Garmin Vista HCx – GPS Review
Price: £229 – WITH FREE DELIVERY
Available from: Maplin
Small and light, the HCx is designed for trail, hiking, geocaching, and biking, and also doubles as a basic in-car sat nav with Garmin’s CityNavigator maps. The unit sports a colour screen, a power/backlight key, a page key, map zoom in and out keys, the find key and the joystick key.
There is a card slot – card not provided – and a 1GB micro SD card should provide plenty of room for all your maps. Included is a USB cable for computer use and MapSource Trip and Waypoint manager, which allows you to connect the HCx to a computer and manage your waypoints, routes and tracks. Useful extra features are an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter. The unit is not Mac-compatible but is WAAS/EGNOS-enabled and supports most software, including Memory-Map.
Features:
Waterproof casing to withstand the elements or an accidental dunk in water
Crisp 256-colour, sunlight-readable display makes it easy to distinguish map details plus, it looks fantastic!
Fast USB computer connection so you can transfer waypoints and other data to your computer
Barometric altimeter, electronic compass, microSD™ card slot and automatic routing for wherever adventure takes you
High-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver
Technical Specifications:
Unit dimensions: 10.7(w) x 5.6(h) x 3(d) cm
(4.2 x 2.2 x 1.2 inches)
Display size: 3.3(w) x 4.3(h) cm
(1.3 x 1.7 inches)
Display resolution: 176 x 220 pixels
Display type: 256 level color TFT
Weight: 5.5oz (156g) with batteries
Battery: 2 x AA batteries (sold seperately)
Battery life: 25 hours
Waterproof: Yes (IPX7 standard)
Floats: No
High-sensitivity receiver: Yes
Interface: USB
Basemap: Yes, Atlantic basemap included (see www.garmin.com for coverage details)
Preloaded maps: No
Ability to add maps: Yes
Built-in memory: No
Accepts data cards: Yes, microSD™ card (sold seperately)
Automatic routing (turn by turn routing on roads): Yes
Electronic compass: Yes
Barometric altimeter: Yes
Geocaching-friendly: Yes
Outdoor GPS games: Yes
Hunt/fish calendar: Yes
Sun and moon information: Yes
Tide tables: No
Area calculation: Yes
Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest): Yes
Unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar units): No
Picture viewer: No
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