GPSMAP 79sc, Marine GPS Handheld Preloaded with BlueChart g3 Coastal Charts, Rugged Design and Floats in Water

Unit had the latest software loads including system software and BlueChart loads. Very quick delivery. Nice! This was purchased as a backup unit for one bought a year ago. Still learning how to use the routing and recording features. It has not been completely intuitive but the manual full download helps. Accuracy & startup time are excellent. Predicted battery life of 19 hours seems accurate but wish it was 24 hours…. A very solid unit.

Garmin has never been good at describing features or how to use them on their GPS systems. It is certainly the case for this very capable handheld GPS device. One must learn by scrolling through the menus and getting your device to do what you want it to. I got this Garmin GPSMAP 79sc to replace my 76Cx which, after years of using, had a simple battery compartment issue I was unable to fix. I had set up and used my old Garmin to, among other things, communicate NMEA streams of data to my autopilot on my sailboat. I shopped online, even at the official Garmin site, and looked for this feature among GPS handhelds with no luck. I even went into a retail store to talk with knowledgeable salespeople as to what product would do this. No luck. But while having the 79sc in my hand, I noticed it had the Garmin round plug port for power and I/O which wasn’t even mentioned or shown in online descriptions. The Quick Start booklet which came in the box said nothing about the port, and the owner’s manual, which I had to download, had little. I took a chance and bought it. Turns out I could get this working like my old device by exploring the menus. Not much help from any written direction provided by Garmin. It must be a legacy feature not used by many today. The 79sc has many features, some useful to me and some not, but it is very capable. It determines position faster than my old, almost instantaneously. The compass feature is handy and works by some technology alien to me. Probably magic. And the unit I got, being preloaded with coastal charts, is nice. Display is nice. The scrolling buttons are a bit touchy. I’ll wait to test out its waterproof and floating capabilities until I accidentally drop it overboard. So, if you want a very capable handheld GPS, try the Garmin GPSMAP 79sc. Just be patient, explore the device, and get to know each other together.

Be very cautious when you buy this unit. 1. It will likely come with the old 2024 or 2023 map. An upgrade will cost you $100, per chart (inland and coastal). 2. If you live in a coastal area near the Intercostal Waterway and have any inland rivers that connect to it - these are 2 separate charts. Each will be $100 to upgrade. 3. Even if you do upgrade, you have to install a micro-SD card in the unit. The micro SD card is held down by a tiny piece of metal which can come loose and fall out of your hands, potentially being lost. Switching between costal and inland maps, which we do here in Jacksonville, will mean you have to take the unit apart, on the boat, and swap SD cards. Try not losing that little metal clip. 4. Customer service ranges from pretty good to terrible at Garmin. I just had a guy chew me out because I didn't want to have to fumble around swapping out SD cards in a terribly designed, easy to lose/damage area on the unit, while driving the boat! And, that's in a wet environment, you have to open the back of the unit, take out batteries and fiddle with that little clip - which I'm sure is not waterproof. Not sure how realistic that is, brother. 5. Screen is very hard to read in the sun - very hard. 6. Menu system is a mess - unit comes configured for hiking??, but no topographical maps, just marine charts. You have to change multiple settings for marine navigation. if you have an IT degree and a lot of patience to learn the terrible menu system, this unit has a purpose and might be a good backup. But, if you want something easy to use, that will get you from the ICW to connecting rivers without disassembling it each time you cross, and has updated maps that you pay $100 each time you upgrade, this might be a good unit for you.

I bought this as a backup to the main navigation unit on my boat. It's packed with a lot of features, but marking waypoints and navigating to them is just a couple of clicks. I turned off my primary plotter yesterday while fishing offshore and used this to get back to port. The compass navigation mode is the better of the two IMO. The charts are detailed enough to use this unit as a main GPS unit if you also want the ability to use this in other environments such as camping. However, you'll probably find the screen too small when there's bigger units available.

This is a well made durable unit. The instructions are very confusing and it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out the process. Read the instructions all the way through before attempting to use it and it may seem a little clearer, go one step at a time.

I had to ask the gps sales person at Hamilton Marine to set up the charts for marine operation. It is not easy. However, since then, I have been able to use and enjoy the features of this gps. I use it planning and tracking multiple weekly ocean kayak trips of 6-15 nautical miles and 2-5 hours. The map does not label smaller islands which is a problem so I always have a paper chart with me. What is excellent is that I can read the screen, mounted on the deck, in all light conditions. Lithium batteries provide me about 15 hours of tracking with this gps. The GPS is exposed to weather and salt as I have it on a Garmin portable mount on the deck of my kayak so I rinse it under the faucet after each trip. After 2 years of use - May through November - it still looks new and has never leaked. I am very happy with this gps.

The user’s manual is written in multiple languages…all of which are only marginally useful! I’ve used fixed Garmin navigation systems aboard boats for many years, and so had a general familiarity with how such instruments work: without that experience I would have been totally befuddled. Once the mystery of how it functions has been solved, the unit works quite well. But I would hesitate to recommend it to a neophyte unless there is an experienced friend nearby to give a tutorial on how to use it

We use this product for sea kayaking and forest foraging. Both are situations where it's a little iffy to use you cell phone. I bought this one to replace a Garmin Oregon 400c. It's not as compact but has the same screen size (other Garmin devices in this same category have smaller screen sizes). The UI for this product works almost the same as Oregon 400c, with the exception it's not a touchscreen. This display is certainly better than the Oregon 400c when used in outdoor lighting. The Oregon 400c was terrible in outdoor lighting conditions. GPSMAP 79 is much better in outdoor lighting conditions, but I think Garmin still needs to do even better. The most disappointing thing about this device is its unintuitive UI. The user manual doesn't do an adequate job explaining the various features. You need to rely on user forums to get a better understanding. Their software "basecamp" which you download and run on your PC is as clunky as the devices UI. Basecamp is used so you can plan a route and add that route to your device. In basecamp, you can only have one active map opened (example of what I mean by its clunkiness). There seems to be a debate whether Gamin even still supports basecamp, but I've not found a Garmin alternative. I bought the Oregon 400c may about 10 years ago; wouldn't you think that the UI would have been vastly improved over that time span. The answer is NO! Garmin products today are so 90's style when it comes to their UI. Garmin is just not an innovative company. They seem to be the leader of the handheld GPS market, not because they deserve it, but rather due to the lack of competition. (My guess is that the GPS handheld market to probably too small for real competition.) I knew all these things when I bought the device but still purchased it because the device is rugged, waterproof, and you can depend on it for getting you back to your starting point if you get lost in the woods foraging for mushrooms and other edibles. You can't make that same claim using your cell phone with GPS. The device is well designed to save battery life. Garmin claims that you get about 19 hours of use on two AA batteries; and that's probably true! That's another reason for why you may want to use a handheld GPS device over a you cell phone (with maps cached). Garmin support is very limited; you cannot contract them via phone, chat or email to get answers. Their online support page is pretty much FAQ's.

This product is awso.e and does everything I need it to

Excelente GPS marino, debes dedicarle tiempo para manejarlo bien Muy recomendable

I could have or should have bought a cheaper version with all the same features. It didn’t come with the BlueChart maps loaded as advertised.

Was not as described did not come with the maps that I needed it I sent it back

Excelente equipo y calidad inigualable