I've owned about 6 GPSr's since my first loaf-sized Lowrance Eagle. Almost all of them have been Magellans, but since my XP PC fatally crashed and Magellan doesn't offer a driver for Vista Home Premium (why not? I suppose that since the Triton series is so bad they're giving up) I went ahead and bought an Oregon 400t. It is by far the best GPS that I have ever used! The size is good, the graphics magnificent, and the operation is intuitive (if you're familiar with GPS operation). (I can't speak about a learning curve -- sorry.) The touchscreen is responsive, fun to use, and much less error-prone than buttons. The maps are clean and easy to read. Pan and zoom is very easy, and different features appear at appropriate scales.
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br /The PC interface is error-free, and the firmware upgrade process is a no-brainer. The GPSr and micro-SD card both show up as drives, so you can do anything that you want with them. (There is a warning not to delete the maps.)
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br /Cons: the minor roads are blue (contrary to cartographic convention), but it's easy to adjust to seeing them. Hard to read in sunlight? It's a silly point raised by pampered people.
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br /Summary: The Oregon 400t sets the new standard; it is way ahead of the previous generation of GPSRs. It's quite expensive, but you get what you pay for.

I bought Oregon 400C. I have Topo 2008 and many other Garmin maps on micro SD cards. No matter which Garmin Oregon you pick this model offers all you need in a mapping hand held GPS device. Fast, convenient with its touch screen interface and it is very compact. The only con is the relatively low battery life but with charged 2700+ mAh NiMH or Lithium batteries in particular you can use it for 2-3 days. Compared to the Garmin Colorado this device has much better battery life, smaller profile, and much, much better user interface. If you need a reliable, easy to use and powerful hand held GPS don't look further. Buy it!

bought the oregon and the city navigator software and set out on a 4500 mile hunting/sightseeing trip. I did need some help from the garmin folks to get it set up, but after this small headache I found the 400 to be a superb on and off road navigator. It's everything I had hoped it would be. I threw my magellan away. If you buy the mounting device for your vehicle expect it to work but you will have trouble with the power cord. It's not made for the 400 but you can buy it and go by wal-mart or target and buy a power cord for a verizon phone and it will work perfectly. After driving 4500 miles and days hunting in Colorado I have not one complaint with the device. It performed superbly for me. I was told by a retail store sales rep to get two devices and not try to use the 400 for street navigating but being the cheapskate that I am, I tried it to save money and clutter and it proved to be a great decision.

Just returned my Nuvi 500 to Amazon because the opportunity came up to purchase the Oregon 400t and the Nuvi 500 is poorly suited for off-road compared to trail-devices. Now my only questions are, what's the limit to what I can do with this thing? People looking into the Oregon may want to look at Delorme's PN-40, released yesterday. The compass has a prompt to hold it level until it can read well and then the prompt dissapears, it would be nice to have a 3 axis compass, but it's not a big deal. The internal compass is, however, a great asset to the device allowing for alot easier navigation then trying to walk around and find your bearing. The touch screen works with fingers, PDA styluses, and winter gloves! It performs well in below freezing temperatures for extended periods and is fairly rugged. For off-road it's amazing however on-road it offers routing, auto re-routing if you miss a turn, but not voice announcements only beeps to announce turns. Mac and Windows user have the option of uploading and downloading and saving tracklogs using GPS Babel and converting them into .kml files to be seen over-layed on google earth. Conversely, you can create tracks on google earth and upload them to the 400t. Great device!

I am stoked about this new GPSr! The last GPS I owned was a Magallen Meridian Gold. It was also a great unit but with all the new technology coming out I decided to take the leap and try a new Oregon. I have never owned a Garmin but we use them at work so I am familiar with there operation. And since Magellan seems to be in "self-destruct" mode I figured buying a Garmin was a better bet than risking buying from a company that seems to be failing miserably. The operation of the Oregon is outstanding! It is easy to use, and I am excited that it does both regular off-raod navigation and turn-by-turn (with the proper maps). And that brings me to the only negative thing I have to say about the unit. The base map is HORRIBLE!! The mapping software that I had for my Magellan was 10 times better than Garmins. I purchased the Oregon in early December and noticed that the base map is rather inaccurate on locations of roads and in some cases (such as the subdivision I live in) the roads don't even exist! This subdivision has been here for more than three years and NONE of the roads are on the base map. The most flagrant inaccuracy is a road down the street from our house that shows a disconnect from the main highway. While that road WAS disconnected from the highway, it was 13 years ago! For a GPS unit that is brand new I am rather disappointed that Garmin has not done a better job on keeping up on there map software. It makes me a little "gun-shy" about buying any of there mapping software out of fear that $[...] later I will be just as disappointed with the lack of detail and accuracy in those maps. But we shall see. So in conclusion, other than the base map on this unit, the GPS itself is awesome and I highly reccommend it. The base map problems is why I gave it a 4 instead of 5 stars.

I've been using an E Trex for over a decade, that was first generation. I finally broke open the wallet and sprung for the Oregon 400T. It's great. Yes the screen could use being brighter, and a couple times I had trouble with the software getting it to realize I was no longer trying to get to an earlier destination. But overall it's such a pleasure to use. Was hunting in the woods in rain and snow, yet it always acquired, and usually very quickly. Tricky to use the touch screen with gloves on, but still far better then the button interface on the old E Trex. The installed 100,000 maps were surprisingly good, had all the hills, rivers and ponds where I hunt, even the larger logging roads. Surprisingly good topo detail too. I may never need the 1:20,000 Maps I was looking forward to buying. This is truly a third generation GPS, and the touch screen interface has finally brought potable electronics into the category of user friendly.
br /Now if it only had an option under "go to" of: "Cute Boyfriend."

It was a dark and stormy night on San Francisco Bay and one of the crew had a Foretrex strapped to his wrist. We weren't in Kansas anymore, but rather on a J24 flying the spinnaker at night and uncertain as to where a 15ft navigation aid was planted in the shallow water to the north of the unlighted ruins of the Berkeley Pier. We wasted a lot of time looking for it. The Foretrex did a good job at telling us we were flying along at 7 knots. When the crewmember attempted to use the map however, he commented that it just wasn't much use for that. The next day I went looking for a mapping unit, and after much frustration at Best Buy, purchased an Oregon 400t from a Sports Chalet, and then spent more money at West Marine to get the MapSource/BlueCharts software. Garmin does a really bad job communicating to someone who is looking for charting, what map product works with what unit. Next time - when I upgrade - I'll do more research at Amazon.com and buy a marine version like the 400c unit online (I was in a hurry and trying to decide how the size of the thing would work out). The Oregon plus MapSource plus BlueCharts (plus a holster - see below) is a cool tool box for sailing once you get over the rather blunt and clumsy user interface. I developed a custom holster with a strap to fit over the buckle of my PFD, and the GPS unit fits very nicely and doesn't get in the way. When I need to use it, I can pull it out and put it back one handed, and it's always connected to me. It is not too small and not too big - just right for high performance sailing on a dark night. A week later I was doing foredeck on an Ultimate 24 at night and we were flying along. This time the Oregon told me that the pesky navaid was directly in front of us, and we wasted no time looking for it. When the GPS told us we were 500 ft from it, it was clearly visible exactly where the Oregon said it was. The user interface is a bit clumsy for sailing, but the Mapsource software and Bluecharts charts are excellent. I concur that the speed display is way off, the display dim for daylight use, and battery life could be better. But at night or in the fog in a harbor full of stuff to avoid . . . I agree with Jay Lowenstein - I'd vote for this to be mandatory on all small boats. It would get 5 stars if the user interface was more in line with the needs of the sailing world.

I'm not pampered! Screen is absolutely not bright enough in sunlight. I had one and returned it. Search the web it is the number one complaint. It would be a great unit if the screen was readable outside in the sun and had a 3 Axis compass.

I bought a Colorado 400c in April and loved it, then I saw this a month ago and fell in lust. I accidentaly immediatly ran over my Colorodo with my car (I had bought a protection plan) and it was replaced with the Oregon 400c. This is an absoulutly outstanding product. The touch screen is responcive, readable and bright. I belong to a sail club in Boston for boats 25-45' so carrying my own charting gps from boat to boat is (for me) manditory. Boston Harbor is loaded with rocks, shoals, flats, shallows, narrow channels and tides ranging 10-12' and now that I have a month of use behind it I can't find anything to fault. It's better than the commercial systems on the ferries I drive. I could vote to make this mandatory on all small boats.

I just broke this unit in on an ocean sailboat race from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and back.
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br /I never attempted to use the unit like Mr. Warriner. That would be kind of like watching a movie on a cell phone. I don't get that either. Instead, I charted my course using Nobeltec Visual Navigation Suite on my PC and transferred the waypoints into the Oregon 400c. To Mr. Warriner's credit however, you have to specify "On the Trail" to find support for the 400c on Garmin's website. It's nowhere to be found under "On the Water".
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br /I liked the user interface, loved the touch screen, and tolerated the often hard to read display. Battery performance was good yielding eight hours on a pair of NiMH batteries with backlight maxed and WAAS on. I liked the carabineer, the robust battery compartment locking mechanism and much larger than usual rubber seal. The unit looks tough . . . like you could use it for a hockey puck. Didn't try that. I am in Miami after all. However, it did get sea splashed and rained on for two days with no ill effects.
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br /What I did not like was the speed readout. We were on a 32 foot Evelyn averaging seven knots in about three foot confused seas. The speed readout was all over the lot easily ranging a knot higher or lower than actual from one second to the next. To form and educated guess of actual speed over the ground, you had to watch the readout for ten or twenty seconds and guestimate an average in your head.
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br /If there was any way to "damp" or short-term average these readings in the GPS's own brain, it was not apparent in the skimpy instruction manual nor on Garmin's website which has always been quite user hostile. I can't say that I have ever noticed this feature on a Garmin but none of my other three Garmin GPS's have ever exhibited this extreme twitchiness. My Simrad chartplotter allows you to exactly specify the short-term averaging that goes into the displayed speed output.
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br /Until Garmin supplies a fix that is more intelligent than, for instance, "turn off WAAS" I would probably buy a different handheld chart plotter for sailboat racing.
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br /By the way, we took top honors in the race. Little or no credit to Garmin this time out. It's tough trying to be all things to all people.

This unit might be OK for short trips where you already know where you are going, the touch screen is cool and handy and the chart details are fine.
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br /However, if you want Marine features, read on.
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br /My first clue was the word "Chart" does not appear anywhere in the menu system. That is because this unit is really an outdoor map unit that was adapted for marine use.
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br /Sadly, that means that there are missing features for mariners the most important being chartplotting. Chartplotting is where you drop a series of waypoints on to a chart, make sure there are no obstructions in the way, collectively they are strung together to create a route. It is all done on the chart so you can see details of your route. You can't create a route in one step on the chart with the Oregon or Colorado series of Garmin Handheld GPS Units.
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br /With the Oregon, first you need to create a series of waypoints, each which should be named so they make sense as to their location. Then go to your menu system and choose another page that contains the list of waypoints, but not where they are on your chart. Choose a series of waypoints to string together as a route and then you can go back to the Map (their name not mine) and inspect your route on the chart to make sure you don't hit anything.
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br /If that is not enough to convince you, go ahead and buy it. It is a nice toy.
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br /Here is what I suggest instead: NOTE: not as fun as a touch screen but functional and almost 1/2 the price: Lowrance iFinder H20 C GPS (Blue) and NP-USA NAUTIC PATH MAP CHART