BWCA Garmin 650T Montana Review Boundary Waters Group Forum: GPS
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      Garmin 650T Montana Review     

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Savage Voyageur
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10/25/2014 09:42AM  
I have had my Garmin 650T Montana GPS for a while now and would like to give a review. Here are some of the features.
4" dual-orientation, glove-friendly touchscreen display, it is the same size screen as my iPhone 5S, readable outside in the sunlight.
Preloaded TOPO U.S. 100K maps
5 MP autofocus camera
3-axis compass with barometric altimeter
Uses rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack or AA batteries.

I move my cards from my car Nuvi to my handheld unit so the cards are the way for me as opposed to downloads. I bought the Micro card Northern Plains USGS 24K to match the maps I use in the BWCA and in the woods. It has the contour lines drawn at 20 feet. I'm able to just tap the screen and add a campsite or waypoint when viewing a map or use the Garmin program and add a campsite or waypoint. I also bought the City Nav North America micro card to use it like a Nuvi so I can do turn by turn navigation when I travel. I just got back from Georgia and South Carolina and this was a really nice to use. This chip also had the tide charts listed in it so I could watch for high tide where we were staying. I used it when I went to Amsterdam and Rotterdam to get around and the worldwide base map included was very good, all the major roads were listed. This also has a camera built in that geotags pictures. You can take a picture of a place and then navigate to it later, nice feature, or just use it for taking pictures. I really like the touch screen. Very helpful and no more hitting the wrong buttons. The only thing I would upgrade on the screen is enlarging or reducing with 2 fingers like my iPhone does. You need to use the plus/minus arrows to do this, not a big deal. The screen setup options are endless. You can set it up to match what you are doing. That means if you are using it like a Nuvi in the car you don't need lake info, or if you are geocaching you don't need turn by turn. You just change the user profile to match what you are doing. Profiles are, Recreational, Geocashing, Automotive, Marine, Fitness, Camera, Motorcycle. Then you can add or subtract from the list to get your profile. Other features are, 3.5 gig internal memory, 2000 waypoints, lithium ion battery good for 17 hours, 22 hours with 3 AA batteries, WAAS enabled to 3 meters, calculator, alarm, stop watch, calendar, wireless transfer of data to another unit. Charging is done with a dedicated charger, or connecting it to your USB port on a laptop or car charger. I think I will also get a lake map chip and maybe a BWCA campsite portage chip. The unit costs $600.00, so on the high end of GPS units but this thing is loaded and should fit anyone's needs. If you are looking for a handheld GPS to be used on a lake or in the woods, that also can be updated to use in your car for turn by turn directions this is the one. On a 1-10 scale I would give this a 9.5 and recommend this unit to others.
 
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