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

The dog compass is useless. It’s not accurate at all. Calibrating the unit makes no difference. The rest is pretty cool but the device is slower than you’d like trying to access features on the screen. It’s like getting around on a 15 year old phone

Dog Group/Management, programmable training keys, Bluetooth transfer of tracks, WiFi downloads of satellite imagery, satellite messaging all great upgrades from alpha 100. Well worth the price despite a few lingering Garmin user interface idiosyncrasies.

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.

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.

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

Garmin definitely introduced a huge setback with these new 200 series. The do not accept any hunting maps like ONX or basemap. They make you buy their own branded crap called huntview plus. It’s terrible in comparison.

This has worked great training our black mouth cur puppy. location is very accurate. Recall training works exelent. Program able buttons make it easy to use. Blue tooth to the phone works well but seems unnecessary? Range is awesome. I would not get the 200i again now that the 200 out as I will never use the SOS feature because of the subscription cost.

Very pleased with product.

Bought this unit to be able to track, train, and use InReach. It does all those well. I do have to lock the touch screen to keep from changing things when I put it in the carrying case but locking the screen is a viable option to keep that from happening. When received, I had to go to Garmins site and update the software, but that is not unusual for Garmin products. Sometimes they come with out of date software or versions that were put in at the factory that may be off from the ones on Garmins website. Just be aware that you always need to check the software version upon arrival. Aside from that, this is a great multipurpose unit.

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.