Garmin have announced the new Colorado range the Colorado 300 and 400 systems to replace the 76 and 60 series. Availability around March 2008. No word of it being touchscreen, but one can only hope!

The Colorado 400 is priced around the USD$599, not sure what the Colorado 300 will be but suspect will be USD$100 cheaper. Will update as I find out more info.

Garmin Colorado 400 Bluechart GPS Unit features:
SiRF III engine (probably will become the LT version)
Pre-loaded with detailed Coastal U.S. marine charts including Great Lakes, Hawaii and Alaska
Unique ''Rock 'N' Roller'' input device
65K Color TFT display
240 x 400 pixels
16 hours on AA batteries
Accepts SD cards for optional downloaded maps
2-axis electronic compass
Altimeter
Temperature sensor
Waterproof
ANT™ Communications to wirelessly exchange routes, tracks, waypoints, and geocaches between two units
Paperless Geocaching supports display of detailed geocache information

Attached Images

colorado.jpg (27.8 KB, 421 views)

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The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

The following prices in USD are RRP and the AUD RRP prices are only a guide based on current similarly priced units. To note the US RRP for the GPSMap 276C is the same as the Colorado 400 series.

Colorado 300 US$533.32 / AU$1,099
Colorado 400 US$639.99 / AU$1,299

I predict the Colorado 300 will have a market price of AU$999 and the Colorado 400 series will be market priced at AU$1,099.

The 400 series come with either preloaded BlueChart G2, Topo or coastal/Inlet maps, thus it may appear to be better to buy a 400c if you want to buy a Colorado for Boating. The Colorado 400i is for coastal/inlet fishermen and the 400t is the 4WD enthusiasts machine with Topo preloaded, I wonder if we will see either the 400i or the 400t in Australia as there are no such maps available for Australia from Garmin.

The obvious difference between the 300 and 400 is that the 300 does not come with high detail preloaded maps but with a worldwide basemap, which means Garmin have eliminated the old way of producing GPS that have territories (Pacific, Americas, Europe).

The Colorado 300 and 400 come with 384MB on-baord memory plus an SD slot.

For further product comparison click here

This may appear to be expensive, it clearly is to compete against the Magellan eXplorist XL but to do so the Colorado 300 may have to drop it's price to compete.

Currently the Magellan eXplorist XL is retailing for $830. How long the Magellan eXplorist XL remains to be at this low price is yet to be observed when the new Triton series becomes available in the middle/end of Jan 2008.

But when you compare the price of a Triton 2000 to that of the 400c then the Triton wins slightly. The most expensive Triton, the Triton 2000 is US$40 cheaper than the counterpart Colorado 400 series, so nothing in it. But in Australia Triton is going to be notably cheaper.

I am still hearing from Next Destination that the hold up is customs, which is interesting because a lady phoned me and told me she was told they hadn't unpacked the boxes yet (back in mid December). Personally I think the delay was due to a serious bug that one of our Moderators, Explorer, has come across with the unit he had. The other thing to note is that stock levels in USA of the XL is very low. I am wondering if Next Destination is trying to sell off XL stock before they hit the Aussie market with the Triton series. With the pricing of the Triton 2000 AU$1,098

Magellan have clearly changed tact, instead of directly competing against Garmin or Lowrance in the handheld market they have produced a product more in line with multiple uses; like a Swiss Army Knife the Triton series could be called the Swiss Army GPS..... that is if it was a Swiss company The apparent advantage the Triton has over current Garmin and the Colorado is the ability to install Raster maps. Could this mean a huge choice of cheap digital maps available from Hema being installed onto the Triton? I hope so because paying exorbitant prices for a Hema map in Magellan format needs to be addressed or circumvented!

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

Nicko is GPS Australia going to stock these as it is not mentioned elsewhere as a possible supplier.
And at roughly 89 cents in the dollar will they be that expensive ?

The AU price was based on the US RRP of the GPSMap 276C in USA. In USA the GPSMap 276C is the same price as the Colorado 300 thus assume the Colorado 300 through the official AU disto will be the same price as the 276C through the same said disto. Companies such as GPSoz.com.au are selling the 276C at AU$1,099 inc GST.

So, if you want to buy a worldwide map based Colorado 300 from the official AU Garmin disto for $1,099AU then go ahead, but why would you when the exact same model with the exact same basemap will be had for $250 less from a retailer in USA?

And yes we will be supplying them when they become available in and around March 2008. Also, shonkyMaps, Tracks4Australia, Contours Australia, OzTopo etc etc will work on the new colorados.
Another point, don't be surprised if you start seeing Hema maps available in Garmin format sometime this year!

As another point do expect a Magellan and Garmin killer sometime in May this year too!

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

Not sure that I would want a touchscreen for the sort of knockabout bushwalking, skiing, sailing & canoeing I use my 60 for currently.
What if the screen is regularly bumped/knocked? Could this feature be turned off?
Still dreaming about a 60Cx, how long are they likely to be available if the Colorado is going to replace them?
Is the price likely to drop on the 60Cx to clear old stock when the Colorado arrives?

regards Michael

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regards Michael

yacht racing at RMYS
Lake Mountain Ski Patrol
bush walking anywhere in Vic

Valid point about the touch screen lock, I know the Magellan Triton does, so it would be the case for the Garmin Colorado as well if it did have touch screen capability. Regarding 60 series price drop, It is a fine balance between reducing stock at normal prices and selling off stock at special prices and getting the new model in on time.

This is something Magellan has just found out when they took the eXplorist series out of production 1 month too early in the USA and 2 months too early in AU. The void in supplying a product over this time is no doubt causing Doug Lloyd (owner of Next Destination) some serious headaches.

Although Magellan didn't drop the price on the eXplorist series I have not noticed Garmin taking any other option but to retain the price of their products even when the new one is on the verge of supply.

Excluding this is the Forerunner series but from personal experience I think the two reasons for the massive drop in prices of the Forerunner 101/201/301 were to bring in a replacement earlier than expected and that the first Forerunners were in fact unreliable (the high failure rate no doubt caused the former). The failure rate for me of the 101/201/301 was probably 25%; way too high for Garmin that only has an eTrex failure rate of around 1%. So, I consider it unlikely the 60 series to drop in price. Just recently most of the Garmin range had a 2% price drop but I don't think that will be reflected through the Australian market. Where is the ACCC when you need them!

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

The Colorado 300 and Colorado 300C are due for release in USA 28/01/08

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

There are delays, again

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

you can buy them off ebay now and some online shops have them too.........or so they claim.

they look like a real nice unit if i were buying a first gps even for road use id look real hard at one.

http://www.octapc.com.au/prod39.htm appear 2 have them 2

DrW

They may show they sell them but doesn't mean they have them in stock. I know for a fact it is not yet out of the factory.

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

how true

i shall make some enquiries ill let you know the reply but he does have good feedback and ill get back with his reply.

but this auction

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI...sid=p2759.l1259

claims to have it in stock there are other auctions tho state that its a preorder either way its way cheaper than the units will be here.

please forgive me if i have broken any rulz buy posting that

I suspect the stock is in the shops and waiting for release much like the Harry Potter books ie some got release b4 the due date. it wouldnt make sence to have 1000's of boxes in the garmin wharehouse when release date is only a few days away

tho one auction states "I am seeing the ship date for the Colorado 300’s as 5/15/08 so they should arrive to us by the 20th of May" so you are probably correct. but the reply should be interesting from the one I asked about. It is not beyond the relms of possibily that the guy actually has some but if there is a production issue and it cant be fixed with a firmware patch would you want to take the risk?

My sources suggest May too. However the dates have varied from 28th Jan to Feb but now back to May again. I recently dealt with a power seller once, who ripped me off but the negatives can be circumvented so I am certain it is a lottery when dealing with ebayers.

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

yeah dont I know it about the feedback thing being false. i got screwed by a telescope guy that shipped a damaged telescope then told me i dropped it the strung it out so long that i couldnt leave feedback.

Any how i got a reply and this guy "Claims" to have one in his hands. So I strung him on a bit to find out a bit more. its actually a good deal IF all he is sayingis true. its a $532 "IF" tho


I do note that the colorado 400 and 400t are no longer on the garmin website. it was there last night.

Hymm

$532, that's the list price. you will find it will be much cheaper if you wait a little while longer.

__________________
The sun rises and sets, the moon wax and wanes, oceans ebb and rise, warmth of spring and the coolness of autumn and my heart beats as if I belong to them all.
www.gpsaustralia.net

yeah i have the luxury of time.

so there is no rush