[New Garmin Oregon 600 Series]

Judging by the number of queries and bugs being reported on the Oregon 600 Wiki, I'm quite glad we're not getting them yet!

 

Really?? You own a Garmin handheld in the past 5 years? 6xx software is refined and already has fewer bugs than some models on the market for years now.

 

And if you're looking for objective reviews you're in the right place. There aren't too many suck-up fanboys around here, mostly grumpy old Garmin users just waiting to bash them over the head at any sign of deficiency.

 

My 600 is proving a worthy replacement for my 60CSx. The only issue I have had is it locked up on me when I tried to access a camera related setting...But other than that the firmware is very stable for a new device.

 

Garmins OS Discoverer mapping still isn't as sharp as the OS mapping on a smartphone using Viewranger but the screen is very readable in bright sunlight so I can forgive them for that.

[New Garmin Oregon 600 Series]

accuracy is all about the geometry of the visible satellites. Adding GLONASS you may have more satellites visible (GPS+GLONASS) and therefore may have better accuracy by way of a GLONASS bird having better geometry than a GPS bird for that given time/location.

 

Under ideal conditions with 100% of the sky visible I would not expect GLONASS to improve accuracy but the real world is not like that. With obstructions such as mountains and buildings there is the possibility that one or more GPS satellites will not be visible and reducing accuracy, therefore having GLONASS support could improve the accuracy by giving the receiver more data (hopefully better data) to work with.

 

GPS+GLONASS will not guarantee improved accuracy but in many real world situations it can give improved data when calculating a fix.

[New Garmin Oregon 600 Series]

By the time we get them in Europe, I hope you will have sorted all the bugs out!

 

Amazon UK is saying all variants will be released on the 1st of August, while other retailers are varying from late April (a date that hasn't been updated for weeks) to late May.

 

If Garmin want to keep us interested they had better start handing some out for reviewers to report back on or they'll lose sales to their competitors.

 

Chris

 

I am in the UK and received mine on Tuesday of this week from Go Outdoors, complete with 1:50k OS maps. It arrived just in time for 2 weeks of hiking and sea kayaking in Scotland :-)