BikinOn

I'm more cyclist than anything else and use an Oregon 600 for directions, usually following a track. The ability to put fresh batteries in and continue is what endears this type of unit to the ultra-distance cycling community. I like it's bigger screen too. The touch screen isn't a problem with gloves, when I'm wearing thick full finger gloves the screen sensitivity needs to be set to high. You can use the normal setting with lighter full finger racing gloves. Whether you go for touch screen or buttons is a matter of personal taste, I had no problem with the Edge's buttons, but now find the touch screen better.

eneloop XX rechargeable batteries are much better value, they last about 2 hours longer and you'll get 4 batteries for less than the price of the 2 Garmins. A quick search on the Net will show you how to rig them to recharge in the unit.

It just occurred to me that may be we are being unfair to Garmin, they put out a new release after introducing problems, without ANY bug fixes - perhaps this is their idea of a frightening subtle April fools joke!

So they haven't fixed any of the bugs? I'm not going to touch that with a bargepole!

Seems that Garmin needs to significantly improve their real world QA procedures, I've not seen one 100% firmware release yet.

As a matter of interest, I don't own an eTrex but know a few people who do, how stable are its firmware updates? The Oregon updates that have been released lately have generally been pretty poor, are the eTrex ones any better?

Well they say time is money, but most of us would regard a 4 Hours X 500 to be well worth an extra $5 for a pack of 4

Can't comment on the Montana, but with my Oregon 600 I typically get another 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the Eneloop XX batteries.