Overview
There
has been a lot of buzz since word got out about Garmin's new handheld
series the: Colorado. The Colorado was officially announced on
January 4, 2008 by Garmin and was debuted at the CES show in Las Vegas
the next week. I
was surprised to see one at REI on January 19th and paid full retail
price at $599 to get one of the first ones. (REI had an exclusive
deal with Garmin to sell the 400t
until February 11th) It is now available from online dealers
which are currently selling the Colorado at around $530.
The Colorado 300 is the same unit, but without the preloaded TOPO
maps. You can load Garmin's TOPO 2008 software into the 300,
although you are limited to the amount of map segments you can load.
(The exact number has not been released) After a month
of use, here are some initial thoughts about Garmin's
new handheld. My only goal here is to help answer the
questions I have had about the Colorado before picking one up. I
probably won't answer them all, but for those of you interested about
the
Colorado, here you go:
Overall, I am excited about the Colorado and believe it has some
real potential. I like the size and look of the Colorado. It is in between the
60CSx and the VistaHCx in physical size, yet it has a bigger screen.
It looks like a blackberry or cell phone and does not look out of place with other handheld electronic devices.
The TOPO maps with the terrain
shading capability, are incredible in my opinion.
Take a look at three images of varying zoom levels.
Like other new Garmin products I have
had in the
past, there are issues which usually after a few months are all fixed
through software updates. I had expected the Colorado would pick
up where the great features stopped in the 60CSx, and just add to
it, but some critical options in my opinion are missing in the
Colorado.
While there are similiarities to the 60CSx and VistaHCx, I have to
keep telling myself it is an entirely different unit. Garmin
tells me that they will be issuing new software updates on average
every two weeks for the next few months for the Colorado. So far
we have only seen one, which did fix some of the most serious issues
that I dealt with for the first few days I had my Colorado. For
these
reasons, I would describe the Colorado as a work in progress,
which I think in the end will become the ultimate handheld GPS
available. If you have a Colorado or plan to get one, the first
thing you should do is make sure you run the WebUpdater
available from
garmin.com to make sure your Colorado has the latest software,
which will eliminate many issues your unit likely shipped with.
The Colorado behaves like the
newer
Garmin automotive units, such as the nuvi, when you connect it to a
computer. It automatically switches into Mass Storage Device mode.
You can still send maps, waypoints, tracks, and routes from
MapSource.
The basic Trip and Waypoint software is included in the
package. I
should note that while the Colorado 400t is preloaded with US TOPO
2008, no software disk for TOPO 2008 is included in the box.
I
will
say the terrain shading TOPO maps look spectacular
on the screen. It really makes a huge difference, from the
traditional flat view, especially in mountain terrain.
I have also loaded in CityNavigator NT maps and one nice
feature is
the ability to select both CityNavigator and TOPO 2008 at the same
time. What it does is give you the street (CityNav) maps but
also gives you the terrain shading (from the TOPO) at the same time.
See below for an example.
My biggest frustration is the
lack of ability to pan the map around and then have data such as
lat/long, altitude, distance, etc. visible on the screen. You can
pan
the map and hit enter for that data, but you cannot pan the map, when selecting a waypoint or POI. You
have to scroll
it from where ever you are to where you want to see, which is very time
consuming if it is far away from your current location.
Pleasant Surprises
1. I was pleasantly surprised with the Rock and Roller control
function. From the photos, it looked awkward to me, however I
really like it. You really can operate the Colorado with just one
hand and even though I am right handed, it is easy to use with my left
hand too. The user interface is different, but has similarities
to the 60CSx and VistaHCx series, so it is easy to figure your way
around after a few minutes. Here are two screen examples.
2. From my initial use, the high sensitive receiver (which is
Garmin made and not a Sirfstar) seems to be
very effective. While there were some problems with the new
VistaHCx series with the Garmin made high sensitive receiver chip, the
so called odometer problem of failing to record
speeds below 2.0 miles per hour, the Colorado seems to work just fine.
Good reception both outside and inside. There are a couple
of bugs involving the need to AutoLocate the receiver after moving some
distance with the unit off, or having the unit fail to get a satellite
lock. Garmin Tech Support claims they are aware of these issues
and the engineers are working on a fix. The temporary fix I have
found is to turn it off and back on again.
3. When in Automotive mode, the street and highway maps while
driving, have that 3-D style look similar to a Garmin nuvi or
StreetPilot automotive unit. I had not expected this, but it
looks good. It is a higher angle than the StreetPilots and Nuvi,
but much better than the 2-D flat look. See below for example
along with active route screens.
4. While I have lost interest in Geocaching the last couple of
years, the Colorado has renewed my interest. The Geocaching mode
is very helpful if you are a premium member of Geocaching.com,
because
you can get the cache information, including the last few logs and the
hint automatically loaded
into to your Colorado. If you don't subscribe, you still get
difficulty and terrain information. It is also sorted by the
actual cache
name, instead of the waypoint name, ie: "GC8Y90P" style name, although
you can sort it that way and have it listed if you want. The
geocaches are stored separately from your waypoints, which keeps
them from cluttering your waypoints, something I like as well.
The
ability to be able to send or receive a waypoint or track wirelessley in
the field between two Colorado's, is a great feature whether you are
caching
with friends or meet new friends out on the trail. The Whereigo
feature is intriguing and I look forward to trying it out. I
think the Geocaching mode needs a little more work through a software
update, but it seems to be heading in the right direction. A
couple of problems with the geocaching mode which is obvious to me is
that you can't mark a geocache as found, like in the other Garmin
units and you can't see geocaches on the map. While I like not
having the screen filled with geocaches, I would like the option of
seeing them on the map while in the Geocaching profile and certainly
the ability to mark it as found. And you can't delete geocaches
in the
unit. However it seems you can hook it up to the computer and
delete the specific geocache files through USB mode. This works
okay, but the geocaches are mixed in the folder with saved tracks, so
you have to be careful what you are deleting. When you register
your Colorado at garmin.com, you are eligible for a 30- free premium
membership to geocaching.com. The following images show
geocaching and the far right is a WhereIgo image.
Cache Description, with recent logs
You can see the cache
hint
An image from
WhereIgo feature
5. In the trip computer you can change one of the data fields to
'Air
Temperature.' This is a nice feature of having a built in
thermometer, however if you are holding it in your hand, it will
dramatically raise the reading. If you carry it on your
carabineer, then it is more in the ball park, but my experience so far
has been that the thermometer is not exactly accurate.
6. I was able to load in some digital pictures and use the
Colorado as a picture viewer. You can zoom in and pan the photo
around to fit the screen how you want it. Overall the photos do
look pretty good. This is a shot of my old Garmin V, and the TOPO
look is the background image while in Recreational Mode, however you
can customize between several background images.
7. While it can take a few seconds to draw maps, because of all
of the map detail, I was initially worried the processor was too slow. However,
I am now of the opinion it is very fast as I have calculated routes in
the automotive mode with City Navigator maps. An average route of
one hour is calculated in one second! The Colorado
calculates auto routes faster than any other Garmin I have ever seen. And it recalcuates routes, instantly.
8. The Colorado supports NMEA capability. I had not expected this at all, as it is not listed in the specs. But
there is absolutely no information how
this works and how you can interface it for marine or APRS ham radio
use. Also there is a bug involving the USB to serial cable which
Garmin sells. If your batteries are not full strength, even with
three bars showing, the unit shuts down when you plug in the Garmin
cable. Apparently there is an issue involving the unit thinking
the cable should power the unit and I have spoken to Garmin Tech
Support about this. I have successfully got the NMEA to work with
APRS for amateur radio. What I did was buy Garmin's USB to serial
cable, and a serial cable to mini plug from Blue Hills Innovations
online store. (You have to use a null modem adapter to connect
the two cables) The Colorado sent the location data to the radio
and also received waypoints from the radio. Again the battery issue
with this, means you are constantly changing batteries and hopefully
Garmin can work this problem out.
Unwelcome Surprises
1. The Colorado goes
through batteries
way too fast. I put in a new set of batteries every day
for first two weeks, although there was extensive backlight use.
This seems to be a hardware issue and means changing batteries,
whether they are alkaline, NIMH or Lithium on regular basis.
While the Colorado is
connected to a computer it automatically goes into USB mode and
turns off when you disconnect it. If
you want to use external power, as of right now, you have to buy
the cables listed as official accessories and sold by Garmin.
Even older Garmin USB power cables I have that work with the
60CSx and Vista HCx won't work with the Colorado, because they put the unit into USB mode. The cable that
will work is a new one that comes with the nuvi 200 and other newer
nuvi units. I did go for the Colorado auto
kit which includes the cable and a suction cup mount, which from my experience works very well.
Backlight adjust screen indicating battery strength and GPS signal. Backlight is adjusted using the Rock and Roller wheel.
2. The Colorado's screen is very dark if you are not holding it
in the sunlight and requires the backlight on to use it indoors or
outside when it is cloudy. This seems to be the result of the
higher resolution screen. When the batteries get below half capacity, the backlight
seems to dim dramatically, even if you have it turned on full. The backlight level has to be set each time.
3. I like the fact there are five different user profiles,
including Recreational, Geocaching, Automotive, Marine and Fitness.
However you have to Setup your preferences in each profile,
including common settings such as Time zone and others which
you should be able to adjust just once for all profiles.
4. The ability to save a track to the data card, like in the
60CSx is a favorite feature of mine, primarily it helps when geocoding
digital photos. It is a much different system in
the Colorado, where it appears that when you
archive tracks, it saves them as a file. Apparently the unit will
automatically archive your current tracklog when you approach 10,000
tracklog points. You can store up to 20- saved tracks. I
tried sending some older tracks to the unit and as of now, you can only
view the entire track on the screen and cannot pan the map around to
see a specific leg of the track. This is frustrating to me and I
think the track feature needs some major work.
5. The manual is too brief and would be a great 'quick guide.'
Some information is so brief that it's hard to know what the
Colorado is actually capable of. Even with my extensive use of
previous Garmin models, I have spent a lot of time guessing and
experimenting with simple items that should be documented somewhere,
even if it is online. Here is a link to garmin.com for a .pdf file of the manual.
6. The Colorado is extremely slow on startup and takes about
40-45 seconds to be ready to work. It does show the majority of
this warmup time that it is 'loading maps' and so with all of the TOPO
map segments preloaded, it appears that it takes this long to get the maps ready to go.
The Colorado does seem to be acquiring satellites during this
time however, as I usually already have a satellite fix by the time the startup mode is finished.
7. I would say I was disappointed that the Colorado is
missing some of the freedom of being able to customize it like you can with the 60CSx and Vista HCx.
Primarily involving more control over what you see on the map
page, instead of very general options.
8. The worldwide shaded relief basemap is great, for North and
South America. Even though there is shaded relief for the entire
world, I was very disappointed to see that outside of the America's,
there is no information available. For example, you can't even
see big cities like London or Paris on the map. It's is limited
to a much lower quality of shading with border lines. That is all you
can see, it does not even list the names of countries!
9. No ability to control tones. Either off or on.
This includes key tones as well as routing tones all controlled by a single tone control.
10. The 3-D view quality is not the quality I had hoped for.
It is pretty good on a wide scale, but if you try to zoom in,
the graphic look appears more like a video
game from the 1980's. (see far right image) Again I think
the terrain shading in 2-D mode looks
great! Four examples of 3-D views are below, the two on the left
with City Navigator Street maps, the two on the right show a canyon
area, the far right image is overzoomed.
11. There is no welcome message capability, to add
your name or phone number on the screen. There is also no night
time capability, to reverse the screen color when it is dark.
12. There does not appear to be any ability to average a
waypoint, something that has been standard in Garmin handhelds going
back at least to the Garmin V. Hopefully this will be added in
the future.
Other Observations
Waypoint Icons
There
are a few new icons in the Colorado, primarily several hunting related
ones, similar to what there is in the latest version of MapSource.
However the ability to use Custom waypoint symbols is not an
option, in fact the Colorado does not appear to be compatible with
Garmin's image program "xImage" meaning no custom waypoints can be
installed. I did discover that if you press and hold the right
handed 'soft' key for a few seconds, it will save the current
screen shot. You can then access this bitmap image by connecting
the Colorado to your computer and finding it in a folder called 'scrn.'
Built in Maps
The Colorado 400t
has built in maps and the version is listed as: US TOPO 2008 maps. It is a file that is about 2.7GB which is
loaded on the unit. I also loaded in National Parks 24K maps and it
is really incredible to see, especially with the shaded relief. The
higher detail maps seem to be why, which shows us the Colorado is
capable of good things.
National Parks 24K detail with shaded terrain
Routable Trail capability with National Parks 24 K
Mapping
Memory Maps
I put a 2GB SD card into
the unit and it appears to be fine with CityNavigator NT maps for all of
North America and Garmin's 24K National Parks for the west.
I also have loaded some other
Garmin
mapping programs which are all discontinued, including US Topo, Roads
and Recreation and Metroguide USA and they all seem to work just fine,
although there is no terrain shading or 3-D views available with these
legacy products.
Proximity Points
No such thing as proximity alerts in the Colorado, as far as using
Waypoints. Custom POI's do not seem to have proximity capability as of this writing.
Satellite Page
The satellite page shows the GPS generated elevation right on the
screen and updates on the screen. You do not have to select the
menu to see GPS elevation as you do in the 60CSx or VistaHCx.
Compass Page
It is similar to the 60CSx and Vista HCx. To turn the compass on
or off, you must go to Setup, then select 'heading' and switch compass
between 'auto' and 'off.' You have to hold it level for a correct
reading and if properly calibrated, the unit will indicate 'hold level'
if it is not getting a good reading.
Pressure Trend Recording
This feature involves the built in altimeter, which was present in the
60CS and VistaC and then was removed from the 60CSx and VistaCx and HCx
models. It's back in the Colorado. The alarm clock has
also returned.
Hunt/Fish and Sunrise/Sunset
Here are screen images for the hunting and fishing page and sunrise and sunset page
Summary
I have used the Colorado a considerable amount in the first few weeks I've had it and while
it certainly deserves more testing, you have my initial thoughts
about this highly anticipated unit. I am excited for it and look
forward to the spring and summer to give it a lot of use. More
importantly, I am anxious for Garmin to keep making revisions,
improvements and adjustments
to the Colorado firmware, which I expect they will do. In the meantime, we will have
to wonder why they didn't get more things right with the Colorado
in the first place, especially when they are selling it for a premium
price. Garmin has a mini site now up for the
Colorado, which is a colorful advertisement for it. You can find
a link here and the official Garmin Colorado page where you can see all of the specs is here. There
is a webpage out there compiled by those on the Groundspeak forum which
is keeping a running list (it keeps getting longer) of problems and
issues with the Colorado, that you may want to consult if you are
wondering what issues others have found. Here is a link.
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