Handheld GPS Item ID: #433Garmin Oregon 450 Handheld GPS NavigatorProduct Information:
Item DescriptionOregon 450 World Wide GPS Item Reviews5 Responses to “Garmin Oregon 450 Handheld GPS Navigator” |
TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
WAS 
Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator 299.99 
TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Bundle with Case
WAS 
TomTom XL 330 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
WAS 
Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic 219.99 
TomTom GO 730 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
WAS 
TomTom ONE 130-S 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Box Version)
WAS |
Bookmark This Page 
Email A Friend 
The Oregon 450, as well as the 550, has important software problems: The trip odometer readings are about 15% less than the real distance. The stopped time shows absolutely wrong values, sometimes the stoping time is longer than the total trip time!
It seems incredible that Garmin delivers such expensive products with bugs like these, while older units as the GPSMAP60CS(X) performed well. Most e-mails about the problem are not answered.
This was my 4th Garmin unit. I use the primarily for geocaching. Amazon had it for a fair price and I received it much faster than I expected. After learning what did what it became second nature.It so far seems to have very good accuracy. I was really excited for the feature of it holding 5000 caches. I will recommend this.
I purchased this to replace my failing eTrex. I have been watching the Oregon since the 300/400 series. Took a chance that the display on the 450 would not be as bad as many have said. Must say that the display is acceptable in all lighting conditions. Could be brighter in clear sun but is by no means unreadable. In fact in direct sunlight it is very good. Everything about this GPS is brilliant. Highly recommend. I have been using it for several weeks with zero problems and nothing but satisfaction. The compass is spot on…I have three very expensive compasses to compare against.
As of May 6, 2010 I have had and used this product extensively for about six weeks. The software on the unit has been updated to the latest which is version 3.40. I do a lot of cross-country driving and I go off road several times a week especially in remote locations with no trails.
For those that do not wish to read the rest of this review let me just say that THE OREGON IS AWESOME and I recommend it to anyone for both On-Road and Off-Road.
Runs on AA batteries which is a godsend when traveling as you can purchase them anywhere around the world. You can also utilize rechargeable batteries. Keep in mind the unit will not recharge batteries but you can make your unit run off of external power conserving your batteries. You can utilize any charger with a USB connection to do this. You must however have the unit set up to Garmin Spanner in Setup>System>Interface setting configured, otherwise the unit will go into USB mass storage mode and you will not be able to use the GPS.
This unit will support navigating to geo-tag photographs. This technology is becoming more prevalent as more and more digital cameras are now geo-tagging their photographs. Not to mention Google has a ton of geo-tagged photographs that one can download. Now if you ever find a photograph you like that is geo-tagged all you have to do is click on the picture in your Oregon and it will take you directly to the spot where the picture was taken.
The size of the Oregon is amazing and it will fit into a pocket quite easily and comfortably which may not be an issue when you’re outdoors and have a pack but when you are walking the city streets it is a huge advantage over the Garmin 60csx.
Let me just say I have owned the Garmin 60csx as well and I will make some important comparisons to that unit that are relevant for everyday use. Please note that the Garmin 60csx is also a phenomenal GPS and this review is not meant to discredit the unit in anyway.
Let’s get to the point of accuracy. Plain and simple the Oregon is not as accurate as the 60csx. Having said that it is plenty accurate. In most situations I will get around 13 feet of accuracy on the road on the Oregon. The 60csx in a similar environment will get about 9 feet of accuracy. For driving it is not that big of a deal. For outdoor use in most situations it makes no difference. This unit will lock on to satellites indoors in most structures just like the 60csx.
As far as locking onto a signal I never have problems with the Oregon. The first time out of the box took maybe 2 minutes for it to lock on. Ever since then it takes less than 2 seconds even when I have a few days that goes by without using the unit which is not often since I love my Oregon.
Addressing the screen. As far as brightness goes, again the 60csx is definitely brighter in direct sunlight. In other environments you really cannot tell the difference. What most people don’t realize is that the Oregon screen has a much higher resolution then the 60csx which is a lot more crucial for reading topographical maps and for general navigation. It is because of this higher resolution screen that you have less brightness associated with the Oregon.
The brightness in direct sunlight is not an issue for me with the Oregon as a matter of fact I turn the brightness down to zero and the display can be read perfectly well in direct sunlight (you will have to play with the angles in which you view the device more so than with the 60csx). The capability of having a touch screen is a huge advantage over the 60csx in my opinion. The one thing that the Oregon doesn’t have is a dedicated Mark Waypoint button that I miss from my 60csx, this is a huge feature missing from the Oregon.
The actual software is pretty good on the Oregon however I wish it would have used some of the neat features they developed for the 60csx. Having said that the software and the trip computer are for the most part completely customizable. There are too many to get into in this short of a review but there is plenty of information comparing the two software versions on the Internet.
The Oregon does have profiles which can be set and this is very useful not only for setting up the GPS for different environments such as Off-Road and On-Road navigation but also for the preferences of different users.
To anyone interested in how this unit performs in the car the answer is simple, GREAT. I have no issues for using the Oregon to navigate the roadways anywhere I go. Although the Oregon does not speak the street names it will give an audio beep for upcoming important notifications. You can have custom POI. You can have proximity alerts.
There are routable maps available which means the unit will notify you when you need to make turns and on what side your destination is located on. You can send addresses from Google maps directly to the unit with the Garmin plug-in installed.
Off-Road this thing is AMAZING. In a lot of the aspects I liked it a lot more than the 60csx. I have had no issues with the unit off road. I will not comment more on Off-Road use as there are a lot of other positive reviews addressing the Off-Road capabilities of this unit.
The 3-axis Compass is AMAZING. It works phenomenally well and is extremely useful. One thing that I love is that you can actually insert it into the trip computer which for me works a lot better than the dedicated compass screen as you can see a lot more useful information along with the Compass.
This unit is marine capable but I have not tested the unit out on the open water.
For the most part the Altimeter on the Oregon is completely useless.
I am an experienced Garmin user, so it was not surprisingly for me some problems with readability of the screen. I knew what I bought. Overall it is a wonderful navigator, the elder brother of Dakota series.
What was not so good – it was a strange set of pre-defined profiles, usually they came all in English like Recreational, Automotive, Marine etc. This time the profiles were named different unknown languages and I had to delete them all, except Recreational. Sure, this can be done easily, but it is slightly strange to have this situation on the navigator ordered in the United States.