Garmin Colorado 300 Bilingual Handheld GPS Unit with North American Maps

Submitted by Reviewer (not verified) on 2 March, 2008 - 02:40.

Model	010-00622-31
Producer	Garmin
Media	Electronics
Catalog	CE
Rank	36302
List Price	US$499.99

Goto Amazon.com

Reviews:

Rating 3.5/5 from 25 reviews

Garmin Colorado 300

Rating: 5/5 2010-01-02

Very easy to use (never read manual), and has long battery life. Use professionally and it gets the job done well in rugged conditions. Easy to operate with one hand. Would recommend this unit to a friend and/or buy again. Screen brightness works well for me, although sometimes I need to turn the brightness up while in shaded areas, but really not problem.

A Big Disappointment

Rating: 1/5 (1 out of 1 think this is helpful) 2009-11-27

I bought a Colorado 300 at a local chain store retailer (Best Buys) at a good price, but that's where the good news ended. I'm not into geocaching but wanted this for marking locations on trails that I use for wild mushroom harvesting, so I could return to the same spot one year later.

Despite being a really classy looking device, the 300 is a worthless piece of junk. Poor case design for access to the battery compartment - I was afraid I was going to break the unit just to get the door off, ridiculous software that is cumbersome, time consuming to set-up and operate, and the fact that while a GPS unit is supposed to help you navigate - thus making your trip or hike accurate - I found myself standing on the trail for minutes at a time trying to see where the hell I was on the map. The unit was ALWAYS off by ten's if not hundred's of feet.

The UI must have been designed by a moron. While the roller wheel seems like it will speed your inputs, it actually does the reverse. The screen brightness has to constantly be reset to the level you want each time you "wake" the unit up from standby.

The fact that these $300+ units ship with only a useless "base map" - whatever that means - is a total rip-off. Why should I have to pay $125 MORE for a map to make the damn thing perform as advertised? And from what I've read, the Garmin digital TOPO maps are inaccurate garbage.

I live in New Jersey. Every time I entered a way point or POI and then reviewed my "trip" back home on my PC using Garmin's software, ALL the points would be labeled "Philadelphia-NJ" ###. I tried for HOURS to re-label and store all of the WP/POI's and save them to the device only to find that the next time I used the device all the points now had TWO labels - my designations PLUS the Philadelphia-NJ### labels. The device map became unreadable with this clutter of too many labels.

I tried to return it to the store for a full-refund only to be told that I could only get a store credit - due to store policy on electronic product returns. So I ended up getting a E trex Legend H which is barely acceptable.

Conclusion: I will never buy anything from Best Buys again, Garmin is a third rate company overcharging for poorly designed products, Don't buy a Colorado 300 or 400..they are simply not worth your money.

If I could rate this at minus-stars, I'd give it a minus 4 star rating...it's that bad.

not as bad as the oregon but still not great

Rating: 1/5 (1 out of 1 think this is helpful) 2009-08-24

I tried the Garman Oregon with the topo maps and immediately returned it. The problem was, that unit in bright indirect light, the map was not visible. The Colorado, with the green shaded base map it came with was not much better, though better than the Topo map (less information than the Topo map). However, when I switched to the Cn North American NT map -- a detailed city map (an extra $100.00 list) and turned off the Autoroute DEM basemap I got a nice clean, visible, clear background with lines that were reasonably visible even in bright light. I am not sure it would work on a bicycle where the distance from eye to unit is greater but for walking it was OK. Also do not use alkaline cells -- the unit sucks the life out of the alkaline. Lithium cells last much longer. However, battery life is still not great. Do not use, only, this device where your life depends on it. If going into untracked areas take paper maps and lodestone style compasses. The device seems cluttered with features that add little like calendars, stopwatches, and calculators. I would have been happier if the engineers had spent more time on battery life and screen visibility. I have a hard time believing that any of the designers took the unit out for a trial on a bright day.

300

Rating: 4/5 2009-05-17

Very good for Geocaching. Update your unit as soon as you open the box and you shouldn't have any issues.

Very good product but needs some minor modification.

Rating: 4/5 2009-04-15

I purchased this GPS for the sole purpose of Geocaching and while I'm sure it will be used for hiking/biking that isn't why I got it. The unit is very easy to use one handed thanks to the control dial. It fits easily and comfortably in my hand. The battery life is good while using Energizer 2450MAH NiMH rechargeable batteries as well as Li-Ion batteries. There are a few things I would like to see changed on this unit. The battery compartment has some flaws mainly the rubber gasket around the case. The gasket had started to come unseated so I contacted customer support. they were very fast and helpful. I asked if I could re-glue the seal without voiding the warranty and was given a go ahead with that. So for the time being that problem has been solved. I also recommend using some clear non conductive silicon grease around the seal to both allow it to slide off easier and give it a bit better water resistance. Lastly the GUI is very nice but I would love to see a few more features added. I would like to be able to separate cache types within the unit and load GPX files individually. On top of that I would like to be able to see the dates that caches were found. On multi-day trips it would help when logging finds on Geocaching.com. Outside of those few issues which I consider to be fairly minor since I could easily fix most on my own I highly recommend this product.

Editorials:

Product Description

The Colorado 300 features a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief for incredibly enhanced map presentation on the unit. Optional detailed maps can also be loaded using the SD card slot or the 384 megabytes of internal memory built into the Colorado 300.

Amazon.com Product Description--January 21, 2008

Amazon.com Product Description--January 21, 2008 Packed with features, Garmin's Colorado300 includes a built-in basemap, high-sensitivity receiver, barometric altimeter, electronic compass, SD card slot, color display, picture viewer and more. Even 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 300 comes with a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief.

Expand Your Horizons 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.
Streets	Inland Lakes	Terrain	3D Terrain	Coastal

Conveniently plug in optional preloaded SD cards for all your outdoor activities on land or water. Just insert a MapSource card with detailed street maps, and Colorado provides turn-by-turn directions to your destination. Add select topographic maps to take advantage of Colorado’s 3-D map view which gives you a better perspective of your elevation. 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.