Customer Reviews for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
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Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Model: ETREXVENTUREHC
SKU: 8605299
UPC: 753759072872
Head off on your next camping trip or orienteering venture with this portable WAAS-enabled GPS receiver that features preloaded base maps of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America and South America and customizable points of interest for easy navigation.
Average Customer Rating:
3.8
out of 5
(9 Reviews) 9
Rating Snapshot 9 reviews
5 stars
3
4 stars
3
3 stars
2
2 stars
0
1 star
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89% of customers would recommend this product to a friend
(
8 out of
9)
Customer Reviews for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Review 1 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Fun for the family
Customer Rating
4.0
What's great about it: The back light
What's not so great: not accurate under heavy wooded tree areas
has been so much fun for us, great gps for the price, easy to use, a little bouncy in direction under power lines or deep wooded tree areas, power button seems harder to press than the others but the back light is great and its easy to navigate through the menu options
This product has... Simple controls, Easy to read
About me... Budget Conscious, Parent with kids, Use for outdoor activities (i.e. hiking, hunting, fishing), casual user, geocaching
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
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Review 2 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Great gear for dirt biking
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: compact and accurate
What's not so great: batteries but what the hell, makes it more portable.
Works just as advertised and like you expect from a Garmin product. Rugged, takes the trails (and some of the trees) without a whimper, and lets you know where you are at all times. It is sized perfectly to fit in riding gear without creating any discomfort. and yet is readily accessible. I would recommend this product to anyone who is going into the woods, deserts, jungles, swamps, or mountains.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Canon PIXMA All-in-One Printer
(3)+6points
6out of 6found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Love these units!
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: These find their location much quicker than older units, nice display, great price.
What's not so great: They don't do turn by turn autorouting, and don't take SD cards like their big brothers do.
I just bought 5 of these to use with my middle school students. They are great basic units for learning the fundamentals of GPS. Quick to start up, and great accuracy. Garmin handhelds have come a long way in the last 5 years. You will DEFINITELY need to buy maps to load in though. The base map is not usable for much.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+15points
17out of 19found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Pleasing Portable GPS
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: Just what I wanted
What's not so great: minimal mapping is available to download to this unit, I think
I am not a fan of GPS units for cars. They are a nuisance, always telling you to turn in the wrong place. I have not used a GPS before, but I wanted this portable unit to record the distances that I walk. My first time was very accurate in my neighborhood. I like the fact that I can brighten the display to see it well. I will be using this unit to measure my kayaking distances on the water and it is water resistant. There are many features that I have not tried using yet, like setting "waypoints." This is a basic unit that does not provide some of the features of more advanced units, like downloading other maps and having a microSD card slot. But for me it works great and is just what I wanted.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+5points
7out of 9found this review helpful.
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Review 5 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
For me it is great!
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: Ngrrfan
from Colorado Springs, CO
on 07/16/2009
Value for Price
4.0
Durability
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: Mine acquires satellites quickly, is accurate to 15 ft or less, easy on batteries.
What's not so great: Wish it had more memory, wish it was easier to delete waypoints, or all waypoints
I haven't had one bit of trouble or problems with my unit. It has always been accurate down to 15 feet. Loading of data and maps from a computer is easy using the included USB data cable, and the data cable isn't a proprietary style.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+8points
12out of 16found this review helpful.
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Review 6 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Goodbye Garmin...
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: SalSJCA
from San Jose, Ca
on 02/24/2009
Value for Price
1.0
Durability
3.0
Ease of Use
2.0
Features
1.0
What's great about it: Good Battery Life
What's not so great: Accuracy and Mapping
Cons…
Out of the box I quickly discovered that the base map was poorly designed. While driving home from the store I was over 150ft from the highway. This was a disappointment but assumed that the base maps were not accurate since they were after all a very high level solution. After spending an additional $99.99 for Mapsource Topo 2008 and loading it I found that it was just as disgustingly inaccurate. I could stand outside of my house with all but one satellite locked at full signal and still show that I was 3 streets over from my location. A second instance, I was hiking about 1/4 miles away from a lake, the GPS read that I was in the lake… Sadly I assumed it was because of poor signal, nope wrong again. The GPS read strong signal strength, foiled yet again but the Garmin. Needless to say I wouldn’t trust this device to navigate anything. I began to read and read and found that if I purchased software I could create my own maps… Sounded fun at first then discovered that it was terrible pain in the rear. Not that it was terribly difficult, but honestly I don’t want to have to traced every detail I desire, i.e. rivers, roads, POI’s, coasts etc…
Out of the box I quickly discovered that the base map was poorly designed. While driving home from the store I was over 150ft from the highway. This was a disappointment but assumed that the base maps were not accurate since they were after all a very high level solution. After spending an additional $99.99 for Mapsource Topo 2008 and loading it I found that it was just as disgustingly inaccurate. I could stand outside of my house with all but one satellite locked at full signal and still show that I was 3 streets over from my location. A second instance, I was hiking about 1/4 miles away from a lake, the GPS read that I was in the lake… Sadly I assumed it was because of poor signal, nope wrong again. The GPS read strong signal strength, foiled yet again but the Garmin. Needless to say I wouldn’t trust this device to navigate anything. I began to read and read and found that if I purchased software I could create my own maps… Sounded fun at first then discovered that it was terrible pain in the rear. Not that it was terribly difficult, but honestly I don’t want to have to traced every detail I desire, i.e. rivers, roads, POI’s, coasts etc…
Buttons were easily pressed while in the front pocket of a sweatshirt (which is fairly loose).
Pros…
If you want a basic, and I mean basic device were you can simply & graphically see where you are as an approximate, get this device. It works well when you have coordinates like geocaching but not a good device for the hiker.
If you want a basic, and I mean basic device were you can simply & graphically see where you are as an approximate, get this device. It works well when you have coordinates like geocaching but not a good device for the hiker.
Conclusion
I do a considerable amount of hiking, camping, fishing and spelunking (caving) as well as discovering industrial ruins. I like to have not only an accurate map of my location; I like to see within a reasonable margin of error where I am. In my world that margin would be within 15 feet. This device did NOT satisfy that basic need. Tho its marketing does claim to do this, it is not nearly accurate enough for me.
I do a considerable amount of hiking, camping, fishing and spelunking (caving) as well as discovering industrial ruins. I like to have not only an accurate map of my location; I like to see within a reasonable margin of error where I am. In my world that margin would be within 15 feet. This device did NOT satisfy that basic need. Tho its marketing does claim to do this, it is not nearly accurate enough for me.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+22points
26out of 30found this review helpful.
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Review 7 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Works well, but not a lot of memory for topo. data
Customer Rating
3.0
Posted by: btvdan
from Vermont
on 02/05/2009
Value for Price
3.0
Durability
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
3.0
What's great about it: Lower priced, software works well, seems to work well
What's not so great: Need topographical data to be fun, base map is too boring, not enough memory
I bought this as a gift for someone who is not computer savvy. So, I'm disappointed that the 24 megs of memory is not enough to store a significant portion of the topo maps that come in the 2008 topographical data CD. The software works by allowing you to select individual maps that you can load on to the device. I was able to include northern Vermont before I'd just about used all the memory.
If you want the convenience of storing more of the topo. data, you want a device with a memory card slot (or simply one with much more memory). The device works fine either way... but the base map is very boring. Everything just looks flat... you would have to rely on the coordinates and a paper map to locate yourself. This may be a good idea, anyhow, for your purposes. It depends on how you want to use the device.
I was able to find a package that included the device, topo CD (that you use to program device with enhanced map detail), and case for one price.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+9points
9out of 9found this review helpful.
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Review 8 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Acceptable with upgrades
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: Rebelfish
from New York, NY
on 07/22/2008
What's great about it: Long time to aquire satellite
What's not so great: Base map is no good.
I've had this unit for about a month now, and it's been working fairly well. It seems to be able to get satellites readings pretty easily and accurately. It can even acquire a signal in an jet plane, and it's pretty fun being able to tell what towns you're flying over and how fast the plane is moving. The display is really nice. It can operate with a backlight of varying brightnesses or without, depending on the light level and your concern of battery life. The included software isn't bad. All and all product is basically as described, EXCEPT...
the "detailed base map" that the Amazon product description talks about is bull. There's only a dozen or 2 roads listed in all of Manhattan. (Other US cities have similar detail.) If you want to do anything interesting, except know the exact coordinates of different points you load, you've got to upgrade the map.
The unit does not do auto-routing, but you can create a route on the computer ahead of time and download it.
PS - "Beast Hunt", one of the included games on the unit, is more fun than I'd like to admit.
the "detailed base map" that the Amazon product description talks about is bull. There's only a dozen or 2 roads listed in all of Manhattan. (Other US cities have similar detail.) If you want to do anything interesting, except know the exact coordinates of different points you load, you've got to upgrade the map.
The unit does not do auto-routing, but you can create a route on the computer ahead of time and download it.
PS - "Beast Hunt", one of the included games on the unit, is more fun than I'd like to admit.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+8points
8out of 8found this review helpful.
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Review 9 for Garmin eTrex Venture HC Portable GPS Receiver with 2.2" Color Display - Yellow
Geocachers must
Customer Rating
3.0
Posted by: rangerovin
from Los Angeles
on 04/04/2008
What's great about it: Good for geocaching, Durable, bright color (won't get lost)
What's not so great: long time to acquire satellite
I bought this to use for geocaching. The controls are a little complicated and not as intuitive as I would like. The device always seems to take a long time to acquire a satellite signal. And, when the device is pointed down, it seems to lose a previously acquired signal.
I haven't experimented with it much beyond geocaching. I have always been able to find what I'm caching for.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+10points
12out of 14found this review helpful.
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