- I used the 700 in Classic mode with the latest OSM based Topo Spain/Portugal (Freizeitkarte 1707) and Topo Spain v6).
- I used it as simple as it can be, no track recording, just checking my location on the map during the day for many times.
- Normally I would leave the untit turned on for 10-12 hours with the screen turned off. Batteries were charged with a small solar panel (Silva Solar I) on top of my bacpack, only solar power for 7 weeks!
- I also marked some 100 waypoints.
- Overall the 700 appeared to be very reliable and it replaced my paper maps and compass for 95%.
- The only spontaneous crash I had was when I was autorouting with City Navigator but that was no surprise for me as this happens at home too occasionally.
- Battery life is not great (Eneloop 1900mAh), I never use backlight and even with the screen turned off I could use it for max 12 hours. I know the Eneloop 2500 will last a bit longer.
- Somtimes, after changing batteries, the 700 re-indexes all maps and turns on all of them. If this happens I would have to turn off all maps I don't use again (some are overlapping the same area).
- Sometimes (it occured about 10 times in 7 weeks) after turning the GPS on and getting a good fix (accuracy 3m) the Location Pointer on the map appeared to be frozen on it's location and direction. Turning the GPS Off/On would solve this. Lock on road is always turned off but even with this option enabled the pointer would move. I never had this issue before at home!
- I prefer Classic Mode but the Red Pin you get when touching the screen is very annoying! On option to turn it off permanently would be a huge relief Garmin!
- getting a cold fix in the mountains often took very long! On many occasions it took 1-2 minutes to get a fix, even with no high/steep mountains nearby it often took very long. Even a warm fix took much longer than I expected. The 700 is not getting a fix faster than my old 600.
I used GPS and also tried GPS+GLONASS but didn't see any differences in fix-time or accuracy. WAAS/EGNOS was off since this is of no use in the mountains.