Garmin Upgrades And Redesigns eTrex Series Handheld GPS

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Sometimes, people have been known, especially at this time of year with extra daylight and accompanying heat in the Northern Hemisphere, to go to that mythical place of hazards and sweating known as “outdoors”. And if you happen to be one of these intrepid souls, you know how easy it can be to get lost in “outdoors”, and thus will be happy to hear about Garmin’s new lineup of eTrex handheld GPS systems.

You’ll have your choice of three new models in the eTrex lineup. Kicking things off is the eTrex 10, a simple model with a 2.2 inch screen, support for a variety of maps (including marine, roadway and topographic, thus ensuring that you’ll have a pretty good idea of where you are no matter where, exactly, you are), capability to download geocache information, a 25 hour battery life, and a monochrome display that’s supposed to be designed specifically that you can read it under the sun. You’ll be able to get this one in for $120.

Next up is the eTrex 20, which offers up a 65k color display on that same 2.2 inch screen as well as the geocaching, 25 hour battery life, and support for a variety of maps. That extra color will cost you an extra $80, as this one goes for $200.

Lastly we’ve got the eTrex 30 ($300), which will give you not only everything you’ve seen previously–65k color screen and plenty of maps–but also an electronic compass, a barometric altimeter so you know how far above sea level you are, and, for extra fun, even offers wireless date transfer so you don’t need to connect anything to get your updates.

They sound like solid devices, though I find myself wondering how they fare against a lot of smartphones that offer similar capability. Though in smartphones’ cases, I suppose a lot of that capability depends on 3G access and whatnot, and if you’re out in the middle of nowhere you’ll be wanting something much more satellite-driven like your basic GPS.

This is a great one to open up to our outdoors fans out there–so do you think that the new Garmin eTrex lineup is what you need, or do you already have a perfectly serviceable device that will do the job? The comments section stretches as wide as that same outdoors, so head on down and let’s talk GPS!