User Review: Garmin eTrex Legend

Garmin eTrex Legend
Above: The current eTrex Legend, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed August 28, 2005 by Mlyvers

Rating:

I have litteraly trusted this product with my life. I carried it for almost a year and a half through Operation Iraqi Freedom. As a SGT and a team leader I have trusted this GPS unit to get me through and bring myself and my men back from the front lines. It has been used to mark everything from grid quardinants for medical evacuations to sites of IED's and unexploded ordinance.

The ability to hold maps was great, we downloaded the mapset for the Middle East into every one of our Legends. Out of a company of 180 men a good half of us or more have this GPS unit, the other half has another in the eTrex line.

My only compaint about this unit is the lack of a digital compass. It's a pain to use the compass when you are not moving because the compass works off a sat. signal. You must move around to find the direction. But that's no big deal because if you step off on a trip without a compass and map as a backup you are wrong. As long as you remember that a GPS is nothing but a tool to supliment a map and compass and not a substitute for Land Navigation skills you will enjoy this product.

My only other recommendation is to not get the carrying case because the plastic coverscreen has lots of glare and makes the screen unreadable. My solution was to take the plastic static clean sheets used to protect Palm Pilot screens and cut them to fit the Legend's screen. The battery will last a good 8 hours of being locked on a signal but I usually cut it off if I know i will not need it for a while.

I hope this might be of some help to you.

SGT. Lyvers
U.S. Army