Others say...

"Geocaching and Garmin Geko 201 Handheld GPS "
I ordered the Garmin Geko a month ago for my family, hoping to get them involved in Geocaching. I chose the Geko because it also has games that involve running around a field, like a video game involving exercise and the outdoors!

The family did get into Geocaching. We've found 11 caches so the device is working. I have nothing to compare it to but we were able to get started rather easily. There are a lot of features we have yet to use, including the games! Right now we are so focused on the hunt, that we're just adding single waypoints and haven't ever marked our starting point. I have hopes of reading the whole manual and taking advantage of the features in the future. My son is excited about the games but has been too busy to read the instructions.




"The Little GSP That Could"
This small, very green, GPS device works quite well for the casual user. I use mine for Geotagging photo's and for safety purposes on hikes and near shore kayak trips.

The unit is easy to use with a fairly self explanatory user interface. The short manual explains the features quickly so you can start to use the device right away, no intensive reading required for basic functions.

I currently live in Japan and get great satellite coverage in open conditions (accurate to ~48 feet normally). However when hiking under tree cover I don't get stellar coverage, so I wouldn't recommend this to someone who normally hikes under thick cover and relies heavily on GPS. But for casual users I think the device works well.

The Geko definitely can handle getting wet too. While I haven't directly dropped the unit in the water, it has certainly gotten quite wet. I would recommend once you get home to dry the unit face down (so the water drips out of the button seals) and to open up the rubber flap protecting the computer access port (to prevent corrosion).

Some people complain about the battery life but for me thats not a problem. I just carry an extra set with me if I can going to be using the device for more than 9 hours with out turning the unit off (though I have on occasion used the device for 12 hours on one set of batteries). To save battery life (for things like geotagging photo's) I shut the unit off in between uses. However it can take a few minutes for the Geko to relink with satellites each time you turn it on, so weigh the issues of battery life with how you plan to use the Geko. Again for the casual user, I think it works just fine.

All in all its just a great little handy GPS unit for the casual to perhaps moderate user with a very affordable price tag (I bought mine refurbished for ~$70.00)

"Garmin Geko 201: great for exercise and learning about GPS"
I bought a class set of these for a teacher workshop mostly because they were inexpensive. But I stepped up from the basic Geko 101 which does not include PC data exchange. The Geko series is the smallest and lightest GPS receiver I have seen that has a display (i.e. is not a bluetooth GPS). Its smaller than many cell phones. As well as being lightweight, its waterproof and rugged so its great for mtn biking and trail running. I also connect it to my laptop with MS Streets and Trips for car navigation. My favorite thing to do is record a track of my running and bike routes and overlay it on Google Earth. The only thing it lacks which is common in other receivers is the ability to upload maps to the device. But the devices that have this feature (like the eTrex series) are twice the size. One strange thing happened with these... when a group of five of us were walking with them in a lightly forested area, some people would lose sattelites or have different estimated accuracies. I thought they might be the same... but that may be common to all receivers. Using my own Geko 201, I've not had too much difficulty finding sattellites.

"cool gadget"
compact,accurate and fun. i reccomend to anyone thinking they might want or need a gps unit. i've also dicovered geocaching. this is most likely what i will use it for. it also measures speed and distance that i may use to check customers cars when they question the accuracy of their speedometers.(got a ticket)

"What it does, it does very well and it's fun"
Here's my recommendation in case you don't want to read the whole review: If you don't want or need extra functions, this is a capable basic GPS unit. And it is small enough there is no excuse to not bring it. Just remember to store you car's location *before* you start your hike...

Here's what it can do:

It gets positions quickly and in moderate tree cover. I can get a lock easily through a wood & asphalt composite roof, even WAAS information most of the time. Naturally, in trees where you cannot see landmarks is where you want a GPS unit to work, so I give this some weight. I have an older GPS that only works in situations where I don't really need it. The Gecko gets better reception that my Garmin Vista.

You can store and use waypoints, and tracks. I can easily tell one side of a 2 lane street from the other when looking at a track. The user interface for looking for waypoints (and the interface in general) seems pretty easy to use. Although the names of the way points have to be short.

It is small enough, fast enough, and accurate enough that I have considered (but not yet tried) to use it to store my car's location when at a shopping mall. My typical hiking use is to store my car's location when I start my hike. Then I use the unit to get distances and bearings from the car for navigation, since most paper park maps I get have the parking lot marked on them prominately. (Use the "goto" funtion to get the info.)

Battery life seems to be most of a day with non-rechargable batteries (2 AAA's). Carrying spares while hiking is light enough that I would do it just so I don't have to throw out partially good batteries to have a fresh set when I start. And I can change batteries during a hike since the memory is maintained during a battery change. Re-acquiring a lock is fast enough that it is fesible to leave the unit off when you're not using it.

I have a computer with a serial port and have been using the Garmin mapping software with it. Although you cannot load maps to it, you can load routes (of the point to point type, no road following here) and way points. It can be moderately useful in driving if used to remind you where, and in what direction to turn. But with no map it cannot help if you get lost other then to tell you where you need to be. You can also download waypoints and tracks to the computer to store them. But the software to do this costs about as much as the Gecko, so I give this little weight in my review.