eTrex 30, Worldwide

Wonderful little device that fits in the palm of the hand. It can use city and topo maps, and is capable of displaying superimposed high resolution (~1 m) satellite imagery. It should be noted that the available Birdseye imagery for Minneapolis is years old and out of date with respect to important buildings. Both Target Field (Twins) and TCF Bank Stadium (Gopher Football), for example, are shown as under construction when they both have been in service for a significant time. With a CityXplorer map of Minneapolis, it provides turn by turn navigation tailored to auto or pedestrian travel - accurately routes me on the complex sidewalks (called "alleys" by the device) 0.6 miles across my large college campus to my favorite wine bar, for example, giving me considerable confidence that pedestrian travel in a strange city would be a breeze. Has many functions and modes to serve specific needs. It is capable of using both GPS and Russian GLONASS satellite systems and ground based correction signals. Outdoor resolution is very good, said by Garmin to be 3 m 95% of the time with activation of ground based correction mechanisms. Functions inside light construction (wood frame houses without metal siding and commercial structures with open architecture and non metallic roofing with reduced resolution (circa 20-40 ft). My device is turned on by my keyboard as I write, inside my wood frame home, and it is showing a resolution of about 35 ft. Were I to walk outside, that would rapidly drop to about 10 ft most of the time. The device maintains satellite lock while walking under heavy metal bridge structures of significant height. Satellite acquisition times when using both GPS and GLONASS appear to be only a few seconds under conditions where satellites will eventually be found. Accuracy improves further over about 30 seconds after satellites are first acquired. I use my device for documenting city walks for exercise and the apparent accuracy when moving is very good, placing the path on or near the sidewalk or trail virtually all of the time, consistently placing the path on the correct side of a city street, for example. Waypoint averaging techniques are somewhat time consuming but accurate. My device converged to no further correction in 9 samples of a few minutes each taken at least 90 minutes apart which resulted in placement of a waypoint very accurately on a spot in front of my home, as indicated by a satellite image overlay. Battery life, using rechargeable NiMH batteries appears to be very good. Because of the complexity of the device and the number of functions available, it is clear from my reading of other reviews that those evaluating the device critically for a specific use may find some glitches, which seem to be continually refined by Garmin. In my limited experience, thus far, turn by turn directions in automotive mode are good but imperfect. When asked to give the quickest route to my local supermarket, for example, it fails to choose the freeway that is parallel to a slower city avenue and there has been one example of a mapping flaw that resulted in a suggested turn the wrong way down a one way street. Product support took my complaint promptly and promised to correct the map in future updates. Documentation and instructions are the weakest part of the package and it takes some experimentation to get a complete understanding of features and options but Garmin customer service is excellent. Overall performance of the small, rugged, waterproof device rates five of five stars. Consider the eTrex 20 as a much more economical option when the altimeter and magnetic compass are not required. I paid the extra $90 or so for those features but, in retrospect, I really do not need them for essentially all of the activities for which I currently use the device.

I've had my eTrex 30 for about four months now, I use it primarily for bicycle rides and also for Geocaching and car navigation. I've been holding off writing this review, hoping that Garmin would come up with a fix for a significant problem with the eTrex 30 that others have mentioned. That problem was inaccurate "Total Ascent" calculation (you can see other reviews for more details). Since I base my bike rides largely on how much I climb, I was very disappointed with the eTrex. Fortunately, that problem seems to have been fixed. I'm currently running firmware version 2.80 and the eTrex 30 is now working great, so here's what I like and don't like about it: PROS: -Nice small size, fits into a pocket when not used -Display is very clear, especially in direct sunlight. It is typical of other, non-touchscreen, Garmin handhelds. -Battery life is excellent, I use Kirkland akalines and it runs quite a while on those (almost as long as my old eTrex Vista). I'm sure it would be even better using Li-ion batteries. -It has all the functions (and even a few more) of the Garmin GPSmap 62s for much less money. -It powers up and finds itself very quickly (15-20 seconds) if you are close to where you shut it down. (It can take well over a minute to find itself if you've traveled some distance with it off). -I found it very easy to learn to use. It's a bit of a hybrid between the old eTrex series and the newer GPSmap series. The button functions are similar to the old eTrex series and the menus and functionality are nearly the same as the GPSmap series. Since I've owned both, I had no problem adapting. If you are new to handheld GPS units, it may seem a bit overwhelming at first since it's got so many features, but you'll soon get the hang of it. -There are literally thousands of ways to personalize this unit, you can set up different activity categories (i.e. bicycling, geocaching, car navigating, hiking, boating) and assign pages appropriate to each one (maps, altitude, compass, geocaches, etc). -Good value, you get a lot of functionality for your money. CONS: -The processor can be a bit slow, it often takes a second or two between the time you push a button until something happens. This is the reason I give it four stars instead of five. I've got to admit that I'm somewhat comparing this to my GPSmap 62s, but even if I didn't have the 62s, I think I'd still find the occasional slowness of the eTrex 30 annoying, but still usable. -The display is a bit small. The unit has the ability to cram a lot of info onto a single screen, but sometimes the little characters or graphics are just too tiny. Fortunately, in most cases, you can also spread this info out over several screens (or pages) and use much larger characters. -As others have said time and time again, the base maps this comes with are pretty bad. I've added City Navigator on micro SD card to mine as well as a couple of free topo maps (from GPSFileDepot.com). If you want a Garmin handheld, you just have to live with this. Bottom line: If you want a handheld GPS receiver that does everything very well, I'd strongly recommend the Garmin GPSmap 62s. If you don't want to spend that much, the eTrex 30 does nearly everything the 62s does for a whole lot less and I highly recommend it as well. (In case you are wondering why I have both, I got the eTrex 30 to take on routine bike rides so I don't torture the 62s as much. I also use it as a backup for geocaching and to keep in the car in case I need it. I use the 62s primarily for geocaching).

EQUIPO MUY VERSATIL Y FUNCIONAL, FACIL DE MANEJAR Y EXACTO EN SU RESULTADO, TIENE BUENA RECEPCION Y ES UN EQUIPO MUY RECOMENDABLE.

Exlent working

Bonne autonomie, précis (mode glonass), lisible même en plein soleil. Mais indications de distance et de dénivelée assez fantaisistes, malgré une mise à jour du logiciel. L'analyse de la trace une fois à la maison nous donne des meilleures indications. Le tracé enregistré est précis, sauf dans des conditions difficiles (fond de vallée, falaises). Précision de l'ordre de quelques mètres (et souvent mieux, le tracé colle de très près à la photo aérienne). Le compas et le baromètre sont un plus. Précision altimétrique pas mal (grâce au baromètre).

Muy contento con este dispositivo, pues es perfecto tanto para llevarlo en la bici (hay que adquirir el soporte para ello), como para hacer senderismo. El que funcione a pilas, es una gran ventaja, pues siempre puedes llevar de repuesto un par de pilas, al contrario que si fuese de batería, pues te obligaría a comprar otra de respaldo con el consiguiente sobrecoste que supone esto. El que tenga brújula es una gran ventaja, pues si paras, no se gira el mapa, quedándose orientado con respecto a tu posición. No ocurre lo mismo con el etrex 20, el cual, si te paras, se gira el mapa y cuesta orientarte, pues lo que ves enfrente no es lo que te muestra el garmin. Otra ventaja es que dispone de ANT+, por lo que por ejemplo en mi caso, uso la misma cinta de cardio cuando voy en bici que cuando salgo a correr, registrándose y almacenándose las pulsaciones en el dispositivo. En mi opinión, a mi me ha merecido la pena gastarme los 40€ de diferencia que existe entre el etrex30 y el 20.

Ich verwende das Etrex 30 zu Wandern und Radfahren mit der Topo Deutschland 2012 Pro. Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit dem Gerät. Ein Quantensprung zu Karte und Kompass. Positiv: - das Display ist sehr gut ablesbar, insbesondere bei Sonnenlicht - hochwertige Verarbeitung - die Batterielaufzeit ist sehr gut, Mehrtageswanderungen mit zwei vollen Batterien kein Problem. Notfalls bekommt man ansonsten fast überall AA-Batterien. - der Kompass ist sehr genau, muss jedoch öfter nachkalibriert werden, was aber sehr schnell geht - mit der Software Basecamp kann man die Garmin-Karte und mehrere OSM-Karten auf eine 8GB-SD-Karte übertragen und auf dem Gerät parallel nutzen. - die Übertragung von GPX-Tracks funktioniert bei mir einwandfrei, ich benutzte dazu Basecamp - bisher nach mehreren Regenwanderungen absolut wasserdicht. - die Knöpfe sind gut bedienbar - es gibt sehr viele verschieden Halterungen - auch beim Fahrradfahren gut bedienbar - bis jetzt mit der Software keine Schwierigkeiten, Updates über Basecamp funktionieren einwandfrei. - GPS-Empfang und Genauigkeit unter den üblich Bedingungen sehr gut. Negativ: - lahme USB-Schnittstelle - der Prozessor ist nicht gerade sehr schnell, in die Karte rein- und rauszoomen dauert gefühlte Ewigkeiten. - bei der Verwendung im Fahrzeug mit Autohalterung zwar verwendbar, aber eher weniger geeignet, weil der Standort bei hohen Geschwindigkeiten sehr langsam angepasst wird. Im Gegensatz zur Verwendung von Papierkarten bietet das GPS für mich beim Wandern und Biken einige echte, für mich entscheidende Vorteile: Eine sehr genaue Anzeige des eigenen Standortes, einfachste Handhabung, der integrierte Kompass, Unempfindlichkeit gegen Regen, endlich in schwierigem Terroir nicht mehr verlaufen... Die Papierkarte habe ich trotzdem immer dabei, aber nur für den Überblick, der bei einer großen Karte einfach besser sichtbar ist. Für mich eine lohnende Anschaffung!