The Oregon 300 sits in the middle of Garmin’s new range of rugged, touch screen-enabled handheld GPS devices. It offers more features over the entry level 200 unit, including more memory and a built in compass and altimeter. It comes with a preinstalled wordwide basemap, and you can install additional detailed maps separately, while the high-end 400 model comes with European topo maps.

The Oregon is compact and chunky in design, and ruggedised to protect it from the elements during everyday use. The exterior is clean, with just a single button to turn the device on and off, and a mini USB port well protected beneath a watertight plastic cover. There is a micro SD card slot located underneath the battery. It’s not the most accessible, but is unlikely that you will be changing cards regularly anyway. The Oregon sits very nicely in the hand, aided by a slight rubberised coating to give added grip.
The device is something of a jack of all trades system, with pre-installed application for a wide variety of functions, ranging from leisure pursuits such as geocaching and fishing to fitness training and hiking. The software uses a profiles system to help you access the applications you need: switch to the geocaching profile and all the associated geocaching tools are moved to the first menu screen and within easy reach. There are five such profiles and you can create more if you need them.

Ease of use like this is a key feature of the Oregon. With no external buttons all controls take place through the touch screen, so an effective interface is essential. It might be a cliché to describe the Oregon as the iPhone of GPS devices, but it is a fair comparison. The interface is so clear and so intuitive (and the screen responsive) that the device is immediately useable by even those who have never used one before. Just about all of the main functions of every application can be accessed with no more than two or three screen taps, and it is impossible to get lost within a program since the main menu is never more than a couple of taps away.

This simplicity in the software makes the device an absolute joy to use, but never comes at the expense of functionality. There are even a few added extras such as a picture viewer, the ability to share tracks and waypoints wirelessly with other Garmin users and, with the right maps installed, support for on-road navigation.

However it is not all perfect as the Oregon comes with a couple of minor caveats and one more serious concern. The least of the caveats is the electronic compass, which has to be held level in order for it to work and so is not quite as easy to use as it might be. More importantly the GPS receiver is not as sensitive as we have seen elsewhere, losing its signal fairly under dense cover. It regains it again very rapidly so is not a major issue, but is certainly something worth considering.

But the biggest concern is the screen, which even at its brightest setting is simply not bright enough. It’s not fantastic in ordinary daylight, but in anything approaching average sunlight the display washes out completely. There are ten levels to the brightness settings, and six are unusably dim. Maybe this leaves hope that a firmware update could fix the problem, but until then you need to consider how this will impact on your usage. You can shield the screen while sat or walking, but if you are running or cycling and need to be able to see the screen at a glance it could be a deal breaker.

It’s a shame because the 300 is otherwise a truly impressive piece of kit.

The software is intelligently designed and fun to use and the unit has bags of functionality for a wide range of users and uses. But that screen issue inhibits usage in certain areas, meaning this jack of all trades fails to master them all.

Map coverage: Worldwide basemap
Price: £299
Web: www.garmin.com

Performance: 7
Design: 9
Features: 8
Value: 8

Overall verdict: 7

Review originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine. Words by Andy Betts.

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