Hands on with the Garmin Dakota 20
The Garmin Dakota 20
Both units in the two-model Dakota series sport a 2.6” screen. On the Dakota 20, you get a tri-axial electronic compass, barometric altimeter, wireless data transfer between units and the ability to accept a micro-SD card, all features lacking on the Dakota 10. Neither model comes with pre-loaded topo maps.
EDIT: The Dakota 20 also supports Garmin’s new BirdsEye aerial imagery.
Comparing to the Oregon series
Before we get into the details, let’s compare the Dakota to the Oregon series. The Dakota units have (theoretically) longer battery life and weigh less (5.25 oz. vs. 6.8 oz.), while the Oregons have a larger screen (3.0”) and add 3D views, Wherigo support, a photo viewer, and NMEA / Spanner support.
To see how the Dakota 20 stands up against other Garmin models, check out my Garmin handheld GPS comparison chart.
The image below (Dakota, left; Oregon, right) compares how screen size affects the area you can see covered in terms of map display. 
The other difference worth mentioning is screen visibility…
Touchscreen display
While the Oregon has a brighter backlight, the Dakota is a bit more visible under daylight and outdoors conditions. All of the newer generation high-resolution GPS screens suffer a bit when it comes to visibility, but it seems like Garmin is making some progress in this arena. I do a fair bit of mountain biking, and the Dakota is the first hi-res touch screen unit I consider suitable for fixed mount, non-powered use (e.g., bike handlebars). Visibility isn’t a big deal when you carry one of these units in your hand, as you’ll intuitively tilt it for the best view without thought. Nor is it an issue when powered with a car adapter, etc. But after being disappointed with previous touch screen models, I was pleased to see how readable the display was on my bike’s handlebars, even when wearing tinted glasses.
Visibility was good in direct, full sunlight (there were points where it was as bright as my 60CSx in full sun). It looked great in dark shade too. The Dakota screen’s performance was weakest at points in between – light shade or indirect light.
A couple more comments on visibility – my testing was done with the backlight on; I expect this is how most people will use it. I kept it set to time out at two minutes. The other point is that maps can dramatically affect visibility. Garmin’s Topo US 2008 is beautiful, but the green background in national forest and park areas makes it much less legible (see below at left). The free 1:24,000 scale topo maps available from GPS File Depot (example below at right) generally do not have this, and they can improve visibility significantly in marginal lighting. 
This is a bit off-topic, but it sure would be nice to have a low profile handlebar mount that would allow you to adjust the angle, in two planes, on the fly.
Before leaving the subject, I’ll add that I recommend using a screen protector for handheld touchscreen GPS receivers.
Garmin Dakota 20 interface
The interface is basically the same as that of the Garmin Oregon, with a main menu of 24 items spread across four screens (see below). It’s pretty intuitive and easy to use, but it gets much better if you take the time to customize it. Here are some tips:
Use profiles – There is a “Change profiles” item on the main menu, and you can create a new one via Setup > Profiles. Tap the new profile to give it a name. Now start changing various preferences. Want track up when geocaching and north up when biking? No problem. The possibilities are nearly endless.- Rearrange the main menu – Set this different for each profile. I make extensive use of the Track Manager, so that gets moved to the first main menu screen for my hiking and biking profiles.
- Create sun and shade profiles – A great use of this tool is to create a sun profile (perhaps even one for each activity). Create this profile and then go to Setup > Maps > Advanced Map Setup. Set Shaded Relief to Do Not Show to enhance visibility in bright light. Credit GPS Fix with originating this tip. EDIT: Another great tip from Scott (GPS Fix) is to “go to Setup>Map>Advanced Map Setup>Zoom Levels>Land Cover and turn it off you shouldn’t see the green background any longer.”
The keypad is a little more cramped on the Dakota than the Oregon, due to the smaller screen, but I found that I quickly got used to this and it did not result in a significant increase in errors.
Shown below are the compass and trip computer screens. The data fields can, of course, be customized, as can the background color. The trip computer screen can be also switched to show fewer (but larger) fields.
Finally, here’s a random interface tip… When you select a location on the map, a push pin appears. You can now slide the map around underneath the pin, and zoom in as needed, to fine tune the selected location..
Route, Track and Waypoint management
The Dakota 20 has the same excellent route, track and waypoint management tools found on the Oregon series. These include:
- Waypoints – The ability to project a waypoint, and to reposition one at your current location.
- Tracks – You can choose to hide or show a track on the map and give it a custom color (17 colors are available). The image at the right shows the View Track preview option.
- Routes – You can view a map of the entire route, edit the route, reverse it and view an elevation plot.
Dakota 20 tri-axial compass
Having a tri-axial compass means you don’t have to hold the unit level while navigating. Here’s a quick video showing the calibration process:
Geocaching with the Dakota 20
The Dakota is set up for full paperless geocaching support, meaning you can see the description, logs, and hint, and you can log your attempt (find, DNF, etc.) for later transfer back to geocaching.com. Speaking of which, full access to these features requires a premium membership at geocaching.com. Shown below, clockwise from top left: Closest geocaches, geocache description, menu for a specific cache, and preview map.
Wireless data transfer
The Dakota 20 is capable of wireless data transfer with other compatible Garmin units. You can transfer waypoints, tracks, routes and geocache summaries (paperless caching details cannot be transferred).
Free maps and custom maps
One of the nice things about the Dakota are two types of free maps for them….
GPS File Depot, mentioned earlier, has 1:24,000 scale topo maps posted for most of the US. I included a screen shot for one of these above in the touchscreen display section of this review.
Also of note, is the new ability to create and load custom raster maps to Garmin Colorado, Dakota and Oregon units, using their latest beta firmware.
GPS receiver and battery performance
Battery life was tested using fully charged 2,000 mAh Eneloop NiMH rechargeable batteries
Satellite lock was achieved in 14 seconds, with testing done under no canopy.
In tests for accuracy, the Dakota 20 performed very well. A sample comparison is shown below, matching it up against the Garmin 60CSx. Track point collection was set for five second intervals on both devices. This test took place under fairly dense canopy.
Since it’s very difficult to see the relevant details in such a small image, I’m providing links below where you can download the .gpx or .gdb (MapSource) files below. The 60CSx is in yellow and the Dakota track is red. While the Dakota went wide at one point by about 140 feet, the 60CSx exhibited much more “spidering” during stops, wandering around 240 feet at one point. Maybe my 60CSx is showing signs of age, but regardless of the comparison, I was quite impressed with the Dakota’s performance.
The track files are available at:
Garmin Dakota 20 pros
- Compact and light weight
- Tri-axial compass
- Barometric altimeter
- Great touch screen interface
- Slightly better sunlight visibility than Oregon series
- Ability to customize display and menus using profiles
- Excellent track management tools
- Paperless geocaching support
- Availability of free maps
- Accepts Garmin custom raster maps with v 3.22 beta
- Good battery life
Garmin Dakota 20 cons
- Much poorer sunlight visibility than eTrex and GPSMAP color units
- Small screen limits map area that can be seen
Recommendation
Highly recommended. The Dakota 20 is the first touch screen unit I’ve found suitable for fixed-mount, non-powered use (e.g., mountain bikes). It will also appeal to those looking to economize, or folks desiring a lightweight or more compact unit than the Oregon series. The Dakota is a great choice for hikers, bikers, geocachers and just about any other category of handheld users.
More Garmin Dakota 20 reviews
- Consumer-authored Garmin Dakota 20 reviews
- About.com gives a 4 out of 5 star rating in their Garmin Dakota 20 review
- A first impressions review of the Garmin Dakota 20
- Comparing the Garmin Dakota 20 to the DeLorme PN-40
- The Search Jaunt offers a brief review of the Dakota 20
- Testing the Dakota 20 on the ski slopes
- GPSInformation.org has posted a thorough Garmin Dakota 20 review
- BikeRadar gives a 3-1/2 out of 5 star rating in their Dakota 20 review
- RickRukes007 has posted a four part video review of the Garmin Dakota 20
- A Garmin Dakota 20 review on the Great Wall forum
- A Dakota 20 review from the creator of TopoFusion.com
- Lets Go Mobile has posted their own review of the Dakota 20
- Geocacher reviews of the Garmin Dakota 20
- A Garmin Dakota 20 review from a Laplander
I’ll be posting more hands on GPS reviews as they appear, but in the meantime, here are some…
Other Garmin Dakota 20 resources
- The Garmin Dakota 20 owners manual, in the language of your choice
- Compare the Dakota 20 to other Garmin mapping units
- This Garmin Dakota wiki includes a message forum
- An interactive Garmin Dakota demo page
- The official Garmin Dakota 20 web page
- Garmin Dakota training videos
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About Rich Owings
Does the size/weight differnece feel significant? Would it be more comfortable carrying this around?
It does. Despite the smaller screen, I liked it as much (or more) than my Oregon. I can’t really explain why, but maybe it was size/weight.
Most thorough review of the Dakota I’ve seen to date–thank you. At REI yesterday, I had a Dakota and an Oregon in each hand, and it seemed to me the Dakota had slightly lower resolution, most noticeable in the text. Have you noticed? Does it matter? And did the smaller screen size seem to matter?
Thank you!
Yes, it does have a little lower resolution. I should have mentioned that. It’s the reason visibility is better too. I don’t think the resolution is a big deal.
The only place the screen size really seemed to matter is in the map view, and a little bit when entering data.
Rich,
Great review as usual. One tip which might help when you are using the built-in Garmin Topos. If you go to Setup>Map>Advanced Map Setup>Zoom Levels>Land Cover and turn it off you shouldn’t see the green background any longer. I add this to my “sunlight” profile.
-Scott
And yes, the resolutions are different. The Dakota is about 112dpi and the Oregon is 156dpi.
Thanks Scott. Good tip! I added it above.
On the basis of the review, I bought one. But on the basis of the data management, I’m planning to return it. The following was confirmed by a Garmin rep this morning: If you download a bunch of waypoints, you see them on onscreen. Obviously. But if you download a bunch of tracks, they’re not visible until you set each one–Track Manager//Show on Map….one by one. For me, that defeats the advantage of a device that can hold 200 tracks.
I thought maybe BaseCamp would provide a fix. But that program, which replaces Mapsource for uploading data from the Dakota, is still a work in progress (and hasn’t been upgraded since August). For example, in Mapsource, I can change the symbol and other shared properties for multiple waypoints. Not so in BaseCamp. And when you download using BaseCamp, the process is painfully slow? Very slow and the program seems to freeze. The Garmin rep agreed that BaseMap is essentially in beta. No problem there, unless you marry a device to it. The Dakota and, apparently, the Oregon 500, are married–and it’s not a happy relationship.
That must have been your post on the Dakota wiki I saw this morning!
I’d have to check, but I think this is a problem with all Garmins, or certainly the latter ones. You have to set the tracks to show one by one. I would like to see the default behavior for this changed. I wonder if Garmin could be persuaded. I can see reasons why they might not want to do this, but they could make it the default for transfered tracks, as opposed to ones saved via the device.
I agree that BaseCamp is not quite there yet. I’m still using MapSource to transfer tracks.
>That must have been your post on the Dakota wiki I saw this morning!
It was–I didn’t want to post here until I had confirmed my suspicions with Garmin. Not sure about the Colorado and Oregon, but tracks downloaded from MapSource are defaulted to visible on my Etrex Vista HCX.
Re: Basemap on the Dakota–here’s Garmin’s statement on its site (see URL below):
“MapSource can’t receive tracks, waypoints, and routes from the Oregon 500 series and the Dakota series devices as MapSource only reads and writes to the Current.gpx file.”
A workaround is suggested–import in Basecamp, save to a .GDB, and open in MapSource. But this is one pain too many for me. I’m back to the eTrex until Garmin gets its software act together.
http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/support/searchsupport?search_key=dakota&Go=Submit
Thanks for the details. If I recall correctly, tracks transfered from MapSource to my 60CSx retain the color set for them in MapSource, but they don’t on the Dakota. Surely Garmin can fix this stuff. I will add that this isn’t unusual for a new platform; it typically takes a while to work out all the bugs. But you would think that these tried and true features would make it into the production release.
Completely agree, Rich. What’s odd is that the un-tried and true–the beta Custom Map feature–worked quite well. I walked around the block yesterday following my position on an onscreen raster map. Finally! I was delighted. So it didn’t even occur to me until later that evening that Dakota was looking to the future while failing the data management 101.
Dakota 20 touchscreen…maybe it’s me, but I’m having a hard time with the touchscreen. I touch a selection, and the one above it is activated. Happens alot. Trying to input data is a complete joke. Like I said, maybe I have to practice it, or something, but right now, I’m not too happy. I had a similar problem with a touch screen phone. Ended up returning it.
I find that the more precise I try to be with touchscreens, the worse it gets. If I try using my fingertips/fingernail, I have less success than if I just touch it. On my new Droid I find that I have to aim a little high, but after a week’s use, I’m pretty accurate with it now.
i had that problem. Turns out someone had calibrated wrong. There is an option in the setup menu somewhere to calibrate the tougchscreen. After that it works fine
I will never buy anything with a resistive touchscreen. Ever. If Garmin turns their whole lineup into resistive touchscreens, I guess I just won’t buy anything from Garmin again.
I do not like is the way you do multi’s. You have to go back to the cache page and find the info. Or did they change that? The PN-40 you just go to the cache page and change the coords. Then have all the info right there.
Afraid I didn’t test multis on it.
Which model I should buy for skiing, biking, hiking-
60CSx,oregon 300,Dakota 20?
Thanks
I’d go with the Dakota, though the smaller touch screen might be tough with gloves when skiing.
Similar question to the previoulsy one. Which model do you recommend if I would only use it in agriaculture and when workingb in the forrest (use it to find borders of the property)?
I am consider the 60CSx, Oregon 400, Dakota 20
Thanks in advance
Tough call. Probably the 60CSx, even though they’ve changed the chipset they are using now (which may make it comparable to the other two you mentioned in terms of accuracy). Be aware that your accuracy is likely to be no better than 20-30′ under canopy with any of these models.
I do find the 60CSx to be more reliable for elevation readings (in case you are in a mountainous area).
Oops, forgot to say that the size is irrelevant.
Is the worldwide basemap that comes with the Dakota and the Oregons the same? Can you see shaded relieves on the Dakota basemap? And do you have 3D view in the Dakota, and if not is it a big drawback?
The basemap should be the same. And yes, there is shaded relief on the Dakota. It doesn’t have 3D, but you won’t be missing anything there; it’s pretty useless.
Thanks Rich.
It seems there aren’t almost any substantial differences between the Dakota 20 and the Oregons (at least the 300). I wonder why Garmin describes the Dakotas as ‘entry level’ and the Oregons as ‘advanced’? Is it really justified? Is the Dakota 20 really an entry level GPS, whatever they mean by entry level?
I’m considering either a Dakota 20 and an Oregon, and for what I’ve read the Dakota 20 seems just fine, the only thing that makes me hesitate is the screen size (and to a lesser extent its resolution).
I want the GPS primarily for hiking, including hiking in remote wilderness areas (mountains, desert, jungle, etc). Which device would you recommend?
Many thanks!
I think they consider it entry level because of the screen size. I really like the Dakota a lot, but I’m a biker and the more legible screen makes a big difference in a fixed mount situation. For desert hiking, the Dakota might be nice for the same reason — easier to view in very bright conditions. It also has the tri-axial compass, so you don’t have to hold it level, though calibration is more of a pain. The Oregon has the bigger screen, but is heavier and bulkier. Those are the trade offs I see. Hope that helps!
New to hiker gps units, looking for something that would also allow for overlay of property boundries for gc ing or metal detecting. Any recomendations ?