Garmin Oregon 600 Worlds First Review. The GO Outdoors Show

In the worlds first Garmin Oregon 600 review Mike and Ollie embark on a 100 mile navigation challenge, to help get to know the brand new Oregon 600 series GPS. They travel by car, bike and foot in search of a Geocache hidden deep in a Snowdonian forrest.

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JOIN IN WITH THE GO OUTDOORS SHOW
On the morning of Saturday the 6th of April 2013 GO Outdoors will be publishing the rough location of a geocache, hidden in Snowdonia, containing a golden ticket that the finder can exchange for a shiny new Garmin Oregon 600. The Geocache will be located within 100 meters of the published co-ordinates.

To view the coordinates visit this page http://blog.gooutdoors.co.uk/competitions/ on April the 6th at 9 am.

As soon as the Oregon 600 has been claimed this page will be updated, and the winner will be announced on facebook.

***PLEASE NOTE, THE DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO THE 6TH OF APRIL DUE TO THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND RESULTING SAFETY CONCERNS.
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Garmin Oregon 600 Review

From a hardware perspective the Oregon 600 is slightly thinner, but also feels more solid and better put together than previous oregons. You do get the sense that the perceived competition from companies like apple has forced Garmin to up their game on industrial design. It's all glass and high quality rubberised plastics. The fit and finish is spot on and the unit has a premium feel.

The screen is the first garmin to use the same capacitive touchscreen technology found in smartphones bringing multi touch to a GPS for the first time. It is also of a higher resolution and brighter than the one in the old oregon. In use pinching to zoom, and manipulating maps with your fingertips is a massive improvement, and the screen is noticeably sharper and brighter, making it easier to read in direct sunlight. The most surprising thing is that you can still operate it with light gloves on, which is something I wish was possible on my iPhone.

Garmin have added a faster processor than before, and we can confirm that maps load more quickly and there is generally a lot less lag in operation. It doesn't feel as snappy as an iPhone, but it is now at least playing in the same league.

The Oregon 600 series now picks up signal from the Russian Glonass as well as GPS Satellites. It can track more satellites and in use this means a faster location lock and greater accuracy.

You also get customisable buttons that work really well with the profiles feature. In one profile a button can operate the camera shutter release, in another it adds a waypoint.

Finally, faster bluetooth and an 8 megapixel camera on the 650t make transferring photo's and information between your device and gamins excellent base camp software a breeze. Being able to sync the device with the base camp mobile app is a nice feature, and to us, should be the only time you should really be relying on a smartphone in the great outdoors.

The software has also been updated

Generally the updates seem to have been around making the device more customisable, adding more shortcuts, and generally refining an already solid platform. One very welcome improvement is much improved waypoint management tools that make it far easier to organise and delete waypoints on the device.

Also, memory restrictions on Geocashes have been lifted so you can pretty much store as many as you like.

All in, it is a definite step forward over the previous Oregon. For me the new capacitive multitouch screen that you can actually use with gloves is the most immediate improvement. Whether that or any of the other changes are worth upgrading for is up to you, but it is definitely worth popping down to your local GO outdoors and having a play with one of them. And with your discount card if you decide to buy one and find it for less anywhere else GO outdoors will beat that price by 10%, even against online prices.

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