Garmin Rino 530 Handheld GPS Navigator and 2-Way Radio

i currently own a rino 110, 130 and most recently the 530. i smile every time i use it. the color monitor is beautiful. all the new features are state of the art. "nothing short of awesome". thank you garmin. erick l. larson

My recently acquired RINO 530 unit frequently locks up when in use in the field. Sometimes I can use the power button to reset it, but other times I have to remove the battery to get it to reset. If you are relying on this to keep in emergency contact with other hunters and/or hikers, be prepared to check it frequently, as when it locks up, the radio also ceases to operate. I notice from other reviews of RINOs (eg the 130) that this is a family problem.

Another more serious design flaw is that the antenna has already worked loose after just 4 days of use in the field. Perhaps this is because I used it to pull the unit out of my pocket (but given the size of the 530 with it Li-ion brick pack, that's about the only way to get it out). The antenna (actually the rubber cover) is merely glued to the top of the unit, and as the antenna flexes under normal use, its just a matter of time before it will come off. There are few glues that can stick to flexible rubber well, and this is not one of them. This clearly does not live up to the 'ruggedness' claims in Garmin's specs.

I liked the features this unit offers; great color display (with day and night settings changing at sundown to aid visibility), great battery life (never a strong point for its etrex models), and a powerful radio. Also, it's very fast at acquiring satellite signals by virtue of it's 2D -> 3D mode transitional lock; something my eTrex Legend had been very slow to do. However, given the two problems noted above, I must return this to the manufacturer and wait for a better offering. That's a shame as Garmin have cornered the market for integrated radio/GPS devices, so I can only hope they get this ready for market before the next season is upon us.

This review covers the version 2.20 firmware released Nov 22 2005 and still current as of today (2/27/06).

I already owned a RINO 130 which I was mostly happy with, and my wife bought me the 530 as an upgrade. My biggest complaints about the 130 were the serial download and the lack of auto-routing. The 530 was supposed to fix both of those and then some (plus color!), so I was very optimistic. The product, with firmware 2.2, is however a complete disaster.

So - the good things first off. The USB interface works great. The original 100 series of RINOs should have never been released with serial interfaces, so it is nice that they finally fixed it. It used to take 1 hour 20 minutes to download a mapset to the 130 (24MB), and I can do 50MB to the 530 in a couple of minutes. Also very nice is that you can overlay maps (MetroGuide and Topo for instance) and select between then. On the older 130 you would have to replace them over the serial port which was a huge nuisance. The color screen is really much nicer than the monochrome LCD. And the Li Battery pack is nice, although for me it means I have to buy the AA pack because I intend to use it for weeklong trips without recharging. The walkie-talkie range is much improved over the original. Still nowhere near the claims, but improved. Also good, and unexpected, is the GPS works much better. The old unit had to be windshielf mounted in a car, this one works in your lap in the front seat.

And now - why you shouldn't even consider buying it until a new firmware comes out ....

1) Screen redraw problems? Yep. Lockups requiring the battery to be removed? Yep. Crashes requiring a power cycle? You bet. On a 4 hour week last saturday I noticed that approximately 15% of the time I hit the "push-to-talk" button it would cause the screen to blank out completely. The buttons still made proper noises, and the walkie-talkie would still send and receive, but the display showed nothing. That meant ~20 times I had to power cycle the device to get the display back, on a single afternoon hike. This is all kinds of unacceptable. Trying to find addresses or intersections on it would result in the device hanging indefinately with all buttons non-responsive. And often times the GPS screen would just refuse to redraw (everything else would work, and all other screens, just no map).

2) Auto-routing. Where to start with this? This is worse than useless, as it actually breaks functionality that worked on the Rino 130 (namely, you could use your PC to calculate a route and download it). There are so many things wrong here. My *belief* is that the 530 unit, regardless of what maps you have downloaded to it, will only routefind with its built in mapset, which only has major highways. So you will never get directions that include specific streets of freeway exits. Even better - the algorithm to routefind appears to be "find nearest freeway and direct person to that freeway as the crow flys". So if you are 5 miles south of your target, and the nearest freeway is 10 miles north of your target, it will advise you to "drive 15 miles north to freeway". You can be 10 feet away from your target and it will still send you to a freeway. Fine, no problem I thought. I will just download a route from my computer onto it. WRONG. As soon as you try to activate a route it immediately attempts to recalculate it, and you end up with either a) no route at all and just an arrow pointing you towards your target or b) the same horrible highway only routes which have a tendency to take you 2x the distance you need. Not a problem with the "optimize for time or distance" either, I went through every combination of options for routing.

Bug reports to garmin over the issues have so far gone unreturned, so garmin's customer service isn't exactly recommended either.

I'll post a new review of any furthur firmware revisions.

Don't regret not reading the above bad reviews on this product.
All of is true. The lockup's the high price, it all adds up to DON'T BUY THIS, it's not ready for prime time.

I purchased my Garmin Rino 530 in March '06 hoping to use it on my spring turkey hunts. When using the radio the screen would go blank and I would have to remove the battery to get it to work again. I called Garmin and they exchanged it for a new unit. Again the new 530 screen would become corrupt and the go blank while talking on the radio. I sent this one back and the sent me a new one. Now on unit number 3, guess what it does... screen become corrupt then goes blank while talking on the radio!!! Each time I sent a unit back they claim it is performing as it is supposed to. I'm at a loss what to do. My Rino 110 works well.

This is my first rhino and I'm quite pleased with it. I've used it for hiking, geocaching, and hunting. It does everything I want and I keep finding more stuff. I'm happy enough with the mapping, the radio makes it a fantastic piece of equipment.

A notable bit was a recent Oryx hunt in new mexico. We had 4 rhinos and 4 people, weird when it works out. Tracking the other guys while trudging through the desert was very valuable. Transmitting locations made for easy rendevous with each other, water, and vehicle. We could also split up to scout and share the coordinates of sightings.

Next hunt will be about two weeks for elk and deer. I'll need a 12V charger and adaper for alkaline batteries.

I've yet to experience a lock up. My rhino, however, has experienced rain, dust, heat, and drunken button mashing.

If I could change anything, I would disable/protect the cursor button thing. The unit has a "lock" option that helps, but doesn't go far enough. Every time it gets hit, the unit responds - even if only to tell me how to unlock. It was infuraiating before I figured out how to mute it.

I have had nothing but good luck with this unit!! I have had it "lock" up on me only once, and that was while duck hunting in -4 degree temperature. I love the color screen, the temperature readout is great, the weather radio gives the forcasts in my area which is awesome, I love the electronic compass part of it, the base map is pretty good, it shows all of the major turnoffs off of highways and interstates. I have owned the 120, and 130 also and this 530 beats them all!! I have brought this new unit elk hunting, deer hunting, duck hunting, goose hunting, crane hunting, turkey hunting, camping, to the lakes for fishing and boating, several cross country trips and vacations, and too many scouting "adventures" to count. The lithium battery lasts a LONG time (when using GPS only), and I can usually hike back to get to a 12V adapter and get it charged (either in the truck or on the 4 wheeler). I have recommended this unit and all of the rino's to several people. My father in law has one for hunting communication and always being able to find each other on the map. It has been awesome!!!!

I own the Rhino 120 and was looking for a second unit. the 530 has everything anyone could ask for in a two way/gps. On a recent fishing trip in the Bahamas I was able to keep in contact with my family from 8 miles away!
Juat great

The 530 has tremendous capabilities, and works well. Easy to learn and use. Have had some lock-ups that required the battery to be removed and reinserted. Operations returned to normal. They do need a software fix for this problem, but it is still the best there is.

As advertised and reviewed by others. This is Garmin's top of the line in this type GPS unit. Good product.

This is my second set of Garmin radios. I have had the 120's for a couple years now and had to try out the new 530's.

First of all I really like the new color screen and the added features. The altimeter has been upgraded over the 120's and seems to be more accurate. My old 120's sitting right next to each other would display different altitudes. I would not use the data to survey a site but it is more accurate than the older models. We do a quite a bit of skiing an the altitude displays are helpful when your on the lifts or trying to figure out how many vertical feet you have skied. Especially if your using different lifts and not going all the way to the top.

The new compass is also helpful. With the older models you would have to be moving for the compass to work right. After calibrating the new compass (turning in a circle) it will work just like a regular compass. I still carry a regular one in my pack while hiking as a backup, but the compass on the 530 works great and has not let me down. You can also route off the compass by lining up the sites on the 530 with where you want to go. The 530 will then guide you there and keep you on track if bush whacking and can't see your next way point.

As with all the Rino radios the microphone is a little on the weak side. I really think it's because of the waterproofing that they do. If you don't put it close to your mouth when speaking it's really not that bad. I did pick up a pair of throat mics and they have solved any problems at all with clear communications.

Lock up problem. I have experienced this once or twice the first time I used them. I did the Garmin update and have not had the problem since.

Overall these new 530's are GREAT. I have been using them for close to 2 months every weekend and sometimes during the week. Now that I have 4 of these (2 120's and 2 530's) these things are a blast to have when we are with a group. Looking forward to the ski slopes this winter. We always seem to get separated at some point and never find each other for hours.

If you do a lot of outdoor activities or any Geocaching with more than one person these are perfect!!

[...]




I purchased the 530 after finding out that a new firmware edition had come out. The GPS was working fine. The screen didn't blank out when using the radio. However, when I was using my radio to communicate with a Rino520, the voice transmission from my radio was garbled and had a lot of background noise. I verified the channel codes, even turned off the "scramble" mode and the radio still did not transmit properly. I could hear fine from my 530, I just couldn't communicate out from it.

From the problems I've read about, it seems like Garmin still needs to work out some bugs and get quality control issues resolved.

To build upon the reviews as listed below, I will expand on them to say that even with the lastest firmware the issues till exist and Garmin cannot get it fixed.

The hardware radio section is also pitiful and is out of deviation.

But probably the worst part of it all is that after five total sets sent to me from customer service as well as 5 sets returned for various firmware and hardware issues. Garmin cannot seem to get the quality control correct.

Worse than that is a set that was supposedly CHECKED by a service tech and listed in the report as OPERATIONAL withing spec. Out of the box was failing....that is terrible customer service and technical help.

I love the idea of the Garmin 530 and would buy two more in a second * IF * they correct all the known bugs and issues with the product. I do not belive they can and or will and Garmin appears to be in denial about this product.

Stay away from this item until you hear that they have taken the bull by the horns and corrected this product.

Let me start by saying I was excited to get this product for an upcoming ski outing where four of us including two children were going. I imagined myself able to locate the kids when we tried to meet up, or find them if we got lost (or god forbid worse). I bought two from Amazon and bought two more from a local retailer while waiting for the Amazon order to arrive. I took my girlfriend's niece out for a practice run to see how they all worked...five minutes later mine locked up. I went and found my niece..."Uncle XXXX, why does the screen look all funny" The units from the local retailer had a problem with the screen locking up...so I exchanged them, but then, so did the two I got in exchange. I thought perhaps I got a bad batch from the local store, but when the Amazon units arrived, they had the same problem. We took them out for a stroll with some friends from MBA school...the unanimous opinion after a few minutes of test use by late 20 year old and early 30s self proclaimed gear lovers..."dude, these %&#!".

Forget, locating the people in your party, even if all your friends are incredibly patient geeks. (I should know, I was so excited when I ordered the radios that I applied immediately for a GMRS license with the FCC). The Rino 530's simply don't work well. A combined GPS and family radio seems like such a great concept for a product, but at $400 a unit, they are pathetic. $1600 for four units bought me disappointment, frustration, trips to the store and time on the phone with customer service agents who act surprised that there is a problem. Frankly, the GPS is useless because the screen flips out every seven minutes. You have to stop, remove the belt clip and take the battery off the back and reboot...then it happens all over again a few minutes later. The product becomes a real distraction instead of an enhancement to your outdoor activity...You wind up thinking how great it was when you had $20 radios that worked.

I spoke with three Garmin reps who denied they knew of any problem, one told me it was a complicated piece of equipment and occasional crashes were to be expected. Every seven minutes? Come on, Windows 95 was more stable than that. Finally, I got a guy on the phone who said, "Oh yeah, there's a problem with the 530's, you should avail yourself of the local return policy if you can. If not we can send you some more, but I can't make any promises." He explained that they are having an issue with the electric signal to the LCD and said they are trying to develop a firmware solution. Reading the other reviews, I'd guess they've been unsuccessfully working on one for more than a year now...and through multiple software releases. I am not holding my breath for working a firmware repair.

I've certainly bought products that had bugs and got better with firmware releases (Linksys routers for instance, Palm Treo's) but this is no $50 router, (or generally stable $400 phone) and frankly, I have to reset my router once every four months at most. This product is really bad, I wish it were better because the concept is great, but I would strongly urge anyone considering this purchase to keep your money and save yourself the headache.


I bought this for my husband's birthday. We gave our old one Rino 150 to our son who is a Boy Scout. My husband is the Asst Scoutmaster and they go on a ton of hiking and camping trips together. The 530 has a large color screen and we can link the two Rino's together in case our son gets lost. The gps maps link together and they have a walkie-talkie feature. All our son has to do is click a button and my husband can see where he is on the gps map. My husband clicks back to our son and now our son knows where dad is and can follow the arrows back to dad, and vice versa. I highly recommend this product and we are very happy with all the features, especially the safety aspect with our Scout!

I bought this for my husband's birthday. We gave our old one Rino 150 to our son who is a Boy Scout. My husband is the Asst Scoutmaster and they go on a ton of hiking and camping trips together. The 530 has a large color screen and we can link the two Rino's together in case our son gets lost. The gps maps link together and they have a walkie-talkie feature. All our son has to do is click a button and my husband can see where he is on the gps map. My husband clicks back to our son and now our son knows where dad is and can follow the arrows back to dad, and vice versa. I highly recommend this product and we are very happy with all the features, especially the safety aspect with our Scout!

Let me start by saying I was excited to get this product for an upcoming ski outing where four of us including two children were going. I imagined myself able to locate the kids when we tried to meet up, or find them if we got lost (or god forbid worse). I bought two from Amazon and bought two more from a local retailer while waiting for the Amazon order to arrive. I took my girlfriend's niece out for a practice run to see how they all worked...five minutes later mine locked up. I went and found my niece..."Uncle XXXX, why does the screen look all funny" The units from the local retailer had a problem with the screen locking up...so I exchanged them, but then, so did the two I got in exchange. I thought perhaps I got a bad batch from the local store, but when the Amazon units arrived, they had the same problem. We took them out for a stroll with some friends from MBA school...the unanimous opinion after a few minutes of test use by late 20 year old and early 30s self proclaimed gear lovers..."dude, these %&#!".

Forget, locating the people in your party, even if all your friends are incredibly patient geeks. (I should know, I was so excited when I ordered the radios that I applied immediately for a GMRS license with the FCC). The Rino 530's simply don't work well. A combined GPS and family radio seems like such a great concept for a product, but at $400 a unit, they are pathetic. $1600 for four units bought me disappointment, frustration, trips to the store and time on the phone with customer service agents who act surprised that there is a problem. Frankly, the GPS is useless because the screen flips out every seven minutes. You have to stop, remove the belt clip and take the battery off the back and reboot...then it happens all over again a few minutes later. The product becomes a real distraction instead of an enhancement to your outdoor activity...You wind up thinking how great it was when you had $20 radios that worked.

I spoke with three Garmin reps who denied they knew of any problem, one told me it was a complicated piece of equipment and occasional crashes were to be expected. Every seven minutes? Come on, Windows 95 was more stable than that. Finally, I got a guy on the phone who said, "Oh yeah, there's a problem with the 530's, you should avail yourself of the local return policy if you can. If not we can send you some more, but I can't make any promises." He explained that they are having an issue with the electric signal to the LCD and said they are trying to develop a firmware solution. Reading the other reviews, I'd guess they've been unsuccessfully working on one for more than a year now...and through multiple software releases. I am not holding my breath for working a firmware repair.

I've certainly bought products that had bugs and got better with firmware releases (Linksys routers for instance, Palm Treo's) but this is no $50 router, (or generally stable $400 phone) and frankly, I have to reset my router once every four months at most. This product is really bad, I wish it were better because the concept is great, but I would strongly urge anyone considering this purchase to keep your money and save yourself the headache.


To build upon the reviews as listed below, I will expand on them to say that even with the lastest firmware the issues till exist and Garmin cannot get it fixed.

The hardware radio section is also pitiful and is out of deviation.

But probably the worst part of it all is that after five total sets sent to me from customer service as well as 5 sets returned for various firmware and hardware issues. Garmin cannot seem to get the quality control correct.

Worse than that is a set that was supposedly CHECKED by a service tech and listed in the report as OPERATIONAL withing spec. Out of the box was failing....that is terrible customer service and technical help.

I love the idea of the Garmin 530 and would buy two more in a second * IF * they correct all the known bugs and issues with the product. I do not belive they can and or will and Garmin appears to be in denial about this product.

Stay away from this item until you hear that they have taken the bull by the horns and corrected this product.

I own the Rhino 120 and was looking for a second unit. the 530 has everything anyone could ask for in a two way/gps. On a recent fishing trip in the Bahamas I was able to keep in contact with my family from 8 miles away!
Juat great

The 530 has tremendous capabilities, and works well. Easy to learn and use. Have had some lock-ups that required the battery to be removed and reinserted. Operations returned to normal. They do need a software fix for this problem, but it is still the best there is.

As advertised and reviewed by others. This is Garmin's top of the line in this type GPS unit. Good product.

This is my second set of Garmin radios. I have had the 120's for a couple years now and had to try out the new 530's.

First of all I really like the new color screen and the added features. The altimeter has been upgraded over the 120's and seems to be more accurate. My old 120's sitting right next to each other would display different altitudes. I would not use the data to survey a site but it is more accurate than the older models. We do a quite a bit of skiing an the altitude displays are helpful when your on the lifts or trying to figure out how many vertical feet you have skied. Especially if your using different lifts and not going all the way to the top.

The new compass is also helpful. With the older models you would have to be moving for the compass to work right. After calibrating the new compass (turning in a circle) it will work just like a regular compass. I still carry a regular one in my pack while hiking as a backup, but the compass on the 530 works great and has not let me down. You can also route off the compass by lining up the sites on the 530 with where you want to go. The 530 will then guide you there and keep you on track if bush whacking and can't see your next way point.

As with all the Rino radios the microphone is a little on the weak side. I really think it's because of the waterproofing that they do. If you don't put it close to your mouth when speaking it's really not that bad. I did pick up a pair of throat mics and they have solved any problems at all with clear communications.

Lock up problem. I have experienced this once or twice the first time I used them. I did the Garmin update and have not had the problem since.

Overall these new 530's are GREAT. I have been using them for close to 2 months every weekend and sometimes during the week. Now that I have 4 of these (2 120's and 2 530's) these things are a blast to have when we are with a group. Looking forward to the ski slopes this winter. We always seem to get separated at some point and never find each other for hours.

If you do a lot of outdoor activities or any Geocaching with more than one person these are perfect!!

[...]




I purchased the 530 after finding out that a new firmware edition had come out. The GPS was working fine. The screen didn't blank out when using the radio. However, when I was using my radio to communicate with a Rino520, the voice transmission from my radio was garbled and had a lot of background noise. I verified the channel codes, even turned off the "scramble" mode and the radio still did not transmit properly. I could hear fine from my 530, I just couldn't communicate out from it.

From the problems I've read about, it seems like Garmin still needs to work out some bugs and get quality control issues resolved.

This is my first rhino and I'm quite pleased with it. I've used it for hiking, geocaching, and hunting. It does everything I want and I keep finding more stuff. I'm happy enough with the mapping, the radio makes it a fantastic piece of equipment.

A notable bit was a recent Oryx hunt in new mexico. We had 4 rhinos and 4 people, weird when it works out. Tracking the other guys while trudging through the desert was very valuable. Transmitting locations made for easy rendevous with each other, water, and vehicle. We could also split up to scout and share the coordinates of sightings.

Next hunt will be about two weeks for elk and deer. I'll need a 12V charger and adaper for alkaline batteries.

I've yet to experience a lock up. My rhino, however, has experienced rain, dust, heat, and drunken button mashing.

If I could change anything, I would disable/protect the cursor button thing. The unit has a "lock" option that helps, but doesn't go far enough. Every time it gets hit, the unit responds - even if only to tell me how to unlock. It was infuraiating before I figured out how to mute it.

I have had nothing but good luck with this unit!! I have had it "lock" up on me only once, and that was while duck hunting in -4 degree temperature. I love the color screen, the temperature readout is great, the weather radio gives the forcasts in my area which is awesome, I love the electronic compass part of it, the base map is pretty good, it shows all of the major turnoffs off of highways and interstates. I have owned the 120, and 130 also and this 530 beats them all!! I have brought this new unit elk hunting, deer hunting, duck hunting, goose hunting, crane hunting, turkey hunting, camping, to the lakes for fishing and boating, several cross country trips and vacations, and too many scouting "adventures" to count. The lithium battery lasts a LONG time (when using GPS only), and I can usually hike back to get to a 12V adapter and get it charged (either in the truck or on the 4 wheeler). I have recommended this unit and all of the rino's to several people. My father in law has one for hunting communication and always being able to find each other on the map. It has been awesome!!!!

Don't regret not reading the above bad reviews on this product.
All of is true. The lockup's the high price, it all adds up to DON'T BUY THIS, it's not ready for prime time.

I purchased my Garmin Rino 530 in March '06 hoping to use it on my spring turkey hunts. When using the radio the screen would go blank and I would have to remove the battery to get it to work again. I called Garmin and they exchanged it for a new unit. Again the new 530 screen would become corrupt and the go blank while talking on the radio. I sent this one back and the sent me a new one. Now on unit number 3, guess what it does... screen become corrupt then goes blank while talking on the radio!!! Each time I sent a unit back they claim it is performing as it is supposed to. I'm at a loss what to do. My Rino 110 works well.

This review covers the version 2.20 firmware released Nov 22 2005 and still current as of today (2/27/06).

I already owned a RINO 130 which I was mostly happy with, and my wife bought me the 530 as an upgrade. My biggest complaints about the 130 were the serial download and the lack of auto-routing. The 530 was supposed to fix both of those and then some (plus color!), so I was very optimistic. The product, with firmware 2.2, is however a complete disaster.

So - the good things first off. The USB interface works great. The original 100 series of RINOs should have never been released with serial interfaces, so it is nice that they finally fixed it. It used to take 1 hour 20 minutes to download a mapset to the 130 (24MB), and I can do 50MB to the 530 in a couple of minutes. Also very nice is that you can overlay maps (MetroGuide and Topo for instance) and select between then. On the older 130 you would have to replace them over the serial port which was a huge nuisance. The color screen is really much nicer than the monochrome LCD. And the Li Battery pack is nice, although for me it means I have to buy the AA pack because I intend to use it for weeklong trips without recharging. The walkie-talkie range is much improved over the original. Still nowhere near the claims, but improved. Also good, and unexpected, is the GPS works much better. The old unit had to be windshielf mounted in a car, this one works in your lap in the front seat.

And now - why you shouldn't even consider buying it until a new firmware comes out ....

1) Screen redraw problems? Yep. Lockups requiring the battery to be removed? Yep. Crashes requiring a power cycle? You bet. On a 4 hour week last saturday I noticed that approximately 15% of the time I hit the "push-to-talk" button it would cause the screen to blank out completely. The buttons still made proper noises, and the walkie-talkie would still send and receive, but the display showed nothing. That meant ~20 times I had to power cycle the device to get the display back, on a single afternoon hike. This is all kinds of unacceptable. Trying to find addresses or intersections on it would result in the device hanging indefinately with all buttons non-responsive. And often times the GPS screen would just refuse to redraw (everything else would work, and all other screens, just no map).

2) Auto-routing. Where to start with this? This is worse than useless, as it actually breaks functionality that worked on the Rino 130 (namely, you could use your PC to calculate a route and download it). There are so many things wrong here. My *belief* is that the 530 unit, regardless of what maps you have downloaded to it, will only routefind with its built in mapset, which only has major highways. So you will never get directions that include specific streets of freeway exits. Even better - the algorithm to routefind appears to be "find nearest freeway and direct person to that freeway as the crow flys". So if you are 5 miles south of your target, and the nearest freeway is 10 miles north of your target, it will advise you to "drive 15 miles north to freeway". You can be 10 feet away from your target and it will still send you to a freeway. Fine, no problem I thought. I will just download a route from my computer onto it. WRONG. As soon as you try to activate a route it immediately attempts to recalculate it, and you end up with either a) no route at all and just an arrow pointing you towards your target or b) the same horrible highway only routes which have a tendency to take you 2x the distance you need. Not a problem with the "optimize for time or distance" either, I went through every combination of options for routing.

Bug reports to garmin over the issues have so far gone unreturned, so garmin's customer service isn't exactly recommended either.

I'll post a new review of any furthur firmware revisions.

My recently acquired RINO 530 unit frequently locks up when in use in the field. Sometimes I can use the power button to reset it, but other times I have to remove the battery to get it to reset. If you are relying on this to keep in emergency contact with other hunters and/or hikers, be prepared to check it frequently, as when it locks up, the radio also ceases to operate. I notice from other reviews of RINOs (eg the 130) that this is a family problem.

Another more serious design flaw is that the antenna has already worked loose after just 4 days of use in the field. Perhaps this is because I used it to pull the unit out of my pocket (but given the size of the 530 with it Li-ion brick pack, that's about the only way to get it out). The antenna (actually the rubber cover) is merely glued to the top of the unit, and as the antenna flexes under normal use, its just a matter of time before it will come off. There are few glues that can stick to flexible rubber well, and this is not one of them. This clearly does not live up to the 'ruggedness' claims in Garmin's specs.

I liked the features this unit offers; great color display (with day and night settings changing at sundown to aid visibility), great battery life (never a strong point for its etrex models), and a powerful radio. Also, it's very fast at acquiring satellite signals by virtue of it's 2D -> 3D mode transitional lock; something my eTrex Legend had been very slow to do. However, given the two problems noted above, I must return this to the manufacturer and wait for a better offering. That's a shame as Garmin have cornered the market for integrated radio/GPS devices, so I can only hope they get this ready for market before the next season is upon us.

i currently own a rino 110, 130 and most recently the 530. i smile every time i use it. the color monitor is beautiful. all the new features are state of the art. "nothing short of awesome". thank you garmin. erick l. larson