Garmin eTrex Touch 25/35 New Model for 2015

[keithy]

I've posted about this new Garmin eTrex Touch series in another thread, but I thought I'd bring it up here as well:

In addtion to the slightly upgraded eTrex 20x and 30x Garmin are releasing their first touchscreen enabled eTrex models in the Touch 25 and 35 which should be out later this month or August.

http://garmin.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83451bb ... 970c-800wi



The specs are available here: https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/sports- ... 56873.html

The Touch 25 lacks the barometric altimeter, ANT+ sensors, smartphone connectivity and VIRB connectivity that the Touch 35 has, although it includes the electronic compass (something that the eTrex 20/20x omitted compared with the 30/30x).

In the Touch 35 versions, I think it is an interesting beast, like a baby Oregon 600. The main differences between the eTrex Touch 35 and the Oregon 600 are:

• The eTrex Touch series 3.6 x 5.5 cm (160 x 240 pixels) compared to the Oregon series 3.8 x 6.3 cm (240 x 400 pixels)
• the Touch 35 also comes with a larger onboard memory 4Gb compared with 1.7Gb on the Oregon 600 and the 3.5Gb on the Oregon 650. The Touch 35t which comes with preloaded topo maps has 8Gb internal memory.
• the weight is closer to the original eTrex 20/30 series at around 160g vs 210g on the Oregon Series.
• the Touch 35 has bluetooth connectivity for smartphones
• the Touch series has a single power on/off button on the right hand side, the Oregon has a power button and a customisable function button.

The specs comparison is here: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/catalog ... uct=113532

The battery specs are very similar to the Oregon 600 with Garmin quoting around 16h of battery life. I've managed to get around 10-12hrs with my Oregon 600, so I daresay the eTrex Touch may be the same.

The videos I've seen show a departure from the User Interface of previous Garmin handheld models, with the Profiles feature being front and centre. It appears you select the profile first, that you can see in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_jKUX8jhSk

The Touch series also finally brings back a useful accessory - the silicone bumper case. This was something that the older Dakota model used to have and a few of the bicycle specific Garmin Edge series still have. For the Touch, you can get a whole range of colours to pimp your eTrex.

Now you don't need to make a DIY silicone/rubber bumper case like I have done here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=20683

The reason I said the Touch 35 is an interesting beast earlier, is due to the current price point. The Touch 35 is about $429.00 vs the Oregon 600 at $469 (current prices from Johnny Appleseed GPS). I am sure you will be able to get them a bit cheaper when they are released properly, for example the Oregon 600 can be gotten for around $395. If they keep the price differential so close though, for almost the same money I'd probably still opt for the larger screened Oregon 600 series, unless the extra 50grams weight became an issue.

I can't see the bluetooth smartphone connectivity being that handy - they suggest in the blurb that you "you’ll never miss a text, email or notification from your compatible smartphone*, unless you want to". But in reality, having that feature on would consume unnecessary battery life.

If the Touch series was out before I bought the eTrex or Oregon though, I'd seriously consider the Touch 25 as it has the small size and weight of my eTrex 30, even though it misses out on the ANT+ sensors that I use with mine. I really like using the touchscreen to navigate and input information, so in my case I would sacrifice the battery life for having the touchscreen.

[GPSGuided]

Thanks for the summary. I agree that if one is focused on battery run time, then the older generation eTrex is still the go. I note that the screen is still not high res (retinal) in the new 25/35 and the spec sheet comparison suggested that the USB spec is still slower than the Oregon 6xx series. I still prefer the touch screen and the bigger screen of the Oregon 6xx series until they come out with a retinal screen.

[keithy]

Yes, if battery life is imperative, I really do recommend the eTrex 20/30 series. The higher res screen is nicer, but does not impact the utility of the GPS. With maps with more colours and details, the etrex can be slower to redraw the screen. And for the newer higher res screens on the eTrex 20x/30x I am assuming the actual battery life would be similar to the outgoing model. I haven't found out if they are upgrading the processor in the 20x/30x yet though.

There are definite speed advantages of the Oregon 6xx series over the etrex 20/30 series. I've compared mine running the same andrewp's VIC OSM maps with contours and the Oregon 600 with it's faster processor beats the eTrex hands down on scrolling and map redraws.

I can't find out what processor or GPS chipset is being used in the new eTrex Touch series. The video above seems to show pretty snappy screen redraws so it might be an upgraded processor from the older eTrex 20/30 series.

[GPSGuided]

Didn't know the speed differential b/n the Oregon 6xx and eTrex 20/30 is that significant. Guess that's another contributor of power drain. It's a world of compromises. Processor, screen and other HW upgrades are inevitable in time but is clearly lagging to the smartphone world.

I note that Garmin has released v4.60 firmware for the 6xx series over the weekend. A good 5-6 mths wait from the last update but the maturation process is still continuing.

[keithy]

Didn't know the speed differential b/n the Oregon 6xx and eTrex 20/30 is that significant.
...
I note that Garmin has released v4.60 firmware for the 6xx series over the weekend. A good 5-6 mths wait from the last update but the maturation process is still continuing.

The lag is there on different maps. I've noticed it worse on some maps than others.

To go all techy:

• the older eTrex 20/30 uses the STM STA8088EXG chip which is a combined GPS & ARM946 (up to 208MHz) microcontroller chip http://www.st.com/st-web-ui/static/acti ... 047101.pdf
• the Oregon 6xx series uses the STM STA2065N2 chip which also has an embedded GPS & an ARM1176 (533MHz) processor. http://www.st.com/st-web-ui/static/acti ... 242715.pdf

The Oregon interestingly does not use the embedded GPS receiver in the STM chip, but uses a separate Mediatek MT3332N Multi-GNSS Receiver which you can see if you open up your Oregon GPS.

The yet unknown processor and GPS chip in the upcoming eTrex Touch series is most likely an upgrade of the original eTrex's processor, evidenced from the video above, as well as the chip in the original eTrex I don't think supports touch screen inputs.

Thanks for the heads up on the 4.60 firmware. I'm still on 4.40 from January this year. They skipped the 4.50 (usually it means there was an issue with it, and they recalled the firmware). Hopefully they fix the track statistics display errors introduced in 4.40.