Garmin Alpha 200i Dog Tracking Handheld, Utilizes inReach Technology, Sunlight-readable 3.6 Touchscreen (010-02230-50), Black

I upgraded recently to the 200i from the previous handheld. My old one lasted 8 plus years of daily use, but the startup had gotten very slow and it would just turn off on occasion.

I disliked the pre loaded maps. Contour lines are to far apart. For the money its a cheaper version of maps. I like everything else.

No problems

Let me say this....I have 2 beagles that love to do a walk about. 9 hours they return. Got tired of it, so purchased this as a Christmas present. It is WONDERFUL. I know exactly where they are and can buzz them and they return. Easy to set up and operate. Love the zone area. Alerts you when they leave the zone area!

The Alpha series is incompatible with OnX GPS chips. Who at Garmin thought this would be a good idea?!? Needs to be changed ASAP.

I have a Alpha 100 and now a Alpha 200. The Alpha 100 is a great product with a few shortcomings that have been eliminated with the Alpha 200. If you only have one dog the alpha 100 is a good choice but if you have more the Alpha 200 will work better. The Alpha 200 also has a bigger screen that is easier to see in sunlight. The only negative I now feel the Alpha 200 has is the inability to use ONX maps which I feel are superior to the Garmin maps.

I upgraded from an Alpha 100 to this 200i. Very very happy. Screen is more readable, not any brighter and the colors are more muted than the 100, but it’s still a bit easier to read and bigger. The touch screen works much better - more of an iPhone feel to it. Extra buttons are very nice to set up various functions while managing multiple dogs. Using WiFi to download Birdseye views is a winner. Just seems to work better than the 100 for that. Using Birdseye to help see where the dogs are is much more initiative than trying to interpret a topo map or something. Screen and function layout is better than the 100. The game changer for me is the iPhone integration. It displays map and dog tracking information directly to a paired iPhone using the Garmin Explorer app. Works great. I normally carry my iPhone when I hike with my dogs to take photos or talk on the phone or check email or whatever. Since is often already in my hand, having the dog data displayed there is awesome. And the map/tracking interface is easier to use on the larger iPhone screen. Serious hunters may not be carrying/using their iPhone, but for how I hike, this is awesome. Finally the form factor is more high tech. The soft rubbery surfaces of the 100 are replaced with hard plastic. It has a slicker look and feel. Nicer to have in hand. Hard to describe. For me the upgrade was totally worth it. Sold my 100 in a day on eBay, so it cut the upgrade cost to $400 - easy. For anyone choosing between the 100 and 200i, this seems the obvious choice. Hope this helps!

Best in class for working dogs; but nowhere close to the experience you can expect from a modern smart device

The manual is not very informative You have to go online to get enough information to operate. This is a very annoying practice by this company Why would you want a third party to explain your product

This is good for hunting in the field. But it is a little cumbersome. I have the Sport Pro as well for training. They are both great, but you need to know what you want to use them for. I only use the sport pro while training. Then switch to the Alpha when hunting.