Garmin eTrex 10 Outdoor Handheld GPS Unit

Excellent bit of kit – used on Dartmoor in 20m visibility for 20 miles
I purchased this last minute, I intended to borrow a friend’s older version to use on a 20 mile hike across Dartmoor but decided to go ahead and purchase one for myself as I knew I would use it. I’m certainly not disappointed.The trip across Dartmoor was for charity and the weather seemed to know it. Thick, late summer fog shrouded us all day and although the map said there were paths we quickly discovered there weren’t any! This thing literally saved us from getting lost in the fog (visibility was down to 20 metres). I wasn’t looking for fancy map screens or anything like that, I just needed something that was going to give me a UK OS grid reference and this does. The batteries lasted ages (the walk was around 9 hours and it was fine, on constantly – 2 AA batteries). It seemed very accurate or at least using it in combination with a map and compass I had no problem getting somewhere with some pacing and micro-navigation so I assume it was pretty accurate! Acquiring signal was also no challenge. I get very warm and sweaty at some points and I had it parked on an inside pocket some of the way and it worked perfectly fine despite being in a sauna! Additionally it rained lightly for some parts of the trip and again, was absolutely fine.It has some other interesting features like using it with mapping software which I use frequently (not tried that yet) and it has a ‘nipple scroll’ which is extremely handy for navigating menus quickly. It did take some time getting my head around where everything was and the manual which came with it I felt missed a lot of information out so I had to go hunting on forums.I think this is a great gadget and for the price, brilliant. Highly recommended for the typical hiker.

Persevere, look on YouTube for how to use it and it will reward your time and effort.
Beware! There are no instructions and it is NOT intuitive. That said, once you have gone onto YouTube and watched how others have got to grips with it, it does become easier to understand and to use. Good battery life, it uses standard AA batteries, so easy to replace if you are on a long distance route and able to get to shops on occasions (or carry spares with you).I found this works best combined with OS Maps online. A £20 subscription gives access to all of the site’s features, including creating routes and exporting the route as a GPX file to your eTrex10. The “Whereto” function then allows you to access the uploaded route and it is easy to follow once you get to your route start point.It’s also good at finding exactly where you are (to within a metre if there are plenty of satellites). It will give you a grid reference that you can then see on your map.It doesn’t give you a nice coloured map and show you your route on it, so be careful of your expectations. The (much more) expensive models do that. There IS a way of getting maps onto it, but it’s not easy and involves JAVA on your computer and changing the device’s internal programming.You can enter map coordinates manually as waypoints, rather than upload as a route, so if you want to navigate to, say, a campsite and you are in the general area, you can call up your named waypoint and it will enable you to navigate to the destination. Be warned though – you have to set the default to “British OS Grid Ref”, otherwise it will still be in some USA grid reference mode.This is the basic model, black and white screen, quite slow to “toggle” and not easy to get to know how to use it at first, but I like the price and the functionality and would nevertheless recommend it. Definitely a bit of kit that I will always take with me. I still take a map and compass as well.

No tiene lujos ni aplicaciones extraordinarias, pero es perfecto para hacer rutas senderistas con la seguridad de no perderte. Es ligero , de pequeño tamaño. no pierde la señal del satélite ,. La pantalla se ve perfectamente con sol y sombra y su manejo no es muy complicado. Por ponerle un pero, para mi gusto le falta un bloqueador de pantalla, pero aún así, muy buena adquisición,

Produto de excelente qualidade, e com valor acessível.

Solid little gps, does exactly what it’s suppose to do. This is my 4th Garmin gps in the last 22 years and the best yet. Very fast to acquire the satellites even in the house under a tin roof. My other older gps and my 2 year old car gps won’t acquire the satellites unless I go outside. I did have to go outside the first time I turned it on but worked in the house every time after that. Garmin’s basic functions hasn’t changed much since 1995. There are a lot of switching pages depending on what you want to see but so did all the others I owned. This is a small screen gps and not a big screen tv so it’s impossible to put all the info on one page. The trick is to play with it and learn it’s as much as possible.My only major complaint is the instruction manual, it sucks big time. I give it 1 star for manual. I would say it’s impossible for a first time user to learns anything useful about the gps, Garmin sure has gone downhill when it comes to instruction manuals. Thanks to the Internet, there is a useful solution for this. YouTube contains all kind of useful instruction video for this model, enough to get you going out and use it with confidence.A major complaint I have seen in the reviews is “battery life”, most people find it is too short on two AA batteries. All my older models (3) took 4 AA and the battery life wasn’t that much longer than this unit. The big difference 2 batteries make is the size of the unit. Take my older model Garmin 12XL. Used 4 batteries and the unit was at 30% bigger but the screen is only about 5% bigger. I used to change my batteries every day before heading into the bush. I recommend you also order from Amazon a pack of ENELOOP batteries made by Panasonic. You get 4 rechargeable batteries that contains 2100 mah (stored power). 2 batteries runs the unit for a solid 24 hours,(first thing I tested), you bring the other two for spares. Never leave home without spare batteries regardless the type you use.No downloadable maps is another complaint I read often, if you want topo maps on your gps, do not order this unit, go for the etrex 20.I did see some videos on YouTube that shows how to download some maps on the unit but I found the quality of the maps were not worth it. I always carry a good quality map and a compass with me, gps or not. Much easier to plot a course with a map and compass then load the coordinates on the gps. I used to hunt in deep bush far from civilizations in northern Canada with gps, map and compass and I can say I have never got lost and have always made it out of the bush. Hope the review helps you.