Editorial Review:

Product Description:
The Garmin Colorado 400t is rugged with a high-sensitivity receiver to offers innovative features such as a new Rock 'n Roller wheel for one hand operation as well as the ability to exchange waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly between units. In addition, you can customize your Colorado with five different user profiles: automotive, marine, recreation, fitness or geocache. The SD card slot on the bottom of the unit makes it simple to load optional maps for different types of adventures. The Colorado has a rugged, metal-look and a sleek, slim profile. The Colorado's detailed mapping and high-resolution color display enhance any outdoor adventure, whether on land or water. Compatible with heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor (GSC 10) Supports Geoching.com GPX files for complete cache descriptions and hints User configurable profiles - automotive, marine, recreation, fitness, and geocache Display Size - Height 2.55 x Width 1.53 Display Resolution - Width 240 x Height 400 pixels Battery type - 2 AA Alkaline or NiMH batteries Unit Dimensions - Width 2.4 x Height 5.5 x Depth 1.4 Unit Weight - 7.3 ounces with batteries

Amazon.com Product Description--January 21, 2008:
This rugged, advanced handheld is packed with detailed topographic maps for all your hiking adventures not to mention 3-D map view, a high-sensitivity receiver, barometric altimeter, electronic compass, SD card slot, picture viewer and color display. Exchange tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches wirelessly between similar units. Slim, lightweight and waterproof, Colorado is the perfect companion for all your outdoor pursuits.


Watch an interactive demo.




Share Wirelessly
With Colorado 300 you can share your waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with other Colorado users. Now you can send your favorite hike to your buddy to enjoy or the location of a cache to find. Sharing data is easy. Just select 'send' to transfer your information to other Colorado units.


Keep Your Fix
With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, Colorado 300 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 in deep woods or just near tall buildings and trees, you can count on Colorado to help you find your way when you need it the most.

Explore More
		Colorado's preloaded U.S. topographic maps, 3-D map view and a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief give you all the tools for serious climbing or hiking. Map detail includes national, state and local parks and forests, along with terrain contours, elevation information, trails, rivers, lakes and points of interest. Just in case you’re wondering how steep that hill really is, Colorado’s 3-D map view helps you visualize your surroundings — giving you a better perspective of the elevation.

Expand Your Horizons
			The Colorado also accepts SD cards, so you can use Garmin preprogrammed SD cards to add maps that serve any and all of your outdoor activities on land or water. Just take your pick from a wide selection, including street maps, topographic maps, coastal charts or inland lake data. The card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment, so you don't have to worry about getting it wet.

Rock on. Find Fun
		Colorado's innovative Rock ‘n Roller input wheel for easy one-handed operation and intuitive screen interface make it as easy to navigate the device as the outdoors. Customize Colorado's interface based on your favorite activity. Even show off photos of your excursions with its picture viewer.

Experience Paperless Geocaching
	Colorado supports Geocaching.com GPX files for downloading geocaches and detail straight to your unit. You'll have at-a-glance cache descriptions and details to aid in your search.

Get Your Bearings
		Colorado has a built-in electronic compass that provides bearing information even while you're standing still. Its barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. View elevation data before you begin your ascent or descent. You can even use the altimeter to plot barometric pressure over time, which can help you keep an eye on changing weather conditions.

Interactive Demo

Accessories:
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Accessories:

• Energizer NH15BP-4 ACCU 2500mAh Rechargeable AA Batteries (Four-pack)
• Energizer E91BP-4 AA Batteries(4-Pack)
• Energizer® "AA" Alkaline Batteries "AA" 12-pack
• Garmin Carrying Case for eTrex and Summit (010-10314-00)
• Garmin PC Interface Cable and Vehicle DC Power Adapter for eTrex and eMap (010-10268-00)

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Related Items:
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Related Items:

• Garmin Hard Carrying Case for Colorado Handheld GPS Units
• GARMIN 010-10851-00 Auto Nav Kit
• GARMIN 010-11023-00 Bike Mount
• Garmin 2007 City Navigator NT North America Map Update for Garmin GPS Units, DVD (010-10816-00)
• Garmin MapSource Topo U.S. 2008
• see more

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Rating: - Could be better
There are several features about this unit that are very good but just as many or more that are not so good. It is very accurate and it holds the satellite signal extremely well. The color display is very good although difficult to see well in bright sunlight. The unit is very "power hungry" and this is probably why the brightness is limited. It is also why the unit is designed to power up with the display very dim. It is brighter when used in the vehicle if plugged into the power outlet using the optional adapter.

I use the unit primarily for hiking and geocaching and I really like the geocaching features especially the ability to go "paperless". I do not like the method of entering notes or coordinates into the unit. Instead of the displayed letter, number and character wheel, a virtual "keyboard" display would be much easier to use even with the same controls. A system similar to the Delorme PN-20 would be much better. Geocache files are handled differently than waypoints. One cannot delete geocache information from the unit but must connect to the computer to manage geocache files. Waypoints can be deleted individually directly from the unit without the computer.

A word of caution: the base map files and preloaded Topo files are all combined into one large file which is NOT isolated or protected and can be deleted accidentally very easily. Be very careful!

Road routing is excellent with the optional City Navigator software.

One does not have an option for sorting geocaches or waypoints; default is by distance. If one knows the name or GC code, a search can be done fairly easily. It would be nice to have the option to sort either alphabetically or by distance.

Although the Garmin Colorado is quite functional, it is far from the unit I expected. If I could return it now, I would do so. Then I would buy the Delorme PN-40 which will be available later this month.

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Rating: - Garmin Colorado 400t GPS
This is an excellent GPS. I use it exclusively for hiking even though it can be used for car navigation. It is easy to use and the "Rock n Roll" control button enables all controls with just one hand (somewhat similar to the iPod). Even when stored in a case on my back pack belt it receives satellite signals clearly. It has a built in compass, records stop time and average hiking speed, and can record hundreds of waypoints. I also like the route planner feature. The only downside is that it "eats" regular alkaline batteries. I purchased rechargeable batteries (make sure the amperage meets the standard recommended by Garmin) for short hikes (less than 5 hours). For long hikes, I recommend Lithium batteries. Even though not rechargeable they last about 7 times longer than regular batteries ensuring that the GPS will continue to operate without battery changes during extended treks. It comes with a 1:100,000 Topo map of the U.S. which is pretty good; however, I bought a 1:24,000 Topo of California/Nevada which provides much more detail and is loaded on the GPS via a flash memory card. This is the first GPS I have ever had and now that I have used it on several hikes in California, I will never be without it in the field.

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Rating: - Love the Colorado 400t
I really like this thing a lot. It had some issues at first, battery life being the main one, but I started using the quick charging Energizers and have had no problems since. Another problem is with it shutting down intermittently when the batteries become weak (this is my notice to change the batteries), it does tell you when the batteries are weak and it only shuts down occasionally. I have recently downloaded a firmware update for it which has fixed a lot of these things.

I especially like the Geocache features it comes with. I can log my visit to a cache and it now lets me put comments in for the individual caches. That is a great feature!

I highly recommend this unit for all uses. I have the City Navigator NT 2008 on it as well and this thing will take me anywhere I want to go. I love taking it hiking, fishing, ATVing, on the road, etc. It is very versatile.

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Rating: - The best all around gps!
Very easy to figure out to use. I think this gps is the best all around gps for all conditions, on the road and off the road. If you just want a driving gps, get a Tomtom, for trails and the road this is the ticket! Very good for Iraq! Get the SD card fot Iraqi streets when you get to Iraq. They are available there, not here.

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Rating: - Colorado 400t
I was concerned with the accuracy issue of this GPSr. I emailed Garmin customer service with my concerns and they assured me that it would not be a problem. I basically wanted some sort of correspondence for proof just in case their was an issue. Then the price became an issue. I tried to order the unit through an online camera shop for a price around 400.00 and found out that what they were selling me was a Japanese (no english installed) no warranty, no topo maps installed unit. How can it be a 400T without Topo maps? Anyway, I went to amazon for a higher price but a more comfortable transaction.

This product is pricey, but I believe that it is well priced for what you get. It hasn't disappointed me yet as far as the accuracy goes. Base maps are preloaded but streetmaps are not. These are separate and will run around 100.00. I went with the SD card street maps and glad I did. This leaves the memory free for geocaches. I was able to load 400 caches along a route and made an insignificant dent in the 256MB memory. Map cards are a no hassle PNP operation. I have been told by Garmin Cust. service, that if you want to have the same maps on your PC Mapsource software (which comes with the unit) as your gps, then you should buy the DVD mapset. With this configuration you can upload the wanted maps onto the unit itself or a seperate memory card. The WAAS works wonders in dense foliage. The external antenna is a must if you are using in the car. Screen protection is a must if you aren't storing it in a case. Screen brightness is not as bad as I was expecting. I usually don't have to turn on the backlight unless It is dark of course or if I am in the shade. Only problem with screen brightness is that you have to reset it after every reboot, as it won't store the setting in memory. Shaded relief maps are nice to have and the topo features are great to have as well. If it wasn't for battery consumption I would have gave it a higher rating.
This unit will go through batteries very fast. For lightweight backpacking you might want to buy lithium batteries, a whole lot of them. Do consider buying rechargeable batteries and the car charger with alkaline spares as I have already found myself hunting down batteries instead of caches. Easy .GPX file transfer with www.geocaching.com and a windows machine but not a linux machine that I know of.

Overall, this is a must for a geocacher
After nearly ten years of service my eTrex can finally take a rest.
One last thing. Phone calls to Garmin customer service are not fun. Expect a 30min wait time before you get to talk to anyone. I am rating their product not their customer service.