Editorial Review

Garmin's eTrex Vista GPS receiver is smaller than its popular eMaps, but far more powerful. The Vista offers more memory, more features, and more convenience than any other GPS hardware in this price range.

Don't be fooled by the product's small screen. Although smaller than the display used in products like the eMap, it has a higher resolution, letting it show more information more crisply. Small text can be difficult to read from a distance, but there are "big number" options available to make important data like your speed easy to read.

It's this configurability that makes the eTrex Vista so special.

	 
Map page (shown with optional MapSource topo detail).

You can easily set it up to suit your needs, regardless of the situation. Menu choices are highlighted and confirmed with a small joystick near the top of the unit, providing an elegant interface for navigating a formidable amount of options. Our only complaint is that the joystick used to access all the product's features is offset to the left, making it nearly impossible to control using only your right hand. When the joystick is held in your left hand, however, every control is within easy reach of your left thumb, freeing your right hand to hold a flashlight, walking stick, lantern, or anything else.

This GPS unit's diminutive size and weight, not to mention its rugged design, make it an ideal hiking companion. It's waterproof in up to 3 feet of water for 30 minutes and is generously coated with shock-absorbing rubber. The barometric altimeter keeps a historical record of your ascents and descents, graphing elevation changes so you can easily track your progress.

	 
Elevation page

The ability to store waypoints, points of interest, routes, and other information means you can blaze your own trail and always find your way back to camp.

Best of all, 24 MB of internal memory makes it possible to store an enormous amount of data from Garmin's optional MapSource CDs, turning the eTrex Vista into an interactive road atlas. The memory isn't expandable, but 24 MB is enough to store street-level data for entire states in some cases.

A serial cable is included for transferring the maps from your PC to the GPS unit, but it's terribly slow. A USB connector, sold separately, transfers data in a fraction of the time.

The eTrex Vista was very accurate in testing, especially in a car on the open road. Accuracy diminished somewhat when the device was used in heavy tree cover or a dense urban area, but not enough that you're ever going to get lost or miss an exit. Used side-by-side with an eMap, the eTrex Vista kept up in update speed while displaying even more information on the moving map than the eMap did, cementing its position as perhaps the best all-around handheld GPS unit money can buy. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Small and light without sacrificing features
• 24 MB of integrated memory stores reams of detailed maps
• High-resolution screen displays sharp text legible even at extremely small sizes

Cons:

• Can't be used one-handed when held in the right hand
• Smaller display is hard to read from a distance, as when the device is placed on a dashboard

Features

• 12 Channel all-in-view tracking
• Compatible with most Bluetooth devices ¿ any with Serial Port Profile
• Small, sleek, and lightweight design easily fits in your hand
• Rechargeable embedded lithium-ion battery lasts for 6 hours of use

Asin: B00007JO00
Sales Rank: 30006
Subjects:  1. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA, Electronic Organizer)    2. Pocket PC (PCs)    3. Casio    4. Handheld (Hand Held)    5. Hewlett-Packard (Hewlett, Packard, HP)    6. Compaq   

Features

• Large 5 line by 30 character display
• Search for phrases; idiom/example sentence search
• Displays keyword, part of speech, English or Japanese equivalent, stress and accent marks, example sentences and idioms
• English to Japanese/Japanese to English dictionary (Romanized)
• Integrated thesaurus and spell checker

Asin: B00005QEYV
Sales Rank: 11250
Subjects:  1. Electronic Foreign Language Dictionaries (Translators)   

Features

• Provides you with instant access to 5000000 total translations to and from Spanish and English!

Asin: B00006IFTK
Sales Rank: 3448
Subjects:  1. Pocket Information Managers (PIM)    2. Electronic English Dictionaries    3. Electronic Foreign Language Dictionaries (Translators)   

Features

• Portable Power Plant with 16,000 mAh Storage
• Runs laptops, TVs, air pumps and cell phones
• Household AC & Vehicle DC Charge Cords Included
• Recharge in your house, car or using the Brunton Solaris
• Laptop not included

Asin: B000093IL3
Sales Rank: 19452