Customer Reviews

Garmin eTrex Vista Cx Waterproof Hiking GPS

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love this GPS.

Previously, I had a Magellan handheld GPS (with dim black and white display). It worked well for about 5 years... getting me from point A to point B while I drove my family around California to visit relatives. Recently, I decided that I wanted more so I bought an eTrex Vista CX.

Important features of this GPS are:

(1) it uses a Micro SD card. This allows for storage of A LOT of maps on the GPS. Buy a larger Micro SD card at Frys or eBay and you will be a happy camper. 128 or 256 megs will do the job. We recently took an Alaskan cruise, and I was able to upload all of California, Oregon, Washington, BC Canada, and Youkon onto the GPS with some room to spare. Having the ability to use a mini-SD card is very valuable if you are a traveler like me.

(2) Turn by turn directions **IF** you buy the correct software to go with it. I bought the MapSource® City Navigator North America DVD to get this feature. The key is to make sure that the map that you buy comes with "fully routable detailed maps" as Garmin likes to say. When you "upload" to the GPS, upload both maps and route info and you are set. By the way, don't bother trying to steal (ie BitTorrent) the maps from the internet. It won't work since maps are sold by Garmin and MATCHED TO THE SERIAL NUMBER OF EACH GPS. Just save some time, and buy the DVD online.

For those that don't know, most GPS come with a "base map" that just has the basics (highways, points of interest). If you want every street and turn by turn directions, then you need to buy a map CD or DVD from the manufacturer. An exception to this are the Magellan Roadmates (and others) which come with a built in hard drive that has maps included. Read the box carefully for whatever you decide to buy.

(3) Legend vs. Vista and C vs. CX. Garmin makes models that are somewhat similar, and somewhat confusing. Here's a quick way to tell them apart. VISTA is the same as the LEGEND, but with an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter. An Electronic compass allows the compass to work well when you ARE NOT moving. This is important for when you are on foot and want to stop and get a good compass reading. The barometric altimeter uses pressure difference to check your altitude. The "C" in all Garmin GPS systems stands for color, "CX" means it is both color AND allows for a Micro SD card beyond the built in memory. This allows you to get more memory in the future as you need it, as maps become more detailed, and as micro SD card prices drop.

Various random thoughts:

(1) This GPS does a great job in the car. It does *NOT* give you the sort of "turn left here" verbal directions. If you need that, get a Magellan Roadmate (or TomTom, etc.) that will speak to you. The Garmin beeps at you in advance of a turn, and beeps again the moment when you should be making the turn. It also changes the display to show you a closeup diagram of what you should do next. It also has a screen which give you turn by turn TEXT instructions (turn left 0.5 miles onto highway 5, etc) very similar to what you get with Google Map driving directions.

(2) The map has a good sized display, assuming you DON'T have vision issues. Mounting the GPS on the windshield helps make it easy to see. The Magellan Roadmates have bigger displays and are designed for road use without looking at the GPS as much. Garmins like this one are "multiuse" designed to do a decent job in the car AND as a handheld for camping and backpacking while on foot. It also works great in a boat, and I've used it on cruise ships, ferries, etc.

(3) This GPS works great as a handheld. If you are on vacation, you can use it in the car AND then get out and walk with it (try that with a not as pocket sized Magellan Roadmate). The eTrex Vista easily fits in a pants pocket or around the neck on an lanyard, a Roadmate might fit in a pocket, but it'd have to be a bigger jacket pocket. Often, people mistake it for a digital camera around my neck.

(4) Battery life is awesome (using rechargable AAs) *IF* you have the backlight off. I would suggest using the backlight only when you have the GPS hooked to car or computer power. The TFT display looks good outside anyway without backlight. So use sunlight when walking.

(5) The user interface is much better than the current Magellan handhelds. It is more logical, and there are many more settings for the geek in us all. Unlike the Roadmate, it doesn't have a touch screen. A small "joystick" and four buttons are used for all actions.

(6) The eTrex Vista CX connects to a computer using a standard usb to mini-usb cable. Transfer speeds are good, and much better than my old serial cable Magellan. Uploading and downloading to/from the GPS is straightforward and logical.

(7) More car info. The car power cable, coupled with the suction windshield mount works great. The backlight is very important while driving (day or night really), so get the car power cord. I have used this GPS 20 or more times with various rental cars. I just attach the suction mount to the car windshield, attach the GPS and power cord, and I'm off and driving. Before a trip, I use the Garmin Mapsource (Garmin Bobcat for Mac) software to set up "waypoints" for the trip. Once on the ground, I just tell the GPS to create a turn by turn driving directions and calculate a route to any waypoint I want. Works like a charm.

(8) COST: For this GPS, I bought the GPS itself, then a car power cable, then the Mapsource DVD, then a bigger mini-SD card, and finally, a suction mount for the car windshield. The GPS was about $300 (2005). The DVD was about $100. The rest, about $50. So I'm about $450 into this GPS. As of June 2008, I've used it for about 3.5 years with no problems. It's still in perfect condition and still going strong. Just added a 2GB Micro SD card to the GPS. Now it holds the ENTIRE North America Map set!

Bottom line:

If you only want to use a GPS in your car, with audible turn by turn directions and a touch screen... get a Roadmate or TomTom or Garmin NuVi. If you want a smaller rugged "pocket sized" multi-use GPS (car, camping, backpacking, walking, boating) this great one and you will be very happy.

UPDATE 2010: Have moved over to a Garmin Nuvi 765T for use in the car. Still have the Etrex Vista as a backup and for use on foot. Still going strong.

I did my first Geocache at the end of January 2006 as part of a group with a shared GPS. I was hooked. I started looking into units and within two weeks, I had a Garmin Legend. After one outing, I traded it in for the Vista Cx and have not regretted it one bit.

Ignoring the Legend experience, it took about a half hour of going over the manual to take in the details. The manual is well written and properly illustrated. Directions are easy to understand and once you grasp the organization of the menu structure, the unit is easy to master.

While a little on the small side, the display is very crisp and the colors are easy to see in the daylight. If you use this after dark, the screen requires backlighting, something that is built-in to the unit. Using the menus, you can even customize the degree of backlight illumination and the time it stays on.

One downside is the base map, the map burned into the firmware, is pretty sparse. I understand this is fairly standard for hiking GPS units. I strongly urge users to get either the Garmin MapSource Topo map for your country or the Garmin City Navigator appropriate to your area. Now we are getting into what the new "X" series is all about, memory.

The Vista Cx uses MicroSD memory, allowing the users to store large amounts of map info. . . if you get additional memory. The 32 MB that comes standard with the unit will hold a LOT of topo map info, but if you are loading road map info, you will need more memory. I have not had the opportunity to try the new 1 GB MicroSD cards, but the 512 MB is holding all the trip info for my summer vacation plus topo info for most of PA, MD, WV, CT, MA, and NY south of Albany.

One negative is that you can display either the topo info or road map info, but not both at the same time. Personally, I find this not too annoying, but sometimes, I'd like to see both. The two buttons controlling the degree of zoom are well positioned.

I bought this primarily for Geocaching, but I recently had the opportunity to test it as a navigation aid and Geocaching tool. In the car, once navigation satellites had been locked onto, the unit kept me on course. Out in the field, I switched to topo only display and the unit performed flawlessly.

This is only the beginning of all this unit can do. I do not use the barometer / altimeter function too heavily, but I've come to appreciate the electronic compass. The rocker switch makes it easy to enter data, but I prefer to use the optional software and my computer for extensive data entry.
This is a GPS primarily for the outdoor person, not a vehicle navigation aid, although it will function nicely as one. Many people would consider this beyond an entry level GPS. I found it easy enough to use and capable enough for future growth that I would recommend it for the entry level user. Buying this unit at the beginning will help put off that upgrade for quite a while. I do strongly suggest getting the largest addition memory you can find and the software to match your navigation needs. It will be money well spent!

This is my first GPS unit that I bought in June 2006 after discovering the wonderful world of geocaching. Having zero experience with GPS, I spent a couple months researching devices and, most importantly, reading what other users were saying about their hand-held units. The short of it was that after all the info I had gathered, I decided on the Vista CX. It's a middle-of-the-road GPS unit-- I didn't want to go too cheap and end up having to update 6 months later, but I couldn't affort 700 or 800 dollars, either. This device fits perfectly.

I use it constantly and have to say that I drive my husband nuts when we're on trips (I now have it with me at all times), but I'm just *amazed*.... it tells you moving speed, moving average, altitude, time stopped, time driving, direction, time of day, sunrise, sunset, best times to fish and hunt, and a hundred other things you'd ever want to know about where you are in the world. We vacationed in Ocean City, MD this spring and I was just in awe-- we took a boat tour of the bay and sure enough, all the channel markers we passed were on the GPS! And that was just using the free built-in software that came with the unit! In short, this is a heck of a lot of fun and I would recommend this to anyone.

I found that I got pretty savvy with it just by using it... I really didn't use the manual all that much after the first hour or so.

I can't think of any reason you'd buy this and wouldn't use it... it's a constant source of amazement. What I'm finding most frustrating, however, is deciding what kind of street-level software to buy-- there seems to be a difference of opinion in the GPS community when it comes to City Navigator or City Select. Well, I'll just keep researching until I make up my mind.

Another really great thing is that standard alkaline batteries last a really long time-- I've had my unit on constantly for over 7 hours and used only one bar on the battery meter... another great selling point in my opinion.

I just upgraded from a classic (B/W) eTrex Legend (which I loved) to a shiny new eTrex Vista Cx and it's awesome.

Here'a are just a few details that I was wondering about before I ordered:

Mine came with a 64MB microSD (not 32MB as advertised) but I bought a 1GB microSD at the same time. I've loaded 750MB+ of map data on to the 1GB card and it all seems to be working fine (Some reports only had it working up to 512MB.) It did seem to respond rather slowly when I first loaded in that much map data but it soon snapped out of it and resumed normal speed.

Mine came with the bike mounting clip. It does not include the actual handle bar mount but the clip allows it to works with the old mount that I already had for my Legend.

My stretchy Garmin case (the one with the carabiner) fits just fine.

Since the Garmin USB car charger seems way overpriced, I was happy to find out that this unit uses a standard USB cable and I should be able to use that with an inexpensive USB car charger. (well, not charger, but power supply). BTW I also think it's cool that the GPS runs off USB power when connected to your computer. That'll save my batteries as I seem to always forget to turn it off after I've transferred my data!

The Garmin ETrex Vista/CX is a very nice handheld GPS unit. I like it a lot. However, it has battery problems. Within a month of getting the unit-- and not using it in any capacity other than simply turning it on and driving places in my car, it stopped being able to operate from batteries. I've tried many different types of batteries, all brand-new with no effect-- still doesn't work. I can plug it in via the USB port though and it works great. Kinda blows the original goal of using it for camping and geocaching though. When I looked it up on the web it turns out that apparently lots of people have similar issues and it is apparently a well-known issue. Even Garmin had some tips on the subject. I think it kind of sucks that a major mfgr like Garmin could make such a great unit and leave it saddled with battery problems-- I mean, this is a core, critical function for most people.

Overall I would rate the unit a 5 but with the battery problems, I can only give it a 3 tops.

I received the E-Trex Vista Cx for Christmas and have really enjoyed using it for Geocaching. With the WAAS enabled I have been directed to within a few (4-6) feet of every cache I've hunted so far. Very impressed as everything I've read says that once you get near the cache you should just start looking for it and stop looking at the GPS unit. This unit has gotten me VERY close to the cache every time.

I was told that manually entering a waypoint's coordinates was time consuming, but I've found the rocker button very efficient. Still, it's great to have the connectivity so I can download waypoints instead.

Included base map is poor, but that's not a surprise. I am awaiting arrival of my City Navigator CD and 1Gb MicroSD card in the mail.

The main problem I see is with the documentation. This unit has great capabilities, and I'd like to see a more exciting user manual. The one they include is accurate, but it is focused on what button or menu does what rather than on "Here are the cool things this unit can do for you." As a beginner, I feel the manual only lets me scratch the surface of the unit's powers.

I'm not a GPS guru (this is my first GPS), but I did some research before purchasing and opted for this one for portability - driving, walking, hiking, boating. I am VERY pleased with this device. I purchased this in conjunction with Mapsource City Navigator NT and a 1GB memory card for it. Now I have all streets in the continental US in my GPS!

If I have one complaint, it's that it's a little slow to draw when you zoom in or out a level (4-6 seconds). It just doesn't have a super-powerful computer inside it, but it keeps up well if you stay on the current level as you zoom down the highway. It knows exactly where you are (obviously), so just tell it where you want to go (addresses, cities, intersections, etc) and it calculates a route and also asks whether to follow streets or not (i.e. by car or on foot). If driving, it beeps at you about 30 seconds before an upcoming turn, and again when it's time to turn. The screen shows what you should be doing (turning right or whatever) via a white arrow that's overlayed on the map. There's also a marker showing your current position and you can set it to count down distance (or time) to the next turn. For instance, it counts down 7.2 miles... 2.3 miles... then 512 feet....90 feet....etc. Not to say it makes jumps like this, the countdown updates every second or so.

If you miss the turn, it automatically recalculates a new route. For instance, it typically will have you take the next exit and then a couple of back roads to get you back on track (perfect!)

It usually calculates routes in 10 to 20 seconds (for instance from New York City to Albany), but I have encountered a few problems when there are just TOO MANY roads like around New York City.

For instance, I asked it to get me from Jersey City NJ, through Manhattan, to Yonkers, NY and avoid toll rolls. It hung indefinitely calculating (probably because there's no way to avoid tolls!) However, this is rare. It usually has no problem plotting routes through New York City, Brooklyn, and surrounding areas WHILE ALSO AVOIDING TOLLS!

...and if it can plot routes through this chaos, it can plot anywhere!

It doesn't have a super computer inside it (it just feels a little slow compared to modern computers), but the pluses far outweight the minuses. For instance portability. Park you car at a huge mall parking lot, get out of your car, place a flag marker in your GPS marking where you car is in the sea of parking, and go shopping. When you come back out, you can walk right back to your car. Just steer to the flag marker in your GPS!

It also leaves a little bread-crumb trail as you walk or drive so you can retrace your steps. If you go for a walk in the woods, there's just NO way you can get lost.

As far as size, it's about the size of a baby's shoe when looking at the top (display). From the side it's about an inch thick. It definitely fits in your pocket.

I'd guess 6-12 hours of life with Duracell batteries, give or take, depending on what you're doing with it. But if you've been driving or hiking for 12 hours straight, it's time to take a break anyway. Keep a couple of extra batteries in your pocket if you're doing something mission critical with it. If the batteries do run out, it remembers everything. Take out the old ones, pop in the new, and it picks up where you left off.

There are a LOT of features in this device. Too many to list here. In fact, there's a bit of a learning curve in navigating around the menus. But it's worth taking the time to learn how to use it.

Be careful if you're driving with this device. Try to keep your eyes on the road. Plot your route ahead of time so you're not fooling with the menus while you're driving. Or better yet, give it to your passenger and have them tell you what it says, when to turn, and what direction. Let them have some fun.

I LOVE this device. I tell everyone this is was DEFINITELY money well spent.

Also, it doesn't work indoors, but do any of them?

I just got the Vista CX for Christmas. I rate it a 5 because it functions great for what it is. The units are expensive (and accessories) and will not rate it a 4 based on price. If you are broke then stay out of the GPS game. There is nothing cheap about this technology..right now.

Most of the reviews are right on the money. This Garmin unit has performed very well so far. The battery life is super on this unit with or without the backlight. The same cannot be said of the Magellan units (brother has one). The base maps are not detailed so be prepared to spend $100 on maps and another $75 on a case, 12V power cord, and larger micro SD chip (comes with a small 64 MB chip). If you get a car kit etc. get prepared to spend a bit more. I have almost $400 into this unit.

Mapping - I loaded TN, SC, GA and northern FL using over 64MB. The City Navigator looks good but I have to used the unit more to have a good answer on this. I attempted to load the whole CD on a 2 GB chip and it shut down on me. I then loaded the area listed above and it took perfect. Maybe you have to load small chunks instead of the whole thing.

Locked Maps - Had to call Garmin to get the maps installed. The whole "unlock" process is not clear reading the manual. You download the software, register the unit, enter serial number and get a 25 digit number then follow the screen prompts to unlock the software. Select the maps and send them to your unit. I called just as they were closing 7 pm CT and they stayed with me thru the downloads. They were very polite and helpful.

Bottom Line

Pro's - Tons of features, good reception, clear screen, nice build quality, super battery life, good CS support.

Cons's - Base Maps - You have to spend $100 on maps to make it be useful, accessories are over priced, base memory is not sufficient (why put a chip in there anyway).

I am going to mount this unit on my dirt bike. We will see how it holds up. I will send another review and keep you posted.

I purchased this for biking and hiking. So far, I have only used it while biking. The input buttons are mainly on the sides of the unit (so there is more space for the screen on the front). Most of the buttons have more than one function. The secondary role is used by holding the button down until the screen changes to the intended function, instead of just a press and release. I have had trouble with the scroll/input button on the front of the unit. This button is partly joy stick, for scrolling on the screen, and for navigating through menus. The joy stick part works ok, but it also has two other uses. A single press of the button acts as an enter function, and press and hold acts to change the screen to input a waypoint. The single press does not work well on this button; and if you try to hold it down a little longer, then the unit changes to the waypoint screen. It would also be better if the input buttons were a little bigger.

This was really a no brainer for me. Garmin's simply got the best interface and includes the most bang for the buck. I primarily wanted a hand held unit for geocaching and the Vista Cx works great in the car for getting us close and does a top notch job getting us to the cache, even under fairly heavy wooded cover. I haven't needed to use the altimeter much, but the built-in compass is an absolute necessity for geocaching. Basically, you can stand still and the compass will determine which way you're pointing in order to point you directly to the location of the cache without having to walk a few paces before it gets its bearing.

I can't say enough about this unit. It works great and is incredibly easy to navigate. The removable/upgradable micro SD card is an absolute necessity if you plan on using maps.

Speaking of maps, be prepared to dish out approximately $100 for the additional maps from Garmin. I purchased the City Navigator North America v8 maps and wouldn't be caught using the GPS without them. It not only works nicely for navigating and auto-routing, but it'll certainly help get you as close as possible to the caches, especially in unknown areas.

The only other accessories that I felt that I needed were the 12-volt power cable (has to be from Garmin) and a windshield or other automobile mount (I purchased a third party one).

Long live geocaching!