When the Oregon 450 came out, I was surprised that the visibility was significantly better than the flagship (albeit older) 550 series. I found that odd, and it now appears that Garmin is remedying the situation, with newer Oregon 550 series production runs receiving the 450’s improved screen. At least that’s the sense I’ve been getting, the latest evidence coming in a recent Groundspeak post.
I gave Garmin the opportunity to comment, but received little more than what they told me when I asked about the improved 450 screen…
…we’re continually striving to make great products even better through continuous software and hardware improvements.
I’ll take that as a non-denial. I assume Garmin is doing this because they want to retain the 550 series as the top of the line Oregon model (for the time being anyway). But such a move creates confusion among consumers. If I buy a 550 today, which screen will it have? At least when they changed the chipset on the 60CSx, you could tell which it had by the firmware version. This could be good news if you really want the geotagging camera found on the 550 series, but good luck determining which screen you got, unless you can do a side by side comparison with a 450 or older 550 series unit.
Late last year, Garmin rolled out 
brings the first major update to the GPSMAP handheld line in over four years. The reason for it taking so long is that 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. These new units brought the ability to add custom maps and aerial imagery, paperless geocaching, and high-resolution screens, but the latter made them less than bright (although the latest model, the 
The king is dead, long live the king. We now have visual evidence of the existence of the Garmin GPSMAP 62 series, including the successor to the long-reigning 
is a new entry-level version of Garmin’s popular GPS fitness / sports watch. It has a simplified menu and drops the touch-bezel interface of recent models, replacing them with four large buttons. It’s available with or without a heart-rate monitor and comes in several colors – Men’s red, Women’s pink or Unisex.
