. No big deal really. In the car, mounted to the dash there are never any problems. (check ebay for mounting accessories, unless you want to get gouged for the name-brand ones...)

The features are great, and are pretty easy to learn. The "clik stik' menu navigation is great. The display is very sharp and has great resolution. I can't believe how good it looks. Not that this matters much, but I also like the transluscent blue plastic. I haven't tried any of the external software yet, as it is pricey at around $100. (Garmin is crazy to ask this much for it. Do they think people don't realize how much it is going to cost? If they priced their extra maps at about $20 per country instead of $100+, they would sell a lot more of everything)

I have a friend at work who bought a Legend over a year ago. He just sold it on the bay and got most of his money back and put it towards a Vista C. He says the reception is drastically more reliable. He said that in his bathroom with a roof overhead, he was still able to pick up satellites and get good accuracy. With his Legend, he complained about losing satellite reception when he put it in a chest pocket of his jacket while riding dirtbikes in the desert. He likes that there is 24 MB of memory instead of 8. He likes the display. He also makes about 3X more money than I do, so he can afford a GPS that costs 3X as much as mine! (They're around $360 vs $140)

I went for a 3 mile hike in the forest preserve today and had it hung around my neck with the supplied strap. It worked great, even though it was about 5 degrees Farenheit today. The LCD was getting pretty slow, but everything worked very well.

Some notes if you're also considering the entry level (yellow) eTrex: The built-in USA basemap of the Legend is useful, but it doesn't cover down to street level. Realize that the basic etrex doesn't have this, so it will not be very useful for the car. It has major roads. Generally, anything with a state or interstate # will be on it. If you plan to use it only for outdoor activities where you will never need a map (topographic or street), the basic eTrex has the same hardware but with a smaller LCD screen. I know someone who has a yellow eTrex, and I think her main complaint is that it doesn't have the clik stik. She is an avid hiker and geocacher, and when she enters waypoints (manually, since it doesn't have PC interface capabilities) she doesn't bother to name them since it take so much longer without the clik-stik. She just leaves them numbered.

If you want more information, check out the groundspeak forums. Please do an honest search of the posts that are there before asking questions, as newbies show up and ask the same questions week after week. Someone has already asked your question, believe me.

Bottom line, if you have the dough, buy one of the higher-end Garmins for the reception and memory. If not, you will be very happy with this Legend as long as you realize its limitations.

The Etrex Line is by far the best handheld GPS for the money and size. There is a model that fits every user's needs and budget. Unless you need a magnetic compass and barometric altimeter, the Etrex Legend is probobly the best option.

In addition to excellent waypoint and track management functions, the Legend features full mapping functions. The Unit includes a fairly detailed basemap of North America, but for more detailed mapping, data can be downloaded from a MapSource CD-ROM. These discs are availible in many flavors, from Waterway Details, to Topographical, to MetroGuide, which features address and business locating functions (Like Handheld Mapquest.com!)Downloading is easy, and thanks to the unit's high resolution LCD display, maps are suprisingly readable. The waterways disc features a complete database of aids to navigation, cataloging every bouy, daymark, and light in US waters.

As far as GPS functions, the unit preforms beutifully, maintaining a good position fix under moderate tree cover, and inside of a car. Heavy foliage can create a problem, but the unit performs better than most handheld GPS do in this situation. WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) increases accuracy to within 9 feet in good reception areas! Although this is at the expense of battery life. To save power, leave WAAS turned off and you will still get accuracy within 20 feet.

Because the unit uses 2 AA batteries instead of four, life is reduced; expect to change batteries at least every 14 hours, with the unit on continuously. Still, this is less often than my old garmin GPS 45, and that used four batts.

The user interface is very friendly, intuitive, and powerful. This is a great achivment, usually powerful interfaces are not user-freindly and vice versa. It bears quite a similarity to Operating Systems such as Windows and Macintosh, so if you know how to use the computer you are reading this with, you should be right at home. Besides the buttons for Page, Power/Light, Find, Zoom In/Out, there is a "Click Stick" as a pointing device. It works like a joystick or the trackpoint on a laptop to control the cursor on the screen. Pusing it in is like a mouse-click. One strage note on this: it is placed on the left side of the unit. This means that operating in with your'e right thumb blocks the screen. Many people think this is a mistake, making one handed operation with the right hand near impossible, but it makes goos sense to me: operate the GPS in your left hand, while steering the boat with your left. It is not that hard to learn to use the GPS with your left hand (if youre righty), so you can have your right hand free for other things.

In All, The Etrex Legend GPS is your best Buy in a handheld mapping GPS. If your'e looking for more features, check out the more expensive Etrex Vista and Garmin Gpsmap 76, or the very expensive handheld cartographic units, but if you just want a very good, inexpensive, handheld mapping GPS, The Legend is the best around.

I purchased the ETrex Legend for the sole purpose of Geocaching (look it up on the web if you don't know what I'm talking about). I soon found it invaluable for driving, finding my way around strange cities, snowshoeing off trail and hiking.

The Legend is a compact, easy to use unit. At its list price, it has a great price/feature ratio. The Vista has more memory and a magnetic compass, but I haven't seen the need for more memory yet and my $10 compass works just fine (and doesn't need batteries).

At first I was concerned about the 8 meg of memory not being enough, but I've downloaded the MapSource topo for northern NJ, southern NY to Albany and much of soutern Vermont with room to spare. On a trip to Sacramento, I was able to download the area around Sac, from San Francisco to Tahoe.

It comes with a base map that is very basic. It shows major roads, rivers, lakes and points of interest. I do recommend eventually getting one of the MapSource maps. If you are an outdoorsperson, you should get the Topo. If you travel often, Roads and Recreation is the one to buy.

There are some issues with reception under heavy leaf cover, but as I understand it, this is a problem with most GPSr's.

The clic-stick is a great feature, making navigating your way around the unit's features a breeze. The Legend is durable (I've dropped it many times) and water resistant (dropped it in water) and I recommend it to anybody who wants a full featured unit with map capability and doesn't want to spend a bundle.

Update 2 years later:
After over a year and a half of use I was still very happy with my Legend. I found that there were no reception issues under heavy leaf cover as long as I held the GPS the way the mfr. recommends, which is flat with the face up to the sky. Admittedly this is fine for a while, but for long hikes it can be a pain, so I purchased the neoprene carrier and I cliped it to the top of my pack's shoulder belt to solve this. Another way to improve reception in the woods is to turn it on well before you enter the woods, so it knows where all the sats are. As long as I hold it correctly, I rarely lose reception even under heavy leaf canopy and the few times I do, I get it back within seconds.
I've used my unit alongside Magellan Meridian and Sportrak users as well as users of other Garmin models and my reception was comparable.

The one problem I had was with the rubber gasket that surrounds the unit. The glue degraded after a while and the gasket would slip. I sent it back to Garmin and they repaired it for free as it was still under warranty. I think leaving the unit on the dashboard of a hot car in the summer may have contributed to this.

I liked the Legend so much, that when I felt it was time to upgrade, I purchased its big brother, the Vista.


Update - July 2008:

This was a good unit it it's day, but GPS technology has passed it by and the newer units are far better and don't cost much more. This is still in Garmin's line which is why I felt it was necessary to post this update. The newer eTrex units (any with an H in the model name) have a high sensitivity receiver that gets great reception under trees and even indoors. Most importantly some of them are just a few bucks more than this dinosaur. If you are considering this unit, take a look at the eTrex Venture HC, or eTrex Legend HCX. They have better reception, a color display, more map memory, fast USB connections and more. This uses the old serial connection that most PC don't even come with any more and the reception doesn't come close to that of the Legend HCX and Venture HC.

I have never owned a GPS unit before. I gave this one to myself for Christmas. I also bought the cigarette lighter DC cable (a huge plus for long car trips) and the case (not absolutely necessary, but handy).

As a neophyte to this whole business, I have nothing against which to compare the Garmin eTrex Legend. I chose it because there was a [$$$] rebate on it at the time, otherwise I was going to get the eTrex Venture. I am glad for the upgrade as this unit has 8MB of memory for map uploading.

I am still discovering things about the unit, and its sophistication and flexibility astound me. I think that these units are as useful and will become as common as cell phones, either in automobiles or on one's person. I recently had to go to Florida (I am from California) and it saved me half-a-dozen times from making wrong turns and creating a lot of frustration and lost time. Florida is flat and I am completely lost there as I do not know East from West nor North from South. I think that there is no directional instinct present in the higher primates. Or I am simply deficient in that area. Either way, the Etrex Legend was the most useful item I had with me (I had no cell phone).

This unit is WAAS enabled which means it can be accurate down to a three meter circle. I learned how to mark a route from the place I was staying to my mother's house. Once I had that route in place, there was no way I could go wrong. On the navigation screen the large course pointer would actually "break" and point when I came to a turn I was supposed to make. If you use the "Track" feature, the unit automatically creates Waypoints along a sort of breadcrumb trail. You can reverse the track and go in the opposite direction.

My only complaint is that you must use only Garmin Mapsource maps and each time you upload a new map the old one is automatically erased (don't be alarmed, however, because the basemap that comes installed with the unit is NEVER erased. Only the user-uploaded maps are erased during the procedure). Nonetheless, given the memory in the unit it would be nice if you could upload several different maps at a time and not lose the previously uploaded data. And the Mapsource maps leave something to be desired in their detail. For instance most of the street names in my hometown are not on the Mapsource map even though the streets themselves are there. But this is a minor quibble because in the end what you are really doing is going from one latitude/longitude position to another, and you can put in the names of streets in the form of Waypoints if you so choose.

Considering the [$$$] rebate I got from Garmin for this unit this thing is a steal. Anywhere around [$$$] is a pretty fair price for something so useful and so much fun.

The built-in basemap is very handy. It makes this model much more useful than the basic eTrex.

This GPS works fine as long as it has a clear view of the sky. Once the built-in antenna is obstructed by *anything* such as a shirt or get mis-oriented by dangling vertically from one's neck, it can easily lose the signal.

The more expensive Legend Color has a better reception system, but you really pay for it.

If you don't mind either holding this flat or placing it properly so as to keep the signal, it is a good unit for a good price. If you have higher expectations for reception, you'll need to spend a couple hundred more to get the better antenna class.

I picked this one because it had a higher resolution screen than the Magellan models of the time.

This is also not the best GPS for driving, as the screen is too small to be read while on the move. It will do OK, but you'll find yourself looking down for too long. It is more suited to hiking and biking, and to keep on hand in the case that you get lost.

Sep. 26, 2009 update: I threw this in the garbage at a gas station a few weeks ago. Toward the end, it would only operate for 15 minutes or so, then it would glitch out, display a vertical line on the screen, and had to have the batteries removed and reinserted in order to work again. Piece of junk. Spend a few more bucks and get one of the newer color ones with the better receiver chip.

I bought this GPS specifically for hiking and mountaineering. It's small and lightweight which makes it easy to carry on a long ascent. I bought Maptech Terrain Navigator mapping software and use the combo to locate trails, landmarks and waypoints on the maps then upload them to the gps. I've also used it for the reverse, hiking then mapping where you've been. The system together works great. I've also used the gps for geocaching which I discovered by accident and I'm having a blast with it. I tried it out in my truck and I'm finding new ways to use it every day. Last week The freeway became backed up and I used it to find a way around the accident using the legend.

Is this gps the best one out there, probably not. Does it have the best built-in map, no. Is it the best value for the money and the best all-around gps system out there, you bet. Don't buy this one just to use in the car as the screen is too small. The Garmin mapping program is too vague, spend the money and buy Maptech Terrain Navigator or National Geographic's Topo State series. If you hike, climb, bike, jog, canoe or kayak get this one. It comes with a basic built in map good enough for most driving locations and allows you to download 24mb of additional info...

I am really enjoying the eTrex Legend. As one reviewer said, the map is similar to those provided by the rental car agency. But it includes enough streets in Los Angeles to keep me oriented, and has kept me from getting lost in rural areas. You'll notice that the roads are simplified to save memory so that the GPS tracking may accurately show a dozen curves where the GPS map shows one. (Which is actually kind of fun to watch.) But that allows the software to include a LOT of roads. My Americas version covers North, Central and South American highways and basic city street maps for large cities in the USA. I can even scroll over and create waypoints for old world cities with over 200k population, although other functionality is limited outside the Americas.) The GPS tracking itself is very accurate and maps precisely to my TOPO maps.

I am primarily writing to respond to an earlier reviewer who found the unit inaccurate under cover. The eTrex is certainly as accurate as my Garmin GPS 12, and comparisons on the internet rate it fairly highly. The problem with cover seems to be general to handheld GPS units. You can't expect a tiny antenna to find satellites through several layers of leaves--although the eTrex makes a valiant effort.

I do have one complaint, however, with Garmin rather than the unit. Garmin promotional materials would leave you with the impression that the unit only works with the Map Source maps. My TOPO map (from National Geographic) not only works fine, but even recognizes the model. The older software doesn't download the graphic map (roads and topography), but it uploads and downloads waypoints and routes just as it did on my old GPS 12. And downloading just waypoints doesn't overwrite the existing data the way I understand that downloading maps from MapSource can.

Hope that helps with your decision. This is a fun unit that will do the job.

I bought the Legend from Amazon in August 2003 after a lot of research. It was and still is the best value in a small GPS. I also bought the Topo CD's several months later. I took the Legend everywhere, and used it almost daily.

The unit recently had intermittent failures, it is out of warranty and it is being retired. I had no issues with reception, acquisition time, reading the display, battery life or using it left handed. The Topo software could use an update but it makes the Legend much more useful. I bought a bike mount, definitely get one of those if you cycle.

The new color units have a USB connection, the Legend uses a serial cable. Not a big deal, but not all laptops have serial ports so consider that before you buy. (A USB-serial converter is available for a rather steep $50, almost half the cost of the Legend!) Data transfer isn't fast but you have to be chronically impatient to care about that.

The first intermittent failure on my unit was the joystick, it would not switch in the left direction, among other things, I could not select routes. That was annoying. The second was a pattern of thin lines across the display, the third was a hard failure, a black display on boot up. The black display rendered the Legend completely useless during a 4 day trip in the Adirondacks, fortunately not on the trail. I almost tossed it but when we got home it began functioning again...another intermittent problem.

Don't ever rely on one of these things for navigation in the wilderness, the product quality is inadequate. You will be foolishly testing the Aerospace Corollary of Murphy's Law (whatever can go wrong, will...and at the worst possible time) by depending on it for essential navigation. Carry a compass and map or be prepared to get lost and die after the Legend fails.

My advice to those considering purchase is to go for it, but keep your receipt because there's a good chance it will break and need warranty service. After the warranty, it's an expendable. Forget about factory repairs, those are $90.

I'm replacing the Legend with a Vista, I really don't expect better quality but I do like the bigger memory and the altitude profile display will be fun to play with. The most practical decision would have been to get another Legend but that's rather boring. The Magellans are getting better but they don't have the screen resolution and ergonomics of the Garmins.

The Etrex color units are quite nice but way too expensive. When the Vista is broken and out of warranty maybe the price will drop and color will be my replacement. Or perhaps another manufacturer will develop a higher quality GPS with the features, size and display of the Garmin.

Overall, I'd recommend the Legend. It's a good value, provided you have the common sense to understand and manage its limitations.

Every other person I know who owns a GPS has this model! I believe that's a testament to the performance and price point this model represents.

I finally bought the GPS receiver after buying a kayak. I wanted to know what kind of time we were making so I could plan future outings, and wanted a record of our trips. It works well in that capacity, but I also use it regularly in the car, and on my road bike. I use the suction cup mount, and it tracked my honeymoon train trip across Canada, stuck in the window of the compartment, and I'm amazed at how well it will work in the window of commercial airliners. Sure, it doesn't have the greatest display for use in a car, but this model was not designed for that. Garmin does have better models for that, but you have to pay 6 times or so as much. Regardless, the Legend has been handy getting me unlost on a couple of occasions, and helping me to return to infrequently visited places.

Despite the numerous features packed into this unit, after a few minutes of reading the manual, its operation quickly becomes intuitive, and you can often find features quickly on your own. Of course, some more advanced features, such as building a track using the map, can become somewhat unwieldy, and are better exercised on a PC with the results downloaded to the Legend.

With the complexity of this unit, I'm sure every user can find nits to pick about how some things are done, or under what menus functions should appear. Overall, I am very pleased with how the Legend operates, although I could come up with a long list myself. These items are pretty minor, though.

For example, the trip computer screen is customizable, but it would be nice to be able to store different screens for later use when using the Legend for different applications. The antenna is a patch antenna, and should work best with the unit horizontal with the face upward. However, if it hanging from its neck strap, it's in a very poor position. An optional external antenna would be nice (but would make the unit cost more.) The built-in maps are rather rough. I expect I-95 to be made of straight segments, but think it's inexcusable that US1 crosses to the wrong side of the Florida East Coast railroad in Cocoa.

Again, these are fairly minor points. The biggest complaint in relation to the Legend, although not with the receiver itself, is the price of the accessories. Adding an additional mount (I have the suction cup and bicycle mounts), a cigarette lighter adapter, and map CD costs as much as the street price of the Legend itself!

One thing that impresses me is that Garmin is continually improving the software, and makes the upgrades available for free on their web site. There have been two upgrades in the year since I bought the Legend. When I first got it, and turned it on after it sat in my hot car in the summer (In Florida, it's not really practical to NEVER have to leave it in a hot car at some time), a message would pop up saying that external power had been disconnected and it was turning itself off in 30 seconds! At the time, I didn't OWN an external power source. As the unit would cool, it would be fine. I returned it to Garmin, and they were accomodating, and sent me a new one. Guess what? It did the same thing. But I see the first upgrade included a change to better detect when external power was removed. Since upgrading, I haven't had a problem. It's a little disappointing that it had problems, but encouraging that the manufacturer was helpful, is continually improving the product, and making those upgrades available for free to the consumer.

Like I said, I think the Legend is remarkable performer for the price. The Vista is the next model up in the eTrex line. In going to it, you go from 8 MB of memory to 24 MB, and add a compass and altimeter, but at almost twice the street price. I would like to have seen a model priced between the two without the compass and altimeter but more memory for downloaded maps, like perhaps 16 MB or 24MB.

Although there are always minor things one can think of to improve this product, after a year of use, I am very very pleased with my decision to buy the Garmin eTrex Legend, and it receives a great deal of use.