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Garmin Oregon 650 - Are the buttons strong enough?


Torgut

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I had - and actually I still have - a Garmin Oregon 550. I loved that unit. All the way to the end, and the end came when after a couple of years of usage the rubber which acts as the turn on/off button became so worn out that finally I needed some sharp object to turn it on and off. And, of course, all this caused my just turn the unit on and off along 4 years.

 

Now I got a 650, and what do I see... that the same button is used not only to turn the unit on and off but also to wake up the unit when it's in energy saving. By other words, it seems to be the button will worn out in no time. Or am I missing something? Is there a different way to wake up the unit? Is this plastic much better than the one in the 550? Personally I hate the design of 650. What was wrong with the nice sunken screen of the 550, which would be protected and, yes, could be used for "wake up"....?

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I thought you could get replacement parts for the switch covers.....? Dig through the garmin web site.

 

That flat glass and the price kept me away from the 650. Now I am looking at the 750, which looks like it has a slight sunken screen - still kinda pricey.

 

My 550 is treasured almost as much as the 60csx was. Had it maybe 4-5 years and the switch cover and the cable cover are still in decent shape.

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I thought you could get replacement parts for the switch covers.....? Dig through the garmin web site.

 

That flat glass and the price kept me away from the 650. Now I am looking at the 750, which looks like it has a slight sunken screen - still kinda pricey.

 

My 550 is treasured almost as much as the 60csx was. Had it maybe 4-5 years and the switch cover and the cable cover are still in decent shape.

 

Look on Amazon, there are cases/sleeves for just about every device made.

 

Or you can diy with some silicon and corn starch....

 

http://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=dj7UfvDPlo0

 

I bet some pretty cool "I'm just geocaching bro!" Cases could be made by some of the folks here. Maybe incorporate a NFC tag, trackable, number, and ice all in the same case back?

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I thought you could get replacement parts for the switch covers.....? Dig through the garmin web site.

 

That flat glass and the price kept me away from the 650. Now I am looking at the 750, which looks like it has a slight sunken screen - still kinda pricey.

 

My 550 is treasured almost as much as the 60csx was. Had it maybe 4-5 years and the switch cover and the cable cover are still in decent shape.

 

Switch covers? That would be the whole cover, correct? I might invest in that... I will try to contact Garmin in my country. But with such a past, I can see my new Garmin having a life of about one year before the same fate :-)

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I thought you could get replacement parts for the switch covers.....? Dig through the garmin web site.

 

That flat glass and the price kept me away from the 650. Now I am looking at the 750, which looks like it has a slight sunken screen - still kinda pricey.

 

My 550 is treasured almost as much as the 60csx was. Had it maybe 4-5 years and the switch cover and the cable cover are still in decent shape.

 

The 750 has essentially the same case as the 650. A nice smooth flat glassy surface. :)

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The same thing has happened to my 450. I wrote to Garmin and asked if it could be repaired. The answer I got was not what I expected, I was told it was too old (its 4 yrs old). I have now repaired it myself by using a piece of an old mouse pad (hard top, soft underneath - foam) cut to size and a strip of insulating tape. It feels a bit funny when turning it on and off but it works.

Garmin are still selling the Oregon 450 but turned me down when I needed thier help. Shame really. I will reconsider buying a Garmin when my 450 finally dies.

Edited by speakers-corner
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Garmin doesn't sell the 450 anymore. Stores that still have some in stock will continue selling it until stock runs out. It's not uncommon in the small electronics industry for support to be dropped for products that are 2 or more generations old. The market value for the devices don't justify the cost of continuing to maintain parts, so the best you can do is DIY support. Garmin isn't a perfect company, but I'm not convinced you'll get better product support from another brand.

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It is still being offered for sale on thier Internet Site for 299 Euros.

 

https://buy.garmin.com/de-DE/DE/sport-training/nicht-mehr-lieferbar/oregon-450/prod63349.html

Unless Google Translate is lying to me, the blue button on that page translates to something like "Find a retailer". That is, Garmin isn't selling the 450 anymore, but they can point you to other retailers who may still have some for sale.

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