Thread: What type of handheld GPS is best?

The Garmin eTrex H Handheld GPS Navigator is and lets you manually enter coordinates for geocaching, but does not find any automatically. The Apisphere Geomate Jr. finds the coordinates automatically but you can not enter them manually. Which is better? I can see pros and cons for each but I a new to geocaching so I could not myself tell which would be best. I'm not really looking to spend a lot of money. Are there any units that do both?

The Geomate Jr. is a little cheaper. And when I ask which is better I mean is it better to manually enter coordinates or have the unit find them automatically?

Is geocaching the ONLY use you ever foresee with the unit? Consider what features are important to you.

The Geomate jr will only search for caches that were in it's database when you buy it. Unless you buy an update kit that will update to the ones they know. I don't know how good their database is but there are others on the web that people update directly as they add new ones.

The Geomate display is extremely minimal and limited. It is not the screen display I use when I use my etrex (Vista HCx, but it is available on all of them).

It also looks like it is not possible to transfer tracks/routes to or from your computer to the Geomate.

I generally don't recommend the etrex H since it uses a serial port to communicate with computers. That is a pain since most new computers do not use a serial port. The better models all use a USB port.
You can use the appropriate cable to connect and etrex to a computer and load waypoints (caches are one type of waypoints) and can ask the unit to direct you to the waypoints that you have loaded.

If you buy a non-mapping etrex, you only get a "base map" that has minimal detail but you can still use Google Maps or other free sites to draw a track and load it to your GPS to follow. You can load copies of the tracks of where you have traveled to the computer to be shown as an overlay on various map sites.

If you buy a mapping etrex, you can decide to purchase maps in the future that will let you use it for routing on streets or on topo maps for hiking.

I own and use a Garmen eTrex Legend H. It's a fine unit and is sufficient for Geocaching. You can download the coordinates from geocaching.com onto the unit via a USB cable. But it is a pretty bare bones unit, not offering much extra in the way of maps or features.

However, if I were buying a new unit today for Geocaching, I'd buy a Magellan Explorist GC, which is specifically designed for use in Geocaching, and comes with many useful features for that.

I've linked to my Garmin eTrex Legend H and the Magellan Explorist GC for comparison.