Customer Reviews:
 Fast Acquisition But Hard to Read June 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I purchased my Colorado 400t from Amazon about a month ago. It was VERY affordable through Amazon, and fairly easy to use right out of the box. I recommend going through each Colorado function immediately after purchase and looking at all of the options available for each one, as many are not intuitively obvious. There are lots of nifty features available on the system.
The default map overlays are okay, not very detailed but sufficient for street navigation. The maps are not very well geo-synched. E.g., With a position accuracy of less than 10 ft the GPS position of my porch appeared across the street when displayed. I attempted to install more topographic detail using one of the National Geographic software sets, but the software kept crashing during installation. It appears to be incompatible with Windows XP and/or the underlying Garmin operating system. One of the best enhancements to this GPS is to synch it up with Google Earth. That's lots of fun. I'm waiting for more detailed wide-area coverage maps from either Garmin or other sources.
Satelite acquisition happens very rapidly and maintains good signal strength once acquired. The display of satellite positions, signal quality, and other information is pretty handy. It seems to work fine inside a car.
My big problem with the Garmin Colorado 400t: The display contrast and backlighting is so weak that the system is vitually unusable in bright sunlight and difficult to discern in other than dim lighting. It would be helpful to have brighter lighting and I will retrofit my Colorado with a brighter manufacturer or second-source lighting system if one becomes available. Battery life is good, but I'm willing to accept less to get better legibility in sunlight.
Big takeaways: Positives-Good accuracy, fast acquisition, lots of neat features, compatibility with Google Earch. Negatives-Dim display, lack of detailed map coverage available, not-very-accurate geo-synching of maps for precision placement of positions on the display.
 First GPS and it works great! June 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is my first GPS and I did a lot of research to find the right one. After looking at all the reviews and waiting for Garmin to clear up some issues I pulled the trigger on this unit. I am not disappointed. The shaded relief is great, the wheel is very intuitive, and maps are pretty detailed. I haven't had any issues with my unit and the battery life lasts plenty long. The price has came down so it makes this a steal compared to any other unit with what you get. I definitely recommend this product to anyone that is looking for a GPS.
Great product once I got a good unit... June 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After reading the reviews, both pro and con I decided to give the 400t a try. After all, a company like Garmin would surely have resolved such blantant faults as were encountered by some of the reviewers, right? Well, yes and no. The unit I bought was horrible. The promise was there, but so was the ridiculously poor battery life 4-6 hours with 2650mAh batteries, constant self-rebooting and shut-down, and freezing requiring the batteries to be removed to reset the unit. I installed the latest OS (2.51 beta) with no improvement. I called customer support who suggested I return the unit, which I suspected was just a lame response to my problem. Well, I was wrong! The new unit is great - battery life of 14-16 hours, no rebooting or freezing, and everything works great. As others have noted, the manual clearly lacks the necessary detail to fully understand some of the advanced capabilities, but that can be dealt with. Clearly, there is a hardware issue with earlier units and if you experience any of the known problems you should immediately exchange the unit for a newer model. However, once past that issue I was very pleased with the unit. Note that the preloaded US Topo map has inaccurate street locations. I purchased City Maps 2008 and everything is now dead-on. Note that the unit can use multiple maps at the same time, such as topo info from the base map and street info from City Maps. I also have the National Parks West, 24k Topo and have all three active most of the time. However, once off the road I shut off City Maps so the topo lines from the base and topo maps display rather than just the elevation shading which is the only elevation info that displays when City Maps is on. Excellent turn-by-turn navigation with routing and ETA times far more accurate than than the factory unit in my Expedition. After my initial dismay with the first unit, I have been extremely pleased with the replacement exceding all expectations.
 Mostly good stuff, a few not so good. June 8, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I got this from Amazon and played with it for a few days. I have 30 to decide whether I want to keep it. First let me say the unit is EASIER to see in the direct sunlight since its a transflective screen. Its hard to see in shadows because the backlight is very dim compared to GARMIN's Nuvi units. I couldn't see it when the light was on unless it was in direct sunlight. Hiking will be fine since I can look at it directly but in a car, forget it. I guess the backlight has to be dim in order to preserve the battery since the Colorado has some serious processing power which will use a lot of batteries up fast. I was able to get 10 hours on a set of enelope rechargeables. As long as you have at least 3-4 sets of rechargeable batteries, this is a non-issue on the trail.
The graphics are very good as this unit has a lot of pixels. I just wish it were brighter.
I haven't taken it on a hike yet but will update this within a few weeks on how that went. So far it seems to be a great device but a bit pricy. I got it for $482 with $18 overnight shipping with NO TAX so a total of $500, not bad considering most places are selling it for the retail of $599 not including tax. Amazon is really good about that and their return policy.
UPDATE JULY 3 2008:
Have done 4 Geocaches in Northern Michigan. The Geocaches worked great. I uploaded the info for each one paperlessly and has worked great. Battery life is ok, just bring along an extra set or two. So I've decided to keep it. Pretty happy with the unit after about a month of use and several geocaches.
Nice June 1, 2008
This thing is killer. I previously had bought Garmin before and enjoyed their products. It is easy to use with the wheel and i had it downpacked in five minutes. Maybe it would be harder if i never used one before. The 3D feature is nice, it does slow down a little when i use it. I really do not have gripes about this product except the slowdown in 3D. It aquires the satelite signals well. It is well worth the price.
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