Garmin Oregon 450 Review

Garmin has been in the GPS industry for a very long time rising to fame back in the late 90s when they introduced various kinds of outdoor and marine GPS devices. Their very first GPS devices were well received by consumers that like to travel the great outdoors making them a trusted leader in bringing navigation solutions to people. GPS did not rise in popularity or demand by the mainstream until other technologies improved so manufacturers can make more responsive devices with simpler interfaces and more accurate navigation features. Garmin introduced the Garmin nuvi devices to reach out to that crowd so every car can one day have a mounted GPS for safe and quick driving. But that does not mean that Garmin is not leaving their roots behind. They are still making portable handheld devices for people that want a little bit more out of their outdoor experience. The Garmin Oregon 450 is one of Garmin's most advanced handheld GPS devices.

Garmin Oregon 450 GPS Navigator

Design

The Garmin Oregon 450 looks like a touchscreen phone or touchscreen media player in order to make sure that you can hold the unit with one hand. But since this is the kind of device that you would take in all sorts of outdoor areas, Garmin made the Oregon 450 very rugged with resistance to water, humidity, dust, dirt, and even bumps. The 3-inch touchscreen display is also sunlight readable so it can be used reliability anywhere.

Features and Performance

The Oregon 450's touchscreen interface is surprisingly responsive and far more reliable than the other budget devices. There are no complicated buttons to learn because all of the functions are shown on screen. Since it has no buttons on the front, the display can be as large as it should be so maps look better and more of the surroundings can be seen. Like the Garmin nuvi devices, the interface is friendly and the most important functions are within reach.

It features a worldwide basemap that has shaded contours which looks great and modern on the colorful display. Navigation is as easy as touching the display. Increasing the zoom level allows you to see these shaded contours and elevation levels so you can get better idea of the terrain around you.

You can plan all kinds of waypoints, routes, and tracks so you will never have to worry about getting lost. It is WAAS-enabled which makes the Oregon 450 more precise than devices without the Wide Area Augmentation System. It has HotFix Satellite Prediction like many of the other Garmin GPS devices so the satellite can effectively predict the location of the satellite for the next 3 days which increases the responsiveness significantly.

The built-in 3-axis electronic compass is tilt-compensated so you can figure out which direction you are heading while you stand still and you do not have to hold it a special way either. The built-in barometric altimeter helps detect any changes in pressure to get a better idea on your current altitude. The weather conditions can also be monitored by plotting the barometric pressure.

Extras

To get a more complete experience with the Garmin Oregon 450, it is ideal to use MapSource cards which are basically microSD cards that contain maps so you can get turn-by-turn directions all the way to your destination. There are various types of extra maps that range from road maps to topographic maps that can be seen in 3-D view. The card slot is waterproof as well so you do not have to worry about losing precious map data.

It is also possible to acquire routes, tracks, and waypoints from other Garmin Oregon users as they can send them to you wirelessly. Even the Garmin Colorado and Garmin Dakota users can join the fun in wirelessly sharing things. This makes it a great handheld device to use for geocaching as the locations can be shared as well. It can read the GPX files in OpenCaching.com so you can get rid of those print outs and you do not have to manually enter the coordinates just to plan your route.

Other neat extras include a picture viewer and a customizable dashboard display. This way you can personalize your device to make it even easier to use often. It can also connect to the Internet using the Garmin Connect service you can share maps online or access routes on Google Earth or share outdoor experiences via Twitter and Facebook.

The Garmin Oregon 450 is a slim, rugged, and highly useful device. Its $400 price tag makes it significantly cheaper than the more feature-rich Garmin Oregon 550.

List Price: $399.99

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