Garmin's eTrex Legend HCx Handheld a Great Outdoor Companion

(Price: $289 suggested retail, $215 online.)

Pros:

• Sharp, bright, color moving-map display.
• Receiver captures satellite signals in heavily wooded or steep terrain.
• Sturdy, waterproof construction.
• MicroSD memory card for easy map upgrades.

• Must purchase supplemental maps ($86 per large region) for topographic detail.
• Other, more specialized units better for running, cycling, or in-car use.

Handheld GPS receivers are great companions for a wide range of outdoor activities, including exercise walking, day-hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, kayaking, birdwatching and more. A handheld GPS can tell you how far you've traveled and how fast, where you are, and if you have entered a pre-set route, where you are going and how to get there. Higher-end handhelds are loaded with features, and can be reliable travel guides under the most demanding outdoor conditions. That's the job of the new eTrex Legend HCx by Garmin.

For a handheld to be truly useful for outdoor navigation, it needs a moving-map display, and better yet, a bright, high-resolution, color display. This model meets those criteria with a sharp and clear 1.3-inch by 1.7-inch, 256-color, 176 by 220 pixel display. The display brightness is quickly adjustable to three levels, the brightest of which is easily visible in bright sunlight. You may move the directional cursor around the screen with a thumb-stick (visible above and to the left of the display in the accompanying photo) unique to Garmin handhelds.

The eTrex Legend HCx has an extensive list of features and functions, as you’d expect for a $289 handheld. Topping the list is its ability to obtain GPS satellite signals even under heavy forest cover or while in steep terrain. The “H” in the model’s HCx designation indicates it comes with the latest-generation high-sensitivity receiver and chip. I used this model while hiking a very heavily forested Pennsylvania trail to test the claim. I quickly obtained and never lost a signal in heavy forest and steep terrain. The eTrex Legend HCx is also “WAAS enabled” which means that it can use signals from the Wide Area Augmentation System where available (most of North America and North America’s coast), further increasing position accuracy to within three meters.

What else can the eTrex Legend HCx do for you? Let’s take a look at the functions and features. The eTrex has a thumb stick that can be used to pan the map (very useful) or to scroll and highlight menu items. You navigate its functions via four pages, including the map page, compass page, altimeter page, and the main menu. The map is truly useful and informative, and if you’ve loaded a supplemental topographic map, provides a very detailed rendering of off-road terrain.

The compass screen presents a compass graphic and includes speed, distance estimated time of arrival stats. The altimeter page shows you the current elevation rate of ascent and descent, and the best feature, a profile of elevation change over time. The main menu page gives you access to all pages and control over all of the settings. I found it easy to navigate the menu with the thumb-stick and then simply press the thumb-stick to select the feature.

Here are highlights of the features as presented in the menu:

• Find: Waypoints, geocache, cities, highway exits.
• Tracks: Setup, save, trackback.
• Routes: Saved routes.
• Calendar: Including sunrise and sunset times and phase of the moon.
• Calculator: A simple calculator.
• Stopwatch: Time and lap functions.
• Sun and Moon (an impressive feature for hunters and fishermen): Sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset for current date and for specific times and dates in the future. Also includes a graphical display of sun and moon positions.
• Games: six simple games.

The eTrex Legend HCx comes with Garmin Mapsource software that manages map downloading and permits route and elevation profile plotting. Mapsource also stores uploaded routes. The eTrex connects to a personal computer via an included USB cable. The eTrex also has a slot (under the battery cover, away from dirt and water) for a microSD memory card. You may purchase microSD cards from Garmin that are preloaded with detailed topo, marine, and highway maps.

Summing up, the eTrex Legend HCx is an excellent handheld for avid day-hikers, backpackers, kayakers (the eTrex is rated as waterproof and did not leak in my immersion test), hunters and fishermen… anyone spending a lot of time navigating outdoors who needs a very rugged handheld with a good, color, moving-map display and the ability to add detailed topo maps.

Runners and cyclists, and those who want a high degree of on-the-road highway functionality have better choices in the fitness and in-car categories.

There are a couple of downsides: While very sturdy (its battery cover is made of rubber-armored cast metal, for example) the eTrex is a bit heavy, at 5.5 ounces including two AA batteries, for load-weight-conscious backpackers or mountain bikers. Also, to make the unit truly useful in the outdoors, you will need to purchase a supplemental regional topo map set on microSD card from Garmin for $86. To be fair, other handhelds require supplemental map purchases as well, but factor in the added expense.