Colorado 400c vs 400t vs 300

[MarcTheReliabilityMan]

I am considering purchasing a Garmin Colorado but having difficulty deciding on the partitular model to purchase. I currently do not own a GPS unit or any maps with the exception of Microsoft Streets and Trips. I have read many posts and have not seen much discussion on the 400c or 400i but quite a bit on the 300 and 400t.

 

My potential uses for a GPS unit include all of the following:

Geocaching,

Hiking,

On-water use - both inland lakes and coastal areas,

On-the-road navigation,

International travel - US, Eastearn Europe, China.

 

I have been looking for some additional information about the 400c to make sure it is the best choice for me.

 

How much internal memory does it have?

Does the built-in BlueChart® g2 coastal charts require seperate unlock codes for each region?

Does the built-in basemap include DEM for the worldmap portion or is it upgradeable perhaps with the purchase of the Garmin WorldMap?

 

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[+LaPaglia]

It has the same internal Memory size as the 400T. How much is that? good question as there are some 400's that came out with less.

 

Only the 300 and 400T have DEM so the 400c would not be upgradeable as far as I know.

 

I don't know about the unlock part.

[MarcTheReliabilityMan]

It has the same internal Memory size as the 400T. How much is that? good question as there are some 400's that came out with less.

 

Only the 300 and 400T have DEM so the 400c would not be upgradeable as far as I know.

 

I don't know about the unlock part.

 

Is the DEM limitation due to hardware (I thought that the hardware was the same for all 400 units) or the preloaded software?

[+Harriet the Spy]

I have bought a Colorado 400T and my dad bought a 400c. The only difference is mine came with a topo map while his came with the blue chart maps. I am not sure where you live, but the water has limited data for the coast of Canada. So its the coast of the US and Alaska and Hawaii but not in all the places my dad likes to fish. Call Garmin first but I believe when I was talking to the customer rep about the water maps you can buy an unlock code for Canada.

[+g-o-cashers]

Is the DEM limitation due to hardware (I thought that the hardware was the same for all 400 units) or the preloaded software?

 

I'm pretty sure that there are no hardware differences amongst the 400's. My understanding is that the c's and i's are exactly the same as the t's. The only difference is the preloaded map file.

 

In the case of the 400t you get a single map file (called gmapprom.img) that includes the world base map, the america's base map and Topo2008 with DEM. I'm guessing that the i's and c's come with something similar, the Blue Charts or Inland Lakes maps with a world basemap. The basemap sounds different since Garmin claims for these two units is it based on imagery.

 

I'd like to know more details about the 400i and 400c maps if anyone out there has one as well.

 

GO$Rs

[+apersson850]

They store the basemap in the file gmapbmap.img.