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O$IS

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No point in waiting until Black Friday to buy a new Oregon 450. I haven't seen a new one for sale from any 'normal' retail source for quite some time. Retail inventory was blown through ages ago since the unit was discontinued a while back. Nice hardware, though.

Refurb could be a good solution, and it could be worth checking for a lightly used from unit from eBay. That was how I scored my 'backup' Oregon 450 a while back.

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Oregon 450 owner here. Honestly, buying that far "behind the curve" on Garmin products is a losing proposition. Compared to the 600's (also discontinued and also about $200 earlier this year for memorial day close-out) it's way slower, has a frustrating resistive touch screen that works exactly how any recent phone or tablet doesn't, doesn't rotate, doesn't support .ggz files, etc. Buying a 5 year old GPS is likely to frustrate you. Refurb 600's are $234-$250USD today (http://www.gpscity.com/garmin-oregon-600-newly-overhauled.html or http://www.cabelas.com/product/Garmin-reg-Oregon-reg/1570449.uts) and such - no endoresement of either vendor intended. They're certainly not flawless, but they're at least frustrating in a 2013 way instead of a 2010 way. Things like pinch-zoom actually work in a sane way. (The devices still crash all the time; they're still Garmins, after all...)

 

If $200 is an absolute hard cap, looking for used devices is probably the win. Go with a model that accepts SD cards and load free maps from garmin.openstreetmap.nl. uSD cards are cheap compared to internal flash bumps and not paying Garmin for topo maps is a win when you can choose your own destiny on resolution vs. coverage.

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Dunno. The 450 is plenty fast although with a 5,000 cache limit, so unclear what *.gzz would have ever done for it. Once the initial file load is complete, it's plenty speedy enough.

If you want that great capacitive cell phone mirror polished screen that you can't read worth diddly in bright sunlight, OK, but I prefer the transreflective resistive screens for outdoor use. I'm not convinced that some of the newer screens are a good idea. So even among new models, I'd be careful about screen functionality when making the selection.

No frustration here.

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Oregon 450 owner here. Honestly, buying that far "behind the curve" on Garmin products is a losing proposition. Compared to the 600's (also discontinued and also about $200 earlier this year for memorial day close-out) it's way slower, has a frustrating resistive touch screen that works exactly how any recent phone or tablet doesn't, doesn't rotate, doesn't support .ggz files, etc. Buying a 5 year old GPS is likely to frustrate you. Refurb 600's are $234-$250USD today (http://www.gpscity.com/garmin-oregon-600-newly-overhauled.html or http://www.cabelas.com/product/Garmin-reg-Oregon-reg/1570449.uts) and such - no endoresement of either vendor intended. They're certainly not flawless, but they're at least frustrating in a 2013 way instead of a 2010 way. Things like pinch-zoom actually work in a sane way. (The devices still crash all the time; they're still Garmins, after all...)

 

If $200 is an absolute hard cap, looking for used devices is probably the win. Go with a model that accepts SD cards and load free maps from garmin.openstreetmap.nl. uSD cards are cheap compared to internal flash bumps and not paying Garmin for topo maps is a win when you can choose your own destiny on resolution vs. coverage.

 

Since when is the 600 discontinued? It's still a currently listed model at Garmin with no replacement. It's still for sale at all retail centers for the MSRP price, except when on sale.

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Oregon 450 owner here. Honestly, buying that far "behind the curve" on Garmin products is a losing proposition.

I've been using a 450 for a couple of years, and it works just fine. As does my older Dakota 20. I can't see paying $600 or so for the latest Garmin. No matter what you use, geosense usually comes into play.

As for new 450s, look at this spectacular attempt at ripping someone off: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Oregon-450-Handheld-Navigator/dp/B00313JX4W

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