Steven and Eric Talk About the Garmin Alpha 10 Handheld

Thanks for joining us today; we are Steven and Eric from Lion Country Supply. Today, we are excited to talk about Garmin’s brand new product, the Garmin Alpha 10. We are going to share some features with you today, how it works, some functionalities, and some of our experiences that we have already had with the device just to give you guys some good information on Garmin’s new product. I’m going to let Eric talk about some of the new features and then we can get into some of our experiences.

Eric: This is the new handheld in Garmin’s Alpha series. Like the other Alphas, it will still pair with your T5 and TT15 full size and mini collars. You can still track up to 20 dogs and it has a 2.5 second update rate. It has one training button and on that training button, you can customize what it does for each one of your dogs. You are able to switch on the fly, very similar to the other versions of the Alpha, but it only has one button instead of three like those ones. It will still connect to all your devices, like the other Alphas: your Fenix watch, Instinct Watch, Drive Track, and Tread.

Steven: Which is new and exciting (referring to the pairing with the Garmin Tread). It now has the dog feature to it.

Eric: Yeah, they just announced, so if you overland or run in side-by-sides that you’re hunting from, it’s great that they made it that their dog tracking units will work with that now. It (Garmin Alpha 10) has a pretty long battery life in the handheld. They say that you should need to charge it less often, whereas the other Alphas you get about a day out of them.

Steven: They are saying that you should be able to get about 40 hours out of this internal battery in the system.

Eric: You can also sync it with the Garmin Explore App, so while it doesn’t have maps itself on it, you can still use the app. Steven, you have played around with the app a little bit more so…

Steven: That is probably one of my feature things about this device. What I like about it is, you know, the functionality is that if you have a PRO 550 Plus or you have a Garmin Alpha 100 or Alpha 200i, you are familiar with Garmin’s products. It’s very similar, but it has it has some different functionalities, or different ways you go about training and tracking with it. It’s kind of a PRO 550 Plus turned into an Alpha, a little handheld size to it. But I love how the Garmin Explore App connects, because for most guys if you’re out there in the field, a lot of guys aren’t really looking to train their dog, or have the training features. It’s nice in that situation where you need to get your dog’s attention, so it still there if you need it in an emergency or if you do train in the field that you have that functionality. But it pairing with that Explore app for me is really nice because I basically have this clicked on my vest and its tracking my dogs. When I got home, I was able to pull up the Explore app and replay the hunt and see everything on my phone with the Explore app. I love that feature with it, I love how compact it is, how simple to use it is, and I’m really excited for Garmin to launch this now. I know you (Eric) have ran this with your dogs for a little bit, how did you feel about it?

Eric: I was running with bird dogs and I thought it was a great system for that. It was super easy to use. I don’t need maps a lot of the places that I go hunting; I’m just really looking for where the dog is and how far away they are from me. It was very seamless to use, even with multiple dogs, it was easy to switch between dogs and see where they were, if they had gotten out of bell range or out of sight it worked well for that.

Steven: I think that Garmin did a great job here coming out with a product this (referring to the Alpha 10). When you take it to the extreme you have the Alpha 200i, you have a system that has all the maps, you have the inReach feature in it, and you have multiple layers of correction with the three buttons across the top. I have one here to show you the size difference with it (Alpha 10).

Steven: You have all that in a complex system if you want all that when you’re out hunting. Then you go down to the PRO 550 Plus, where it is really a training handheld with a little tracking feature there. So, this (Alpha 10), I think, fits in well with when someone is looking for that, let’s call it the insurance for your dog, where it’s trained and it listens out in the field and you’re not really correcting all that much, but you want to know where they’re at if you need to. Like I said, the cool factor to me was the Explore app, pulling that up and seeing all that information when I was done hunting. It’s so small and compact, fits anywhere, clips anywhere, and you basically don’t even know that it’s there. I just think that Garmin has done a great job at creating a device for everybody. For someone that wants the complex, do everything, handheld which is the Alpha 200i. There is the PRO 550 Plus for the training guys that just want the tracking feature on there, and then the guys that just basically want an insurance measure, you know, something where it’s tracking their dogs all the time and if they need to correct their dog, it’s there, but if not, they’re okay and it’s light and compact.

Eric: One thing that differentiates this (Alpha 10) from the PRO 550 Plus is that you can waypoints in it. So, it allows you to mark waypoints, so if you’re looking for something small, compact, and simple, but yet you can still save waypoints and get yourself back to your truck, this unit has that compared to the PRO 550 Plus. It is a very simple unit that you can still use some basic navigation features with as well.

Steven: I’m glad you brought that up, because the other way that I used this unit in the field was, is I have a friend that has hounds and so I carry the 200i whenever I’m out with him with the hounds. It was nice because I actually took this device (the Garmin Alpha 10), it comes in box with a window mount and I kept it inside of my truck on the window mount, charging and paired up with the Drive Track. It was nice, because when I got out the pickup I had the Alpha 200i attached to my side, when I got back in the Alpha 10 was still connected to the Drive Track and still tracking the dogs. So, there wasn’t that lapse of Bluetooth connectivity that sometimes we see when getting in and out of the vehicle with these products. So that was a different way I use it (Alpha 10) that I really enjoyed as a second stand-alone tracking system on that side of it. A lot of great features, a lot of good things with this device. Again, I can’t stress how excited for Garmin I am about what they did here, bringing out something like this for folks that are just looking for something small and compact tracking there dogs, while still connecting to the Explore app for them. I think this is going to be a great product for them. Did you have anything else Eric that you wanted to go over?

Eric: No, I think that’s it.

Steven: Okay, good. If you guys have any questions please call us, 1-800-662-5202, or reach out to us on the website, www.lcsupply.com. Stay tuned for some additional videos about this product and the functions that come with it. Appreciate it and thank you!

Steve Stiner: LCS General Manager

Eric Munden: LCS Operations Manager

 

For more on the Garmin Alpha 10 handheld see, Introducing the Garmin Alpha 10 Handheld and Garmin Alpha 100 vs Alpha 10 Handhelds.