TranslationI just came across GPSrChive for the first time while on the hunt for a new GPS. I thought it'd be a good place to leave my review of the GPSMAP H1 from the point of view of a non-MTB cyclist (commuting and leisure). I appreciate that there's already a Do Not Purchase sticky for this device, but for anyone still wavering, here's my point of view.
I'm also looking for suggestions for a replacement that will be better for my needs.
Note - I didn't perform any software, firmware or map updates after purchase. It's possible some of the Cons below were resolved or mitigated at some point. I no longer own the device so I can't do this now, and I can't respond to any suggested troubleshooting steps. This is also my first dedicated handheld GPS device so some of the problems I experienced may have been down to my own inexperience.
GPSMAP H1 review:
PROs:
- Good form factor and size
- Quick satellite fix from startup (compared to my smartphone...)
- Supports sideloading OpenStreetMap maps
- Good battery life
- Audio navigation is terrible:
- practically inaudible with only moderate outdoor ambient noise
- speech is either variable in volume or the speaker is highly directional (or perhaps both)
- speech is not tuned to be audible outdoors (breathy and lacks high tones), so even piping it through a Bluetooth speaker didn't help a lot
- Didn't tell me which exit to take from roundabouts
- Touch screen activates with every vocal command
- No description in user guide for the navigation beeps
- Takes a while to start up
- Interface is quite laggy
- Prone to crashing
- Full screen map sometimes becomes completely unresponsive after certain interface actions
- Passcode screen sometimes unresponsive after boot
- Passcode screen sometimes appears with a digit already selected, and sometimes already entered
- Screen timeout ignores configured setting
- Can't customise measurement units to my liking
- Garmin is moving to an all-cloud management ecosystem, and BaseCamp is flaky with the H1 at best.
In the end, I returned it because I didn't feel that the problems that affected me most were things that could be fixed with software or firmware updates - in particular, the terrible quality of the audio navigation.
Audio navigation
This really was the most disappointing thing about this device. The main issue could be in the hardware design, the position of the speaker to the rear of the device, so that looking at the screen automatically muffles it to some degree and points it away from the user. I tried mounting the H1 on my shoulder during a cycle trip with the face up and the speaker pointed as much as possible towards my ear, but even moderate outdoor noise rendered it practically inaudible, e.g. passing cars, the wind in my ears. The beeps were far clearer, but as the User Guide didn't describe their purpose I didn't know what they meant, and without hearing the vocal instruction I wouldn't know what to do anyway. Sometimes the beeps weren't navigational but possibly related to unintended interactions with the user interface (see below).
I don't have any Bluetooth headphones, but as headphones when cycling in urban environments is not particularly recommended, I hooked the H1 up to a compact BT speaker. I put this on my shoulder and the H1 in my coat pocket and started a navigation, but even then the voice was barely audible. IMO the voice isn't tailored or tuned to be heard outdoors: it's quite breathy and mid-range or bassy, so it's easily masked. There's also a possibility that the volume differed between different vocal instructions. Either that, or the H1's speaker is highly directional, meaning that if the device shifted slightly while on my shoulder the voice became less distinct very quickly.
Having the H1 in my pocket during audio navigation caused a different problem: the screen would come on whenever an audio instruction was issued, and even the slight movement of the fabric in my pocket against the screen was enough to cause user interface interaction. In the end, after tweaking the settings as much as I could, I discovered this was impossible to prevent without disabling touch entirely and leaving only the keys enabled, which was not ideal.
Other navigation issues included:
- When approaching a roundabout, the H1 would announce that I should enter the roundabout, but then fail to state which exit to take.
- The navigation instructions either sometimes lagged so that I would miss my turn, or wouldn't take account of my travelling speed and announce too early - it seemed to be assuming motor vehicle speeds even though the device was set for cycling.
User Privacy
For me, an important aspect of a device like this is user privacy. Smartphones unfortunately gather a huge amount of information about their users and companies are keen to get their hands on it by legal means or foul. I chose the GPSMAP H1 because it was compatible (I was told) with Garmin's BaseCamp software, allowing me to manage my course, routes, waypoints, activites etc. offline.
Unfortunately, the software didn't work well with my device, frequently failing to recognise it and in the end it unexpectedly deleted all my device's data, not to mention the built-in maps! When I contacted Garmin they told me that BaseCamp was deprecated and no longer updated (I knew this when I bought the H1 but was told it should still work) and that their replacement was going to be an all-Cloud based affair going forward with mandatory sign-in. This was the final straw, and I chose to return the device for a full refund - which, to their credit, Garmin were happy to facilitate (EDIT - probably because they're already aware this model is a lame duck).
General
The remaining issues with the device were probably things that might have been fixed over time (or even already, had I done an update), but I'd really lost my patience by now:
- The user interface was generally quite laggy in normal use, e.g. moving back and forth between screens and settings etc. One particularly annoying thing was that the device consistently took about three seconds to wake after pressing the Power button if the screen had slept while the full screen map was being displayed - for other screens waking was almost instantaneous.
- I wasn't able to configure the measurement units in a way that I found useful. It's probably a uniquely British problem, because of our half-in/half-out acceptance of the metric system, but I wanted speed in MPH and distance (as announced by the navigation) in meters - km/h and feet or yards respectively mean nothing to me.
- The screen would turn itself off after only 13 seconds, even though it was configured for 1 minute in Settings. It would dim itself at 9 seconds.
- As noted in the Cons above, the full screen map would sometimes become completely unresponsive to taps and touch after certain interactions. On one occasion it was when I was trying to tap a waypoint, on other occasions I couldn't figure out what caused it. Swiping up and closing the map page or going back to the home screen would resolve it.
- The device was quite prone to crashing, sometimes randomly, but one consistent cause of a crash was opening MapManager from the settings - instant reboot! I read somewhere this might be down to a compatiblity problem with the inserted SD card, but the H1 could access my custom OpenStreetMap on that card so this might be unrelated.
- The avoidance setup didn't seem tailored for the UK or for cyclists. "Major Highways", for example, is too broad for my use. I would need Single Lane, A Road, B Road, Residential Streets etc. The focus here seemed targeted more to an American market.
The only positives in this, my first GPS handheld, were the accuracy of the GPS, the speed of the GPS fix, the form factor and the battery life. Oh, and the ability to sideload the custom maps. But the negatives far outweighed the positives.
I hope someone finds this review useful.
Now, if you have any suggestions for a device that would would better meet my needs based on what I've expressed above, I'm open.
