Customer Reviews:
 not ready for prime or any other time July 7, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I worked with this product extensively for two weeks on a trip to the Southwest, and it's just too buggy to be useful. Sometimes geocache logs show up; sometimes they don't. About 20% of the time, it won't even navigate to a given geocache; you have to enter the coordinates manually using the little scroll wheel. (Hardly a painless process.)
The idea of paperless geocaching is great, but the 400t just doesn't implement it in an usable way. I've already mentioned the straight out bugs in the product; the UI design is awful as well. I got a copy of the Garmin's street database to use the 400t for finding my way around; good luck! If you're navigating to a location and do pretty much anything (check out a local geocache, for example), you have to start navigating all over again -- including going through the not inconsiderable pain of entering your desired destination without a keyboard.
Garmin's documentation is pretty much nonexistent (as others have indicated) [...]
All told, this product has brought far more frustration than joy into my life. Geocaching is supposed to be fun!
 Getting better July 6, 2008
As delivered I wasn't real happy with it. It would freeze when I would get close to a cache. I installed the new Beta 2.54 software and now it seems better. I love the features and fuctionality of the unit and I'm sure that Garmin will get the software figured out soon. If I was writing this review solely on the out of the box unit I would give it one star, with the upgrade four and after another update or two a 5 or 6.
I like it! June 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I previously used an e-trex legend, and was frustrated that it did not have a compass and barometric altimeter. I was looking to upgrade, but was quite concerned about all of the negative reports about the colorado series. There are some things I would like different, but all in all, I am very pleased with the Colorado. It does what it says it does. I do have to brighten the back light every time, but doing that makes it work well in low lighting conditions, and I can see it perfectly under bright sun! After running through a set of alkaline batteries I switched to rechargeables, and they are working great. I also bought some lithium batteries to use, but am saving them for a long backpacking trip.
 Awesome! June 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The maps are the most detailed yet and were very helpful on a recent hiking trip in the Great Smokey Mountains. The screen is very clear in direct sunlight. The roller interface is also easy to use, but not the best for entering POI searches. Turn-by-turn navigation is not avaiable with the included database. You will need to add the seperate upgrade to an SD card if you want this ability. However, once loaded this becomes an amazing all purpose device. Especially great to geocaching using the beta firmware. I expect to see even more improvements with future releases.
Thrilled with my Colorado! June 17, 2008
First let me say, I purchased this unit specifically for Geocaching so I can't speak to it's usefulness in other ventures. I took delivery of my Colorado just in time to take it to Geocaching's largest yearly event, Geo-Woodstock. I spent three solid days Geocaching and found almost 150 caches! I stepped up to the Colorado from Garmin's 60CSx (which I still have) and I have to say that the Colorado has got to be "the" tool for Geocachers. The "paperless" features have allowed me to carry fewer items on my cache runs as I no longer need the Palm Handheld as all the cache info is right at my fingertips. Speaking of fingertips... I love the ergonomics of this new unit. It fits nicely in your hand and all the controls seem to fall right where they should. I have not experienced any of the firmware issues mentioned by others. I spoke with a friend who purchased a Colorado right after they were released and he confirmed that the more recent units (like mine) seem to have the new firmware already loaded. As for battery wear, it does seem to burn through batteries quicker than my CSx, but I haven't really made and effort yet to see if I can change anything to help that issue. Count me as one of the satisfied customers.
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