Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This thing is nearly worthless. I needed it for a hike into a remote area with no cell signal and I wanted a secondary gps unit in case we were lost. I've owned two other Garmins before and they progressively get worse with each year. Anyways, here are the pros and cons of the GPSMAP 64s: Pros - It's a gps and if it has a signal, it can sort of tell you where you're located (fyi, my phone is more accurate). - It tracks where you walked. - Seems durable... not really sure since I didn't drop it (though I wanted to throw it on several occasions). - It has a compass. - It is such an awesome blast to the past to pretend you're calling your friends on a Nokia phone in 1999. Cons - Downloading maps feels like it's stuck in 1995. I mean seriously, your application design looks like Bill Gates did it for Windows 95. See the beautiful photo of this museum software that I attached. The UI was designed by a team of alcoholics, as every single interface feels like it's an added afterthought. There is not a coherent organization of any menu. - The DRM on downloading maps is burdensome. I paid nearly $300 for a device and it has to go through this long process of downloading each map. I get it. Garmin has a dying business model because it refuses to update and accept that Y2K has passed. Obviously, their computers all shut down on Dec 31, 1999, so they're still back there partying with Prince. It takes hours to download the maps for Joshua Tree on a 1 Gbps connection. You can only download small sections of the map at a time. It has to double check if you are still subscribed to the service to download a map. You have to go through this giant DRM and naming wizard for every portion of the map you download. I went to GPS File Depot and got a map for FREE that was better than the maps Garmin provides. - You can put SD storage in the device, but it won't recognize it as being part of the subscription half of the time. My great grandmother was able to run a marathon with her walker and still have a few extra hours to go out partying faster than the transfer from the computer to the device to the SD card. - The Garmin servers return errors half of the time. - It lost the satellite signal so many times on the trail, that I ended up using my GPS in my phone. - The tracks were so far off, that it had me walking on mountains. Glad I had my phone to tell me my location, otherwise I'd be stranded in middle of nowhere Joshua Tree. - Seriously, we have to pay for a subscription to BirdsEye after spending $300 on the device. I won't be renewing my subscription. I'll celebrate the day this greedy company goes under. - Pretty much everything about this stupid thing. I did better using my phone and an app on my phone than this antique. In the end, I planned the trip using VR goggles and then mapping the trek in Google Earth VR. I transferred that to my phone and it was more accurate, gave topographical information (without paying extra), and was able to show my location on a terrain. It took all of 30 seconds to transfer the Google Earth plots to my phone versus the half a day it took to transfer the satellite images to the GPS. For the maps that Garmin did provide, Google Earth had better detail versus BirdsEye (even on HIGHEST). The topographical maps on GPS File Depot were better than the maps that Garmin had on their servers. My suggestion to Garmin is to turn down the Nirvana, MC Hammer, and Vanilla Ice, look out your window and realize we are almost to 2020. Trying to save a business model with subscriptions to services that are worse than open source or stuff provided on the internet for free is despicable. Design something with the consumer in mind and allowing them the ability to use your device without expensive subscriptions. Allow people to put the maps and the information they want on their GPS. I highly recommend that you avoid this device at all cost and that you avoid Garmin at all costs. This is what should have been designed in 2000, not 2014. The only reason you should buy this is to complete your 1990 memorabilia collection or to save a dying business model. I regret spending a dime on this idiotic piece of junk which takes up space in my apartment.