Garmin Edge 605 vs. Garmin Etrex Vista Hcx

[oxford_guy]

Am thinking of getting a Garmin Edge 605, primarily for cycle tourer, mostly on road, but also on sustrans tracks, however I've also been recommended the Garmin Etrex Vista Hcx - what are the pros and cons of each?

This is what I know - the Vista is about £30 cheaper (though I don't think it includes the bade world map, which would be extra), has a less bright screen (does it?), runs of AA batteries (both a pro and a con - you can get an external AA battery pack for the 605 anyway to recharge), is larger and heavier and doesn't have some of the training functions of the 605. Other than that, are its map capabilities the same? Would good NiMH AA batteries in the Vista last longer than the built in battery of the 605?

Anything else I should be aware of? Thanks! :-)

BTW The cheapest I've found the Edge 605 is about £200, the cheapest I've found the Vista is about £170

 

[oxford_guy]

BTW I've just seen this thread, which compares the Etrex Vista to the Edge 705, which gives some indication of the differences, though would welcome other comments. One thing I wasn't aware of - the Etrex Vista has a barometric altimeter, which the Edge 605 doesn't...

Also, one thing I didn't mention before, the Edge 605 is much prettier, of course :-)

 

[oxford_guy]

BTW I've just seen this thread, which compares the Etrex Vista to the Edge 705, which gives some indication of the differences, though would welcome other comments. One thing I wasn't aware of - the Etrex Vista has a barometric altimeter, which the Edge 605 doesn't...

Also, one thing I didn't mention before, the Edge 605 is much prettier, of course :-)

Any comments?

 

[Joe24]

Im thinking about this aswell, birthday coming soon and depending how much money i get..............
Can you put city navigator maps on the Etrex Vista Hcx?
And is the city navigator as good as it looks?

Going by the garmin site you can put it on the legend HCx, which attracts me more to that then the 605 which will be about the same with what ill use it for. But, if i get the Legend HCx, does it also have a trip computer and stuff on it? Or will i need to keep on my bike computer?
The main thing im sort of wanting one to do is help me navigate on my bike, and also in the car in me and my GF go anywhere(thats not so important though, i can use maps if the gps wont really be any good) and tell me speed, distance, average and odo, if it can.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Yes, you can put City Navigator on the HCx, and yes, it has full trip-computer functionality (speed, max speed, moving average, overall average, odometer, trip odometer, etc, etc, etc).

 

[Joe24]

Cheers Ben

So, what advantage does the 605 have over the HCx

Ive been looking for a local shop that sell the HCx, but i cant find any, anyone got a clue? I thought Millets used to, but i dont think they have them anymore, ill look when i go in on saturday, should be able to get discount then if i can get it from there, if not then ill have to keep looking.
Where can you get the city navigator from aswell? I dont mind buying that online(would prefere a shop though) but id rather get the GPS itself from a shop.

 

[oxford_guy]

Cheers Ben

So, what advantage does the 605 have over the HCx

Ive been looking for a local shop that sell the HCx, but i cant find any, anyone got a clue? I thought Millets used to, but i dont think they have them anymore, ill look when i go in on saturday, should be able to get discount then if i can get it from there, if not then ill have to keep looking.
Where can you get the city navigator from aswell? I dont mind buying that online(would prefere a shop though) but id rather get the GPS itself from a shop.

I've seen a number of copies of Garmin City Navigator Europe NT 2010 (which is the latest version) on eBay for around £30, though this is the version on microSD card, not DVD, so you wouldn't be able to view the maps on your computer (but other mapping software. e.g. Memory map, is better for this anyway!)

 

[oxford_guy]

Cheers Ben

So, what advantage does the 605 have over the HCx

It looks much nicer and the controls are probably easier to use on a bike. Also it has some "training" facilities e.g. you can race against a virtual partner. I'm still try to decide which GPS would be best to get...

 

[oxford_guy]

Going by the garmin site you can put it on the legend HCx, which attracts me more to that then the 605

The Vista HCx is more capable than the Legend HCx, though, the latter doesn’t have an electronic compass or barometric altimeter.

 

[cheadle hulme]

The Vista is better for touring as it takes AA batteries.

You can use open source mapping. Dead easy to do, just connect the Vista to a PC as an external drive and copy the file to the folder.

Download them here http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

More info on YACF http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=12998.0 although it gets a bit complicated for my technical skills!

 

[Joe24]

Whats the site where you can map stuff, and transfer it onto the Edge 205?
Im also tempted to just get one of these and follow the line, but the option of being able to go out, sort of get lost and telling it to take me home temps me.

 

[bonj2]

Am thinking of getting a Garmin Edge 605, primarily for cycle tourer, mostly on road, but also on sustrans tracks, however I've also been recommended the Garmin Etrex Vista Hcx - what are the pros and cons of each?

This is what I know - the Vista is about £30 cheaper (though I don't think it includes the bade world map, which would be extra), has a less bright screen (does it?), runs of AA batteries (both a pro and a con - you can get an external AA battery pack for the 605 anyway to recharge), is larger and heavier and doesn't have some of the training functions of the 605. Other than that, are its map capabilities the same? Would good NiMH AA batteries in the Vista last longer than the built in battery of the 605?

Anything else I should be aware of? Thanks! :-)

BTW The cheapest I've found the Edge 605 is about £200, the cheapest I've found the Vista is about £170

I had a 605 and I sold it in order to get an etrex vista, which is much better.
The 605 had three main faults: one, it would occasionally turn itself off. It wouldn't keep doing it like multiple times in a ride, but not uncommon.
Two, it had an internal battery that you couldn't replace.
Three, it occasionally cocked up the tcx file and would put incorrect tags on, this would mean I never got a correct recording and couldn't even import at all unless i ran a program i wrote to correct it, which i couldn't often be bothered to do.
It also wouldn't record unless you pressed the start button, which i often forgot to do despite wanting it to record.

The etrex vista i have now got solves all those problems. It has never turned itself off, takes replaceable AA batteries, and always records reliably all the time whenever it's on. Much better imho. the only not so good thing is that by default is a bit loose on its mounting, but a few layers of electrical tape on the mounting fixes that.

 

[bonj2]

Whats the site where you can map stuff, and transfer it onto the Edge 205?
Im also tempted to just get one of these and follow the line, but the option of being able to go out, sort of get lost and telling it to take me home temps me.

www.bikehike.co.uk

 

[bonj2]

Ive been looking for a local shop that sell the HCx, but i cant find any

amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000UH1YZ8/ref=nosim/coffeeuk60550-21
thats where i got mine from

 

[cheadle hulme]

It looks much nicer and the controls are probably easier to use on a bike. Also it has some "training" facilities e.g. you can race against a virtual partner. I'm still try to decide which GPS would be best to get...

True, but the looks improve (slightly) if you ditch the Garmin bar mount and use a stem mounted version. Plus it has the added advantage of not breaking and sending your expensive toy into the road!