Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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89 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blown Away, November 11, 2006
I drove my wife crazy spending several weeks worth of nights researching which GPS to buy for my upcoming elk hunting trip in Colorado. After reading several reviews on Amazon about Magellan and Garmin, I decided to focus on Garmin, especially after my old Magellan stopped locking on.
The price of the Venture Cx immediately jumped out at me. As did one of the Amazon reviews about buying the Venture instead of the Legend Cx. So I started comparing features of the various units on Garmin's website. Should I go with the Legend or Vista or Venture, or spend another $200+ on a top of the line GPSMap 60CSx? I soon realized the Venture Cx had ALL of the features of the 60CSx except an altimter, compass and the new top of the line SIRF II chipset/receiver. So I figured I would buy the Venture Cx and try it out hunting in the dark timber and deep canyons of the West Elk Wilderness, and if I kept losing the signal I would return it and upgrade to the expensive 60CSx.
Well, needless to say, I am back from my week long hunt and was blown away that the unit never lost a signal in the deepest of dark timber, and I mean deep! Sometimes it would jump around a bit as you walked, but it always corrected itself in a second or two and never lost the signal. Before I left I bought a 512MB micro SD card for $15, the US Topo for $75 from Amazon, loaded the maps for the area I would be hunting, and I always knew where I was and even what road I was quading on. My other friends all had GPS's but not the mapping kind. They were also blown away by the mapping accuracy and how quickly the unit would start up and acquire a position, even in the dark forest. I kept the unit on most of the time as I hunted so it would leave my track in case I wanted to back track, and I still have 2 of 3 bars on my rechargeable NiHM batteries after 7 days.
So, bottom line, if you want an incredibly feature rich, mapping GPS, don't waste your money on the more expensive Legend or Vista Cx, nor the top of the line GPS Map60 CSx. Go with the bright easy to find yellow Venture Cx, buy your own USB cable (or use the one that came with your digital camera like I did) and buy a higher capacity Micro SD card (the Legend Cx only comes with 64MB), buy the US Topo from Amazon and you are rockin and rollin for geocaching, hunting/hiking in deep dark timber, and turn by turn navigating around your home city and the USA.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great unit, a best buy., November 10, 2006
I been using a standard eTrex for years and always liked it. But plotting positions on a map became a hassle, so I started looking for a mapping GPS. I was surprised to find a unit like this for $[...] after rebate. The rebate form was uncomplicated and I received it promptly within the time frame specified. Amazon shipped the same day that I ordered and I received the product ahead of schedule.
I'm very impressed with this unit. Sharp display, intuitive operation, long battery life, very good reception, and more features than I can list here. The base map included in firmware includes all interstates and major bodies of water, plus information of amenities available near interstate exits; hotels, restaurant, service stations, you name it. But to take full advantage of it's capabilities, you'll need to upload detailed maps from disk, available separately. If you plan to use the device both on the road and afield, I'd recommend the USA Topo mapping software as it contains both roads and detailed topographics for the entire US.
The unit does not come with a mini USB cable or a memory card. I found this to be no problem as the cables that came with my PDA and camera work fine with this unit. If you don't have a mini USB cable you can probably buy one for a few bucks as it's a standard configuration. I'd recommend updating the units firmware (a free download from Garmin) as soon as you get a cable.
The lack of a memory card (Micro SD, 1 gigabyte max) isn't a problem either as it allows you to pick out the size you want. A 512 megabyte runs about $20 and will hold the topo maps for about half of the USA.
Some people have complained that Garmin should have included the cable, software, and memory chip with the unit. If you want everything in one package, consider the eTrex Legend Cx, which is esentially the same unit with those items included. I prefer this unit because it will work right out of box; you can try it out and decide which accessories you want later. The bright yellow case makes easy to find.
The combination toggle lever/enter key makes entering data quick and easy, but it has a drawback; if you carry the unit in your pocket it's prone to get moved about taking you to different screens. This isn't a major problem as you can return to the previous screens with a few presses of the page/back key, but can be a nuisance.
I like the fact that this unit requires just two AA batteries; they're cheap and available everywhere. My tests have shown 29 hours of battery life with the backlight off.
Finally, the small high resolution screen is very detailed, but if you have trouble reading fine print this might not be the right unit for you.
Overall, this is an outstanding unit and the price makes it a best buy.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice unit, bad documentation, October 15, 2006
This is my first GPS unit. I bought it mostly for hiking around in the wilderness, as well as measuring my speed while in a car (it is more accurate than a typical speedometer, like 1/10 of a MPH in the right conditions).
The Venture CX feels very solid. One tiny detail I was not thrilled with is that the microSD card slot was not machined very well. I had to push the card (not included, of course) to get it in place harder than I do on many other devices I've used (Mp3 players, digital cameras). With a tiny microSD card, as fragile as it feels, it bugs me, but since I connect to my computer through a (albeit slow) USB interface, I don't have to take the card in and out.
The included basemap is very weak, don't expect much. I had a 2004 version of Mapsource Metrosource 6.0, and using Metrowizzz (free) I am able to load the maps onto the unit and have the Venture CX calculate turn by turn directions to any address I enter. The cool thing about navigation is it tells you the distance between you and the next turn, and it beeps once in advance to tell you the turn is coming up, then when you're very close to it it beeps twice and tells you to turn (i.e. a message on the LCD "Turn left onto Main St.").
Also, you can adjust the backlight level, and set the amount of time the backlight stays on. When you turn on the device and then turn the backlight on, it will go off on its own in the amount of time specified. If you are in navigation mode, when the unit beeps to tell you about an upcoming turn, the light comes on automatically. It's really a clever design and allows you to focus on the road, and not burn up battery power by running the backlight unnecessarily.
The one major knock is the documentation, which is bad (a discussion forum search finds that the Venture / Legend CX are not alone when it comes to bad documentation). The manual tells you what the options are, but does not bother to explain them! An example is that you can choose a "battery saver mode". The manual does not explain, not even one lousy line, what this mode does (after doing a web search, I found out that it refreshes location every 5 seconds instead of every 1 second). There are other examples of this poor/missing detail. For that, I'm knocking one star off. I would hope that Garmin, whose GPS units are found in airplanes and boats all over the world, would like to tout the neat features of their GPS units by fully explaining to their owners how to use them.
In summary, I love the unit and even though I haven't had it in the wilderness yet, it is such a fun gadget to have that I wonder how I got by without it! Loving gadgets, I like to know how they work and how to use them to their fullest and I think Garmin needs to seriously improve the documentation of these units.
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