5/5

£549 | Buy from Garmin

TL:DR

An impressively powerful GPS device that offers so much more than just route-finding. The ability to contact friends and family or even rescue services is a huge draw for those looking to explore off the beaten track and and keeps worried families minds at ease. The amount of customisation options the 66i allows is mind boggling and we loved being able to tweak every aspect of the device from individual screens to adding new maps with extra information. Don’t be think you can just switch the device on and you’re suddenly a 21stcentury Ernest Shackleton, the 66i takes a bit of time to really get to grips with and understand.

For

•  A huge array of features

• InReach communications give excellent peace of mind

• Very clear screen

• Highly customisable.

 Negatives

• Expensive for just mapping

• Menus can be a little daunting at first.

Gone are the days of wrestling a paper map into a small waterproof pouch and having to perform some origami a few times on a walk because you keep walking off the edge of the page. Through the wonders of modern technology, an entire map of the world can be kept in your pocket and unlike a smartphone, it doesn’t run out of charge in a day. Enter the Garmin GPSMAP 66i, a device that is so feature rich it’d take a lifetime to trawl through them all. We’ve tested it in some truly horrific conditions so you can be safe in the knowledge it won’t let you down when things get a little hairy.

Excited? You will be

If you’ve never heard of Garmin, which rock have you been under for the past 20 years? They are the top of the game for anything with GPS functionality, developing products from the fitness sectors to aviation, their expertise is unparalleled. The GPSMAP 66i is the flagship model in the range of handheld mapping devices and feels it. It has a reassuring heft in the hand without being too heavy, just holding it made us feel like hardcore explorers. The whole thing is shrouded in a tough rubber bumper ready to fend off knocks and bumps; an SOS button on the side suggests the intentions for the device alongside the array of exposed torx bolts holding the chassis together. The main body of the 66i is made from an eye catching orange polymer that means the whole device is rated to MIL-STD 810, which in English means that its burly enough to withstand 28 different stresses as set out by the US military. A couple of these are the ability to withstand rain, humidity, sand and dust and the fantastically named ‘multi exciter’. This thing means business.

A carabiner can be clipped onto the back to allow the device to be hung from a backpack strap for easy access. All wrapped up in this rubber and polymer cocoon is a battery that is good for 30 hours of tracking at 10 minute intervals and a monstrous 200 hours if you increase the tracking interval to 30 mins.

Pressing Buttons

 The 3” screen is bright, contrasty and fares well in direct sunlight; perfect for following maps when the golden orb in the sky appears. The nine chunky rubber buttons on the face of the device below the screen and are used the navigate through the menus as the panel isn’t touch sensitive which we’d normally like to see, but because of the environments that this device could be used in, accidental screen inputs could be disastrous. Touch screens also don’t fare well with either rain or gloved fingers, both of which will be in abundance in the great outdoors.

 It's what’s on the inside that counts

 It’s under the luminous orange polymer of the GPSMAP 66i where thing get really interesting. Not only is it a GPS unit, using Garmin’s InReach technology which means you can stay in touch with base camp via messages when there’s no phone signal. It also allows friends and family to track your progress in real time with a host of metrics. Crucially it means that you can trigger an SOS to a 24/7 global emergency response centre who will co-ordinate your rescue with local emergency services. We never had to use this feature, but knowing help is at hand however far from civilisation we were was very reassuring. All of the InReach features require a subscription to the Iridium network but with plans starting from £12.99 a month, it really is a no brainer.

 Moving onto the key feature of the device, the mapping. Straight out of the box, maps are included of the entire world. You read that right; maps of 195 countries in your pocket. Fully zoomable and incredibly detailed; a few years ago you’d pay a fortune to have access to worldwide mapping and now its included. Granted, you won’t want to be doing any hardcore navigation from these base maps but Garmin offers their excellent TopoActive mapping which offers routable roads and paths, places of interest and a whole slew of other handy information. Our device came preloaded with TopoActive maps of Europe, with maps of pretty much anywhere else in the world available to buy. The detail of the base maps is excellent, even providing the tidal range of coastal environments which was very handy when plotting routes across such terrain.

 On the whole, the map is very clear and easy to understand, however one gripe we did have was the lack of contour lines. Having trawled through the extensive menus for a while, it wasn’t immediately clear if we’d missed the button to switch them on or they simply weren’t included. It turned out to be the latter but fortunately the 66i has support for a range of open source mapping formats so it was simply a case of finding the right file which contained the contour information and copying it to the device via the micro SD card. It’s also worth mentioning that the 66i has a 16gb internal memory but its recommend to install extra maps to the SD card and leave the internal memory for activity recording. It’s this open sourceness that makes the 66i a hugely customisable device for almost every outdoor pursuit.

A quick glance at the accessories range for the device cements this, mounts are available for cars, bikes, boats, rucksacks and most other things you’d want to navigate in/on. Whilst on the topic of customisation, almost every screen can be tailored to each user, allowing data fields to be shown or hidden when needed and placed in different locations on the screen. This is something that hardcore adventurers will really appreciate because when faced with extreme environments, your kit needs to work with you and the ability to have all the data you need on one screen rather than be delving into menus constantly is a small thing that can make a huge difference. Speaking of the menus, they are a little daunting at first glance with pages and pages of icons and sub-menus which takes a little getting used to. In general operation, there’s no real need to be delving into the main menu all the time as pressing the page button brings up a carousel of quick access tools such as the compass, altimeter and InReach messages.

 It’s not just traditional mapping that the 66i offers. Delve into the menus and there’s an almost overwhelming array of features. Geocaching co ordinates can be accessed directly from the device, as can sunrise/sunset times, tide times and the ability to create routes from existing routes or waypoints without having to even touch your phone. The 66i is a very accomplished device on its own but connect a smartphone via Bluetooth and it becomes even more powerful.

 Always in reach

 The InReach messaging is much more user friendly when paired with a smartphone as you then can use your phones touchscreen to type out messages rather than painstakingly typing a letter at a time on using the D pad. A smartphone connection also allows the 66i to download satellite imagery of any area which is a very interesting feature if navigating in tricky conditions. It’ll also pull a weather forecast direct to the device to help make more informed decisions on multi day escapades. The 66i can even take into account your planned route and offer forecasts along the route based off current speed and elevation.

 We’ve used a few of Garmin’s other GPS and InReach devices and we noticed just how quick the 66i is to connect to satellites; it’s almost instant upon powering up the device which is seriously impressive given it can locate you down to 40m in a flash. We’ve had a play with an InReach mini and the same couldn’t be said for that, often taking five minutes or more to find the satellites.

 We took the 66i on a number of hikes, some on paths and some completely cross country relying only on the maps and contours to keep us on the straight and narrow. In both environments, the device performed admirably; the bright screen providing clear mapping and the buttons allowed up to zoom in and out and pan around the map to see our progress. We did find the buttons a little difficult to press at times when wearing thick gloves but soon got used to it after a while. Audible notifications can be set up to alert you when diverging from the set route which is a great feature, saving us from checking the map every 5 minutes to check our course.

 The GPSMAP 66i is a hugely capable device with a range of features that we’d be impressed if anyone had a use for all of them, and this where we have a caveat. This device needs you to spend time with it and learn where everything and how it works is as the menus can be a little confusing. We can’t mark it down for this reason because it’s a truly professional grade GPS device pitched at those who expect their devices to work flawlessly when out in the wilderness, and some users will have a requirement for the niche features that it offers.