Garmin rolls two upgraded touchscreen Oregon GPS units [U]
updated 08:30 am EST, Tue December 29, 2009
Garmin Oregon 450 and 450t surface
(Updated with pricing, release dates) Garmin wrapped up its year today with two new Oregon GPS mappers for the outdoors. The Oregon 450 and 450t both replace the older 400 models with a more visible and responsive touchscreen for its navigation. It likewise brings a more accurate 3-axis compass that doesn't need to be level, dashboards to customize the interface, faster USB and much improved navigation of tracks that shows upcoming elevation changes and marks waypoints on the entire route.
Both the 450 and 450t have altimeters, geocaching and device-to-device wireless sharing. While either Oregon has a worldwide base terrain map and 100,000 more detailed topographical maps of the US, the 450t earns its name for added coverage that includes major US trails as well as roads, parks and other information needed to drive as well as walk. The two depend on 850MB of internal storage for the brunt of their map data but can take microSD cards for added maps.
Garmin says both devices last for up to 16 hours on a pair of AA batteries and is selling the Oregon 450 for $400 while the 450t's extra data boosts its price to $500. The pair should be available now.
