eTrex Venture HC or eXplorist 210

[+TeamTardis]

Ok Im not exactley new to Geocaching but I am thinking of getting an upgrade. I have the oppurtunity to get a Garmin eTrex Venture HC. I currently use a Magellan eXplorist 210 and have had no problems with it but I hear all the time how good Garmins are. Can anyone convince me to change religions?

[+geognerd]

I don't think you would gain much by going to the Venture HC. The color screen would be about it. If you plan on loading any kind of maps, the color screen will be nice. But the Venture HC only has 24MB of memory. That is the same amount of memory as your 210 has, and isn't expandable, just like your 210. I don't think GPS receiver performance would be dramatically different than what you have now. Garmin's webpage says the Venture HC does not allow autorouting, so that would be one feature you would lose. Garmin does have better autorouting on its handhelds when available.

 

The Venture HC seems like a decent unit based on what I have read, but I'd consider it more of a lateral move from your eX210 and not really much of a step up if you are already happy with your 210.

[+TeamTardis]

Would the high sensitivity chip make a difference?

[+FatPants]

FWIW, I LOVE my Venture HC. The High Sensitivity chip is worth it! It makes a huge difference under tree cover, in the car, and I can even grab satellites in my office, with no windows! Its great.

I do wish I had expandable memory, consider the Legend HCx. I can fit just over one county's worth of maps in the unit (Wake Co. NC).

[mikel137]

FWIW, I LOVE my Venture HC. The High Sensitivity chip is worth it! It makes a huge difference under tree cover, in the car, and I can even grab satellites in my office, with no windows! Its great.

I do wish I had expandable memory, consider the Legend HCx. I can fit just over one county's worth of maps in the unit (Wake Co. NC).

 

My HC is perfect for my needs, if, as you indicate, one can put a map of my county in it. How do you find county maps? As for King County, Washington.

Edited July 26, 2009 by mikel137

[oakenwood]

Happy Venture HC owner here. It's a real nice unit for the price. As others mentioned, you're stuck with 24 MB of memory.

 

However, it's accurate and gets great reception.

 

Some places to get free maps:

 

http://gpsmapsearch.com/ (probably your best place to look)

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

http://mapcenter2.cgpsmapper.com/

http://home.wtal.de/noegs/freemaps.htm (mostly non-USA maps here)

 

Then you need a program to load them onto your GPS, like Mapwel or IMG2GPS.