Exactly these weaknesses so had my new Navi against the Smartphone more than compensate. Otherwise, would not be worthwhile. Because of the many testimonials on the internet, trying out in stores and friends, I was able to make use of the outdoor Navis, which are currently on the market an image. All they had somewhere their massive weaknesses. Above all, I was not willing to spend 150 euros and more for navigable topo maps of the manufacturer. For me it was clear that with a Garmin the free "Open Street Maps" will work very well. The Garmin I bemängle at the touch screen Navis especially the very small displays with some very weak resolution and also strongly reflected in the open. Batteries are not there and it works primarily with AA batteries / accumulators. My choice was first to Oregon and then to the GPSMAP 62. The Oregon but for my taste a little too dark and display, as well as the information of the geocaches and waypoints are limited to a few characters. The GPSMAP 62 is probably better here, but has no touch screen. That's pretty tedious when geocaching. For where manual coordinates have to be entered, this can be done only with difficulty with the existing buttons. For me, a no-go.
That's where I tie in with the choice of Montanas. It is not the device that meets all perfect. It is simply the device that best compensates for the weaknesses listed above for Smartphone. Here was mention that the Garmin was big, heavy and clunky. This may certainly be so. With just under 300 grams, with the battery, the Garmin Montana like a cell phone the first few hours. In fact, it should be possible in 2012, to bring here more delicate devices to market. However, it is comfortable to hold and the weight is in my opinion the geocaching not so the problem. Montana provides a supplied rechargeable battery which can be replaced if necessary with three AA batteries (or battery). So if a long time there are no electrical outlet available, you can help out here, if necessary. The battery itself holds - if you activate the power saving mode and greatly reduced the screen brightness - long by. A day trip should be possible even with a lot of use without recharging. The Montana has no belt loop or other mounting option. I have therefore bought a screen protector and stow it on the way in a padded belt pouch. The display itself is easy to read even in the open air and the brightness setting can be adjusted in 10 steps. The 4 inch screen size are compared to most outdoor Navis of great advantage. I can make a lot of settings and manually adjust the Navi with profiles exactly my needs. With the Open Street Maps (OSM) to navigate the terrain really works very well. Many cards offer even small details such as hiking trails and footpaths. The 3-axis compass is fairly accurate and clearly superior to smartphones. Through the big screen I can show the card including compass. If necessary, the map can be zoomed very detailed and the Garmin Montana makes this smooth very smooth and practical.
The accuracy is based on the reception also in the forest almost never worse than 5 - 6 meters. For me, absolutely ok. Even in the house I close the window reception! I've never experienced at other Navis so. For geocaching I can still say that paperless caching really works very well. The program RCH65 Spoiler Downloader can also integrate spoiler pictures and sees this also according to the good display. All waypoints are displayed and can be selected and navigated separately. The only weakness is the integration of geocaching waypoints for me. Why Garmin is not better that solves a mystery to me. In a multi-cache with multiple waypoints visiblen it loads the cache, although correct and represents the waypoints on the map. Only this can not be selected in sequence from the Geocaching menu. You have to either mark these on the map and then begin navigation or one imagines manually a route together. This is cumbersome and could certainly be better solved. Even then, the information of the cache as description, notes, etc. is no longer available and you have to cancel the Navigaton and recall this cache. Therefore, I also no better rating.
All in all, in my very detailed report: Probably the best Navi when it comes to geocaching, which also covers other needs which navigation terms. For you!
