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Garmin Colorado 400i customer reviews

Global Rating: 5.00 from 3 reviews.

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rating title date name city state/province country
Colorado 400i Exceptional product (5/5) Apr 15, 2008 Nathan King Goshen IN US
  I purchased this product to replace my etrex Legend. I must say there's not much this thing can't do. Plugged in my City Navigator SD card and now have turn by turn directions. The screen/display is absolutely beautiful! I've also purchased the auto nav kit so I can mount it in my truck. I'm a salesman so the turn by turn directions come in very handy.

I haven't had a chance to use it fishing, but hope to soon. Pleasantly surprised how many lakes have contours for depth so it should prove very useful on the water.

Garmin's quality and durability are what brought me back and this unit is no exception. I would highly reccommend this product to anyone wanting a seriously capable handheld.
Colorado 400i My first GPS Purchase (5/5) Apr 10, 2008 Scott Murley Temple Terrace Florida US
  I have been an avid sea kayaker for many years and never had the urge to supplement my trips with a GPS. Taking longer more adventurous trips has changed that.

I am certainly not an expert GPS reviewer as this was my first GPS purchase ever. After reading many reviews and forum posts, I was ready for a lengthy learning curve. To my surprise, however, I was navigating and making full use of the 400i within two days. The menus are easy to operate as is the selection of sub menus and other features. Without having used a GPS before I get the feeling that the 400i has spoiled me already.

The unit feels very sturdy and fits well in the hand. It's easy to grip with hands wet from paddling and the minimal controls are a blessing in a rough sea. The fact that it doesn't float makes me a little uneasy given the price, but the included carabiner clip adds peace of mind. Battery life (9 hours) seems adequate given all this GPS can do on two AA batteries. I enjoy paddling in rough seas and the 400i seems up to the challenge.

My only real complaint is the screen on a sunny day. Like many reviews of other units, it's very difficult to read in bright sunlight. Also the compass screen acts a little skittish when in my kayak. It's nearly impossible to keep level. This is not much concern to me as it only functions as a backup to my deck compass.

Also, kudos to GPSNow. Their staff was extremely helpful in making my purchase decision. Their price and customer service is hard to beat. The benchmark for all of my future GPS purchases has been set!
Colorado 400i NooB Impressions (5/5) Mar 14, 2008 Darrell Johnson Long Lake MN US
  First thing everyone should do after powering up is briefly press the power button again and rotate the wheel clockwise to bring the backlight brightness up!. After you do this you can enjoy a very colorful high resolution display.

The built-in map data varies in detail between areas. The contour lines are lake depth appropriate with the typical Minnesota lake on 5-10 ft intervals. One shallow pond near me has 0.5 ft intervals showing. (It also has shaded relief terrain showing around it!?). Satellite images -if present- are low resolution but useful from 3 mile to 0.3 mile zoom scale. From 0.2 miles down to 20 foot zoom scale no aerial photos were available in the base maps. All of the lakes I know about (and then some) appear as appropriately shaped blue graphics with the minority containing depth contour information. River route detail is extensive with all but the most temporary drainage ditches being shown. Islands in the Mississippi River were shown, but did not show up in most smaller rivers. River depth contours were not shown as far as I could find. Most major river falls were noted, rapids not indicated. Road details go to unpaved dirt roads. Based on recent construction in my area, the road and satellite images appear to have been digitized in the summer of 2006. Unfortunately the satellite detail below 5 mile zoom scaling is not complete. Starting at 3 mile zoom some blocks of counties revert to flat light tan background with lake/river/road graphics superimposed. This does make the roads/rivers easier to follow, but an aerial view option would be handy when hiking trails. (Guess this could be a great application for Google Earth pictures in the image viewer). The water features and roads are in impressively accurate detail. I was pleased with the water depth contour info, and pleasantly surprised at the great detail for landings and roads. Beware that some of the dirt roads shown are not actually passable having been abandoned 20 years ago, on private property, etc. Road mapping software may yet be in my future for more POI’s etal, but for now the Colorado base maps seem complete enough to get me to the fishing hole. I noted that I could not route to my actual destination in Automotive mode in some cases since there were “No roads near” the waypoint. (Probably a NooB problem).

Observation: The “Accuracy” display changes with the number of satellites tracked. I observed from 7 up to 11 satellites registering and GPS accuracy indicated from 10ft up to 32ft. The seven satellites reading was taken inside the house (I have aluminum siding, so I am suitably impressed by this reception capability).

Observation: New Alkaline batteries gave about 8 Hours intermittent use before the backlight started limiting to 50% brightness. About 2 hours later the low battery alert appeared and the backlight turned off.

Summary Thoughts:
Overall, the Colorado 400i far exceeded my expectations. Oddly, the inland lake data was only “Good”, but all the other bells and whistles make this device exceptional.

What a super navigation aid! The areas covered by the satellite images at around 1 mile zoom is close to a flyover (though lower resolution) so I’d definitely recommend one for any float plane pilot.

Battery life is respectable. Considering that I have flashlights with two AA cells that would not light up as long as I had the Colorado backlighted, it is more energy efficient than a paper map & light. (Be sure to have a couple spares tho…maybe take them out of your flashlight if you need to :) . Display is very clear and crisp in direct bright sunlight or with the backlight turned up. In overcast/indoor situations with no backlight the display is dim and difficult to read.

Menuing is mostly intuitive with a half dozen quirks that need to be memorized (e.g. anyone remember how to call up the temperature? hint:recreation)

It still has some bugs in the software (e.g. scary map disappearances). Most items worked as expected. Many more feature items available than expected.

Profile menu management and setup is a great feature. Very handy seamlessly changing from “Automotive” to “Recreational” to “Marine” operating modes.

I haven’t done more than scratch the surface on the capabilities of this baby. I’m sure it has tons of interesting bugs and features yet to be discovered :blink: . All-in-all it gets an A- grade. Recommended buy: YES

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