Garmin GPSMAP H1i Plus Handheld GPS Unit

Bought this two weeks ago and have used on two fairly long hikes so far. Really pleased with how it works and the simplicity of setting it up and using the Explorer app to map out the hikes. Quite and upgrade from the cell phone navigation. The Inreach function is a nice safety feature for sure.

This was an upgrade to my old sat com GPS. The touch screen is a handy feature that I am still learning. The ability to take photos was a nice addition. As I am still learning the features, I enjoy it even more.

Well-built and a substantial handheld. The only thing to bring the star rating down one is that the icons into a menu driven usage is not all that intuitive (maybe they are all that way). I'll have to go online and search for tutorials. Maybe they have a good tutorial on their site.

I bought this as an upgrade over the 750i. I love the addition of voice messages and the ability to send pictures. I generally love the upgrade as it does have more features compared to the 750i but is missing some obvious additions. These include street navigation. It is compatible but not included. (it is included with the Montana. I navigate to places with no cell service so it makes sense to use one GPS for this. I upgraded but this should be included. The other feature is related. Bluetooth compatibility for car audio for voice directions during street navigation. The screen brightness is noticeably darker than the 750i but not unusable. I get these things affect battery performance but, they should still be user selectable.

I had a GPSMAP 66sr (that I just regretfully sold) and although the user interface is very old, the unit is very robust and has never failed me. I needed inReach and like the new user interface of the H1i Plus (similar to the user interface on my Edge 1050) but found the software to be too buggy. I see there are regular bug fix releases and I am looking forward to this unit being robust enough before I am able to fully trust it out in the field.

As with my Garmin Tread, the software is wonky. It does not recognize the SD card after going through different cards and formatting. I even bought an MS computer to see if the installed card was there, it is not. I ended up installing maps to the base ram. I was getting error messages on in correct satellite files which I fixed by doing a hard reset. The device locks in satellites very quickly and the Inreach function is great, better than my Montana 750i.

There are a lot of problems. After calculating it restart often. Its not possible to switch off Cards. The calculating with walking routes is very bad. I cant add pois.

It's not great. In many many ways. Unless the device is fundamentally improved, smartphones with Starlink like T-Mobile or even satellite SMS on iPhone and Samsung + offline maps will take it over. On user experience, this device is from the stone age. And some serious problems - satellite SMS doesn't get delivered reliably. And when it does, looks like spam that nobody will read. I can also list at least 25 UI bugs, most basic is that on the map, it's frequently impossible to locate yourself. Garmin was a pioneer in consumer GPS and I guess they never left the 90's because of loyal fans. But that's going to drop sharply like the blackberry.

The Garmin GPS H1i is a fine unit with the only complaint that the screen is a little dark. However the set up is incredibly difficult. The set up took me several tries over a week to finally plow thought the insanly stupid set up procedure. During this time , no less than 3 times did i re-box the unit for return.

Bought this for archeology work as it has 'unlimited" waypoint and my 62 was full. The unit is fine, but the set up was one step short of impossible. 3 times I went to send it back. It should not take a week or trial and error to set up this device.