I got my Garmin 78sc a couple of weeks ago, to use not only on the water (Chesapeake Bay), but for hiking and geocaching. By now I've sailed for 3.5 days,(about 18 hours total run-time), before needing to change the alkaline batteries, so I'm fairly satisfied with the battery life.

Lots of marine features and alarms, such as anchor drag alarm, low water depth alarm, (from map depths) Man Overboard function, etc; The coastal marine plots seem fairly good and accurate to the paper chart I have of Upper Chesapeake Bay

Price kinda high, but the accurate marine charts are worth it; Base maps (on land only--the marine charts are good) are a joke, and optional 100K topo map software are still sparsely populated

This would be a fine unit if you were only using it minor recreation. The color maps and visable tracks make seeing where you've been easy. However, I use this unit for work where I'm out in the woods all day.

For boaters and watersports enthusiasts who want to run with the best, the rugged GPSMAP 78 features crisp color mapping, high-sensitivity receiver, new molded rubber side grips, plus a microSD? card slot for loading additional maps. And it floats!

Good value for money, I am enjoying using this instrument for my research purpose. Excellent features in terms of altimeter and barometric pressure is an added advantage.

I'm a first time GPS user. I found this unit to either be too difficult to figure out or unable to do some fundimental things. Was tring to set the units to yards and measure a few golf drives but could not make it do whay I wanted. Screen is too small as well.

Seems to be a high quality unit with some advanced functionality

Short battery life; small screen; difficult to operate

Rugged navigator GPSMAP 78s, designed for water sports enthusiasts, includes a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter, crisp color mapping, high-sensitivity GPS-receiver, new side molded rubber handles, and a slot for memory cards microSD ™, so you can download additional maps.

The Garmin GPSMAP 78 brought a major update to the GPSMAP 76 handheld line. Garmin had a huge hit with the 60/76 series, and instead of messing with a winner, they turned their attention to new interfaces, which were introduced on the Colorado series, followed by the touch screen Oregon line.

I have found the garmin...

i like the button...

I needed to change the delivery address due to Fed ex delay and snow storm,the customer rep at Gander Mtn called fed ex for me and took care of the change so my pkg came in time for xmas,it was the best service I have seen!!

Rugged

Give you the option to place the hand held some were you can see it with having it in your hand.