The Garmin eTrex Legend C is a mapping GPS receiver made for a variety of outdoor activities. It's small and light for easy portability and yet supplies complete and accurate navigation information.

One of the first things you notice about the Garmin eTrex Legend C is its bright color display. The 1.3" W x 1.7" H, LCD screen has adjustable backlighting, so even in low light conditions, images and text are clear. The color schemes displayed are also adjustable, with different settings for night and day.

Once you turn on the eTrex Legend C and it locks onto the GPS satellites, you can start navigating with it built-in map. The U.S. version has a basemap which covers the general features of North and South America. It shows the roads to get to a city or recreation area, but for more local details, other maps are needed. The receiver has 24 MB of internal memory for additional maps and Garmin provides city, fishing, marine, topographic, and world maps for this model. An interface cable is provided to transfer the data from a PC to the receiver.

To plan a route with the Garmin eTrex Legend C, you click a button to cycle through the three main display views. The third main display is the Main Menu Page. From this screen you can access subpages to carry out navigation functions. These functions include creating and managing routes, retrieving trip information, or using non-navigation functions like the alarm clock, calendar, and games. A route can be created either manually or automatically. You can select the major stops and connect them, or enter a starting and ending point and have the route calculated for you.

The Map Page display shows a map section with an adjustable scale from 20 feet to 500 miles. With the pan control of the eTrex Legend C, you can also adjust which portion of the map is shown. When you have a route, it's marked on the map and driving instructions are displayed on the top of the screen, if you choose. It's also optional to have up to four data fields of text with such information as your speed and heading.

On the Compass Page, of the Garmin eTrex Legend C, is an image of a compass. It has an arrow pointing toward your destination and a dotted line indicating your heading. Like the Map Page, there are optional data fields with your choice of trip information. There's a list of 32 trip information items to choose from, covering both horizontal and vertical data.

Contained within its 5.6 ounce waterproof case, the eTrex Legend C has a GPS receiver that's accurate to within 15 meters. It's also Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) ready, for an improved position accuracy of under three meters when receiving WAAS signals. Its power source is two AA batteries which will work for up to 36 hours with normal use. And to make the batteries last, there's an optional, adjustable backlight shutoff timer. It turns off the backlight after a set interval to prevent excessive use.