Buy Garmin Handheld Gps
Looking for the best handheld GPS device to keep you on the right path when hiking or venturing into the wilderness? Want to get started in Geocaching? Our guide will help you choose the right one for your needs, and at the best price.
buy garmin handheld gps
When the path is obscured, there's no need to rely on your smartphone or smartwatch for navigation. Having a dedicated handheld GPS device can steer you in the right direction, and we've rounded up the best of the best for finding your way.
Compared to a smartphone, a handheld GPS has some major advantages, including superior durability and much longer battery life. Simply put, no other kind of device on the market can take the place of a good handheld GPS.
The GearJunkie team is made up of hikers, cyclists, hunters, anglers, expeditionary explorers, and much more. GPS devices are essential tools for many of the activities that we love. Over the years, we have tested many different handheld GPS units, and this list comprises the best of the best.
With so many available features and lots of high-quality options, it can be difficult to navigate the market and figure out which handheld GPS best suits your needs. Remember, the ideal device is the one that will add the most benefit to your life and your navigational pursuits.
Satellite imagery, which is essentially aerial photos of Earth that have been stitched together, is usually difficult to see and utilize on a handheld GPS device. However, some devices with larger displays like the Garmin Montana 700i are more capable of making use of satellite imagery during navigation.
Rechargeable batteries can reduce weight and save money over time. Many outdoor professionals and recreationists carry battery packs or solar panels, which are compact ways of recharging a handheld GPS in the field. Many models have rechargeable batteries that are also compatible with AA batteries as a backup.
Every handheld GPS comes with a basic map, which is essentially a blank screen that includes the most noteworthy local features and nothing more. Many modern Garmin products come with a preloaded base map with contour lines that convey elevation, points of interest, and major trails and roads.
All of the handheld GPS devices on this list are high quality. We recommend each one for different reasons. Of these options, determining which one is best is all about figuring out what your needs are and which device best suits them.
With a clear signal, many modern handheld GPS devices can pinpoint your location with a margin of error of just a few meters. This level of accuracy is great for emergency scenarios, reliable waypoint setting, and geocaching. Integrated altimeters and three-axis compasses in handheld GPS devices are also more accurate now than ever before.
While some geocaching locations can be navigated with a smartphone, a handheld GPS device like the Garmin eTrex SE is really the best tool for geocaching. With a handheld GPS, you can enjoy geocaching sessions without cellular service and save waypoints so you can return to specific locations over and over again.
The Garmin GPSMAP 65s is the first Garmin to offer multi-band GNSS and is a solid performer for a handheld GPS. I've been using it on the trail since the day it was released, and in this guide, I'll give you my impressions and show you how to navigate with it.
If you've used a Garmin handheld GPS in the past you might be familiar with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System). WAAS is a supplementary system for GPS that applies corrections for satellite (technical) or ionospheric (natural) abnormalities. These correction signals are broadcast to GPS units. The GPS takes these corrections, applies them to the GPS signal, and then determines your (corrected) position. WAAS incurred an additional battery drain because of the extra processing power needed to compute the corrections.
The GPSMAP 65 doesn't have an option for WAAS like older handhelds. Instead, the GPSMAP 65 (from what I heard) calculates the ionospheric error on its own, and then applies the correction to the GPS signal. Overall I'm guessing that the multi-band, multi-GNSS functionality will remove any signal that the login says is off. The GPSMAP 65 will routinely lock onto between 15-30 signals across GNSS and bands, allowing for lots of redundancy and error correction.
Compared to other Garmin GPS handhelds, the GPSMAP 65's new positioning generally has about 25% better accuracy than the old GPS + Galileo or GLONASS systems. There are a lot of variables in GPS reception, so I tried to do a few tests in different areas, and the results were consistent. Now 6ft of accuracy versus 8 ft of accuracy is not a really big deal in real life, but it's nice to know that that you're about as accurate as you can get without buying a professional instrument (which allegedly can position you down to 1 cm).
If you're looking to buy "the most accurate handheld GPS" for a consumer, I'd say that you'd fare well with a GPSMAP 65s (basic GPS), GPSMAP 66i (GPS with InReach) , or a Montana 700 (touchscreen). From my experience of hiking in the mountains and canyons of Southern California, they were all about the same in terms of recording tracks. If you spend all your time in the canyons of Zion, up and down the walls of the Grand Canyon, or something else extreme like that, the 65 should theoretically perform better. But for the majority of wilderness use, they're all good.
Elevation on a handheld GPS is generally one of the more disappointing features. The GPSMAP 65s has a barometric altimeter, which has a (stated) accuracy of +/- 50 feet. You can calibrate the altimeter from a known elevation, or you can have it automatically calibrate, which is based on GPS elevation. I'm not privy to the logic behind this, but my guess is that the unit takes the GPS elevation, the map elevation of your position, and then calibrates to a happy place. However it works, I noticed that the elevation was generally much better on the 65s.
I use elevation as a ballpark figure on all my handheld GPS devices, so getting accuracy within a few feet is a plus. As Garmin says: Garmin's outdoor devices are designed as recreational GPS devices, as an aid to navigation. They should not be used for any activity requiring precise measurements, such as surveying or weather prediction.
I did occasionally get notifications that my backlight and tones would be shut off because the battery was too low, even though the battery meter showed full bars. It only happened occasionally, but it was still annoying. AA batteries are great, but Garmin handhelds seem to struggle with figuring out how much juice is left.
As I mentioned earlier, the navigation functions on the GPSMAP 65 are the same as other Garmin devices, I'll show you how it works here, but if you've used a Garmin handheld before, you will be able to hit the ground running with the 65.
One of the new features is that you can now connect the GPSMAP 65 to a smartphone using Bluetooth, and then transfer navigation information (waypoints, routes, and tracks) from the Garmin Explore app. This means that you don't have to connect the unit with a USB cable to a desktop computer in order to transfer data, as you did before with most Garmin handhelds.
Garmin handheld GPS units are the perfect partner for the outdoor enthusiast. Whether you are wanting to know your exact GPS location on land or out on the water, GPS handhelds that we sell will also provide you with this essential information - so you never get lost. In addition the vast majority of GPS handhelds available from ActiveGPS will also accept various Garmin mapping titles on SD/microSD card to further enhance the on-screen information. This handheld GPS buyer's guide will help you identify which unit will best suit your needs.
There are specific handheld devices designed for on land use and other devices designed for use on the water. Once you know the intended use this will narrow-down your choice. Generally, devices for on land usage are touchscreen and do not float but will be waterproof. However, for usage on the water, GPS handheld devices will be controllable by button (not touchscreen) and some e.g. GPSMAP 78 also float too.
Larger screened devices such as the Garmin Montana 680t can be used with street-level maps e.g. UK and Ireland (sold separately) to navigate you in your car too (Garmin Montana car mount sold separately). Dual orientation, meaning you can view in portrait or landscape view by turning the device around, is available with on all Garmin Montana and Garmin Oregon models. Screen sizes range from 2.6-inch on the Garmin eTrex range up to 4-inch on the Garmin Montana range. Most handheld GPS sytems have colour screens whereas some offer grey-scale screen e.g. Garmin GPS 73 and Garmin Foretrex 601.
If you plan to use the GPS device in dense woodland with a heavily obscured view of the satellites in the sky you should buy a GPS handheld with an pertruding GPS antenna which'sticks-out' of the top of the sat nav device, If you are not in deep canyons, or heavily wooded areas you can buy a GPS handheld device with built-in GPS technology although you may prefer a stronger satellite connection made only available by the petruding GPS antenna.
Hit the countryside of Great Britain with Ordnance Survey (OS) maps on the screen of your compatible Garmin handheld device. Maps are available to purchase in a 1:25K scale. Areas and regions covered include:
When onX was founded, smartphones were not capable of providing the experience we wanted for our customers. As a result, GPS handhelds were more prevalent in the hunting space. Now, phone technology provides a vastly superior experience and is where we are investing our time to innovate and provide world class features for hunters. Because of the innovation in smartphone technology, the onX Hunt Chip will be going away in 2022. Effective immediately, 29 of the 50 U.S. states will no longer be available. The final 21 states will still be available for purchase through Dec 31, 2022. As for new map data updates, we will update Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado in 2022. All the remaining states still available for purchase received their final update in 2021. 041b061a72