Garmin Oregon 450t GPS

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

This is the third Garmin Unit I've owned. I think their interfaces tend to be the best. There is nothing wrong with this screen brightness, it's adjustable, it times out (adjustable for battery save). If you've never used something like this outside in direct sunlight, and you're expecting it to look like your iphone on it's highest setting-you will be disappointed. It runs off of two double A's, I would much rather have a dim screen with a longer battery life. I highly suggest the 24K topo maps, they really make this unit shine. In fact I would say it is somewhat lackluster if you only use the installed 100K maps. But this unit is replacing both my car and bike units. If you can afford this luxury (including the 24K maps) it's great. It's fast and responsive. Signal acquisition is light-speed compared to my older models (3 and 5 years old respectively). It works in well for my in-Jeep GPS, and it's accuracy compared with the older models is stellar as well. But I wouldn't suggest it for a main car GPS, it's made for back-country.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

I just received the Garmin 450t yesterday, and thought it was going back. The default screen brightness was terrible, and the menus offered no brightness display, so I thought the complaints were warranted.BUT, after doing a search online, I found Garmin's expanded manual, and found that pressing the power button with the unit on brings up the brightness display. After a quick adjustment, viola!!, I can see!The operations seem intuitive on the unit, but the background programs are scattered. It would be nice if garmin packaged them together as one download, or at least on one download page. Otherwise, I'm still learning, but it seems to be just what I'm looking for. More updates to come.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

This is the second Garmin GPS I have owned. The first was a Colorado 400t. The Colorado 400t began shutting itself off 2 months after I bought it. The Garmin representative told me that shuting off 3 times by itself does "not constitute regularity" and to notify them if the problem continued. I took it back to the retailer.

The Oregon is a cool device, the user interface is great and it really is fun to use. However, after owning the device for 2 months the battery indicator light no longer worked. Even if the batteries were full it said they were empty. after 4 months the ability to search for address disappeared. So I could no longer input an address when using the device for other then hiking purposes. Finally the map started going black, and this was the final straw, I returned my Oregon to REI.

My experience with Garmin is that their products are unreliable and malfunction often. Furthermore, if it is under warranty and you need it repaired, they make you pay for shipping

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

To address a lot of the other concerns. I do a lot of hiking and a fair amount of geocaching in California (and surrounding states) where the sun is very bright :) Never had a problem with visibility. Sure there is glare but it is the same with anything else that has a screen. There was never a point where a combination of increasing the screen brightness and/or using my other hand to shield against the sun didn't work.

The battery life is excellent if you use quality batteries. You can by 2900mAh NiMH battereis for a very reasonable price and the unit will last around 2 days. The fact that it uses AA as opposed to a proprietary battery pack is great since you can carry spares without the need to buy an expensive secondary.

The touchscreen works great. I do a bit of paddling and the unit works fine through my dry-bag. I have not tried it with gloves yet.

The compass has worked just fine for me. They do combine a traditional magnetic compass with an electronic compass so sometimes you have to take a few steps so the GPS can figure out which direction you are pointing in. The electronic compass can also be completely turned off and should be calibrated as per the user manual.

The unit always gets signal, is accurate where other units fail, and in general I am extremely happy with it.

The only reason I am not giving it the full 5 stars is because, as mentioned before, the carabiner is mounted upside down and more importantly, the user interface could use a little work. For example, when navigating to a geocache, in order to view the description I have to exit the geocaching "app" then go into it again. It would be nice if they had some sort of "menu" or "back" button.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

Lots of people love this unit, so take my feedback with a grain of salt. I had a hard time using the unit with gloves on. I was mountain hiking in very cold weather, so taking gloves off was a big problem for me. Second, and less important, is the screen was not as easy to read as I expected. Maybe this was because of the brightness (snow over everything), or maybe because I'm getting older (45 y/0), but I felt like I needed reading glasses and I don't normally use them.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

I really wanted this to work. I have an old Magellan 315 which still works well and hoped to upgrade for a New Mexico hiking trip. I dare say if I did the hike at night, I would have been happy enough, but to try to read this unit in the bright sunlight was a total waste of time. What were the designers thinking? The compass was also rather erratic. Stick with a magnetic type.
I'll keep my 315 and a good map any day and wait for something more worthwhile. Thank goodness I purchased from REI. I was so happy they took it back I treated myself to an expensive pair of Asolo boots and a new backpack!

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

This is my third GPS, and while I have only had experience with Garmin, this is a great GPS. I should say that many people rating the 550t complain about not being able to read the screen in daylight. From what I can tell, the 550t is the same as the 450t except that it has a camera. I have used the screen indoors, outdoors, with lots of light and with little light, and with sunglasses. The bottom line is that the screen is very easy to read in direct sunlight (we have a lot of that here in California). I also love the touchscreen - it is easy to use and works quite well. As far as applications, it is quite similar to older models (such as the GPSmap 60CSx).

My only complaint with Garmin GPSs are the cost of the additional maps, which are a necessity for me. The 100k scale map that comes with the unit is nice to have, but doesn't offer the necessary details for exploring new terrain. As a result, I had to purchase additional maps for, in my opinion, way too much money. Also, I have owned the Garmin City Navigator software, which I have to say is excellent software, but also eats way too much money. It may be cheaper just to buy the 450 (without the topo maps preinstalled) and buy the detailed topographic maps for your particular region. Because of the map costs, I almost bought the DeLorme/Spot GPS, but realized it is incompatible with MAC OSX.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

I have read alot of comments here on REI's web site and other web sites about this unit. Go in and talk to your REI team member about the unit and take it outside. Yes it is a little hard to read in the sunlite but nothing like what I have read from others. My cell phone is hard to read outside too.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

Everyone is talking about the screen quality and not being able to see the screen. Out of the box this unit and all the other units are set at half the power lighting. Simply touch the power button once and increase tne back light to 100%. I love this unit bc of the durability and ease of use. Plus if you do run into a problem just pick up the phone and call product support in KS. You talk to actual English speaking individuals within minutes. I have Garmin on my boat and all of my outdoor gear. Couldn't ask for a better product.

Comments about Garmin Oregon 450t GPS:

I read through all the negative reviews. If you are looking for a turn by turn navigation unit for city driving, this is not the unit to get. Oregon 450 is a very rugged unit designed for navigating in the wilderness. I use it mainly to navigate through rapids and find campsite along rivers that do not have road access. It is equally useful if you are mountain biking in the woods that have multiple paths, or hiking/backpacking in places where cars can't go.

I've tried 60CSX, 62S, and 450, and found 450 to be just about perfect for all my outdoor activities. It is also a great memory device for spots or tracks you discover. Once recorded, you can always go back and relive the moment.

You will need maps. The basemap that comes with it is pretty much useless. I run 24K topo maps, but knowing what I know, I would've saved money and used the excellent custom maps available online.

Garmin has been very good at ironing out any bugs. Oregon series is now pretty mature with most of the bugs gone, and will only get better from this point on. I also appreciate that Garmin didn't abandon Mac users. The latest Basecamp software for Mac has been stellar.

There are complaint about visibility in sunlight. In fact, 450 is on par with the 6xx series in bight sunlight. It is in overcast lighting that 450 falls a little short. But, if you turn on the backlight, you won't have any issues. The battery life is also fantastic if you invest in a good set of NiMH batteries and a charger.

Overall, this is a great unit for outdoor enthusiasts, and I highly recommend it.