Customer Reviews

Garmin eTrex 10 Outdoor Handheld GPS Unit

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My first GPS was the original eTrex and has been very good over the years. I upgraded to the eTrex 10 because I needed a second GPS and thought the extra sensitivity and memory would prove usueful. The first thing I liked was the easy to use toggle switch on the front of the eTrex 10 which makes the inputting of coordinates so much easier; the use of very stiff "enter" button with the old eTrex would often result in a tender thumb after a long session of inputting data. To judge the claims of improved sensitivity I went for a walk in a heavily wooded area with both my GPS units. Before entering the woods both GPS units were claiming to know my location within 3mt. As I entered the woods my eTrex's accuracy changed to 5 and then 8mt, the eTrex 10 stayed at 3mt. By the time I was well under cover the eTrex 10 was reading 5mt and 8mt when standing next to large tree trunks. By comparison the eTrex was reading 10 to 20mt. Generally the eTrex 10 appears to be 2 to 3 times more accurate than my old eTrex. Having the extra memory with the eTrex 10 means that no longer do I have to delete routes to make room for new ones. Finally another bonus is when inputting a linear route only one direction needs to be stored as the eTrex 10 can reverse routes with a simple press of a button. Overall an excellent and simple to use GPS and if as reliable as my old unit well worth the money.

I originally bought the classic yellow e-trex for geocaching , and after just over a year it broke , and I replaced it with the 10 just over two months ago.

At first I was bemused by all the screens , the scant instructions , and the leap in complexity from the older model . I did not find the etrex10 at all intuitive , or the garmin basecamp software (a free download)a useful interface between it and my computer .
A bit of persistence , a download of the relevant owners manual from garmins website , and a lot of button pressing later the screens started to make sense and I realised that I could configure them to exactly what I wanted . I had some initial difficulty with caches , but once I grasped that waypoints and geocaches are treated as two entirely different animals I was away !

Accuracy is improved over the older model , as is battery life (3 days on a pair of NiCads vs 1)and the GPS is a much neater shape . GPX cache files loaded onto the etrex10 by simply setting the GPS as a mass storage device , connecting via the usb cable and dragging & dropping into the correct folder (GPX) gives you paperless caching with description , hint and last 3 logs available to view.

A previous reviewer thought the memory inadequate : at the moment I have just over 400 caches in my device , which occupy roughly half of the 8.97mb memory. And resetting the odometer ? Go to "trip computer" , press the menu button , select "reset trip data?" click yes ...

Once I'd got to grips with the unit I still had two concerns . The first was the pointer on the compass screen , which was a very slim needle extending right to the edge of the outer ring , making it quite hard to distinguish which end had the pointer ! This caused me some annoyance to start with , but downloading the latest software update from garmin happily replaced the slender needle with a much clearer pointer .The second thing was the joystick . As I hang my GPS from a belt loop on a short lanyard and keep it in a trouser pocket when walking I thought I would be constantly inadvertently jiggling the controls , but in the course of 200 + caches this has only happened twice . The joystick still seems to me to be a very vulnerable moving part though , and after my previous etrex failed due to a broken button I worry that this may be its weak point. With thus in mind I purchased a couple of years insurance as featured on the page , just in case .

The weather this 'summer' has been wet enough that I can say the 10 seems to deal well with water , having got rained on a great deal , and splashed with a considerable amount of mud too .

Overall I am very happy with this GPS , the absence of a decent scale inbuilt map (which can be found on the more expensive models) is no problem for me as I always carry an OS map on country walks , and can use my smartphone as a satnav in the car if I need to . The 'trackback' feature has been very handy when I have forgotten to mark the car as a waypoint , the little joystick is far less hassle to input info. manually than the buttons on the old etrex , and the usb connection is streets ahead of the old serial port nightmare too !

I would recommend the etrex10 to any thrifty geocacher or walker who is reasonably tech savvy , and is willing to spend some time getting acquainted with the GPS unit and associated software .

This little device fulfils most of the things I would want from a GPS handheld. Good battery life, clear and easy to read screen, reasonably intuitive menus and fairly inexpensive to purchase.

One small fly in the ointment however. The odometer which holds the sum of all the trip distances can only be reset to zero by performing a complete reset of the entire unit. This action will result in loss of all your personal settings and any data you forgot to back up. Not the end of the world but a bit inconvenient.

Also you may find spurious way-points being entered while the unit is in your pocket or your backpack every time the joystick presses against something hard-ish. Again a minor niggle but something to be aware of.

The internal memory cannot be supplemented but is sufficient for logging a day or so's outdoor activities. Don't expect too much from the built-in "map". The device specification scarcely mentions it, but even this simple map 'of the world' has its uses.

Overall this unit is a pleasure to use and, minor niggles aside, I really have little hesitation in awarding it five stars for build quality and functionality.

Enjoy.

After much searching for a decent priced handheld gps, I decided to try the Garmin eTrex 10. This has been a perfect buy and is very reliable and the battery life is excellent compared to my Android phone.

Would definitely recommend for geocaching.

This is the basic Garmin model at under �100. Battery life is good, it picks up satellites quickly, provides altitude information and is compact. The screen is legible but as it is B&W; not very attractive. The front screen icons are customisable so you can select the most used to appear as you switch the unit on.

Garmin took several useful steps forward when they released the new units in the UK in October 2010 (the eTrex 10,20,30 models). 1....They are far more competent in holding a signal. On one path in a particularly tricky location my eTrex 10 will now accurately map about 2/3 of the path. Previously this same path (in a steep-sided valley side covered in trees) caused total loss of location using an eTrex H, using a GPS60 and using a Geko. 2....The track files are now stored in a public domain .gpx format instead of a Garmin proprietary format, making for easy use on Google Maps and the like. 3....The battery life is one of the best available. 4....The control buttons and thumbstick are good and the menus are OK.

In most ways these models represent a splendid step forward by Garmin. So, am I going to award 5/5? No - the supporting documentation is rubbish. It is very non-committal in its comments and there are no helpful suggestions as to what the owner might use the unit to its full potential. A novice user will end up wondering what they can do with their new purchase. An experienced user will have to spend a lot of time fiddling to see how to use the unit. So 4/5 seems a generous score in the circumstances.

For walkers I have attempted to help-out with the missing advice. I wrote a series of web pages to share knowledge with some colleagues. There now seems to be no reason why these pages should be shared with anyone reading these comments. You will find them at under how-to at my rambler-info pages.

I bought this because my children and I have recently got into geocaching. We had been using a smartphone app, but found that it wasn't that accurate and in some locations was useless. This GPS has changed all that! The price was very reasonable - one of the cheapest I could find. But it does everything we need it to do and more! For example there is no need to manually enter the coordinates of the caches - we can download them straight from the Geocaching site along with other information about the cache. It has other fun features that my children enjoy, like telling us how fast we are going and how long it will take us to get to our destination. As a complete technophobe I have been very impressed with how easy it is to use. I can definitly recomend this GPS.

The positioning is OK but the menu system is not easy to deal with and moving from one screen to another is not intuative. The instructions that come with it are very poor and those that can be downloaded are not much better.

Good robust product given mine a good few knocks and bangs worth it's weight in gold if you get lost, never had any problems with locking on to satelites, love the fact that you can download your track then view it on google earth. My only criticism is that the supplied manual is totally inadequate took me ages to find out for myself how to convert co ordinates to British grid surely basics like this should be in the manual, had to email Garmin when I couldn't download my first hike only to be told 'oh you need to download Base camp from the internet' this info should also have been in the manual, had to buy a book (GPS for walker) to help me get a bit more info and realise it's limitations, still not using it to it's fullest potential but i'm happy just to use it to know where I am in conjunction with good maps and then see where I've been when I get home. All things considered i'm happy with my purchase and would recommend as long as it's limitations are understood. Garmin if you read this get a grip and put a decent manual in the box!

It is very difficult to give a true Star Rating as this little cheap satnav is really very good for mountaineers/adventure travel worldwide but the instructions for its use are woefully inadequate!!! I bought it as I needed a satnav for a ski tour in Norway.

Good points are: Nice hand size - rugged - water proof - takes 2 x AA batteries (lithium for cold weather) - has map grids for most countries and UTM (the km2 grid standard for outdoor maps in countires like Norway who don't have their own grid system) - the displays for 'Map' and 'Compass' can be customised to show up to 4 other pieces of information (such as distance to next waypoint or bearing to next waypoint) from a long list of options - information inputing is not too difficult using menues and toggle.

The bad points: The manual supplied and the longer downloadable version from Garmin are totally inadequate. This little device is a very capable satnav for the outdoor adventurer but it took me hours and hours of research on Google and various forums to find out how to set the device up for travel in the Norwegian mountains using it in conjuntion with the 1:50,000 Turkart maps. I basically had to undertake a tutorial in UTM mapping and look up the area I was going to on a worldwide UTM chart to initialise the set-up. The language used in the Garmin manual is complex jargon that I had to learn the meaning of before I could follow the manual. Even then, the manual just gave a brief overview of a feature rather than a detailed guide to using it. Even working out how to set-up the device for use with UK Ordnance Survey maps is not explained in the manual - I had to go to a UK mountaineering forum to find out.

Most outdoor adventurers want to be able to pre-load waypoints using grid references taken from the local 1:50000 or 1:25000 maps of the mountain area they are visiting - and then call up those saved points on the satnav during a journey so they can safely travel from one to the next in any conditions. This satnav will do that job very well - But expect to spend a good few hours of frustration (hopefully at home before your trip!) trying to work out how to set-up your Garmin eTrex 10 !!!!!