List Price: $499.99
Sale Price: $459.48
Today's Bonus: 8% Off
UPDATE September 7 2010. The issues resolved below are solved by release 2.50 of the 62st firmware. I have no trouble recommending this unit at this point!
I purchased the 62st recently and took it out for a 9 mile geocaching adventure. While I like the unit very much in general, it has one major problem. Like any hiking GPS, the 62st will record your track as you hike, letting you upload it to your computer when you return home. This is very useful for keeping track of your adventures. The accuracy of the 62st's GPS, combined with its barometric altimeter, lets you accurately record your track for later use.
Sadly what I discovered is that on the 62st simply pressing buttons on the GPS interferes with the barometric altimeter. Pressing even a single button on the GPS can result in spikes in the recorded data of 30 feet or more! On my first test hike, my 62st GPS said that I had climbed more than 8000 vertical feet, while the other GPSes carried by my friends on the same hike recorded only 2000.
I did apples-to-apples comparison experiments of the Garmin 62st, Garmin 60csx and Delorme PN-40, and only the 62st exhibits this bug. Pressing buttons on the other GPSes does not interfere with the recorded track data.
I have been in contact with Garmin Support about this issue, but as of today there is no fix.
Until this issue is resolved sadly I cannot recommend the Garmin 62s or 62st. I hope for a fix soon!
UPDATE as of 8/12/2010: Today Garmin released a new set of beta firmware for the 62 series GPSes. In preliminary experiments, the new firmware seems to have significantly improved things with respect to the altimeter. I will do more testing this weekend, but the situation seems to be improving! I'll report back early next week.
UPDATE as of 8/22/2010. The beta firmware has fixed the altitude issue. Some users have reported problems in updating to the beta, so I'd still suggest holding off on a purchase until Garmin releases a new "official" firmware release. I've taken the GPS out on several hikes totalling over 20 miles, and am quite impressed with it. I upgraded my review to three stars today, and will give it another star once a new firmware release is available.
UPDATE as of 9/7/2010. Garmin has now released firmware 2.50 for the 62st. If you update your unit to the new firmware level, I have no problem recommending it. My earlier problems are fixed.
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