Whether it’s investments or stuff, I’m a buy-and-hold kind of person.
I’d had my handheld GPS (a Garmin, function-key-driven GPSMAP 6OCSx) 8 years when I lost it on a trip in January 2015. I was not ready to replace it because it still performed well relative to current units.
But now I had no GPS. I decided to stick with Garmin because I have sets of Garmin maps, and am impressed how rugged my GPS had been. It has survived immersion in water and many falls onto hard surfaces.
I looked at Garmin devices positioned for hiking and narrowed my choice to two units:
A touch-screen unit: Oregon 600.
A function-key-driven (non-touch-screen) unit: GPSMAP 64S.
I decided to try something new and settled on the touch-screen unit, the Oregon 600.
Over the course of a two-month trip, February through April 2015, I decided my chosen GPS is unfit for serious hiking.
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Requirement
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Why?
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Problems with the Oregon 600 (touch-screen) GPS
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Advantages of my old (non-touch, function-key-operated) GPS
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I should be able to operate it with one hand.
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I may be hanging on to a rock or a trekking pole with the other hand.
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I needed both hands to hold and operate it.
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I could hold and operate it with with one hand.
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I should be able to operate it without looking at the screen.
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I don’t want to have to stop walking every time I zoom or unzoom or select metrics.
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It’s impossible to do frequent tasks, such as zooming and unzooming without looking at the screen. This meant stopping on a rough trail to avoid tripping over something.
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Using function keys, I did not have to look at the screen to zoom, unzoom, display moving average, etc. I could then just glance at the screen for the information I was seeking without stopping.
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The screen should always be on.
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I want to be able to glance at a map without having to push a button.
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The battery could not power the screen for an entire day, so I opted to set a timeout for the screen. I had to push a button to turn the display back on. The screen is transreflective (sunlight-readable) and should have low power drain. I suspect the touch function was draining some power.
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The screen is transreflective, always on. I could hike the entire day with one battery.
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The screen should not respond to me holding the unit, or putting it in my pocket.
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I don’t want to have to stop walking while I get back to the screen I want.
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The touch screen responded to unintended touches, or contact with clothing. I could lock the screen, but then I would be constantly locking and unlocking it. This was one more reason I turned the screen on and off.
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I could hold the unit, or put it in my pocket without affecting what was on the screen. My handling of the unit did not affect the function keys.
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The screen should not respond to raindrops.
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It’s going to rain!
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In a rainstorm, the screen responded to large drops of rain as though they were finger touches. This made it almost unusable. If I wiped rain off the screen, I ended up scrolling the map.
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Rain did not affect the screen. The display did not change when I wiped rain off it.
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I should be able to use it with gloves.
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I sometimes wear trekking gloves to protect my hands when clambering over rocks or roots.
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The screen was not responsive to my gloved hand.
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It was easy to operate the function keys with a gloved hand.
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The belt clip should lock the unit to my belt or pack.
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I don’t want my GPS to go flying!
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The unit tended to roll off my belt or pack because its center of gravity was too high relative to the top of the clip. (See photograph.)
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The unit was secure because most of the mass of the unit was below the top of the clip. (There was also a latch I could release with one hand.)
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| The belt clip should be higher allowing the unit to “hang” more securely. |
This week, I sold my Oregon 600 on eBay, and will order the GPSMAP 64S. I thought of returning the unit taking advantage of American Express 90-day return protection. It had enough dings from falling on rocks so I decided that would be pushing my luck.
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| I miss my old GPS. I’ve posted about it here. |