handheld gps units

I love my Garmin GPS devices. I own enough of them. However, this device makes no sense. If you are going hiking with this device and have no way of changing batteries, you may end up like those dumbasses in the "Blair Witch Project", wandering in the forest with no way of getting out. Get something like the Foretrex 101 that allows you to change batteries.

From a sailor's perspective ... this thing rocks.

My class does not permit electronic aids for racing, so I cannot mount a GPS on the boat or put a speedo through the hull. I needed a way to get knots feedback during training. I gave this a try. I am happy. The unit provides just what I wanted: quick feedback on trim / crew position when there are no other boats to race.

Features that work for me -- waterproof, WAAS accurate to 17feet, knot meter only lags about 2-3 seconds on actual, adjustable countdown for starts, manual magnetic/true heading adjustment, manual tacking angle input (really cool - it beeps on VMG layline), adjustable display screens, easy to read.

If your hands are busy and the cockpit is wet - consider this model over handheld or mounted alternatives. Did I mention the BIG NUMBER 5 minute countdown feature with easy reset/adjustment to cmte-boat sequence? Good engineering on this one. My strongest recommendation.

The Foretrex 201 is a general purpose version of the Forerunner personal training device. It lacks the personal training features (and PC software) of the Forerunner and replaces them with a general purpose GPS feature set derived from Garmins successful "Geko" models.

Note that Garmin describes the Foretrex as being similar to a Geko 201, but the Foretrex is missing a few features (no games) and the user interface is substantially different in a few areas.

There are two Foretrex models currently. This model, the 201, has an internal rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery which means the unit is .3 inches thinner than the model 101 which takes two AAA batteries. Currently the 201 can only be recharged using the (included) AC adapter and "cradle" bracket, so the advantage of the 201 is its smaller size, and the disadvantage is that you need to be near AC power and have the charger and cable along if you run low on power. This could be an issue for backcountry use. The other difference between the 101 and 201 is that the 201 is dark green (it's more green than is obvious in the pictures) and the 101 appears (I haven't seen one) to be silver. Each will appear equally dorky on your wrist if you wear it as a watch.

The 201 is very light, actually weighing .1 ounces *less* than the watch I usually wear. The strap is comfortable but wide. It adjusts to a surpisingly large range of wrist sizes (even fairly skinny ones). There's an extension strap provided if you want to wear it around your forearm.

The screen is very high contrast (more so than other Garmin GPSs I've seen) and easy to see.

The 201 has four gold contacts on the back at one end and it comes with a charging and data "cradle" (basically a clip that attaches to the back from end to end (works with the strap attached) and provides two small connectors for power and serial data.

It comes with a serial cable but no software. It will work with Garmin's Mapsource products (though without downloadable maps) and there's lots of shareware/freeware out there for managing waypoints, track logs, geocaching, etc. Note that the serial cable is only about three feet long, which can be somewhat inconvenient.

Battery life appears good. Garmin claim 15 hours, but I haven't run it down far enough to know what's realistic. After five hours of constant use in "normal" mode, the battery gague was still at 3 out of 4 dots. Charging takes a couple hours and displays "Battery Charging in Progress" bouncing around the display while it's going on.

Software updates can be downloaded from Garmin's web site (there's a minor update already available) and installed using the included cable.

Performance is about what I expected from a wrist-mounted GPS. The receiver performance appears to be identical to the other current Garmin models even at this small size. When walking around outdoors with my arm at my side, it does a good job of tracking the satellites that aren't obscured by my body and track logs downloaded from the unit are usually very good. There certainly are times when it can't see enough sats or just barely gets three of them or gets some ugly multipath reflection from somewhere and as a result you can get some track points that are really out in left-field. Overall it does better than I expected it to and you can just hold it up like you're looking at your watch to give it a better sky view if you want to take a more accurate fix.

The navigation data display page consists of a number of user-selectable fields in various (fixed) sizes from one to four per screen. These are arranged in a sort of virtual strip that you scroll up and down through. It appears to me that none of the time displays will show better than minute resolution. The "digital" style font used is pretty ugly.

There's a "timer" page which only supports count-down timing.

It has the Hunt/Fish and Sun/Moon data pages from the Geko and most of its other features except for the games as mentioned. Most of what you can do with a Geko you can do with this model, so check out the Geko 201 reviews as well.

It would be nice if it had a "watch" mode which would allow it to display the time and date with the GPS off and get a few days of battery life in this mode, but no such luck.

It's very well made and feels very solid as do most Garmin products. It should be very reliable as long as you don't prang the screen on something while wearing it as a watch. It's easy to operate the buttons with your other hand.

So, I could certainly recommend this model for someone who needs a basic (non-mapping) GPS and for whom the wrist/arm mounting option is desirable. It's probably the most functional way of carrying an active GPS on your person without resorting to a separate antenna or some similar complexity.

G.