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Garmin Colorado 400c customer reviews

Global Rating: 4.60 from 5 reviews.

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rating title date name city state/province country
USE THIS TO LOCATE BIKINI BOTTOM (5/5) Aug 15, 2008 Salty Sal Franco Huntington New York US
  Garmin does it again! Excellent unit. Precise on water. Don't leave shore without it!
Kayaker's Friend (5/5) Mar 25, 2008 Greg Vogel Cape Coral Florida US
  I almost bought a 76Cx after getting lost kayaking in the Florida Keys a couple of times last year, but just before entering my order, I looked at the 400c. I'm glad I did. It has been a joy to use, and adds another dimension to kayaking backwater areas. I found the display easy to see in sunlight, as ambient light makes it more visible without battery sucking backlighting. I can usually get at least two 5 hour trips on a set of batteries with some to spare. I leave it turned on the entire trip in order to record my track. The track often helps redraw my charts when the GPS and other charts do not match the terrain, which can often happen in the sketchy areas back in the mangroves.

The thumbwheel "Rock and Roller" is a breakthrough with easy thumb operation at the top of the unit where it should be. With just it and two other buttons, one doesn't have to search for the right button. I had discounted the tide function, but then found it to be almost as helpful as the navigation, as tides can vary almost 180 degrees between the bay side and the ocean side of the Keys. When the water is often only a few inches deep or gone completely at low tide, this is often a determining factor for the areas I frequent. The 400c quickly gives a tide readout for several tide stations in the vicinity of a planned route. However, I can't seem to get predictions for other than the current day.

As others have commented, Garmin needs to put some more effort into their manuals. It took awhile to figure out some of the functions, and I'm not sure I have it all yet, but it's been fun "discovering" how things work anyway. One thing that seems to need work is the tracking archiving. The unit creates a nice track of each trip, but does not seem to provide a way of ending it and archiving it, at least without the computer connection. It will stay recorded on the map until it is erased, but I haven't messed with the disc and cable that comes with it yet so there may be a way. The compass works fairly well, but seems to need calibration (rotate 720 degrees) each trip. It also has to be level to read correctly.

Overall, I am delighted with the 400c. I'll probably get the terrain and route planning chips for it later, but it has provided all I need to this point. The last Garmin unit I owned was a Garmin 75 that got me down the New Jersey coast at night and up the Delaware River in thick fog (although with Radar assist) on a sailboat coming down the intracoastal. They still seem to have it together.
Excellent Product (4/5) Mar 23, 2008 Gregg Baldwin Annapolis Md. US
  The bluechart detail is great and switching between marine and land mode has never been easier. The routing using city navigator is great also.
Backup Marine Handheld Device (5/5) Mar 18, 2008 Jeffrey Graves Chagrin Falls Ohio US
  The marine detail for the Great Lakes and Oceans surrounding the U.S. is outstanding on this unit. I purchased it primarily as a backup device for the GPS mounted on my boat. While I have never had a failure on my fixed boat unit, I wanted to make sure I had a good backup so when I am out in the middle of the Great Lakes at night or a storm blows up, that I have a system that I can count on to return to shore safely.

Since I have purchased it, I find that I am also taking it on trips with me as a street navigational device (you must buy the Streets and Highways card to get good details since it ships with major roads only).

Battery life with Alkaline batteries is good but I haven't had the same success with rechargeables which seem to die quickly.

I wish the unit came with Inland Lake details as this would be helpful with Lake bottom contours on Electric Motor Only lakes that I fish in the area. Having to purchase separate cards gets expensive.

I agree with the previous rater that the screen can be difficult to see in bright sunlight. If adding a contrast adjust feature is the answer then I would suggest that they offer it in the future.

The case is rugged and the unit is waterproof which you need in a marine environment. The hunt/fish charts are very helpful in giving you best times of the day/week to hunt or fish. The compass is great for orienting yourself at any location as well as for hiking in the woods.

I particularly like the bigscreen and amount of detail it provides for a handheld device. Great job Garmin, but add some more free software!
Great for paperless geocaching (4/5) Feb 20, 2008 Thomas Butson Lancaster PA US
  The Geochaching support was selling point for me on this GPS. Importing cache sites is very easy and includes descriptions, clues, and logs. Garmin just released version 2.40 which added many helpful features. They seem to be listening to users which is promising for the future.

Boot up time is quick. Accuracy is very good. Battery life is good. The screen detail with Topo or Marine maps is great.

The only con that I have found is that the screen is not very bright in direct sunlight. This is not really a screen defect as much a contrast issue. This could be fixed later by adding contrast adjustment to the software.

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