| | |  | GPS | Home » » » Garmin Oregon 300 Portable GPS System | | | | | | | Description: | | Oregon 300 Manufacturer's Description (July 11, 2008)
Easy to learn and simple to use, the waterproof Garmin Oregon 300 features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver and preloaded worldwide basemap with shaded relief for incredibly detailed map presentation on the unit. It also offers a high-resolution, color 3-inch touchscreen that reacts as you tap or drag through menus and options. With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver and HotFix satellite prediction, Oregon 200 locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. It's also equipped with a barometric altimeter and electronic compass, and it's compatible with Garmin's heart-rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors. 
The Garmin Oregon 300. | The Oregon 300 provides a basemap that can be easily supplemented with additional mapping or charts for your adventures on land or at sea. The device lets you customize five profiles--automotive, marine, recreation, fitness or geocaching--making the most beneficial features for each activity the easiest to access through quick shortcuts. The tough, 3-inch color touchscreen display is easy to read even in direct sunlight, and the Oregon's easy-to-use interface means you'll spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time searching for information. It also plays well with others, allowing for wireless exchange of tracks, waypoints and geocaches between other Oregon units and Garmin Colorado models. This unit has a built-in electronic compass that provides bearing information even while you're standing still, and its barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. You can even use the altimeter to plot barometric pressure over time, which can help you keep an eye on changing weather conditions. Conveniently plug in optional preloaded microSD memory cards for all your outdoor activities on land or water. The card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment, so you don't have to worry about getting it wet. Just insert an optional Garmin MapSource card with detailed street maps, and the Oregon provides turn-by-turn directions to your destination. Add optional topographic maps to take advantage of the Oregon's 3D map view which gives you a better perspective of your elevation. And with optional BlueChart g2 Vision maps, you'll get everything you need for a great day on the water including depth contours, navaids and harbors. Garmin's HotFix capability automatically calculates and stores satellite locations, greatly reducing satellite acquisition time so that you can turn the unit on and get going. Geocaching is even easier with the Oregon, which quickly downloads online information for every cache, such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description, so that you don't have to tote printouts with you. 
Garmin Oregon 300 screenshots. | Features and Specifications
- Worldwide basemap with shaded relief
- Built-in 3D DEM (Digital Elevation Model) basemap
- Wireless exchange of user routes, tracks, waypoints, geocaches and images
- MicroSD card slot for optional mapping and data storage
- Track log: 10,000 points, 20 saved tracks
- Electronic compass, barometric altimeter, temperature sensor
- Display: 3-inch color touchscreen with 240 x 400-pixel resolution
- Batteries: Two high-capacity or lithium-ion AA batteries for up to 16 hours of use
- Unit dimensions: 4.5 x 2.3 x 1.4 inches
- Weight: 6.8 ounces with batteries
Garmin Oregon Model Comparisons
| Oregon 200
| Oregon 300
| Oregon 400t
| Oregon 400c
| Oregon 400i
| Preloaded Maps:
| no
| no
| yes (topographic)
| yes (BlueChart g2 with limited capability)
| yes (Inland Lakes)
| | Built-in memory: | 24 MB
| 850 MB
| yes
| yes
| yes
| | Unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar units): | no
| yes
| yes
| yes
| yes | What's in the Box
Oregon 300, carabiner clip, USB cable, owner's manual (on disk), printed quick-start guide | | | Features: | |
• High-sensitivity GPS receiver with barometric altimeter, electronic compass, microSD card slot, and picture viewer
• Sunlight-readable, 3-inch diagonal color touchscreen display
• Wireless capability lets you exchange tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches between similar units
• Features built-in base map with shaded relief
• Rugged, waterproof, and durable handheld navigator
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 4.49 inches | | Product Width:
| 2.28 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.38 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.43 pounds | | Package Length:
| 6.61 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.54 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.31 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 43 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 43 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 55 found the following review helpful:
 Great upfront but leaves you wanting moreDec 02, 2008
By Beaux Pilgrim
I read some of the comments about the problems with the Oregon, but I think they were played down. I went from a 60csx to an Oregon 300.
I use my handheld gps for backpacking, day hikes, and street navigation.
Oregon pluses I noticed:
1) 3d view shows elevation even in street mode
2) shaded relief
3) touch screen
4) smaller size
5) screen lock feature is nice
6) sat initial lock is very fast and strong
6) Battery life is pretty good for a touch screen. Lithium batteries will get you about 15 hours.
Oregon negatives:
On the map screen you have the option of two fields or no fields
1)can not flip from screen to screen without exiting to the main menu and then selecting the other screen ( seems like they could just let you slide you finger left or right at the bottom of the screen to go to the next or previous screens. The do basically this on the main menu screen.
2)battery meter does not read correctly
3)car power adapter that is recommended by Garmin is not correct. I has a 90 degree turn that is the wrong way. Works but is not correct.
4)No preview of your pending turn when the system beeps to let you know a turn is coming.
5)If you are on another page other than the map page you get a beep warning that a turn is coming but no preview. You just see the page you are on at that time.
6)should you miss your turn the Oregon is sporadic regarding how fast it will correct your path. Maybe immediately maybe a few blocks, maybe never.
7)Can not manually stop, edit, or recalculate your route from the map screen, you must exit the map screen to the main menu then go to active route screen.
8)Screen is very dim. In full sunlight you can not see the screen to read it. I light cloud cover it is hard to read.
9)Not many search options. With the Garmin 60CSX you can search by almost any criteria you can think of.
10) You can not customize the Oregon much, 60csx you could customize everything.
Bottom line: If you have not had a gps before or you have had a low end unit you will like it. If you have had a high end unit like a Garmin 60csx you will be disappointed.
I returned mine and got another 60csx.
33 of 35 found the following review helpful:
Many nice features, but a few backwards stepsOct 20, 2008
By S. Clarke
I bought the Garmin Oregon 300 after owning a Garmin eTrex Legend CX for the last year or two. Alhough initially sceptical of the touch screen, it actually works well. I like the menu system too. My main criticism of the Oregon is the fact that the screen (at max brighness) is not nearly as bright as the Legend screen. The Oregon screen is almost invisible in bright light, even when the screen itself is shaded. This is a significant issue in Australia. My other critism is that the customisation of the navigation screen is limited, with one fixed field at the top and only 2 adjustable fields (Legend has up to 4 adjustable fields).
20 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Purchased for Hiking and BikingOct 06, 2008
By J. FELISKY
"Hamadybrother"
I purchased the Garmin Oregon 300 primarily for hiking and for mountain biking. Recently, I used the hand held in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, CO. Reading several reviews, I decided to purchase what I felt was "current" technology rather than spending less money on a unit that has been on the market several years. Here are my observations:
- In most reviews you'll see complaints about mapping software. It is true that the Maps are very expensive, I ended up purchasing two City Navigator and US Topo. I considered the National Parks West mapsource, however as each of these additions are $100 or so it starts to get more expensive than I'd like.
- I felt the US Topo map was "good enough" for my hiking in the National Park. Many of the trails were visible but not much detail on them, but for what I was doing it was OK. I marked each trail head that I was traveling, and used the device to track my travel time, rest time, gain in elevation, and captured my "tracks" for future reference. As I returned from the trail end to the trail head, this gave me a good estimate on ETA, and sunset times.
- The touch screen is a great feature (i do have an iPod Touch and like this interaction).
- The battery life is OK. I purchased the auto charger and be careful that it has an "L" shaped connector that doesn't fit well into the Oregon (It's made for other units). After the fact, I saw reviews that recommend getting a third party charger.
- The size of the device is very good, feels comfortable in the hand. Built very well, seems sturdy.
- The 300 built in base map is not very useful, I'd recommend looking at the others that may include maps that you'd need to purchase built in.
- The menu's are OK, but I've found that the City Navigator is challenging me to route using Freeways, continually wants to route me as the "crow flys".
Overall this is a quality product, however, expensive when you consider the cost of the additional maps. I'm hoping that we can use the US Topo for biking. Our local trail system would be nice to be able to overlay onto the US Topo as well as the snowmobile trails in the eastern Upper Penn.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Oregon 300: Great build quality, some minor quirksAug 15, 2009
By Ryanst
I received my Oregon with firmware version 2.70. Once I installed the Mapsource software I bought from back in 2003 (Topo) I updated the firmware to version 3.10 (the latest non-beta to date).
Having owned many other GPSrs from Garmin, including the etrex, etrex venture, etrex legend, etrex vista, GPS V, GPS III+, and the GPS 90, I will say that the Oregon is a much welcomed evolution of Garmin's trail line-up. The touch screen is great, not too sensitive, not too resistant. It is resistive not capacitive (iPhone for example is capacitive). Because of this, you need to touch the screen a little harder to input something. Accuracy is on par with most modern GPSrs, about 10-20 feet on average without WAAS. Track reliability and accuracy is good. Little variation or drift that I have noticed, although some people claim that this unit drifts a bit when recording tracks. I have not seen this happen and have been on several 3-4 mile hikes so far.
Satellite lock is incredibly fast with the Oregon! Wow what a difference from my other Garmin gpsrs. By the time the unit boots up and hits the home screen the GPS will have already gained a 3D lock with about 6 satellites or more. First time lock was about 1 minute. Again, very good. Battery life is very good as well with the Oregon. With the compass turned off, WAAS off, battery save on, and backlight at about 40% I am getting about 14 hours with cheapo AA alkalines. The Oregon is said to do better with NIMH rechargeables > 2500 mAH. FYI, compass drain is about 20%, and WAAS is about 5%.
Build quality of the Oregon is one of my favorite selling points. It feels very substantial in the hand, with a very ergonomic, rounded back design and high quality plastics used throughout. The screen is solid with a thin plastic protective layer over it. It is also recessed about 1/8 inch for extra protection. There is only one hard button on the unit, the power button, so this unit should prove to resist wear and tear very well. Overall, very durable design. The battery door is also brand new for Garmin. It has a brushed aluminum latch that locks into the unit. Very nice and secure.
Feature wise, the Oregon is about on par with other GPSrs around this price range. You get full mapping capability, roads, topo, water etc. Screen is high-res. There are 4 data fields available for the map page (Garmin just added this ability in the firmware update). The altimeter works great, records pressure/time, pressure/dist, elevation/time, elevation/dist. It is self-calibrating and has the option of recording pressure with the unit off for weather predictions.
Overall, incredibly pleased with the unit. There are a few quirks with it, such as the mediocre visibility of the screen when not viewed orthogonal to the sun. It is viewable, but difficult to see. This would have been a deal breaker except for the fact that the brightness can always be turned up (does help a lot at the cost of battery life), and the unit can be tilted towards the sun for better viewing (very good visibility in direct sunlight). Also, the battery meter is not accurate. Garmin is working to fix this. As of right now, it is OK, but tends act in a non-linear fashion (first 3 bars go in about 2 hours, then the last bar lasts about 8 hours). Aside from these minor software issues (which will be ironed out with free firmware updates) the GPS is fantastic.
Pros:
+ Outstanding build quality
+ Lots of built-in memory for maps (850 mb)
+ Fits well in the hand
+ Battery life is good
+ Uses AA batteries (no sealed, rechargeables here! Thank god...)
+ High-res screen
+ Super fast satellite locks
+ Accuracy
Cons
- Battery meter is buggy
- Screen visibility is mediocre
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Great GPS unit, works well especially Compass.Jan 11, 2009
By S. A. ROBBINS
"shirley_rw"
I really like the Garmin Oregon 300. However, I bought it knowing it was meant for Trails, Hiking and the like but not for Street Navigation. For Trails and Hiking it is a great unit with a lot of excellent features. I consider it to be a good basic modern (WAAS) GPS unit. The Compass works quite well and is insensitive to angle from the horizon. Other GPS units that I have tried required that the unit be held flat for the compass to work.
The Oregon does not come with any really usable maps so if you are expecting street level navigation, try another unit or buy a car navigation unit. It has a US basemap but this only covers major roads.
One big plus is that the Oregon acquires the satellites quickly and even worked while driving with the unit in my coat pocket.
I plan on using it with a 12v power adapter on an ATV most of the time but also for hiking. If you are going to use it on battery power, make sure you have spare Alkaline batteries with you. As yet, I cannot find a rechargeable NiMh battery that will work, even when you set the unit for NiMh batteries, the gauge reads incorrectly. I am hoping that a software update might fix that problem.
The value of the Oregon 300 depends on what you paid for it. I would not pay over $300 as I don't feel it is worth more than that. The reason is that as sold the Oregon 300 lacks any usable maps but for me that was not an issue as I don't need any additional maps.
See all 43 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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