Oregon - screen in rain, with gloves; car use, windshield mount

[+somainer]

I am considering replacing my old eTrex VistaC with an Oregon. I use a GPSr not only for geocaching, but also for: driving directions, kayaking, hinking, and a little for work (simple marking of waypoints). The Oregon is on big-time sale at REI, and of interest to me because: it might improve the geocaching experience (i.e., due to paperless caching), and it has higher quality of maps (i.e., due to larger screen and higher resolution) would be useful for general purposes.

 

But my questions for you experienced Oregon users are:

1) how well does the touch screen work in rain and snow?

2) how easy is touch screen to use when wearing gloves (e.g., lightweight and heaveyweight gloves - needed here in new England and elsewhere during winter)

3) how useful is it for in-car use? e.g., legibility in sunlight, availability of a windshield mount?

 

Thanks in advance for any help folks cna provide

[+Tequila]

I have used the OR for almost a year now, in rain, snow, car etc.

 

No issues with any of the questions you have asked. Obviously the size of gloves/hand affects the ability to be able to touch the correct button. But you will have that problem with any GPS.

 

The car mount works great.

[freeday]

1) how well does the touch screen work in rain and snow?

in rain excellent

in snow i did not test it

 

2) how easy is touch screen to use when wearing gloves (e.g., lightweight and heaveyweight gloves - needed here in new England and elsewhere during winter)

lightweight gloves - great

heaveyweight gloves - i did not test it

 

3) how useful is it for in-car use? e.g., legibility in sunlight, availability of a windshield mount?

legibility in sunlight is excellent (but only with card-adapter ???)

[+Maingray]

Used in both snow and rain, no issues.

 

Gloves... as long as your fingers don't get too big for text entry, not a problem. Most other buttons are big enough.

 

In car...use all the time. I use a RAM mount for the Oregon, plenty of options. Sunlight easily seen, backlight is very strong with car adapter. large touchscreen makes this the perfect non-nuvi auto unit.

[+mattalbr]

I concur on just about all the comments. My only deviation will be to say that with thick gloves on, winter motorcycle gloves, the touchscreen was hard to operate. Probably no harder than trying to push a small button on any electronic device with same gloves on.

 

I use the RAM mount in both my car and on my motorcycle. Very flexible, top notch.

[+g-o-cashers]

1) how well does the touch screen work in rain and snow?

Great in the rain, never had an issue even in a downpour. The only problem in heavy falling snow is that the screen can accumulate snow requiring you to clear it enough in order to use -- of course this would be the case with any GPS if you wanted to see the screen!

2) how easy is touch screen to use when wearing gloves (e.g., lightweight and heaveyweight gloves - needed here in new England and elsewhere during winter)

Lightweight no problem. Heavyweight can be difficult depending on what you are doing. If you are just changing screens the buttons on the main menu are large enough to do the basic operations. If you are trying to use the alphanum keypad the keys are too small to use with heavy gloves.

3) how useful is it for in-car use? e.g., legibility in sunlight, availability of a windshield mount?

Garmin and RAM both make mounts that work well. Personally I don't think you'll find a better handheld unit for in car use because of the big touch screen. You'll also need to spend $70-$80 to buy City Nav or similar autorouting maps. But I use it as an in car GPS all the time. Get the vehicle power adapter, saves batteries and the screen brightness is much better running off external power.

[+StarBrand]

Works great in the rain and in the snow (after clearing the snow ).

 

Heavy gloves with big hands like mine is difficult but light gloves work well.