Garmin 010-01772-00 Foretrex 601, 2 inches

I have used the Garmin Foretrex 401 for years. I am a huge advocate for this product because of how quickly it receives a signal, the adaptability to your specific needs or wants, and the functionality of the basic info. I spent months trying to decide if it was worth replacing my 401 with the 601 and honestly couldn't find a review to help me make the decision with confidence. It seemed as thought pros or cons mentioned weren't that meaningful and it just came down to either wanting something new or not. I will say that the differences, as few as they are, made it well worth it for me. Listed belowPros: The ability to link to a cell phone through the Garmin app, and have others track your locationPhone sync (bluetooth) for message alert, etc.Cons: NoneNeutral: Screen sizeFunctions (almost the exact same as 401)Yes, the functions appear to be a mirror image of the 401, and until you get into the "guts" of a few of the setting you will notice almost zero difference. Certainly the screen is larger which I think can be oversold because to some people like myself that was not seen as a negative with the 401. I am actually glad the screens and functions are almost identical because that is exactly why I used the 401 religiously for years. However, I am truly surprised that more people do not talk about the phone and app capabilities more. These give the user an ability to accomplish some very important things for safety and convenience. I don't want to be on my cell phone when hiking but like having the ability to be notified if someone is trying to reach me so I can decide if it's worth getting my phone out of my pack. The app allows me to be tracked which brings a safety feature for family or friends that isn't possible with the 401. Obviously if those two capabilities are not needed for you, then the 401 is perfectly fine. For me, this was worth the purchase because of that.

I have used this in the Army for over a year now and I love it. Before this I had a Fortrex 401 and loved it. There was some issues with the 401 that this solves. I will do a comparison of the 401 to to the 601.So the biggest upgrades from the 401 to the 601 are as follows.1. Battery Life- Like this is enough of an upgrade alone to justify it, if you are using these in the Military, or just use them often. I went from having to change my batteries every mission, to changing them every 3-4 days of heavy use.2. Built in Watch- Having the ability to now tell time is great, its saves you from having to carry another thing around your wrist, and works well. The watch only mode allows you to use this without taking much battery life at all, so you wont have to worry about it draining your battery supply for a watch.3. Back Light- The back light on this is way better than the 401's orange light. It has the ability to be super bright if you need a quick flashlight type ability, and on the other end of the spectrum, it has a night vision mode that is very dim and even on the darkest nights, cannot be seen past 10-15 meters.4. Screen- It has a much better resolution and slightly bigger screen on it, allowing you to more easily see everything displayed.5. GPS- The GPS seems like it connects a little faster than the 401 and is slightly more accurate at the single digit meter level, But that aspect is not a huge difference from the 401.Overall- If you are in the military or use GPS's a lot, this thing is amazing. It is small, doesn't kill your batteries and works extremely well.If you have a 401 already...trust me when i say the battery life alone makes this worth the upgrade.

Oky, the forst day I could not get it to work. ANGRY. The second day, I did a factory reset, and updated the firmware. SUCCESS. Around the neighborhood, I was pleased but underwhelmed, bored, non-plussed.Then I took it on a hike out in the woods. It is Wonderful. I effortlessy added important waypoints on the way into the hike, durng the hike, and used th GPS to track where I was at all times. I can track back on my reverse route, and can directly navigate to any waypoint. The barometer and altimeter are accurate, the compass (once calibrated) was on the money. The interface took a little time to learn, and then it was like second nature. There is a phone app you can use to offload your hike to the mobile phone (Android/Apple), and this feature is also great (bluetooth).My wife has a phone app that claims to do what this 601 can do, however it had notable limitations, and of course, some functions on the phone only woked with 4G connection. This is better thana mobile phone especially when 4G is spotty. -The 601 is water, dust, and shock resistant. I love it.The velcro strap (to me) i garbage, I bought a replacement silicon strap for the 601 from amazon, and it is awesome. HIGHLY RECOMMEND ths device and the upgrade strap. Link to strap: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BRXNX78/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you're in the military or you use MGRS maps for navigation this is one of the simplest and best GPS is out there. I used this at NTC and it's the only thing I used to navigate the desert.

Overall the Foretrex is a really good product and I would recommend it for hiking provided you pair it with a physical map. If I wasn't using a map, I'd probably prefer a unit with built-in topographic map capability. One negative on my unit is that maybe every 5th hike I take it on, it has issues with GPS satellite reception despite my phone having no such problem. Most times it manages to connect after maybe 30min, but once or twice it's failed to connect all together.NVG mode is helpful, and I attached an image taken through a PVS14 on a dark night. Basically it backlights the screen a very small amount so the text is visible, but doesn't overwhelm the light intensifier tube. Looking through the actual tube, the text is clear and legible, but it proved very hard to capture that in an image.