Garmin eTrex 30 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator
Garmin eTrex 30 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator
- Rugged handheld navigator with preloaded worldwide relief basemap and 2.2-inch color display
- WAAS-enabled GPS receiver with HotFix and GLONASS support for fast positioning and a reliable signal
- Built-in 3-axis electronic compass always shows your heading; barometric altimeter pinpoints your precise altitude
- Compatible with topographic, marine, and road maps–TOPO U.S. 24K, BlueChart g2, City Navigator, etc.
- Powered with two AA batteries; waterproof to IPX7 standards for protection against splashes, rain, etc.
Garmin eTrex is a recognizable name when it comes to outdoor explorations and adventures. These handheld GPS line has been selling millions of units over the past 10 years. With new refinements, including better menus and simpler operation, the new, head-of-class Garmin eTrex 30 is a hiker’s dreams come true. Offering international shaded-relief (pseudo-topographic) mappings, a 2.2″ color screen, built-in altimeter and compass, this handheld GPS device lets you explore the world’s roads and forests with more assurance than ever. The eTrex 30 offers 2.2″ 65k color sunlight readable display, a shaded relief worldwide basemap, and internal memory plus a microSD card slot. It also exclusively features a 3-axis electronic compass that shows your
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M. J. Grace "Seriousness is not a virtue."
March 5, 2012Overall much improved but lost a bit in the process,
Presumably atypically I use eTrex units nearly exclusively for road navigation and often calculate long routes.
Previously I used a Legend CX extensively and it’s showing its age. I toyed with buying a Nuvi but don’t care for the design for subjective reasons such as lack of configurability and water resistance, touchscreen, doesn’t work as well on my motorcycle, etc..
The Legend CX would routinely take several minutes to calculate long routes in addition to slow map `drawing’ times and I’m pleased to note Garmin improved calculating/processing speed significantly. On several side by side comparisons the 20 processed routes in roughly 1/3 the time (still noticeably slower than the Nuvis I’ve used). Additionally the map drawing time is much reduced, and to my eyes the map layout/display is improved – for one thing the background is more white than yellow and easier to read.
The various menu screens are changed: previously you had, for instance, 12 options to select on the `Find’ page – now there are 6; they are more legible and it’s easy enough to scroll down through them all.
I’m still disappointed Garmin makes you cough up $80ish for a functional (read: turn by turn directions) road map but they’re making progress on that front: you can now buy `lifetime’ maps instead of having to purchase `updates’ routinely. And I guess I can’t blame them for capitalizing on what they can capitalize on, while they can.
Plus I have to admit: Garmin’s phone customer service is usually well above average (thanks, Rocky!) and that costs something.
They changed the mounting connector design so you can no longer use your old car/bike/whatever mount.
And they took the `Exits’ category out of the `Find’ menu: why, Garmin? Such a useful tool it was.
To sum: if you’re an eTrex fan this incarnation is IMO an impressive advance RE processing and map drawing speed. The maps more closely resemble the Nuvis.
I have no reason to believe it won’t be as reliable (IME close to bulletproof) as previous units. And the rustish/red/orange color is cool.
I like mine a lot.
*****
Update: one VERY useful feature the old eTrex units didn’t have is now you can ‘Search Near’ a ‘A Recent Find’. It nearly makes up for removing the ‘Exits’ category, but not quite.
And it not uncommonly crashes (keep in mind I’m probably asking more of it than it was designed for); some of the crashes require unplugging the power and removing the battery to get it to fire back up.
Still, after using mine for tens of thousands of miles I remain overall very pleased with the improvements.
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|Edgar J. Elliott
March 5, 2012A good choice,
My 30 arrived a few hours ago.
As you read this review, note that Rocker refers to what Garmin has now renamed the Thumb Stick.
Pros:
o The on-screen keyboard is much better designed than the old eTrex (and this issue was important enough to me to pay for a 450 last year):
…..o Stays in upper case (hallelujah) rather than, with the old eTrex, the first alpha triggering the on-screen keyboard to change to lower case and special characters, which then necessitated navigating to the shift character to restore the keyboard to upper case and numbers.
…..o DONE is easier to access as are cursor left and cursor right.
…..o Can use the Zoom keys (top left side of GPS) to switch between the three keyboards: alpha and numbers, special characters; numbers.
o The display is nice and crisp.
o Can load maps to internal memory without using an SD card (56MB of maps tested leaves 1.68GB of internal memory). The old eTrex required an SD card .
o A distance proximity alert can be created on the 30 using any waypoint or POI as a source (more info below).
o Can load maps, waypoints, and routes from MapSource (see Bugs below).
o Smaller than the eTrex Legend HCx.
o Includes place to affix a lanyard (but a lanyard is not included).
o Garmin tech support was excellent. Michael spent and hour and a half as we researched four issues including the bugs mentioned below.
o As mentioned by other reviewers, satellite acquisition is fast: first power on to location: 45 seconds.
Cons:
o The new interface seems cumbersome when compared to the old eTrex. The old interface was quicker to navigate with more data being displayed on menu screens, but maybe it will get better with more hands-on time. The new interface seems to have been designed for a touch screen, which the 30 is not. On some screens, such as the Map Information page there is a lot of wasted empty space. Tip : Use Setup > Page Sequence to add pages that you want to quickly access using the Back button; those pages will then disappear from the Main Menu.
o Testing indicates that proximity alerts for POI’s loaded using the POI loader do not work. On the old eTrex Legend HCx, POI’s containing speed or distance proximity alerts could be loaded using the POI Loader and the Legend HCx would issue the appropriate alerts. The POI Loader works with the 30, but testing indicates that the alert is not issued. This test was for a distance, not speed, alert (speed alerts are of no interest to me, so I’ll leave that testing to someone who wants that functionality). On the other hand, proximity alerts can be manually created on the 30 using waypoints or POI’s as sources. This is definitely a big Pro and is listed in the Pros above. When the user creates a proximity alert from a POI, a waypoint is created with the same name with a “1” appended at the end of the name. So, it appears that to mass load distance proximity alerts onto the 30 will require loading them as waypoints with the proximity distance set, rather than loading them as POI’s. And, it appears that waypoints only support distance alerts, not speed alerts, in the 30, MapSource, and BaseCamp. A minor point: while MapSource can maintain a waypoint’s proximity in miles to 3 decimal digits (0.000), the 30 supports only editing to 2 decimal digits (0.00). And, as we all know, 0.01 mile is approximately 53 feet so this is probably a non-issue for most applications.
…..o To compound the problem of not supporting proximity alerts for POI’s and forcing the use of waypoints instead, Garmin has removed the capability to delete waypoints by symbol, leaving only the choices to (a) delete all waypoints or (b) delete waypoints individually. This means that if I assign special symbols to the waypoints which I want to retain permanently on the GPS while letting temporary waypoints have the default (blue flag) symbol, I cannot delete just the temporary waypoints en masse — as the old eTrex would have supported. In order to retain the waypoints which I want permanently on the GPS, I will be forced to either a) delete the temporary waypoints individually in the field if I forget to do it at home, (b) remember to delete them in BaseCamp before departing for the outdoors, (c) remember to delete the GarminGPSWaypoints_dd-mmm-yy.gpx file before departing for the outdoors, or (d) remember to delete all waypoints and then reload all of the permanent waypoints before departing for the outdoors. (I did not realize this until after my initial review submission. I would now give a 4-star rating, rather than 5, because of this whole POI proximity alert issue and the lack of delete-waypoints-by-symbol.)
…..o Note that some of the newer Garmin GPS’s (e.g., 450) say they support proximity alerts, but the functionality is…
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|R. Higginson
March 5, 2012Great mid-level handheld,
The first review of this unit lamented that, while listed on Amazon, it wasn’t actually available yet. That has changed. It’s now available, and I have it within arm’s reach as I’m typing this.
I liked the features listed for the eTrex 20, and awaited the late September release date before upgrading from my old Magellan handheld GPS. The eTrex 20 has so far proven to be everything it was advertised to be – lightweight, easy to use, and with a sensitive receiver. One of the factors that motivated me to upgrade was how fast the Garmins that my wife and son have were to lock on to the satellites, versus how much longer it took the old Magellan – this one took less than a minute to find, lock-on, and determine position, while the older unit would still have been searching for satellites.
One of the first things I noticed when using the eTrex 20, was the number of satellites it tracked. This new eTrex series has incorporated the Russian GLONASS system, along with the current GPS satellites. By tracking both systems, the device has more points of data to better calculate position.
The micro SD slot is a nice feature, giving the user the ability to expand the memory, although the built-in 1.7 Gb is nothing to sneeze at. For about ten bucks, enough memory can be added to store more than enough waypoints for an extended trip away from the computer. The micro SD slot is located under the batteries, and thereby protected from the elements.
I’m still learning all the features, and looking forward to putting it through some paces on our next Geocaching adventure. The only drawback I’ve found so far is that this model line is so new, that GSAK (a utility program used for Geocaching) doesn’t have a specific protocol for interfacing with it. This is a relatively minor inconvenience, and one I suspect will be remedied in one of the next revisions of GSAK. Until then, I can load Cache information a couple of other ways.
For a bit more money, you can get the eTrex 30 with more features, or for less, you can buy the base-model eTrex 10. The 20 is a nice balance between them, and I think it’s going to suit my needs quite nicely.
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