Geko 201 Vs. Garmin Etrex Legend

[+maranblynn]

Although I no longer consider myself a newbie, I am still without my own GPS unit -- I've been geocaching with a friend's Geko 101 unit and it's time for me to get my own. (My parents have agreed to buy me one for my birthday -- nice parents.)

 

I'm having difficulty deciding between the Geko 201 and the Garmin ETrex Legend. Can I get pocket queries on both of them? Is the basemap really that much of an additional advantage? Since I've been caching with the Geko 101, I feel clueless as to the usability of the Legend's additional features. Also, I read in a review that the Legend can be hooked to a Palm. Does anyone know anything about this? I have a Palm Zire71 that's about two years old . . . What would I use the megs of memory for? If the Geko 201 doesn't have any memory, but can be connected to my PC, what could I use it for?

 

Any and all answers to these questions -- or attempted answers -- would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

[+briansnat]

The Geko 201 is a nice little unit, but its about the same price as the Legend, which is far better. The base maps in the Legend aren't that great, but you do have the ability to eventually load detailed maps, which make a big difference. If you have topo maps, you can see whether there is a ravine, stream, swamp, hill, cliff or whatever between you and the cache. You can use it to determine the best approach. If you have Metroguide maps it will show you the way to the nearest restaurant, gas station, post office, shopping mall, hardware store, barber shop, you name it.

 

The memory in the Legend is for maps, meaning that it will hold up to 8 megs of detailed maps. The Legend also holds 1,000 waypoints, while the Geko only holds 500. If you start using PQs, you can eat up 500 waypoints in about 4 seconds.

 

Both the Geko 201 and the Legend hook up to a PC so you can receive Pocket Queries. Neither hooks up to a Palm that I know of, nor am I sure why you'd want to.

 

You can use your Palm to hold the cache pages. Get something like Cachemate and you can load PQs to your palm and have hundreds of cache pages literally in the palm of your hand. What I do is get a PQ every Friday with the 500 nearest caches sent to me. I load the file into my GPS and into Cachemate so I have all the waypoints on my GPS and the corresponding cache pages on my Palm. Very helpful!

Edited May 25, 2005 by briansnat

[+wickedsprint]

If you are lost in the woods the breadcrumb trail on both will suffice, but giving directions to say search and rescue, it might be nice to say..I am 2 miles east of this intersection if they are not gps equipped.

[+Milbank]

(My parents have agreed to buy me one for my birthday -- nice parents.)

 

Happy Birthday.

 

I would go with the Legend.

 

PM sent...

[+GrnXnham]

The Legend is better--no question.

[+Mr-Hornet]

Since you don’t have a GPS of your own get a mapping unit as your first. The only reason to get the 201 would be for the size. You will want one with maps in the end in the end. The memory will also be handy as you find out how nice the maps are and what you can do with the GPS

 

I have the 60 as my first unit and then just got a fortrex 101 (because of size and the wrist strap) for kayaking and biking as well as a backup for the 60. If they would have had it with mapping capability I would have spent the extra even with the small screen.

 

Get the Legend and have fun!

[+IVxIV]

One reason I would suggest getting the Geko, is that it is a newer model and might work better under tree cover than the older Legend. Check other posts here about peoples discoveries comparing older Legends/Vistas/etc over newer models and you'll see what I mean.

 

Maps (on the Legend) are indeed nice, but if I had to choose between aquisition performance and maps, I would choose aquisition.

[+briansnat]

One reason I would suggest getting the Geko, is that it is a newer model and might work better under tree cover than the older Legend. Check other posts here about peoples discoveries comparing older Legends/Vistas/etc over newer models and you'll see what I mean.

 

Maps (on the Legend) are indeed nice, but if I had to choose between aquisition performance and maps, I would choose aquisition.

My wife's Geko 201 does get slightly better reception than my eTrex Vista and Legend, but not enough to make up for its lack of maps. I've never been unable to find a cache with my Vista or Legend due to reception problems and I hunt under heavy tree cover all the time.

[+Milbank]

I got your PM and replied to it.

Not sure if my PM's are going out.

 

If you did not get my second PM, feel free to email me at waypoints(at)gmail(dot)com

[+IVxIV]

One reason I would suggest getting the Geko, is that it is a newer model and might work better under tree cover than the older Legend. Check other posts here about peoples discoveries comparing older Legends/Vistas/etc over newer models and you'll see what I mean.

 

Maps (on the Legend) are indeed nice, but if I had to choose between aquisition performance and maps, I would choose aquisition.

My wife's Geko 201 does get slightly better reception than my eTrex Vista and Legend, but not enough to make up for its lack of maps. I've never been unable to find a cache with my Vista or Legend due to reception problems and I hunt under heavy tree cover all the time.

I'm just recalling this thread discussing the aquisition performance between new & old Legends/Vistas. IMO the newer models are indeed raising the bar in signal performance, and that is no disrespect to the older hardware. Just that time moves continualy forward and (a good thing for Geocachers!) hardware improvements continue to progress.

 

Sure the older Legends/Vista's worked and worked well. But it would appear the newer technologies have an improved edge. I'm sure years from now we will recall our current state-of-the-art technologies and grin when compared to what will be available then

[+briansnat]

I'm just recalling this thread discussing the aquisition performance between new & old Legends/Vistas. IMO the newer models are indeed raising the bar in signal performance, and that is no disrespect to the older hardware. Just that time moves continualy forward and (a good thing for Geocachers!) hardware improvements continue to progress.

 

Sure the older Legends/Vista's worked and worked well. But it would appear the newer technologies have an improved edge. I'm sure years from now we will recall our current state-of-the-art technologies and grin when compared to what will be available then

 

True, but the Geko has been around a while. I don't think it compares with the latest generation of units.