Garmin  eTrex Touch

The small size, battery life and touch screen of the eTrex Touch make it a very useful tool for planning outings in the backcountry. I replaced a 66sr, a very good unit, with the Touch. The design of the screens and the ease of getting to the most important information with a touch screen makes all the difference. I have tried Garmin Explore and Komoot for trip planning. I find Komoot (subscription required) a better tool for planning routes with the Touch. It slips easily into a pocket making it easy to access when needed. Garmin has a number of excellent offerings in GPS navigation -and this is one of them.

I've had it for a few weeks and like it very much. Its satellite connections are amazing, I can even connect in my living room. Though the screen size is small, it is very clear and easy to read. I added the city streets map and there is still almost half of the 32GB built-in memory left. I have not been on a serious walk or hike yet, but took it on a 250 mile ferry ride and was impressed with the map showing our location and speed. I think this is a very cool device, and compact enough to always have it with me.

I have used this a handful of times now and absolutely love it. I have owned prior Garmin touchscreen units, including earlier Touch models and Oregon devices, so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted going into this one. For my hiking needs, this does exactly what I hoped it would do. The biggest thing I noticed right away is that it feels faster and smoother than the older generations. That alone makes a real difference when you are out on the trail and want something that responds well without feeling clunky or laggy. What I appreciate most is that Garmin stayed true to what makes these dedicated GPS units so useful for hiking. It feels familiar in a good way, but improved where it counts. For me, this has been a very worthwhile upgrade and a great fit for the way I hike.

I hopped this would be better, but I wound up returning it. The interface was very outdated, and slow. There's a noticeable delay in loading even basic maps as you scroll around with your finger. You have to download and save any Maps+ overlays to the device in 2 mile squares and it doesn't have enough memory to handle any significant amount of mileage. So it would kind of work if I was going on a 6 mile day hike, but it couldn't handle the data to do a multi day 40-50mile trip. Very disappointed.

The interface for this is very outdated, the device is slow overall and if you want to use any of the Maps+ overlays, you have to download them in 2mile squares and it takes up almost all of the storage space. There's enough room to download a weekend backpack trip, but there's not enough memory to download Maps+ overlays for a longer trip. I wound up returning this.

He utilizado durante años GPS Garmin Oregon, los modelos 600 y 700, de los que he estado muy contento, por su fiabilidad, facilidad de uso y configuración. El modelo eTrex Touch es complicado de uso, de configuración. No es nada intuitivo. Sólo tiene un botón para el encendido y que además tienes que apretar con fuerza. No recomiendo su compra. Una enorme decepción.

I like the overall operation of this gps. The maps are very detailed, I had no problem with battery life, and I've loaded in my own custom maps and see no problem with the on board Memory capacity.\nOverall , i'm quite impressed with this unit

great little unit. love the size. love the screen. much easier to navigate then the older units. the one important thing I miss is unable to load europe cycling maps. I wanted to use this unit for hiking and cycling

This device works so well for hiking, biking, hunting etc. Compact yet powerful.

This has the potential to be an excellent GPS unit, however, its usefulness (for me) is hampered by tieing the use of it to the Explore app. The BaseCamp app would be a much better fit. I have NO need for the "share with all devices" feature that you now require with this handheld. I have a lot of data in BaseCamp and can keep this separate until the time I need it on my device. I certainly DO NOT want all my data sync'ing to my Garmin Watch. The Explore app has limited customization of feature attributes (colors, icons, etc), and while BaseCamp has some of those limitations but not as many and much easier to manage. I have more than 20 years of experience with Garmin products and, up to now, have always been very pleased with them. Unfortunately, Garmin has moved from a solid GPS/Map focus to a social media/fitness platform. This may be good for some and popular for now, but not for many users, particularly if data is of a sensitive nature, this can be an undesirable addition to product and should be completely optional. Furthermore, the unit should be fully functional without the sharing/snycing that Garmin now promotes so heavily. The complete lack of a unit-specific Owners Manual is a remarkable change for Garmin. By offering only a "series" level Manual, many of the features of the newest eTrex were not even addressed. I had to hack around to figure this thing out. You can do better, if your past performance is any example. I also found Garmin wanting in the lack of any direction on use of the Explore app with this unit - this should be a integral part of the OM! I really wanted to make this device work for me, but it wasn't to be. Thus, I regretfully returned it for refund. To Garmin's credit, you quickly and without hassle processed my refund. Thank you for that. I'll continue using my old Montana that works perfectly with BaseCamp and does everything I ask of it without assuming I want to automatically snyc or share my data. I hope Garmin won't degenerate into just another social media platform and abandon its long-term users.