Buy Portable GPS

The Legend H will include a high sensitivity receiver and will also support USB interface enabling high speed map downloads. It also features 24 MB of internal memory which will enable free space for downloading new map data. Software will include Geocaching capabilities with a14 hour batter life.

User Reviews about Garmin Legend H Handheld GPS Navigator

This Garmin is an improvement over the Legend from several years ago. The USB port is more handy than the older serial port. Plenty of memory and a big screen are nice features. The menus are easy to navigate once you figure out where to go for what you want to do. I wish they had made deleting all waypoints at once easier to find and more intuitive but once you stumble on it, you know where to go. So far the only thing that has caused my other Legends to fail has been running them over with a car. They have been sturdy, rain proof and dependable. -- Garmin Legend H a great buy

First, I got my new Legend H to do what I wanted. After opening the box, it took me about 3 hours (non field time) spread over 3 days (with field time) to show trails on GoogleEarth and download a data set in a free program recommended by UNH CoopExt. I never met a computer that was not stupid and have read too many instructions written by people who forget what it is like to be a real new user.


Yes the manual is not very wordy. Those who understand GPS units will probably consider it to be an adequate quick start guide. ATTENTION NEWBIES: expect to spend some time playing before really trying to use it. For example, the USB connection on an XP machine. The manual says to download software from [...] (period) and plug in the cable. On the web you then learn (or ignore) that you must download the USB drivers for Garmin products, in addition to the Legend software. And they leave out that you should reboot your XP computer after installing the drivers. I had to reread everything several times and then remember (after 45 minutes) the primary solution to every computer problem: turn everything off and back on. That did the trick, it communicated.

The most recent reviews about the Legend H helped make up my mind. The eTrek H was about $90 at Walmart. A cable to connect it to my computer's USB was going to be $15 - $20 . The Legend I got via Amazon was $116, including cable. So for $10 more I received: a higher res screen, 500 more waypoints, simple maps and area calculator and 24 mgs memory. The unadvertised surprise: it only took 2 days to get to me with free shipping!

Yes the screen is hard to read sometimes but that could be my eyes and contrast settings. As for the buttons and menu system, you will react in a crisis how you train. Moral of the story: make all your mistakes and develop your best practices while walking around a place you know, well before you really need it. I was at my budget limit, I am sure another $200 would solve those issues.

I am happy and now will start looking for some web based free instructions about tracks, marks and waypoints. Plus I am going to follow some of those other reviews about other free software products to turn my data into another learning curve. -- Happy with trail mapping, still learning and a few tips

This review is specific to the Garmin Etrex Legend H model.

I've known about Geocaching for years, but wanted to finally start doing it. Bought this unit because I really just needed an inexpensive and simple GPS unit that would point me to a specific site where the Geocache is hidden.

This is not a unit you'd want for road navigation, but more for general outdoor use.

Pros:
1. For what I wanted, this unit does exactly that. Enter the coordinates and it points the way and gives you distance.

2. The screen is black and white, and does not need any illumination while out in daylight. Makes for good battery savings. It does have a back light for when it gets darker.

3. It's light and is water resistant, though I hesitate to test that feature.

4. Seems to be pretty accurate. When pulling signals from 4 satellites, generally gets me to within about 20 feet of target. When acquiring 6 or more satellites, 5-7 feet is more the norm. I once had it tracking 8 satellites when taking the waypoint, and then 8 again at another time when finding that waypoint, and it put me virtually in the same exact spot I was standing the first time.

Cons:
1. Except for major highways and major roads, there is no maps built-in. No topo maps. No road maps, etc. Furthermore, I've been to the Garmin site, and there don't seem to be any additional maps to buy, except ones that cost more than the unit itself did. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place. If that's the case, my complaint is the Garmin site is not very helpful.

2. My connecting to computers via USB has been iffy. My Windows XP machine just plain didn't recognize the device. My Windows 7 machine recognized it the first time, but took forever to recognize it the second time.

3. It's compass is strictly GPS driven. If you are standing still, there is no magnetic compass feature. To be fair, I knew this going in, but it would have been nice to have.

4. Not the most intuitive controls. Definitely took a read through the manual and some experimentation before I understood what each menu item did.



-- Barebones GPS, but good for Geocaching

The Legend H is my first GPS receiver of any kind. If that's you situation, be prepared to spend quite some time on the web or in the library researching how to use this unit because the Garmin supplied 'manual' isn't worth the paper it's printed on. And don't expect to find any help on Garmin's web site either. A brief example: The Legend H is WAAS-compatible so naturally you'd enable WAAS. But if your Legend can't see one of the two WAAS satellites (mine hasn't yet), the accuracy of your Legend is reduced. No mention of this in the manual; there's no index entry for WAAS. -- Ridiculous Manual