Garmin eTrex Legend CX Handheld GPS Navigator

List Price: $321.49
Price: $217.55
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Average Customer Review
(38 Customer Reviews)

Garmin has raised the level of excellence with there much-loved GPS device, the Legend Cx, by increasing memory capacity through the use of a microDS card that gives you the ability to have additional mapping data when your out hunting, hiking, and other general outdoor activities. When your making plans for your upcoming outdoor or boating excursions you will benefit from the extra bright, full-color TFT display, extra long 36-hour battery life, as well as automated routing capabilities.

The Legend Cx has the capability to be used with Garmins own preprogrammed microSD memory cards which are sold separately that gives you precise and easily accessed city streets, maritime routing charts, as well as topographical maps. The Legend Cx is also capable of being use with the majority of Garmin Mapsource software, such as City Navigator, U.S. Topo 24K, BlueChart, as well as U.S. Topo and Recreational Lakes with Fishing Hot Spots. Garmin preinstall’s the unit with a U.S. autoroute basemap that furnishes automatic routing capabilites such as roads, highways, offramps, as well as tide information. The unit also provides turn-by-turn routes for hands free operation while driving and an built in trip computer gives mileage, averages for speed, distance traveled, waypoint times, maximum travel speed with many more features as well.

Data input for the user is easily facilitated through the use of a groundbreaking rocker switch on the front, which also allows you to move through the menus that are displayed and to move around the maps. Because there is a dedicated serial port with NMEA protocols you can share your navigation instructions with plotters, repeaters, and autopilots. Loading charts and maps is a quick and easy task with the incorporated speedy USB connectivity.

To help protect your device in the rugged environment Garmin has had the foresight to make this device water resistant to IEC 60529 IPX7 standards down to one meter of water for a half an hour.

The power of this Garmin device is truly amazing. The Legend Cx has the capability to store an automatic 10,000-point track log. Storing 20 saved tracks with 500 points each you have the capability to backtrack your route in either direction. Additionally, there is a dual position mode as well as a large-numbers display for comfortable viewing. For the outdoors man the units comes with celestial tables that gives you the ideal time to hunt and fish, plus computations for the moon and sun.

Technical Details

• 64 MB microSD card for MapSource data gives you the versatility of adding highly detailed maps
• 256-color, sunlight-readable display makes it easy to distinguish map details and see where you’re going
• Support for English, Spanish, Portugese, and French languages.
• Automatic route generation, off-route recalculation, turn-by-turn directions with alert tones, and icon-driven menus for finding points of interest (when combined with Garmin’s optional MapSource® CDs) navigate you safely to your destination
• Mini-USB port for fast, convenient download of map data from Garmin’s entire library of optional MapSource CDs using a PC

The pace of modern society over the past 20 years has increased considerably. In the past it used to be that only travelers had cell phones and portable alarm clocks and the rest of society got by with basic in home regular telephones and plain electric alarm clocks. Fast forward to the present day, and you’ll find most of society embracing the wireless evolution. The most apparent of these changes are of course the laptop computer and the integration of wireless Internet.

Cause and Effect – Cutting Through The Hype

What motivated technology to go wireless? It is because modern-day society has entered the age of mobility and the restrictions of cables makes it difficult to be mobile. Many things are portable nowadays, people are portable, separating their lives from multiple job sites as well as multiple homes, and in order to achieve this, the basic building blocks of life have to be portable as well. Everything from portable GPS systems, DVD players, alarm clocks and computers must be portable to be appealing to the modern-day customer.

Are You Ready for Portable GPS Technology?

The initial introduction of GPS technology was in automobile navigation which was mounted to your dashboard inside your car so that you can more easily find your way to your destination. The next thing people started dreaming about from this technology was to take it out of the car and put it into their pockets. Once you get to your destination how long are you going to remain in your car once you get to lets say Manhattan? Wouldn’t the ability to find your way around the city on foot be so much easier if you had your GPS device with you? This would only be possible if you GPS was a portable device you can carry with you.

Because of this need to be portable GPS devices are becoming more sophisticated. The majority of electronics from laptops to cell phones are now being equipped with GPS technology, with laptop navigation falling second to in-car GPS navigation. A few of the earlier versions of cell phone GPS technology required that you mount a cell phone to the dashboard of your vehicle kind of like a standard car unit, however the new technology gives you the ability to take your GPS cell phone with you. Hence, the evolution from in car only GPS technology to in your pocket Portable GPS technology.

The GPS software is migrating to handheld computers like the Palm pilots in addition to computers and cell phones. It is likely that units with this multi-functional ability will be purchased more in the future compared to the strictly GPS portable unit. Why would you need both a palm pilot and a cell phone as well as a handheld GPS unit when you can easily add GPS functionality to your Palm Pilot or to your cell phone. The western world as well as parts of the Eastern Hemisphere are quickly embracing this new paradigm in technology — are you ready to embrace it as well?

Many individuals who use cell phones have a unique feature that they are completely unaware of. Most people do not realize that within their phone is a GPS tracking device. However, this begs the question; is this helpful and in what way? To the majority of people it sounds both helpful and less than desirable. While some people are concerned that a gps camera phone that has a GPS function within it lessens their privacy, many others are enthusiastic about the benefits of such a feature.

In addition to the many benefits that a GPS cell phone offers individuals such as directions, maps, movie theater and restaurant locations, cell phones enabled with GPS technology provides emergency call centers with vital data to help save lives. However, very often when a person dials 911 to report a fire, accident or some other type of emergency, and when asked where they are, they can only give vague references of the town they think they are near, or the road in which they’re traveling. In instances such as these, the location information is not sufficient enough. Because of this, manufacturing companies as well as the general consensus of most individuals has prompted the implementation of GPS technology so that call centers can locate your exact position through GPS technology similar to tracing a call through land lines which has been in around long before GPS technology was invented.

How can consumers benefit?

While benefits such as providing locations during an emergency is significant, cellular phone accessories manufacturers have taken the GPS technology within cell phones beyond bais 911 enhanced phone coverage. In order to make GPS technology more appealing to consumers providers of cell phone services have established numerous ways that enable users of cell phones to implement various GPS features for use in their daily life, regardless of whether or not the 911 enhancement is ever implemented.

Many providers of cell phone services have made available maps and directions as part of their phones GPS features to help supplement auto GPS systems. You must take into account, however, that this type of service is not free of charge with your existing service; the use of your cell phone for directions and maps involves a separate service plan that costs around $10 per month. If you are less than excited about having another monthly subscription added to your budget you will be happier now that there is software available for a one time fee only charge that can bring some of the same features to your GPS enabled cell phone.

As time and technology progress, some of these cell phones equipped with GPS technology can even be utilized as a handheld GPS device simply to be used while biking and walking. Prior GPS cell phones required an antenna mounted on the outside of your car as well as a console within your car, however, technological advances enable much higher end features, as long as individuals are willing to pay the higher price for it. It appears that many consumers are already embracing and buying into the navigation generation of GPS cell phones.