Xuhal Compass Hiking Survival Compass Military Grade Lensatic Sighting Compass Tactical Army Green Metal Compass with Carrying Bag Manual Lanyard Waterproof Shakeproof Compass for Camping Trip Outdoor

This has all the goods. Everything you need to get your bearings and navigate on land. It has all the bells and whistles (minus a whistle and a mirror, which I've seen elsewhere), but it has more than that - it is legitimately the kind of tool used by map makers and geologists. I really am impressed and can't wait to put it to use!

Everything is so small you need a magnifying glass. Too much plastic to take any ruff treatment. The manual fonts are impossible to read. Very disappointed 😔

When I received my Xuhal Multifunctional Survival Compass, I was certain I was going to like it. On the face of it, it checks a lot of boxes for a “good” navigation instrument—metal construction, allegedly “shock proof” and “water proof,” operation from -30 deg C to +60 deg C, it features a “sapphire” bearing, a built-in bubble level and eyepiece for making precision measurements with the dial, a tripod mount, a lanyard ring and lanyard, and more, all in a halfway-decent storage pouch with a belt loop. I was prepared to crank out a five-star review... until closer inspection.Let’s start with the bubble level: On the compass I received, a centered bubble on the level resulted in the compass housing being visibly tilted--so far that the compass card bound up. Clearly there was something wrong here. On closer examination, I realized that the level itself was to blame. Either someone had been very careless when installing it into its pocket in the frame, or they did in fact install it properly, but then moved/manipulated the compass body before the glue had set, allowing the level to rise out of its pocket and skew to one side.I was able to work a sharp pick down into the gap between the level and the wall of the pocket and break the bubble capsule free. I cleaned the pocket, dabbed in some fresh glue, and pressed the capsule back in--this time the way it should have been. This largely corrected the leveling problem. However, my bubble capsule was subsequently left with a chip (on the periphery of its lens) that it acquired during my pry-out/removal effort--something I shouldn’t have been required to do in the first place.This is advertised as being a “metal compass.” That’s certainly true of the frame. However, the back cover is plastic. The degree wheel, while ringed in metal, is largely made of plastic as well. It’s retained by three click-fit “fingers,” also of plastic, that engage the frame. In my experience, construction like this eventually leads to failure when plastic dry-rots and becomes brittle. The compass capsule, by the way, is anchored to the plastic floor plate with what appears to be double-sided foam tape. (Whether this attachment method might also affect the correlation between instrument-level and the “level” where the compass card is free to spin is not clear, but I did not expect to find this.)The compass itself seems well-magnetized and I appreciate it’s assertiveness in seeking alignment with the ambient field. I note, however, that this compass reads somewhat different than a considerably better-made compass that I used as a comparative reference. I can’t speculate on the reason for this without breaking the capsule open (to understand the relationship between the dial card and its magnet), but I can envision several possible manufacturing errors that might explain this difference. Whatever the reason, this calls into question the true value of the dial-reading scope/viewer. What is the point of being able to resolve sub-degree differences on the dial card when the compass itself may be 3-5 degrees off?At the end of the day, a steel sewing needle, magnetized and set afloat on a piece of cork in a shallow bowl full of water, qualifies as a “compass.” In this regard, the Xuhal Multifunctional Survival Compass definitely qualifies, and in any “survival” situation, I confess that I’d absolutely prefer the Xuhal to the needle, cork, and bowl. It has a nice heft and look to it, and in some respects reminds me of old Soviet-era (true) military compasses I’ve seen. That said, adding more graduations to the dial of an instrument may look impressive, but they contribute nothing to precision if there are shortcomings in other aspects of the device’s construction.This compass is marketed as a “Tactical” and “Survival” instrument. That characterization may be overly-generous. I think this is a VERY nice, and basically functional, toy. It’s not something I’d wager my own life on (unless I had no other choice). Furthermore, I expect that even toys will be functional out-of-the-box and that it should not be necessary to alter/repair them before they’ve been used a single time.