Bushnell Onix 400 Weather Tracker the first four days.

[danielbacon]

Bushnell Onix 400 Weather Tracker the first four days.

I received the Onix 400 Monday of this week and here is a synopsis and evaluation of this product.

First of all, this device was designed for people interested in the XM high resolution Doppler radar which is updated approximately two to five minutes. Along with other XM weather services as well as a full XM radio receiver. The alleged service provided by XM radio is called NavWeather. Alleged because XM weather has no clue about the service or product. The letter that came with the product said the device is already active and you have a free trial until December 31 of this year. For some reason my product was not active. No problem I will just call XM and have been activated but XM has not heard of NavWeather. Called Bushnell at first it was a little confusion and the customer support spoke English (the real kind not the one made in India) however after 10 phone calls and three days later I can get no answers from Bushnell or return on my calls. In the letter with a product I was supposed to receive 20 additional credits in addition to the four standard credits for downloading satellite images and topographical maps. It stated that once you register your product within one business day you'll receive a confirmation e-mail with credits. Four days and no credits. And now here's the evaluation of the product:

I will break it down and what's good and what's bad for this product:

first what is good?

3 1/2 inch display very good image quality.

Menus are quite intuitive easy to move between screens and functionalities.

Good XM radio information display.

Overall good concept if I could get service.

Expandable memory (MicroSD) up to 4 Gb tested to two comes with 128 MB. Uses a standard mini USB.

Fits in a hand quite nicely.

What is wrong?

The display if you use polarized sunglasses is difficult to see the image also it is prone to scratches and mine came with scratches already on the screen (very fine but still scratches).

Power, this device is a major power hog in fact with everything on (backlit, XM radio) the back of the device becomes hot to the touch approximately 110°F (bonus feature hand warmer). It uses a proprietary lithium-ion battery with full power use of approximately 4 hours it however has a power save mode that is supposed to last for 24.

XM antenna built-in is just like the original portable XM radio devices extremely poor however you can get a antenna headphone set that makes reception much better. No docking station even though they have said it works with a docking station I have tried one and it did not work.

Base map. Essentially it has interstates and some US highways and major cities only.

You have the option of downloading aerial and topographical maps however it's a dollar per map which covers extremely small area. But if you plan to download more than a few you can pay $70 for a full unlimited year download supply. If you intend to cover large distances this is very laborious to download to the computer. Aerial photographic displays are of poor quality the topographical information are USGA quads. You must enter waypoints routes and other information using their software package . It does not allow for import or export of any type. Waypoints only have location data, icon, and name only.

I have requested Bushnell to call me a total of 7 times and they have only called me once. I am still waiting for a call if I don't receive one I will send it back and order a new one. If this new one does not work then it will be returned for a full refund. More information to follow

[+Oky777]

I had my hopes for this GPS but decided to wait til some reviews came out before ordering this one since the earlier Onix 200 got very bad reviews. Thanks danielbacon and let us know how it goes.

[+Renegade Knight]

...The display if you use polarized sunglasses is difficult to see the image...

 

This issue is true of every LCD I've ever used on any equipment. Unless you are holding it at the right angle. Normally that's straight up...

[+Indotguy]

I feel your pain and I applaud your review. It must have taken some guts to admit you purchased one of these.

[+embra]

We salute the pioneers!

 

I had a hard time trying to figure out their detail map financial scheme. You confirm that it didn't sound very good.

[twcmaster]

I am also having major problems getting service added to this device. I have been banging my head against the wall all weekend. I was able to get XM radio and sports scores working at one point, but not the weather. After ~25 calls to XM over the weekend, it is still not working. There are no supervisors there at XM, and Bushnell is closed for the weekend.

 

This seems like a great device (definitely has a few bugs), but it appears that XM's cutomer service has never been told about this device or the NavWeather service. Every call I made.

 

ME: "Hi I need to add the NavWeather service to my account, are you familiar with it?"

 

XM: "Yes, of course I am familiar with the NavTraffic service."

 

ME: "Actually, I am looking for the NavWeather service that provides weather data"

 

XM "Ok Mr. -------. I would be more than happy to help you with our NavTraffic service."

 

Either they have a very strict script they have to stick to, or they are using half-duplex phones and weren't hearing what i was saying.

 

Very frustrating to say the least. I will try to talk to Bushnell tomorrow. If they can't help me, back it goes........

[danielbacon]

More information to follow

An Update

shortly after posting I was able to contact someone in the XM weather department (been calling them several times a day) they had talked to a software engineer and said that The NavWeather would not be available until next year (they didn't say when next year). After talking to XM I finally received the call from the supervisor at Bushnell. They were going to have a meeting on Friday to determine exactly what the problem is and I was to receive a call Friday afternoon. I receive no call. The next shipment available from Cabelas is October 15. I will continue to contact XM again as well as Bushnell to see what the devil is going on. Best I can tell is XM fell behind the release date or poor marketing strategy for Bushnell releasing the product before the service was available. At any rate I would advise anyone not to order this product until I can get a resolution to this problem. By the way it's almost been a week and I have not got my 20 additional credits for downloads (which I really don't care that much about compared to the weather).

[+embra]

Thanks for the updates...read with interest. Glad you can return it if you decide to.

[topografix]

That's unfortunate that the Onix 400 turned out to be a flop. I purchased the B/W Onix 200 and posted a very negative review as well.

 

Great idea, poor execution.

[+geognerd]

Good example of why products that combine so many different features are a bad idea. I'd much rather carry several devices that do one thing well than carry one device that does nothing well.

[+user13371]

... if you use polarized sunglasses is difficult to see the image...

... true of every LCD I've ever used on any equipment. Unless you are holding it at the right angle. Normally that's straight up...

Apple got this one right on the iPhone and iPod Touch. LCD is visible with polarized glasses, whether the device is being used in "portrait" or "landscape" mode. As the iP* is meant to be used in both orientations, they aligned the LCD's polarizing filter diagonally.

Edited October 9, 2007 by lee_rimar

[danielbacon]

Bushnell finally returned my call. After several correspondents, Bushnell will activate the XM weather and XM radio until the end of the year. They were able to activate the XM radio part but after four hours XM weather was not available. So as of 3:15 today I returned it back to Cabelas. So if you currently own this radio please contact Bushnell customer service and they will allegedly activate your device for you. According to XM weather services it will be sometime next year before NavWeather is available. For a basic GPS I found the unit easy to manage. If you are weather geek like me, then I would recommend this product if the weather service was available. I will wait until NavWeather is available at XM before trying this product again. If anybody has any more detailed questions about this product please let me know. I worked with it for over a week with the exception of the weather service not being available.

[danielbacon]

Bushnell finally returned my call. After several correspondents, Bushnell will activate the XM weather and XM radio until the end of the year. They were able to activate the XM radio part but after four hours XM weather was not available. So as of 3:15 today I returned it back to Cabelas. So if you currently own this radio please contact Bushnell customer service and they will allegedly activate your device for you. According to XM weather services it will be sometime next year before NavWeather is available. For a basic GPS I found the unit easy to manage. If you are weather geek like me, then I would recommend this product if the weather service was available. I will wait until NavWeather is available at XM before trying this product again. If anybody has any more detailed questions about this product please let me know. I worked with it for over a week with the exception of the weather service not being available.

Just after dropping my package at UPS Bushnell called again. They had finally fix the problem however I had already shipped the unit back. Bushnell will now activate both the XM radio and XM weather service. The reason for this is the NavWeather is not open to the general public and XM representatives do not know how to activate this new product yet. Bushnell has control of the activation and will activate both services properly. Because Bushnell's customer service has been exemplary while XM has been downright rude. I would like to compliment their customer service department (even though I had been frustrated and impatient this happens when you get older) and because of this I have placed an order for another unit which should arrive in November. I really do like having the XM weather in a handheld device so I am going to try again since I can exchange or get a refund it's of little risk. If anybody has this unit and is still having problems with activation please contact the Bushnell customer service department.

 

According to the supervisor of Bushnell I was the first caller that did not already have the unit activated; therefore, the procedures were invented during my week correspondence.

[+tkljr]

I too am interested the Onix 400. Recently XM has added a weather package named "Skywatch" ($9.99/mo). By any chance, did you investigate whether Skywatch works on the Onix 400?

 

I might have missed it but do you know how much "Navweather" costs?

 

I currently subscribe to the "Sailor" ($29.99/mo) package on my Garmin 376c but would like something cheaper and more portable.

 

Tom

Edited October 11, 2007 by tkljr

[danielbacon]

I too am interested the Onix 400. Recently XM has added a weather package named "Skywatch" ($9.99/mo). By any chance, did you investigate whether Skywatch works on the Onix 400?

 

I might have missed it but do you know how much "Navweather" costs?

 

I currently subscribe to the "Sailor" ($29.99/mo) package on my Garmin 376c but would like something cheaper and more portable.

 

Tom

Yes it does. In fact, NavWeather is just a variant of Skywatch with the main difference being NavWeather is high resolution Doppler radar updated every five minutes and Skywatch uses radar summary updated every 15 to 30 minutes.

 

Subscription Pricing Plans

XM Satellite Radio (only)

$12.95 / month

Less than $0.50 per day!

 

XM NavWeather (only)

Price - $9.95

 

XM WX Skywatch (only)

Price - $9.99

 

XM Radio & XM NavWeather

Price - $16.94