Quick Take / TL;DR (Grumpy Edition)
“Somebody at Garmin decided to call this an eTrex again. I’m not sure whether to laugh, cry, or throw one of my 120 GPSes at the wall.”
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Screen & Battery: 3.0″ touchscreen, finally legible? Maybe, if the sun cooperates. 130h battery claimed — realistic only if it’s tucked in a drawer and praying to the power gods. Still enough for a weekend hunt. If this thing actually reads in sunlight without squinting or battling reflections, I’ll be shocked.
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Connectivity: USB 3? Wi-Fi that doesn’t wheeze? Don’t hold your breath. They’ll do something squirrelly like pair it with the round connector from the GPS III. If it’s USB 1.1 in 2025, someone at Garmin deserves a timeout.
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Maps & GNSS: World-side GNSS story is solid — better than Oregon 700, which matters in a world with GPS’s original parents having a quarrel. Maps? $99/year for routing. That’s a ransom note masquerading as an update.
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Accessories: Old mounts? Obsolete. Old clips? Gone. Planned obsolescence: Garmin’s longest-running product line.
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Naming Chaos: SE, Solar, Touch — one name, three unrelated devices. Logic-free branding strikes again.
Verdict: A better Oregon 700 trapped in eTrex cosplay, with a price tag that will make you mutter at your screen.
Thanx, @gpsblake, for posting this. I saw it earlier in the week but forgot about it. Tuesday was a long time ago. (I’m writing this on Friday.) Let me just kind of talk out loud here to think about the positioning of this thing.
A Little History
Back in the day, the eTrex was everywhere. The yellow banana was good for teaching classes in the park, but not much else. The Legend, Venture, Vista? Better, but they’d lose lock standing in tall grass. Everyone knew someone whose first unit was one of those. Garmin later tacked “HC” on the name and infused them with 60Cx mojo, but by then the Oregons and GPSMap units were eating their lunch. At events, it was touchscreens vs. d-pads everywhere, and the eTrex line quietly shuffled off the stage.
So why bring back the name now? Yes, it’s an eTrex again. No, it does not come with sense.
Screen and Battery
3.0″ diagonal, same size as an Oregon 700, resolution 240×400. That might actually make an eTrex readable — if they finally figured out sunlight visibility. If this one’s actually legible in daylight, that’ll be a first for the eTrex family. Maybe third time’s the charm… twenty years later.
On paper: 130 hours of battery. In practice? Sure, 130 hours — in an alternate dimension where the sun never shines and the device never touches a hand. Half of that in reality is still plenty for even the longest weekend of caching.
Connectivity (or Lack Thereof?)
USB 3? USB-C? Wi-Fi that doesn’t gasp like it’s 2005? No confirmation. I’d love to see USB-C with Superspeed, but I’m braced for a connector that looks like it was salvaged from a Palm Pilot.
Maybe they’re hiding behind Wi-Fi transfers — waterproof advantage, sure — but my money says “surplus ESP8266 wheezing at 11 Mbps.” If it’s USB 1.1 in 2025, someone at Garmin deserves a timeout.
GNSS and Maps
Receiver ahead of Oregon 700, right up there with GPSMap 67 — GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, IRNSS: alphabet soup galore. Solid.
Maps? Still the same Garmin two-step: TopoActive isn’t routable in auto mode, so you pay $99/year for City Navigator. Not an upgrade — a ransom note. Following a straight-line arrow while driving is not “modern navigation.” Dumb from a GPS company that bought a map company yet relies on free OpenStreetMaps anyway. My dog could navigate better on a leash.
Accessories and Naming Chaos
Old mounts and powered cradles? Gone. Touch uses a different clip, seemingly without power pass-through. Of course the mounts don’t match. It’s Garmin. Planned obsolescence: their longest-running product line.
The names — SE, Solar, Touch — all called “eTrex” but not actually related. eTrex SE, Solar, and Touch: three devices sharing only a name and Garmin’s allergy to logic. Reminds me of Tandy: we had two completely different 1200s, different manufacturers, and different BIOS. “Five-slot or seven-slot?” Only then can we talk upgrades. Ugh.
So What’s the Pitch?
Call it Oregon 720, and it’d make sense: bigger battery, modern GNSS, touchscreen. Instead, an eTrex at $449 in 2025. Maybe it targets phone defectors who still want a dedicated GPS — a defensible, shrinking market. Maybe Garmin’s “bridge device” before the handheld market collapses. I’d call it a bridge device, except the bridge is falling apart.
The Cynical Wrap-Up
For long-timers, it’s familiar: Garmin finally gave the eTrex the screen it always needed — and the price nobody asked for. Better than Oregon 700, but at a cost that will make you mutter at your screen.
I’ll believe the 130h battery when I see it, squint at the screen in sunlight, and wait for firmware bugs. Firmware updates: a guessing game where the customer always loses.
“But hey — at least they didn’t glue a camera in this one. One less thing to blame for battery death and glare.”