GPSrChive Discussion Forum

Hi,

I 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

CONs:

• 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.

I owned the device from not long after its release, and my main use case was for finding and following cycle paths or the quietest roads for getting from A to B, and as a more accurate and reliable replacement for smartphone maps. It was crucial that it support custom maps.

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.

Ultimately, I decided that the audio navigation problems were fatal, and it was one of the primary reasons for returning the device.

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.

Conclusions

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.

Thank you for the excellent review!

The eTrex Touch (Gen 2) uses similar hardware and user interface in a smaller form factor, without the audio prompts.

Your H1 would almost certainly have provided a much better experience had the firmware been updated.

Also, since you said this was your first foray into Garmin GPSr, new products are almost always released in some form of beta, and receive frequent firmware updates for the first 18-24 months of the device life cycle, before they are considered by most to be a semi-finished product.

Garmin also make the Edge series, a dedicated bicycling GPSr product line. You may want to look at those also.

Thanks for taking the time to sign up, write & post your review. I'm sure it will help others out there who are looking into purchasing an H1. I enjoyed reading it and I'm not even considering one.

GPSrChive wrote: Tue May 26, 2026 12:29 am Thank you for the excellent review!

Thank you for taking the time to read it! I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

The eTrex Touch (Gen 2) uses similar hardware and user interface in a smaller form factor, without the audio prompts.

I'd like to keep the audio prompts because finding space on my handlebars for each new item (road cam, decent headlight, bell etc.) is a struggle. Something that I can listen to without having to see the screen would be of great benefit.

Your H1 would almost certainly have provided a much better experience had the firmware been updated.

Could you be more specific? I accept it's likely that some of the UI issues might have been resolved, but I really didn't see the audio navigation improving with software/firmware updates. There's also the flaky-to-the-point-of-causing-damage BaseCamp integration, which I could only see being resolved by migrating to third-party software, but I couldn't find anything suitable in that regard.

Also, since you said this was your first foray into Garmin GPSr, new products are almost always released in some form of beta, and receive frequent firmware updates for the first 18-24 months of the device life cycle, before they are considered by most to be a semi-finished product.

I admit I find this a little shocking in contrast to my experience with smartphones where, generally speaking, the first release of a new device may not be bug-free, but it's generally usable and issues are often smoothed out by the first point update (i.e. .1).

It also seems in contrast to good practice - a GPS device like this is often considered a life-saving piece of equipment; smartphones are more like leisure items.

Finally, there's the matter of security support. I was shocked to see that Garmin are still selling devices that no longer receive security updates: the eTrex SE and Solar expired in 2025; the eTrex 22x/32x expired in 2021 (!); the GPSMAP 65/65s expired in 2022 (!). The eTrex Touch expires in September 2027, but given it was announced in October 2025, and that it takes "18-24 months ... before they are considered by most to be a semi-finished product", this means a user can expect perhaps 6 months of use of a reasonably polished device before it stops receiving security updates! That's not very appealing to me.

FWIW, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (the latter especially) need frequent updates to keep them secure. I'm not comfortable trusting any device whose wireless security cannot be maintained.

Garmin also make the Edge series, a dedicated bicycling GPSr product line. You may want to look at those also.

I can't find a link to that series in the website's sidebar, or any mention in the forum index. Does GPSrChive not cover them? I did careful research before buying the H1, and still got burned, so I'm looking for some decent advice first from knowledgable souls before taking the plunge again.

In general, though, I find dedicated cycle GPS devices too tailored towards the hardcore cyclist - I'm just a guy who wants to explore or get from point A to previously-unvisited point B without getting lost, by and large.

If GPSrChive don't cover the Edge series, could you signpost me to an alternative website that does? Something with the depth of coverage that GPSrChive offers would be very much welcomed. :)

dont_panic wrote: Tue May 26, 2026 10:28 pm [..]
In general, though, I find dedicated cycle GPS devices too tailored towards the hardcore cyclist - I'm just a guy who wants to explore or get from point A to previously-unvisited point B without getting lost, by and large.
[..]

You might want to take a look at the Edge Explore 2. It's targeted at touring cyclists and doesn't have all of the features that are geared towards performance athletes. The Edge Explore 2 is based on the Edge 1040 hardware, so it has a large screen and good battery life. Even though it's a bit older (released in 2022), it still gets updated because the software platform is shared between all Edge x40 and Edge x50 devices.

Best place to discuss Edge related topics is the Garmin Cycling forums, but be aware that many people come there to discuss problems and not necessarily their good experiences...

Hi,

from your review it seems, that you'd like a smartphone like experience from a gps device. That has never been and never be with gps devices. There are a lot of very good smartphone apps, like komoot, mapy.com, OSMAnd, Organic Maps and many more, which may suit perfectly your needs.

For mayority of people, smartphone apps are 100% sufficient. GPS devices are not smartphones and most of their advantages (long battery life, not achievable for smartphones, usability under bad conditions, possibility to add custom maps etc) result in unability to achieve smartphone like experience (some lagging, not so perfect screen etc).

Concerning specifically GPSMaps H1, upon showing up firmware version 9.06, I decided to buy it and - maybe it is unpopular opinion - I'm very statisfied with this product and I think, that starting from this version, it is OK. I use it extensively while on MTB, loaded some OSM maps + OutdoorMaps+ layers, I had absolutely no issues with restarts or bugs other than eleveation widget. In comparison to my GPSMap 66s, the interface is much better, speed is much better, no problems with dimmed screen (I turned off auto dim feature at once), functinality of interface is much better and general usability, also thanks to touchable screen, is much better. Only thing, that still remains for me for my use is the elevation widget. Hope that Garmin will resolve this in the next update.

I cannot find on the market any so comprehensive map system (different layers), than in garmin, especially with Outdoormaps+ subscription.

Basecamp is being phased out, planning has now shifted to Garmin Explore, although I use is only for managing courses or activities and checking the pre-planned routes with RIde Trail layer. For planning I use other platforms, mainly komoot.

With this version of firmware (9.06) I can recommend it for anybody, who wants to shift from previous gps devices. FYI, I'm inside garmin ecosystem for years, had GPSMap 65, 66s, Montana 700, now H1; also some Fenixes.

To reasumme, IMHO not the GPSMAp H1 is bad, but it is not well suited for your needs.

Rgds,

Marcin

dont_panic wrote: Tue May 26, 2026 10:28 pmI was shocked to see that Garmin are still selling devices that no longer receive security updates: the eTrex SE and Solar expired in 2025; the eTrex 22x/32x expired in 2021 (!); the GPSMAP 65/65s expired in 2022 (!).

Security updates ? It is handheld locator, not smartphone, not laptop.
You do not need security updates there, just like you do not need security updates to your washing machine.

It is almost impossible to hack eTrex 2xx/3xx or GPSMAP 64/65 in real life.

What you need is stability and reliability. As software is mature you need literally nothing except new maps.
You can safely use above devices until they die and are unrepairable.