Garmin eTrex GPS

Cross Bob
Reviewed: 22 December 2007

SUPERB VALUE

A magnificient unit. Cheap and thoroughly practical. Fun to use, and fascinating to"Play with"

Battery drain.

Could be a life saver on Great Whernside or the Carmarthen Fans, and so cheap!

Andy Hayes
Reviewed: 15 February 2007

CHEAP CHEERFUL AND WORKS

Cheap and easy to use, reasonably rugged, runs on AA batteries, long battery life, reliable, buy a cable and upload/download the waypoints. Garmin's support service is second to none.

Buttons can be difficult to operate

Simple to operate. Mine is the camo version and cost about £60. Shop around for a good deal. Don't drop the Camo in the green stuff though, its not easy to find. Learn how to use one properly before going out. I caught myself out having set it to the wrong datum. I was on the wong side of a hill 300 metres from where I should have been!

Shaun Edwards
Reviewed: 10 February 2007

SIMPLE, CHEAP AND RELIABLE

Does have much functionality so battery life is good. I bought mine about 6 years ago and it's still on the same set of batteries!
Waterproof, easy to see and you can use with one hand.

Maybe basic for some. For me all I wanted was to know definitely where I was as a backup to map and compass so all of the extra bumpf you can get was a waste of money

Brilliant bit of kit. Relativley cheap piece of kit that could save your life or at least stop you really cocking up and getting pretty miserable.

I only ever use it as a backup to map and compass and it rarely comes out. When it does it generally just proves that I knew where I was in the first place! The odd occasion I've been wrong and its saved a bit of hardship, especially at the end of a long hard day.

This with a mobile is an essential piece of kit to take out, especially if you are on your owm.

Matthew Sagar
Reviewed: 21 August 2004

CHEAP AND CHEERFUL

Uncomplicated, cheap, reliable.

Can only store one Anquet route

"I`ll never get a GPS" These the words often heard from me until my girlfriend bought me one. Now? well I`m glad I have it - I take it with me whenever I venture into the hills and dont usually look at it until I need it. Its fun to dounload your tracklog onto the computer at the end of the day to check out where you walked. Not to Technical or over specced so you can enjoy the walk not the gizmo!

David Bull
Reviewed: 31 July 2004

CAUTION OF OVER-RELIANCE

eTrex is a nice robust unit - excellent linking capability with my Pocket PC to show location on MemoryMap's OS range.

Very accurate in Lat-Long, but it's translation to UK Nat Grid I've found to be pretty poor.
One time up Kinder it was nearly half a km out, it was only later that I found out that the lat/long was right and only the OS ref was wrong. Could have been dangerous as my wife fell on the descent and needed to call out mountain rescue.
Always confirm your GPS readings with a printed map and tradtional compass!