Garmin Etrex Legend HCX or Venture HC

[+Len & Cheri]

Which would you recommend? The Legend is slightly more, but it seems the removable memory would be a big advantage. They both about the same other than that?

 

1st post , thanks for the help!

[+Hrethgir]

Besides the expandable memory the Legend HCx can use, they are virtually the same. If you want to add any extra maps, especially to do turn-by-turn autorouting, then you want the Legend HCx, but for straight-up geocaching, the Venture HC should be just as good. I have a Legend HCx, and it's a very nice unit, and with maps added, it is pretty nice (my maps don't allow autorouting, but at least I can see streets!), but I introduced my parents to geocaching, and am probably going to get them a Venture HC for Christmas, should be perfect for them. The autorouting on the units isn't that great anyways, since you need to spend about $100 to buy the software from Garmin to allow it, and then it's pretty much all visual, as there is no external speaker or headphone jack, just the beeper, and it's so quite I can't even hear it when I'm riding on my bicycle. So unless you want to add maps to your unit, the Venture should be fine.

[gallet]

To get a Venture HC instead of a Legend HCx (or Vista HCx) would be a bad decision. The small extra cost would be recouped when it came time to sell.

 

The Venture HC doesn't even do auto routing, even though the Venture Cx does.

[Ken in Regina]

I bought a Venture HC, thinking to save a few dollars. I kept it for less than a day. When I discovered how little detail map data I could download into its internal memory I phoned the place I bought it, ordered a Legend HCx, got an RMA number for the Venture and shipped it back. Best decision I ever made.

 

As was mentioned, the only difference I can see between them is the addition of the memory card on the Legend HCx, but that was all the difference I wanted. The Venture HC was perfect for me in every other way, but I couldn't live with so little detail map coverage.

 

I have a 2GB memory card in the Legend and, as you might guess, it holds lots of detailed map data.

 

...ken...

[+Chrysalides]

I bought a Venture HC, thinking to save a few dollars. I kept it for less than a day. When I discovered how little detail map data I could download into its internal memory I phoned the place I bought it, ordered a Legend HCx, got an RMA number for the Venture and shipped it back. Best decision I ever made.

Ah, sounds like the perfect person to answer some questions I have. Hope you have time to help out.

 

1. Other than the amount of map that the unit can hold, is there any other differences with regards to mapping?

 

2. Which map are you using? How much detail does it have?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Ken in Regina]

Ah, sounds like the perfect person to answer some questions I have. Hope you have time to help out.

I'll give it a go.

 

1. Other than the amount of map that the unit can hold, is there any other differences with regards to mapping?

None that I saw, either on the unit or in the documentation. They display all the map detail the same as my Garmin iQue 3600, Garmin Mobile XT and Garmin Mobile PC, just a smaller screen. They both do complex routing with guidance, except they don't have voice directions, just beeps and text display on screen. They can route for on-road and off-road.

 

2. Which map are you using? How much detail does it have?

Make that maps, plural. Right now I have road maps on it. I have Metroguide Canada (the entire country) and City Navigator North America (all of Canada and a big swath of the north and west US). That takes about 1.5GB on the card.

 

When I was out in the Rockies playing on my mountain bike in late September I had a similar amount of topo data on the card. A bunch of western Canada from both Topo Canada and Ibycus Canada.

 

I also had a number of tracks for sections of the TransCanada Trail (a combined use biking and hiking trail that spans the country) in southern British Columbia. And I have about 200 (non-cache) waypoints loaded. Tracks and waypoints are stored in the internal memory so you could do this with either of the units.

 

The topo maps, especially the Ibycus topos for Canada, have an excruciating amount of map detail on them. The road maps have a typical amount of street detail plus all the related address, zipcode and routing data and millions of POIs.

 

If you want to see the sort of detail you can expect check out the map viewer on Garmin's web site. You can view any of their map products online. It's not really fast but you can check out the actual map data for any area of interest to see if it's what you need.

 

Thanks in advance.

Y'er welcome.

 

...ken...

[+Len & Cheri]

Thanks for all the help I just won a Legend HCX on EBay. Now the wait for arrival begins LOL!

[+goodwrench00]

I just upgraded to a Legend HCx from a Magellan 210. I love the Legend! I'm glad I chose it!

[+StarBrand]

The big differences between Legend HCx and Venture HC

 

Expandable memory - legend has it, Venture does not.

Number of waypoints - Legend 1000, Venture has 500

Autorouting - Legend can, venture can not.

 

Otherwise pretty much identical. The Legend requires appropriate maps for the autorouting.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

Also, some City Navigator metro area map segments are too large to fit on the Venture HC.