First Impressions - Garmin GPSMAP 62s

[Pacific NW]

Just picked up a Garmin GPSMAP 62s at REI. I originally went in trying to find a low-priced GPSMAP 60CSx, but they were all sold out. After handling a Dakota 20 side-by-side with the GPSMAP 62s, I walked out with the 62s. I wanted to like the Dakota 20; its tiny size and long battery life were appealing. But the screen visibility was just not that great. Additionally, I noted that the 62s was already receiving a great signal inside the store, versus the Dakota 20 trying its best to even find available satellites. (I know, I know, very unscientific test...)

 

Having previously owned an eTrex, eTrex Venture, eTrex Legend, GPSMAP 60Cx, Vista HCx, Oregon 450, and Foretrex 301, I have to say the GPSMAP 62s is a great model. Feels solid, plenty of customization, and long battery life. One thing I realized that I prefer over the touchscreen models is the ability to just push a button and bring up access to menus, settings, other screens, etc.

 

The only possible downsides of the 62-series are the previously-mentioned forum problems with "squeaky" cases and button labels wearing off. Neither of which have affected my sample, thankfully. I wonder if Garmin has addressed the case tolerances during production. (Although the display model did have some squeaks and creaks.) However, upon returning home and powering on, I noticed that my 62s had a stuck pixel (white on all screens) in the middle of the display. I returned that sample to REI and tried another in the store -- this one also had a stuck pixel, but up in the left corner of the screen. I can live with that, if it gets worse, there is always REI's guarantee.

 

Overall, I give it a thumbs up!

[+Team Noodles]

touch screen ftw imo.

you'll get annoyed more by messing around inputting info then the screen brightness, trust me...

 

/upgraded from 60csx to oregon

 

*edit - goes to show how dif flavours apply

Edited January 17, 2011 by Team Noodles

[yogazoo]

Well, after using both a 62 and Oreon 450 side by side in the field I'll just have to say that I appreciate the 62's brighter screen outside during the day and the touchscreen interface og the oregon 450 by night. I'd say overall between the two units it's a tie for me but the 62 does have features (tools) that the Oregon is missing which makes me prefer it when I'm going hiking, skiing or hunting. Touchscreen (450) I save for every day use and car navigation. They are distinct units though and have a very different feel which goes deeper than the interface IMO.

 

Garmin seems to have fixed the squeek. I had to return my 6,000 serial number unit due to a malfunction and received a 34,000 number unit with no squeek and solid feel. After the initial complaints in the early runs I had a feeling Garmin was going to address it in later versions.

[Pacific NW]

Battery life on this thing is amazing. I don't have the battery saver mode enabled, track recording is on, along with some minimal backlight use (50% level).

 

Closing in on 15 1/2 hours of usage and the battery level gauge is just now showing halfway. Running a pair of fully-charged Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries. Beta firmware 2.92 is installed.

 

[Edit: Unit just shut off at roughly 16 1/2 hours of use. Doesn't seem to be much of a gauge between halfway battery life and fully exhausted.]

 

So far I've installed some free maps from GPS File Depot (Oregon topo and Pacific NW planimetric) on a 4GB micro SD card. Works like a charm.

 

Here's a quick picture...

 

Edited January 19, 2011 by Team Yeti

[Pacific NW]

After the better part of a week with the 62s, I am impressed. Took it out for a long drive around the area as well as some caching in the rain. The GPS accuracy while in the car and on the move was great -- typically about 13-15' or better. Spent some time recording waypoints and tracks, too. When taken out of the car to cache, the unit was easily taking me to ground zero. Battery life is still excellent; on partially-drained Eneloop NiMH cells an entire day of use didn't even drain them completely.

[+Bullygoat29]

the 62 does have features (tools) that the Oregon is missing which makes me prefer it when I'm going hiking, skiing or hunting.

 

What features does the 62 have that the Oregon x50s don't?

[yogazoo]

List of tools or functions that I find handy the 62 series has that the Oregon doesn't.

 

1) Proximity alarms. Ability to create approach, arrive, leaving alarms for any point.

2) Measure Distance from one arbitrary point to another on the map screen (on the Oregon one of the points has to be your current location).

3) Night Mode for all maps, reducing glare from the screen at night (really turns everything black even menu buttons. Great for preserving night vision.)

4) Ability to access most setup menus from the main screens (e.g. accessing the Map Setup options from the map screen, etc.)

5) Calendar that records history of things like marked waypoints, tracklogs, and geocache finds/attempts. Even allows you to access the data from the calendar screen.

6) Shows Sun/Moon position in the sky (handy for setting up certain types of photography.)

7) Scientific Calculator (handy for hydrology calculations in the field)!

8) Fully customizable menu and setup screens. I mean 100% customizable to include how the menu icons appear on the screen.

 

I really like my Oregon 450 for its higher resolution screen (and slightly bigger) and touch screen interface. But when I need a tool for work, hiking, hunting, I grab my 62. (The "Measure Distance" function listed above has proved very handy for hunting. If I spot some game on a far ridge I can estimate where I need to be to get within 200 yards for a shot.)

Edited January 22, 2011 by yogazoo

[+ar_kayaker]

I've seen a lot of reviews on this unit that say there are still problems with software. Things like freezing up if a gpx has more than ten logs, getting stuck to a location even after you start moving again, and dumping maps. Had anything like that with it or have they finally worked out the bugs?

 

My 60Cx is about beat to death and needs to either be replaced or sent back to Garmin for an overhaul, but if the 62 series is through with the shake-down phase I'd love to be able leave my laptop at home and go fully paperless.

[+Z06_Pilot]

I've seen a lot of reviews on this unit that say there are still problems with software. Things like freezing up if a gpx has more than ten logs, getting stuck to a location even after you start moving again, and dumping maps. Had anything like that with it or have they finally worked out the bugs?

 

My 60Cx is about beat to death and needs to either be replaced or sent back to Garmin for an overhaul, but if the 62 series is through with the shake-down phase I'd love to be able leave my laptop at home and go fully paperless.

 

I have had my 62s for about a month. I have had no freezing issues or the GPS positioning getting stuck at all. In fact, I have had perfect operation. I did upgrade to the latest software as soon as I got it out of the box.

 

the software/OS of the Oregon with the form factor and very rugged build of the 60 series and a screen that can be seen clearly in absolutely any kind of light....Garmin really built a fantastic GPSr with the 62s!

 

I am regularly at 5' accuracy, and as others have said, the GPS sensitivity of this unit is amazing. I can be in my basement and have all green bars on the GPS. I have never seen anything like it.

Edited January 24, 2011 by Z06_Pilot

[Pacific NW]

Well, nuts. I have to report back that I did run into a software or file problem over the weekend while caching with the 62s. I had previously loaded up a local GPX file to the unit, but then subsequently deleted it off the unit and re-loaded a newer GPX file. Unfortunately, this caused some problems.

 

While I could view the caches just fine on the map screen, and even select them with the cursor, when I tried to view the cache details the unit froze & showed nothing but the cache name and the "Go To" button on the bottom of the screen.

 

I don't know if this was a firmware issue or just a bad GPX file, but I'm going to do some more testing today to try and find out. Thanks to Scott's Garmin GPSMAP 62 & 78 Wiki forum, I found a work-around: Wiki Forum

 

"1. plug in your GPS

2. delete all old geocaching/GSAK/PQ GPX files from \Garmin\GPX

3. unplug and reboot the GPS, verify that there are no geocaches loaded.

4. plug in your GPS

5. download new GPX file(s) from PQ's, GSAK, etc

6. unplug and reboot your GPS

7. verify that the GPS boots cleanly without requiring a battery pull, if it does, repeat this process.

8. after a clean boot check several key geocaches to determine that they are loaded and the information is complete."

 

This was the ticket, and solved the problem. Now I am careful to double-check and make sure I can view loaded geocache info from GPX files *before* I leave the house!

 

While it was a little frustrating (thankfully I wasn't hours from home in the backcountry), I did pass the info along to Garmin's beta firmware team, so hopefully they can look into the issue. (BTW - I am still running the 2.92 beta firmware.)

[Pacific NW]

My 60Cx is about beat to death and needs to either be replaced or sent back to Garmin for an overhaul, but if the 62 series is through with the shake-down phase I'd love to be able leave my laptop at home and go fully paperless.

 

My impression -- there still are a few teething problems, but I think they are being worked out. Love the paperless caching.

[+Maingray]

Well, nuts. I have to report back that I did run into a software or file problem over the weekend while caching with the 62s. I had previously loaded up a local GPX file to the unit, but then subsequently deleted it off the unit and re-loaded a newer GPX file. Unfortunately, this caused some problems.

 

Welcome to my world with the Oregon 300 for the last couple of years . This issue was the only real issue that Garmin never really fixed. I juts got into the habit of deleting the gpx file from the unit, reboot the unit, and then load the new from the PC.

 

I concur with all your first impressions of the 62 so far, did a quick 10 caches with it yesterday and worked well. The USB port on the Oregon finally packed up, so back to REI I went. Having to come form the touch screen is hard, but I'll get there.

[+hidenseek581]

I just got my 62s from REI last week, and it has a serial number in the 58,00s, but it is squeaky. I went back to REI and tried all of the other ones in the store, and they were all squeaky too.

[sviking]

 

The only possible downsides of the 62-series are the previously-mentioned forum problems with "squeaky" cases and button labels wearing off. Neither of which have affected my sample, thankfully.

 

Because you haven't owned it long enough.

[+Mallah]

Bought my 62s Feb 2011 - No Squeaks. Really enjoying it but feel like the odd one out when caching with local group as they all seem to have Oregons.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

I have quite a few GPS units....the best of the batch are the Magellan Platinum, 60CSx, 62S, and Oregon 450.

We use the 62S and 450 almost exclusively now because of the paperless and other features. I much prefer the 62S to the 450 ( I've used them both quite a bit)....I find on the 450 I have to poke it multiple times on occasion and panning the screen is a pain as is the " pin ".

[Pacific NW]

A year later and I'm still using my 62S. Every now and then there is the random squeak, but nothing really noticeable. A bigger problem I've found is that with the more recent GPS firmware (or perhaps it's a software issue), Garmin's Base Camp program will show an error message communicating with the GPS when first started. Doesn't seem to affect its use, though. Another oddity that was present in the early GPS firmware, then seemed to be cleared up, and is now back again: when deleting Pocket Queries off the GPS, then loading a new set on, the GPS won't show them. You have to connect the GPS to the computer, delete the Queries, unplug and re-start the GPS, then shut it down, plug it back into the computer, and load the new Queries. Then it will *finally* show the new Queries upon start-up. Phew.

[+luvvinbird]

I have quite a few GPS units....the best of the batch are the Magellan Platinum, 60CSx, 62S, and Oregon 450.

We use the 62S and 450 almost exclusively now because of the paperless and other features. I much prefer the 62S to the 450 ( I've used them both quite a bit)....I find on the 450 I have to poke it multiple times on occasion and panning the screen is a pain as is the " pin ".

Swap your Magellan with my 60Cx and we have the same units! I love them all and regularly use them on a rotational basis. I agree with you on the Oregon's touchscreen, after so many uses I still have to remember to touch the icon twice to "wake it up". Also, I have difficulty scrolling at times. Is it my "dry" fingers? No big deal, though.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

I have quite a few GPS units....the best of the batch are the Magellan Platinum, 60CSx, 62S, and Oregon 450.

We use the 62S and 450 almost exclusively now because of the paperless and other features. I much prefer the 62S to the 450 ( I've used them both quite a bit)....I find on the 450 I have to poke it multiple times on occasion and panning the screen is a pain as is the " pin ".

Swap your Magellan with my 60Cx and we have the same units! I love them all and regularly use them on a rotational basis. I agree with you on the Oregon's touchscreen, after so many uses I still have to remember to touch the icon twice to "wake it up". Also, I have difficulty scrolling at times. Is it my "dry" fingers? No big deal, though.

 

Actually, I have you to thank for giving me the final push to get the 62S which is fast becoming my favorite unit.