Which Garmin Oregon ?

[+ZenRVers]

I'm looking at getting a Oregon unit, now which one. I'm a flat lander living in the Chicago area and do most caching in this state so topo is not that important to me. I would buy City Navigator for it. So do I go with the 300 and save money or buy the 400t for more internal storage and delete the topo to make room for City navigator?

 

Also would you wait for the 500/550 series, Things that interest me there are three axis compass and 5000 caches.

 

Based on Garmin history - Is it really coming this month or do they usually have delays and will it be really buggy for several months?

[+FierceDeityLink1]

It seems like you answered your own question, though I'd recommend the 300 also and a $10 4GB microSDHC card. I'm not sure about the 550, but I decided against it personally since it's not really worth double the price.

[+ZenRVers]

Yeah, I was leaning towards the 300 but then got to wondering if the 4g internal for the 400t vs the 1g in the 300 would make a difference in function or speed?

[+FierceDeityLink1]

Nope, you can load maps from both. Whenever they roll out 3.00 (or a working 2.99) firmware, it can load multiple maps from SD. Right now, it'll only load one IMG file from SD.

 

I have City Navigator 2010 and GA Topo (from gpsfiledepot) on internal, and some of 100k Topo US, 24k US Parks East, and world map on an 8GB microSD.

 

There shouldn't be a difference in speed.

[+Curioddity]

As far as I'm concerned, the 300 and City Navigator North America NT (DVD version) is the best value. You can add TOPO U.S. 24K later if you want to.

 

I speak with a little experience on the matter: I have a 400t, but I found the pre-loaded TOPO maps to be just adequate at best and they can't be updated. So I bought City Navigator North America NT and TOPO U.S. 24K (DVD) and I don't even use the pre-loaded maps. If I had bought the 300 instead of the 400, I'd still be right where I am now, but at a $100 savings.

 

The other big advantage to going with the separate map packages is they make real nice desktop applications too. You can build routes, add/edit waypoints, and all kinds of other slick stuff on your PC and upload them to your Oregon. Having a QWERTY keyboard instead of Garmin's stupid alphabetic layout makes any extra expense more than worthwhile.

 

Pete

[+Walts Hunting]

I'm supporting Curioddity. I have the 400t and wish I had gotten the 300 and the CN on DVD. It would be about the same price. I got the CN micro card and was surprised it didn't include Canada (where I spend a month every summer) like the DVD did. Now they have the 24K out by section of the country and I use that so the installed topo's are no longer of any use. The 300 gives you more flexibility. I might upgrade to the 550 series if they change the chipset back to SIRF (I have never been able to get a WAAS bird on mine, the 76 was better) and the screen is significantly better outside.

[+gotta run]

The 400t is adequate for navigating but it would do much better on the road with City Navigator. But there was no "non-t" option so we went with the currently best-available unit.

 

When the 550 comes out, we will probably by that one and use the 400t for a backup. I think the preloaded maps are a big drawback.

[+Jeep4two]

I'll recommend the 300 for the same basic reasons as the others. If you want topo there are free versions out there. You can load city nav on the microSD and I seem to recall that there are some 8gb cards that will work in the Oregon (search is down or I'd try to find the thread and card recommended).

 

If I had it to do over again I would go 300 instead of 400t. The only real plus for the 400t over the 300 is the shaded relief for the topo which is nice but not totally necessary.

 

You could use the cash you save on the 300 to pickup City Nav.