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| The GPSMap can take a licking, and keep on ticking. |
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Torture Test: Garmin GPSMap76
There’s product testing, and then there’s product TESTING. Garmin claimed their GPSMap 76 was tough, so tough in fact, that one survived a direct IED hit while in use in a Hummer patrolling Iraq. “Unless you take a hammer to it, you won’t be able to break it,” the Garmin rep told me. Hah! I’d show him.
This torture test, which involved three other handheld units as well as the Garmin, would have to take place on the water where I could abuse the unit in the same ways other people would—whether on purpose or by accident. So I tossed (literally) the Garmin aboard, launched the boat, and headed out for open water. Naturally, when I’m on a boat for any reason I carry fishing rods, and one thing led to another on this day (as, alas, it always seems to…) so before I’d done a thing to the GPSMap 76 other then turning it on, I had a nice, feisty striped bass kicking in the cooler. Lightbulb! Why not let the handhelds join the fish, and see how they like being slimed, kicked, and iced? Why not leave ‘em in there while I make a five mile cruise across a choppy bay?
Why not, indeed – when I returned to the dock that afternoon, the Garmin was very cold to the touch but otherwise functioning perfectly. And, it should be noted, the unit maintained its fix the entire time it was in the cooler. Obviously, I’d have to try a little harder. So, I dropped the Garmin on the deck: slam! Once more: bam! And again: damn… I chipped my boat’s gel coat. On to bigger and better things.
Back at home, I handed the handhelds to my pair of sadistic seven year old sons. They’re even better at breaking things then I am, so I assumed they’d have no problem with the Garmin. They tried rolling it down the hardwood stairs. They whacked away at it with the tools from their Bob the Builder toolkit. They put the units into a sheet, and bounced the bunch of them into the air where they collided, smacked, and smashed each other. Yet still, the Garmin got through the torture test with—ahem—flying colors. Finally, they dropped these units into the toilet, and flushed.
There is one thing, one thing for sure that I can tell you about the Garmin 76: it’s a well-built unit, and it can take some serious abuse. Try as I might, I was unable to kill one. In the end it had a couple of minor-league scuffs on the screen and a tiny hairline crack in the casing, which showed no signs of weakness of leakage. Garmin, I salute you.
Oh, yeah: the GPSMap 76 has a 140 x 260 pixel color LCD screen, weighs 7.7 ounces, takes two AA batteries (which I found lasted at least 12 hours,) and comes with a built-in base map. Its chartography can be expanded with a 128 MicroSD card, and the new Cx version also includes road mapping and turn-by-turn directions. Did I mention, it’s built tough?
Price: MSRP $350
The Highs: I really abused this thing. I mean, really abused it, big-time—and it survived without any significant damage.
The Lows: It chipped the deck on my boat.
Who Wants It: Guys who, like me, tend to drop, damage, and destroy handheld electronics, whether by accident or (on rare occasions such as this) on purpose.
Contact: www.garmin.com.
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