A rugged navigation device, which incorporates several instruments besides the map viewer, is a must have when going on an adventure trip, whether you plan to travel on land or on water. That's exactly the reason why the people from Garmin have released back in the first half of 2008 the Colorado 400i, a handheld navigator that answers all the demands listed above and more.



The device offers a fairly wide range of navigation options, especially since it comes with built-in U.S. Inland lakes and a worldwide basemap with imagery. Map detail includes shoreline details, depth contours, boat ramps and mile markers for thousands of lakes in the continental U.S. However, these maps can be very easily upgraded, either via the USB port or by using an SD card (as the Colorado also includes an SD card slot).



Furthermore, with the Colorado 400i users can even share their waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with other Colorado users. Sharing data is easy, as all that users have to do is simply select “send” to transfer the information to other Colorado units. And since we're on the subject, it's also important to mention that the device features a Rock ‘n Roller input wheel for easy one-handed operation and supports Geocaching.com GPX files for downloading geocaches and detail straight to the unit.



With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, Colorado 400i locates the user's position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. Colorado 400i has a built-in electronic compass that provides bearing information even when the user is standing still, and its barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint the precise altitude. Furthermore, one can even use the altimeter to plot barometric pressure over the time, which can help them keep an eye on changing weather conditions.



Unfortunately, the Colorado 400i is a rather expensive product, retailing for an estimate 600 – 640 US dollars, a deal that's not really sweetened by any of the accessories from the sales package, which include a carabiner clip, USB cable, MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager and owner's manual.