I like this unit. I was using a Garmin GPSMap 60CSX (now my backup) and this unit aquires much faster and is more accurate. With the ability to use larger Micro SDCards, I grabbed many free maps online, made some of my own, and purchased the Topo 24k from Garmin. It’s small, light, and last almost 24 hours on battery for me. I bought the backpack attachment, but also printed a couple of clip accessories I found on Thingiverse. I’m happy!! Also, it is rated IPX7 which seems to be defined as:

IPX-7 Waterproof Standard
Puddle, stream, beer cooler and splash rated – Protected against water immersion – Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter.

I rate this unit five stars because to me it has a very limited niche and fulfills that niche well. To me this is a hiking, biking, and geocaching compact lightweight unit. Some compromises have been made to keep it compact and lightweight.

It’s very compact, it feels extremely solid and the screen is quite nice. The reception and accuracy are significantly better than the Garmin GPSMap 60Csx with Sirfstar III. This unit likes to be held with the screen up and not vertically, however it is less sensitive to orientation then the 60Csx, which liked to be held vertically with the antenna pointed toward the sky. With GLONASS and WAAS on it very quickly finds my position. I assume these features consume more battery life, and they do make the unit refresh at a slightly slower rate. Make sure you turn WAAS and GLONASS on if you want the fastest and most accurate position information, neither feature is on by default. I think that is a mistake on Garmins part, people pick the unit up and don’t realize how accurate it can be.

I personally didn’t find the unit very cumbersome to navigate through. I love that they kept the customizable data points on most of the screens. Setting a course or waypoints is somewhat difficult, navigating with the joystick nub on a map is slightly awkward. I don’t usually make many changes to my route away from the computer however, just minor ones. If you do find yourself often making new routes in the field then this is a unit you should stay away from if they are going to be anything more than four or five waypoints.

The manual is pretty basic. It has some omissions of features and doesn’t have much in the way of pictures. The basic menu and feature set is very similar to the 60Csx and I had figured it out pretty quickly without the manual in about two hours of casual fiddling.

The touch screen etrex units where announced right after I bought this unit, and they look pretty tempting. I however am going to stick with this unit. I have three reasons for doing that: I don’t feel that I need a touch screen to do what I need to do, like I said however if you are doing a lot of route planning on the unit you may like that better. I prefer the longer battery life, the 30x is supposed to get around 25 hours, it’s counterpart the etrex 35 only gets 16 on a pair of AA’s. The price of the touch screen versions are slightly higher.

Bought this and the topo maps for NA parks. I used this on a 1 week solo hike across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the trail I was on North Country Trail was on there for my entire 140 miles. It was nice to open it up and see distances to my way points because I could calculate based on my speed and terrain when I would arrive.

I had to change the batteries 2 times which was no big deal as I have a Goal Zero solar kit on the top of my bag that I use for charging batteries and my phone directly. I use this all the time in my training to find longer routes and make waypoints where I train. Worth every penny don’t get a Magellan I had one before this and returned it because it was so basic and had I felt half the features of the Garmin. Plus the Garmin had much better support from them and the satellites were always giving me a signal even in dense forest canopy!