Garmin Dakota 10 Handheld 20-hour Outdoor GPS Navigator (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I purchased this little GPS after becoming sick and tired of getting turned around scouting and hunting public property. This GPS has the ability to be everything you could ever need and more. You can download Topographic Maps, Public Land Maps, and Bird's Eye View Maps onto it. You can also choose to stack all of your map layers on top of each other which is very interesting and useful. This GPS eats batteries though. My advice, invest in quality lithium batteries and save yourself the headache of replacing batteries every couple times out. I've noticed the battery life ranges from 6-9 hours depending on how cold the weather using Duracell batteries.The cold weather really seems to hinder Duracell batteries in this unit. I have not had the guts to test just how waterproof this GPS is, however it is inevitable that it and I will end up swimming at some point. When that happens, I will post how it holds up. After comparing to a friends new high-end Garmin GPS, his "benefits" over my GPS were not worth several hundreds more in cost in my opinion. Great GPS if you want quality and are a bit short on cash like myself.[...]March 2012:Took it ice fishing and cracked the glass for the touch screen while in my coats pocket. The fix is $110 with or without warranty. I would consider investing in a hard case to protect your investment.I hope I provided an unbiased and helpful review. Good luck shopping and as always, have a great day.-CollegeGuy

After using the Garmin Etrex Legend for years, and loving it, I was afraid to switch to something new. But the Dakota 10 is fantastic. The touch-screen is so much easier to use than the buttons on the older models. Also, this is so much more sensitive. I can get signals from inside my house! With the Etrex I had to keep it in my hand, and in deep woods it would still lose the signal sometimes. I can put the Dakota 10 in my pocket as I hike and it doesn't miss a step. Larger screen is definitely a plus. My only objection is I can't load tracks directly to MapSource. I have to upload to BaseCamp then save as a .gdb file and then can read it into MapSource. One could forget MapSource and just use BaseCamp, but I like to add tracks to existing files which were made in MapSource. This is a small price to pay for such a great product.

I really like this unit but didn't give it 5 stars because when navigating to a waypoint the GPS compass often jumps around erratically. I understand that the unit needs to get its bearings and that the satellite reception is going to be in and out while navigating through the woods but I have had the compass rotate 90-180 degrees every 20-30 feet for a quarter mile or more while I am trying to get a direction of travel. What I mean is that the compass display shows you a direction of travel and then 20 feet later flops around and tells you the opposite direction or maybe 90 degrees from its previous direction of travel. I have found that I need to have a "real" compass with me and just rely on the GPS unitl to give me a "northeasterly" aiming point. Then I put the GPS away and navigate with the real compass. The initial cardinal direction of the waypoint I am looking for does not change just the GPS units compass needle pointing display. If the waypoint is northeasterly of my current position I have always been able to trust that portion if the information. For 150ish dollars this GPS unit is a really good deal and I would reccommend it to a friend.

This is the first handheld GPS I have owned. Took it hunting last year and it was very easy to use and was extremely useful. Screen is pretty small, so I found myself zooming out frequently to try and figure out where I was at. Touch screen is not terribly responsive but you get used to it. Overall though it works great, has many useful features, and the batteries lasted all weekend. It seems very durable.

Well... some things just seem too good to be true. And they are. Here are the issues-1. MAC users: if you do not have OS10.8 installed you will not be able to download maps to this GPS. Though the box it comes in states it requires only OS10.4, you have to download other software from Garmin that requires 10.8.2. There is only a base map included, and it is really a base map with no detail to speak of. The Topo subscription is $30 for a year - not a bad price, but count on spending the $.3. And finally, count on having to spend several hours getting everything to work, being in touch with Garmin's mostly unhelpful help center, and possibly upgrading your system.An out of the box, ready to use GPS this is NOT.PS: Garmin is not responding! There is NO SERVICE AVAILABLE from their customer support. DO NOT BUY ANY GARMIN PRODUCTS!

I really liked this GPS. It was small and had the touch screen to make for easy use. I do a lot of cycling, so the bike bundle was perfect.The first one I bought worked great, up until the night before a large cycling tour that was about 400 miles long. Surprisingly enough it was working just two days before hand, then it just suddenly wouldn't turn on any longer. (It never had any large drops and I was never exceedingly rough with it.) I ended up having do this bike tour with no GPS.Needless to say I returned the first one to get a second one just like it. A few days ago, I was using this v2.0 for work. Was navigating fine, working great. I get out to the field yesterday and try to turn it on again with no luck.I am honestly shocked that this happened a second time. (Really Garmin??) Both models stopped working within nine months of purchase.

I bought this for a trip to Quetico- the Canadian boundary waters, so I haven't really used it yet. I do like the touch screen and the fast pick up of the signal and the fact that it gets that signal when I'm in cover. But I'm having trouble figuring out how to load stuff on it and how to enter long/lat coordinates.

petit mais très efficace , se tient bien en main , très complet . très compact à emporter partout pour les balades.

Un GPS davvero completo e versatile, soprattutto se abbinato al software basecamp sul pc.Ottimo perla navigazione di qualsiasi tipo, è ottimizzato per l'escursionismo e il trekking e la navigazione esplorativa in generale ma è pensato anche per la navigazione in auto e in barca, ovviamente bisogna caricare le mappe giuste per lo scopo.Supporta anche tutte le mappe di tipo OSM (Open Street Map) che sono gratuite.Rispetto al fratello maggiore non ha il supporto per la scheda di memoria micro SD (ha circa 900 MB di memoria integrata, più che sufficienti per caricare le mappe), non ha l'altimetro barometrico né la bussola magnetica.Per il resto un ottimo prodotto per chi ha delle esigenze di base ad un prezzo conveniente.

I did a lot of research before buying this item, and I found it hard to understand the huge range of comments. Some raved about it and some loathed it. However, trusting Amazon's return policy, I took the plunge.When it arrived, I hated it! It felt clunky and outdated. The touch-screen feels like an old touch-screen mobile phone - very unlike modern day smart phones.It seemed to take an age to locate satellites even out of doors. When it did eventually lock on to enough satellites, I was shocked and dismayed by the poor quality of the built in map.I was ready to send the thing back ad was already planning to slate it on these pages. However, I decided to do a bit of research - and I'm pleased that I did.A smart phone touch screen would be just too sensitive for the task and would lead to numerous errors. The Dakota's screen does its job, and it does it well.After the first use, the Dakota logs on to satellites far quicker and the accuracy is mind-blowing. It really is excellent.I have now learned that the map that is built in is only the base map. 'Real' maps work on top of this one. Thanks to the people at TalkyToaster.com, I was able to download and install a brilliant map of the UK, complete with contours. Almost (if not exactly) as good as an OS map. And what's more, it was free. If you go down this route (pun intended), it's worth carefully reading all the instructions on the site and downloading the recommended software onto your PC or Mac. It seems complicated, but it worked first time for me.I am an avid map and compass user, into walking on the South Downs and dabbling with Geocaching. This device is a wonderful addition. With its long battery life and superb GPS accuracy, it really is a must have for Geocachers and walkers and ramblers. Its screen is easy to read both in the dark and in direct sunlight, so it could easily get you out of trouble in poor visibility.It links in well with Geocachers.com's website, and caches can be easily transferred from PC to Garmin easily. A plug in will be required if you want to use the excellent 'Pocket Query'.I went for a walk in the hills with my new Garmin today and I am so pleased I did not send it back. I love it. It was worth a bit of research and a bit of work with the PC.I would certainly recommend this to a friend, but I would suggest thinking about the next model up as internal memory on this unit is less than 1Gb and there is no opportunity to add further memory. The Dakota 20 has a micro SD card slot. Mind you, at less than £100 for the Dakota 10, who can really complain?

Sres de Amazon:No se le puede cobrar a un cliente por un plazo de entrega, y luego no respetarlo.Si se le comunica al cliente una fecha de entrega, hay que entregarlo en esa fecha.Si se es serio, se cumple con seriedad, y si no, es mejor estar fuera del mercado, que es donde acabará con esta política de compromisos cumplidos tan brillante.Saludos.

He elegido esta valoración porqué le faltaría poder ponerle una tarjeta de memoria y ya sería genial.La verdad es que no hay nada negativo, negativo que ponerle.Lo recomiendo si uno busca un gas básico y con algo de memoria para poder poner los mapas de la zona a explorar.