Garmin eTrex Summit HC High-Intensity Color Mapping Handheld GPS

Average Customer Rating:

List Price: $249.99

Availability:

Usually ships in 24 hours (as of 2:02 PM CT - detail)

Features:

Handheld GPS navigator with high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled 12-parallel-channel receiver

Built-in electronic compass and barometric altimeter for calculating direction and altitude

24 MB of internal memory; detailed basemap with highways, lakes, rivers, railroads, and more

256-color, sunlight-readable LCD display; 500 waypoints with names and graphic symbols

Runs for 14 hours on 2 AA batteries; measures 2.2 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches (W x H x D); 1-year warranty

Product Description

A staple among outdoor enthusiasts, Garmin's eTrex Summit HC provides peak performance in any environment, making it easy to navigate on the trail or atop the water. The unit is equipped with a high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, which locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. The advantage is clear: whether you're traipsing through thick woods or strolling near tall buildings and trees, you can count on the eTrex Summit HC to help you find your way when you need it the most. At the same time, the Summit HC's easy-to-use menu lets you create and view waypoints (up to 500), save and view 10 track logs, access setup features, and more. It even offers 24 MB of internal memory and a detailed basemap, so you can load waypoints and routes from the included MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager software and add map detail from Garmin's entire line of optional MapSource mapping products.

Besides appreciating its small size, boaters and outdoorsmen will also be happy with the Summit HC's unique button layout, with five buttons located on either side of the unit. The benefits of this design are twofold: First, the Summit HC is a breeze to operate with just one hand, and, second, with the buttons on both sides of the unit, the bulk of the front is dedicated to the 256-color, sunlight-readable TFT display. This makes it easy to distinguish map details regardless of the time of day.

The Summit HC also includes a built-in electronic compass that provides bearing information even when you're standing still, along with a barometric altimeter that tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. You can even use the altimeter to plot barometric pressure over time, which can help you keep an eye on changing weather conditions. The Summit HC's basemap, meanwhile, contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads, and coastlines--in short, a host of helpful details for your outdoor adventures.

Other features include an IPX7 waterproof housing, a built-in patch antenna, a TrackBack feature that lets you reverse your track and navigate back to your starting point, a USB interface, a hunt/fish calendar, and a geocaching mode. The Summit HC, which runs for up to 14 hours on a pair of AA batteries (not included), measures 2.2 by 4.2 by 1.2 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box
eTrex Summit HC, basemap, MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager software, USB cable, wrist strap, quick start guide, user's manual.

Spotlight Customer Reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great Handheld GPS
Comment: I purchased this GPS for hiking. The GPS quickly aquires satelites (Much more quickly than my antiquated Garmin III Plus). The Barometric altitude feature is great for anyone interested in hiking in the high country. Very Accurate! The electronic compass is a nice feature as well. Over all a great product from one of the leaders in GPSr.

Customer Rating:

Summary:

Etrex summit heaven

Comment:

I am a mountain biker and suffered with having to make frequent stops to get a map out of my back pack and then spend a few minutes working out where i was........painful! The etrex became choice number one because of price mainly, i was not too sure how it would work on the trail but other reviews seemed favourable. Linked up to some decent software it performs like a dream, one minor problem is spending too much time "Heads in" looking at it to find out where on the planet you are, not ideal on a bike!! When loaded with a route it is dead easy, the compass page gives you a big red arrow to point to your direction of travel, and you get an audible beep when approaching a change of direction. Plusses are price, functionality, connectivity, battery life and ease of use even for a biff like me. Minus point is the fact that you get a bit engrossed in it when hurtling downhill!!!!!!

Customer Rating:

Summary:

Garmin eTrex Summit HC Hand Held Receiver with Built in GPS Patch Antenna

Comment:

Product Hardware: 9/10
User Interface : 9/10
Scale-ability : 7/10 (No Memory card Slot)
Precision : 6-11 mts in normal conditions.
Supplied Software and MAP: 9.5/10
Overall : Justifies the cost paid.

Other Advantages:
Power Supply: The best part is that it is powered by 2 AA cells which can be obtained anywhere. We can use chargeable cells.

Electronic Compass: Though does not function well, when unit is stationary, but extreamy helpful. You don't have to carry a compass.

Altimeter: Very good feature. I found it pretty accurate.

Final Reccomendation: Go for a slight higher range model which has SD card slot. For daily users, this model is more than sufficient.

Customer Rating:

Summary:

Decent, but Expected More

Comment:

I bought this unit for use on hikes, bike rides, and other similar outdoor activities. I've had it for a few months now, and overall, I'm only somewhat satisfied. Here's a list of pros and cons that have stuck with me so far:

Pros:
-easy to read/see color screen (even in bright sunlight)
-highly customizable screens (types and amount of data shown on each screen)
-fairly easy to learn and operate
-many features, including barometric altimeter and electronic compass

Now, the cons to this product may not be specific to this unit. It may be more a function of the limitations of GPS:

-inaccurate (sometimes highly) "tracking" of horizontal position or trail actually traveled (I've compared to trail maps and Google Earth visible trails, and some of my tracks are inexplicably way off)
-inaccurate barometric altimeter (sometimes hundreds of feet off. I've turned it on, and had elevation readings of -200 feet!!) which must be constantly calibrated. Also, if you calibrate at the bottom of a climb, by the time you reach the summit, it may be over 100' off.
-very inaccurate odometer data, and inconsistencies in the data. For example, I recently hiked Half Dome, which is 4800' vertical gain...this unit only registered 1500' total ascent, but the begin elevation and end elevation shown were well over 1500' different. Also, on the same Half Dome hike, the odometer read 5 miles hiked, but the track total registered a more accurate 8.3 miles.
-very "stiff" buttons.

Again, the inaccuracy may be a function of the limitations of GPS, but the odometer inaccuracies in terms of total distance, total ascent, descent, etc. was disppointing. Perhaps Garmin needs to come up with another way of calculating these values. I think a lot of these values are calculated using current horizontal and vertical velocity, which may be inaccurate at any given moment. With inconsistencies at any given moment, it is difficult for the unit to calculate the actual horizontal and vertical distance traveled.

In any case, overall, I would recommend this product for simple trail and waypoint marking. But it should be understood you will only get "general" information, and not anything resembling very accurate data.