Garmin announces the new GPSMAP 276Cx

Prety sure that was a deliberate choice.

=>They don't want you to operate it while riding.
=> Once you're hand holding it, right side makes sense for non-lefties.

ive seen zero people holding a 276 while hiking, geocaching, fire side conversing, cycling, motor cycling, paragliding, boating, hunting, or camping. I've seen LOTS of motorcyclist jabbing at touch screens while going down the road, if it were a safety thing i would expect the screens to be locked ;-)

It is an "all terrain GPS navigator". It is not a purpose built motorcycle GPS. Some of its features and capabilities are amenable to motorcycling- others not so much.

I use it a lot while at a tankstop, in my hotelroom, holding it with my left hand, and operating with my right one (my gps, that is).

cool, if we ever stop for fuel at the same place I'll have seen one!

I've found that with the GPS mounted on the left side handlebar, I can easily operate the buttons with my left hand while riding.

The hand is rested on the top middle of the unit, stabilized for pushing buttons with the thumb. Easy, quick and safer than trying to poke a special spot on a touchscreen. Very little time is spent looking at the 276cx, muscle memory will put your thumb where it needs to be. A prerequisite to safe 276cx operation on the fly is to have memorized the commonly used menus.

............shu

But in order to do so you actually have to own one and use it.

what operations are you doing from memory while riding ?

could always mount it upside down , then the left hand could access everything faster/easier and the brain will take care of the upside down image. totally intuitive operation !

Are you kidding? The 276Cx is still a pretty new device by Garmin standards. They haven't even updated the Montana lineup yet to have feature parity with the Oregon 700 that's been out since 2016.

--mark

Today I updated to 4.8. Unfortunatly the update crashed the files /garmin/text/German.gtt and /garmin/text/Portuguese.gtt. Does anyone with 4.8 active have these two file for me?

Which is really too bad. I first saw the device at Overland Expo, and Garmin basically sold the entire pile of units they brought the first day. There is obviously interest from the offroad market.

I get that the device is a niche device compared to the insane number of street going GPSs Garmin was making for a while. Given that phones have all but dried up their entire street GPS market, maybe they'll go back to what made their name to start with; aviation, marine, etc.

I think aviation and marine have been Garmin's bread and butter all along, and all the street units, motorcycle units, etc were an easy little side revenue stream for them for a while. That's slowly drying up, so their attention is shifting to GPS-enabled dog collars and smart watches as a side revenue stream. Meanwhile their primary interest is selling $20,000 avionics systems for aircraft.

--mark

the iPads are hurting them pretty good there also

For the guys who have a 276CX....

Does it have the best, brightest, easiest to see screen of any GPS?

Opinion: Yes.

yes

Yes. You can always read the screen, no matter the light conditions.

Also, I have found that the Zagg screen protector is better than Garmin`s, taking care of any glare while not reducing screen brightness.

Zagg does not make a protector specifically for the 276cx, so I bought one intended for a tablet and cut it down. Pricey but they last forever and work very well.

(Be very careful removing the Zagg. They stick hard. I know people have broken their Montana screens when trying to remove them. It can be done, though.)

.......shu

Yes. At least one thing that works.