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Garmin eTrex 20 Release pushed back

jjome

By jjome
in GPS technology and devices

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jjome

+jjome

Posted
Posted

Just thought there might be others out there that would be interested in this info.

 

I had an eTrex 20 on pre-order with Amazon. The release date had been through Sept 23 or 24. Late yesterday I got this email from amazon.

 

Hello,

 

We're writing about the order you placed on August 23 2011 (Order# xxx-xxx). Unfortunately, we are unable to ship the item(s) as soon as we expected and need to provide you with a new estimate of when the item(s) may be delivered:

 

"Garmin 010-00970-10 eTrex 20, Worldwide"

Estimated arrival date: October 24 2011 - December 14 2011

 

If you still want us to ship the delayed items when they do become available (though they may arrive later than expected) please visit this address to approve the delay:

 

So I cancelled the order. If it gets to me as late as December I would no longer be able to use it this season. I will wait until next spring and see if I still feel the need for an upgrade. Perhaps the early bugs will be worked out by then anyhow.

 

I'm pretty disappointed and if there was another brand that I felt as good about I would just get a different unit. I guess I can only hope that the delay is so they have time to make it perfect.

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Redwoods Mtn Biker

+Redwoods Mtn Biker

Posted
Posted

Amazon usually lags behind smaller vendors in shipping new models, often by several weeks. Higher end models in a series are ofte released before lower end models. Here are the release dates that GPS City is reporting:

  • eTrex 10 - 10/1
  • eTrex 20 - 9 / 23
  • eTrex 30 - 9/26

 

If the dates slip again, they probably won't show an updated time frame until the next day. Hope this helps.

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jjome

+jjome

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Posted

Update

 

I was just looking around and saw that there was another retailer on amazon that claimed to have 8 of these at $199. I put in the order. Then I googled the company for reviews of the company. I found some pretty bad reviews saying that they lied about what they have in stock. I have since cancelled the order. The company is Mountain Gear. It's a real shame that someone would do business in this manner. A quick google search for a review for them has saved me another disappointment. I would hate for someone to fall for it.

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tuck_sushie

tuck_sushie

Posted
Posted

I'm not familiar with Mountain Gear selling on Amazon, but I've purchased a ton of stuff directly from mgear.com and never had a bad experience. I've visited their store in Spokane WA and it's very nice and well stocked. On their website, they show the eTrex20 as "in stock" so I just called them to verify. I was told they have 12 Garmin eTrex 20's in stock and 6 are sold so they have 6 left to sell. The eTrex 10 and 30 are both listed to ship on Sept 26th. Hope that helps.

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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted (edited)

For what it's worth, REI has taken the "backorder" note off their website, although they show no 20s in stock at my local stores. I hope their website is correct and the stores will have them soon!

 

---

 

Update 11:00 p.m.: The websites for Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's are also showing the 20 in stock now. Yay!

Edited by Wintertime
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dpilo22

dpilo22

Posted
Posted

I spoke with Garmin this morning because I thought I was getting the run around from factoryoutletstore.com. The ETREX 10, 20, 30 is already in stores but not authorized for sales yet. They are expecting all pre-orders to be filled by the end of this week. When I asked what that meant he told me that although some stores have them already they cannot let them out of the stores till all the stores that requested them have their stock. I dont know why they are waiting but that is the official word from the horses mouth. Should be in your mailbox by end of next week if you ordered online and available in stores this weekend.

 

Cheers,

dpilo22

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-=ken

-=ken

Posted
Posted

I spoke with Garmin this morning because I thought I was getting the run around from factoryoutletstore.com. The ETREX 10, 20, 30 is already in stores but not authorized for sales yet. They are expecting all pre-orders to be filled by the end of this week. When I asked what that meant he told me that although some stores have them already they cannot let them out of the stores till all the stores that requested them have their stock. I dont know why they are waiting but that is the official word from the horses mouth. Should be in your mailbox by end of next week if you ordered online and available in stores this weekend.

 

Cheers,

dpilo22

For what it is worth, I saw the etrex 20 and 30 at the Memphis TN Bass Pro Shops store today. I asked about the 10 and they told me they didn't have them available yet...

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jjome

+jjome

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Update again! I just went and picked it up at my local REI, I had not ordered it. Their site said they had them at that location. When I got there they were not in the case and I asked about them and the guy said they never got them in. At the register I asked her to check the next closest store. Low and behold, they did indeed have them at the one I was at but they were not unpacked yet from the truck. They went in back and got me one! Yay!! Now I just have to figure out how to get a pocket query to it because it doesn't seem that EasyGPS is ready for the 20.

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jjome

+jjome

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  • Author
Posted

Update again! I just went and picked it up at my local REI, I had not ordered it. Their site said they had them at that location. When I got there they were not in the case and I asked about them and the guy said they never got them in. At the register I asked her to check the next closest store. Low and behold, they did indeed have them at the one I was at but they were not unpacked yet from the truck. They went in back and got me one! Yay!! Now I just have to figure out how to get a pocket query to it because it doesn't seem that EasyGPS is ready for the 20.

 

I got it going with EasyGPS. I don't know how I missed it the first time I looked through the list.

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jjome

+jjome

Posted
  • Author
Posted

We need reviews, screen shots and info now! please!

 

Am desperate to see if it is ay good as really want to upgrade from using an android phone

 

Unfortunately I am not really qualified to give a real review. I wasn't able to get outside with it today, trying to get caught up on some homework. I will try to get out with it tomorrow and hit a couple and see how it feels.

 

My old unit is an eTrex Legend h. I do like the feel of the 20. The buttons felt better than the legend and I like that it made a noise with each button press. I also like the shape better. I can try to get some screen shots tonight. I am going to love going paperless with one unit!

 

If I get out tomorrow I will take both units with me to compare.

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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted

Woo-hoo! The postman brought my new toy about an hour ago. It's great! Very easy to use. E.g. I noticed that the button on the front stuck out, so I thought, "Hmmm, maybe in addition to pushing down on it for 'OK,' you can also push it side to side like a joystick." I was right. It replaces the big up/down/left/right control on my Garmin GPS III+.

 

By the time I bothered to connect it to my iMac and drag the user manuals off it, I had inserted batteries, gone outside, gotten a lock on both GPS and Glonass satellites (which gave me a supposed location accuracy of 9 feet), made a waypoint, and checked when the next high tide is at the Alviso Slough. :-) The latter was just from noticing an odd symbol on the map and clicking on it to see what it was. I don't know how this thing gets tidal data, but there it is.

 

Then I came back inside and used the included USB cable to connect it to my computer. After copying the manuals, I downloaded the .gpx file for one of my own caches and dragged it into the GPX folder. Sure enough, after I disconnected the eTrex from the computer and turned it on again in GPS (rather than mass storage) mode, and went to the Geocaches section, there was my file--the whole thing, more than 2,500 words, with logs back to 2004.

 

Then I created a small .gpx file of survey marks and transferred that. (These were extracts from NGS datasheets, not benchmark reports from the Geocaching.com website.) That file also came up just fine. I'm going to ask around the Benchmark Hunting forum and see whether there are small tweaks I can make to my benchmark .gpx files so that the eTrex doesn't try to display geocache elements such as cache size, but that's a minor annoyance; I can quickly scroll past that to get to the actual datasheet.

 

Oh, and it has a picture viewer! That means I can install photos that other people have taken of benchmark locations and use those to help me find them. (If only I'd had that the time I spent 20 minutes trying to interpret the station description for a mark in Yosemite! I realized later that there was a photo on the Geocaching.com website that would have allowed me to go right to the correct rock outcrop.)

 

So I'm lovin' it so far! It's also very cute. :-)

 

Patty

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RamblinBear

RamblinBear

Posted
Posted

Woo-hoo! The postman brought my new toy about an hour ago. It's great! Very easy to use. E.g. I noticed that the button on the front stuck out, so I thought, "Hmmm, maybe in addition to pushing down on it for 'OK,' you can also push it side to side like a joystick." I was right. It replaces the big up/down/left/right control on my Garmin GPS III+.

 

So I'm lovin' it so far! It's also very cute. :-)

 

Patty

 

Glad you're enjoying it. I'd love to see some screenshots - particularly of the Satellite page - I really want to see how Garmin have included the GLONASS capability on that page. Thanks.

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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted (edited)

As requested, here are some screen shots of the satellite system options on the eTrex 20.

 

The first one is the satellite navigation system selection screen in the Settings menu. The second is the satellite reception screen. I believe the orange bars are GPS and the brown bars are Glonass, but I haven't been able to find any documentation to confirm that.

 

60dbdc4c-9b51-4356-b9f0-7ff9815b8551.jpg9aad72bd-9621-42cb-b4ac-009afebd28ae.jpg

Edited by Wintertime
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eshelbyk

+eshelbyk

Posted
Posted

I took a few of my coworker's 30 with my phone, trying to simulate differently lit enviroments (inside office space and outdoors in sun). Brightness was max for all. You can see the glonass is displayed a little differently on the 30. Orange appears to be Russian birds.

 

Evidently I was 20mins behind the freight coming into the store I checked out. My coworker hit it later in the day and the counter guy told him he'd felt bad telling me they'd be in around Christmas. :P

 

2011-09-28_16-15-20_951.jpg

 

2011-09-28_16-14-14_745.jpg

 

(a bit surprised this one came out)

2011-09-28_16-30-00_984.jpg

 

2011-09-28_16-31-31_577.jpg

 

2011-09-28_16-31-52_899.jpg

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yogazoo

yogazoo

Posted
Posted

Smart move taking off the pict with your home coordinates.....better privacy! All you're trying to do is help others and people want to find out where you live!

 

Interesting it has a picture viewer since the Garmin Website says it doesn't....Cool!!!

 

I always wondered why people blur out their coordinates on screenshots. Are there really criminals out there waiting to pounce on the opportunity to travel to your location? I mean I do it too but never wondered why until now. Sorry, I know it's off topic.

 

Getting back ON topic. Which one of you early users want's to be the first to post a legit video preview or short review on a certain popular video website? Sheesh, just hold it in your hand and roll film so I can see how big or small that screen really looks. Maybe walk around and strike a pose or something.

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Woodstramp

+Woodstramp

Posted
Posted

I'd be interested in how long these new etrex units can sip on a pair of alkaline batteries. Garmin's specs say 25 hours. If that is true...big plus.

 

Also...someone mentioned these units can make sounds (cbeeps-chirps)....another plus if you use City Navigator. I wonder if it has an alarm clock function like some of th older handhelds had?

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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted
Also...someone mentioned these units can make sounds (cbeeps-chirps)....another plus if you use City Navigator. I wonder if it has an alarm clock function like some of th older handhelds had?

I'm not familiar with City Navigator; by chance are you asking about a proximity alarm? If so, yes, that feature is in the eTrex 20. Also an alarm clock and a stopwatch. It can also sense Garmin Chirp devices; I'm hoping to try it out on a local Chirp cache soon.

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Woodstramp

+Woodstramp

Posted
Posted
Also...someone mentioned these units can make sounds (cbeeps-chirps)....another plus if you use City Navigator. I wonder if it has an alarm clock function like some of th older handhelds had?

I'm not familiar with City Navigator; by chance are you asking about a proximity alarm? If so, yes, that feature is in the eTrex 20. Also an alarm clock and a stopwatch. It can also sense Garmin Chirp devices; I'm hoping to try it out on a local Chirp cache soon.

 

Winter,

 

The reason I asked about the new Etrex and sounds is because that is handy when using a Garmin handheld as a car navigation unit. I do this with my 60csx with a Garmin City Navigator SD card installed. I use it with topo maps and with CN. Topos for the woods use, CN for everyday use. Handhelds have smaller screens than a Nuvi, so having turn warning alarms activated when routing with a handheld is nice. Just give you a heads-up aid for autorouting.

 

The new etrex has a good bit of internal memory. The 60csx does not. That would be handy. In my case, I could load the topo maps on internal memory and have the CN card loaded too. Right now, with the 60, I have to swap topo and CN cards when I want to transition. That would not be necessary with the Etrex. I'm guessing that with the Etrex you could just turn on/off map types as needed.

 

Also glad to see it has an alarm clock. That is one function my 60csx does not have. That would be handy in my use.

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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted

For what it's worth, the eTrex 20 (and I'm sure the 30; dunno about the 10) has "profiles" that store settings appropriate for various activities. I haven't been able to find any documentation of what the built-in profiles contain (and you can create your own), but I do know that there's one called "Automotive." That might have some of the features you want already enabled.

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