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Walkingadventure 8 years, 9 months ago.
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Below are a couple articles our members Hack1of2 and Luckyastrodiver wrote discussing the Garmin 600/650 Oregon and Oregon 750T series of handheld units.
Originally, I thought we could grab together a few more reviews and post as a front page story or Newsletter article but that didn’t work out so well.
Still, everyone is welcome to weigh in with their own opinion and reviews here. Please enjoy and feel free to reply.
Following the signals from space.
By John Sudar aka Hack1of2
Garmin Oregon 650 review
Awesome features, some buggy issues
I mainly use this unit for hiking and geocaching, and this is the 7th trail GPS I’ve owned (all by Garmin, which I love). I’ve owned it for about two years, and unlike the other GPSr’s I’ve owned (Garmin GPSmap62s, GPSmap64s, two Oregon 450’s, and two Oregon Dakota 20’s), it’s just not as accurate for geocaching compared to the others and is still buggy. Rather than mentioning the features that are in common with the older Oregon 450 series, here are the good & bad NEW features of the Oregon 600/650.
THE GOOD:
1. The Oregon 600 & 650 have two buttons on the side (instead of one like the 450). One is the power button/lock screen like the 450, but the other one is one of its BEST FEATURES: It is a programmable one-touch shortcut user button that scrolls through your favorite screens. With each press, mine is set up to scroll through Compass, then Map, then Trip Computer, then Geocache Description (with logs, hints, etc.), then Main Menu. You can scroll through these shortcuts with the side user button even while the screen is locked.2. The side buttons can be customized for additional functions when you double click on them or hold for 5 seconds. I set mine up for flashlight when I hold for 5 sec and camera when I double click. Another good possibility for this feature is to use it to mark waypoints.
3. It has a hard, chemically-strengthened glass touchscreen surface, like many smartphones, instead of a soft touchscreen. Kind of works with *light* gloves on.
4. Has the feel of a modern smartphone in a good way – it has possibly the best display available with an excellent bright sunlight-readable touchscreen. You can pinch and expand to zoom in and out, and twist two fingers to rotate, in the Map view.
5. The Oregon 650 takes 8MP geotagged pictures (autofocus with digital zoom) that have the coordinates embedded in them so you can scroll through your pictures (like where you parked) and it will navigate to the one you select (the 600 is missing this feature). It’s even a waterproof camera!
6. The 650 has a built in flashlight (which is also used for the flash for the camera). I’ve used this a lot.
7. There’s room to store an unlimited number of geocaches in the GGZ format. Millions. No more deleting GPX files to make room for more.8. It seems absolutely everything is customizable on it to get it just the way you want it.
9. You don’t need any additional batteries for it. It has a rechargeable battery that charges when the GPS unit is connected to external power at home or even in the car (standard on the 650 and is an option with the 600). You can use AA batteries however if the battery pack is used up.
10. It uses the American satellites and WAAS like the previous models, but also uses the 24 additional Russian GLONASS satellites for much faster start times (and potentially better accuracy in valleys or other areas partially blocked).
11. It can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and also has a new Nuvi mode for street navigation.
12. Geocaches can be sorted by name, distance, difficulty, or several other filters right on the unit.
13. The trip computer now offers multiple pages of data fields, each customizable to 1 of 4 layouts: 2 large, 1 large and 4 small, 6 small or 8 small
14. I like the size of this unit. Garmin has three relatively new state-of-the-art touchscreen GPS units: Oregon, Monterra, & Montana. The Oregon is the lightest and most comfortable of the three.
15. It has a NUVI mode for street navigation when paired with the optional CityNavigator street maps.
THE BAD:
1. It seems to be the most inaccurate of all of the GPS units that Garmin has to offer, based on both my own use and talking with others. OK for hiking perhaps, but not so much for geocaching, with the unit sending you as much as 50 feet in the wrong direction. I’ll often go geocaching with others (almost weekly with different groups) and this GPSr is always the one that is off the most of everyone in the group, even though I calibrate the compass each outing. If you’re not a geocacher then this is not a dealbreaker because the accuracy is only off typically by 20 to 40 feet. I know of 5 other geocachers who have the Oregon 600 or 650 and they have all had the same issues with accuracy compared to others. I have discovered a partial solution: It “eventually” gets you close to the correct location, IF you’re patient enough. After several minutes of searching around, it eventually will settle on the “correct” coordinates, but if you’re caching with others the cache has very often been found by others while you’re still wandering around 30 feet elsewhere. I noticed one person’s review on youtube suggested stopping 50 feet short of GZ and waiting several minutes for the unit to correct itself before proceeding. That shouldn’t be necessary.2. Will not operate properly if it’s too cold (stated temperature range is 5 degrees or warmer).
3. The touchscreen can be annoying in the certain types of weather – raindrops can launch apps but winter gloves can’t. They have issued a fix for the over-sensitive touchscreen and you can now adjust the sensitivity, but it does take some getting used to. When I first got it, light raindrops were changing the screen every several seconds! By default it comes out of the box pretty sensitive, but you can adjust it down.
4. The claimed 16 hour battery life with the included NiMH battery pack (rechargeable in-unit) has only been about 6 to 8 hours for me, and that’s even with the screen dimming after 2 minutes of nonuse. There is a power saving mode where the screen turns completely off but I prefer it to be dimmed after 2 minutes of nonuse. Also turning off WAAS & GLONASS satellite reception will save on battery power, but potentially will decrease its accuracy.
5. The compass arrow sometimes (not always) locks up while moving and I have to stand still for it to correct itself. Not a dealbreaker when you get used to it; just stop moving for 3 or 4 seconds. This is a bug that will hopefully get fixed in future firmware updates.
6. Other bugs include the unit locking up at times (you have to take the batteries out to reset), or the unit ignoring the addition of new waypoints until you abort and then re-enter the coordinates.
7. It is a bit difficult to setup if you’re not tech savvy. There are a LOT of menus and sub menus and a lot of them are not intuitive and the instructions provided do not cover them well. I am tech savvy and have it set up just the way I like it!
8. With so many options, profiles, and customizing available, it’s not as user friendly as the Oregon 450/550 touchscreen series. But that’s part of what makes this unit great – it can do so much when you get it configured to your liking!
Overall I give the Oregon 600/650 a “cautious” recommendation for non-geocachers. It’s a state of the art high-end GPSr that does so much. And for the most part does it well. If the accuracy issue gets fixed and a few minor bugs taken care of this would be the perfect GPSr for me. My favorite new features are the programmable side shortcut button that scrolls through the four screens that are most important to me, the in-unit battery pack that’s rechargeable (even while in the car), and the waterproof camera/flashlight. I’d recommend the Oregon 600/650 only to advanced users because it offers so much, but be prepared to spend a good bit of time going through the not too intuitive menus to get the unit to work right for you. Once it’s set up and you get used to it, it’s smooth sailing. For those that are a bit tech-challenged I’d probably recommend the Oregon 450/550 (if you can get it, now discontinued), an Etrex 30, Etrex touch 35, the touchscreen high-end Montana, or the GPSmap64S. As for me, my favorite is the Garmin GPSmap64s, which like the GPSmap 60 & 62 series before it has a superior antenna but is pushbutton instead of touchscreen. The GPSmap series is arguably the most accurate because of the antenna design, and they seem to last longer because they’re pushbutton instead of touchscreen.
nana817 onFollowing the signals from space.
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