GPS Devices Life

How Cool Is This Thing? Very Cool! Cool as Barrow, Alaska in February. No hiker, boater, traveler or “gadget-geek” should be without one.

The Legend is the mid to high-end model of the Garmin Etrex series of GPS receivers. As such, it has many additional features that the basic model doesn’t have. Costing about double the price of the basic model (after rebate savings), I think it is well worth the additional money.

Both have 12 channels which means that they can receive data from as many as 12 different satellites at a time. The more satellites, the higher the accuracy. Four satellites are required to provide good position and elevation data.

This is the second Tom Tom product that I am reviewing. Through unexpected circumstances I got this small GPS receiver in my hands about 3 months ago. It was bundled with a Nokia 6670 Smartphone and the TomTom Mobile software. The receiver is small and lightweight, nothing fancy. You can put it in your pocket, bag, on the dashboard of your car, anywhere within reach of your Smartphone / PDA.

I had the misfortune to spend a day with one of these gizmos awhile back. It belongs to my Son in law. It was one of the more unpleasant experiences I have had with a GPS unit and I have been using GPS gear (both civilian and military) for many years now. The Tomtom ONE taught me that sometimes it’s just better to be lost than to have a GPS unit. But we’ll get to that in a bit; first, some general information:

Magellan eXplorist 100 is an economical, easy-to-use GPS packaged in an attractive, compact case. If you lose it in the woods, it’s bright-orange case will stand out. If you drop it in the lake, don’t worry, it’s water proof to IPX-7 specifications (Protected against water immersion - Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter).

Although the eXplorist 100 is on the smallish side (about 30% smaller than the Meredian Gold) it has many of the same features as it’s $300 big brother. There is only one feature that is missing: a detailed map including streets, highways, airports, lakes, etc. The eXplorist 200 has this feature, but at a higher price. The 100 is the lowest priced Magellan and is geared more toward hikers and campers.

I bought the Magellan Meridian Gold and I had problems with the backlight so I called Tech Support and they sent me another Meridian Gold. To make a long story a little shorter I had 3 Meridian Gold GPS units, all with bad backlights, So I asked if they could send me an upgraded model and they said because I was so understanding they would upgrade me to the Platinum. I was very happy with the new Platinum and then one day I noticed the backlight doing the same thing as the Gold’s. I called Tech Support again and they new me by my first name and they informed me that they were getting the backlight boards from another vendor and I would not have anymore problems. They were right, I have owned it for about 4 months and everything is GREAT!!!!. I read a review about someone that said it was terrible for use in a vehicle, I don’t agree. I use it everyday for finding back roads and shortcuts in the mountains of rural N.E. Tennessee.

I think the basemap software could use a little tweaking, I do find some (poi’s) Points of Intrest in the wrong places, and some streets don’t come up while I’m driving down the street, but like I said I live in the mountains of rural TN. Even the local maps don’t have all of the roads on them. But I have owned 6 other GPS units and the things I love about this GPS is that it does have a very accurate compass that doesn’t have to be held in the horizontal position in fact I have my GPS mounted on my windshield via a Ram Suction cup mount. Also this GPS is waterproof, it even floats and YES it does eat batteries just like all the other GPS’s on the market. But Magellan does sell a very good power cord that plugs into a cigarette lighter. I use my backlight all the time at night, you can set it to stay on all the time or not. And the buttons are also lit.

I just purchased DirectRoute software and it works better than I expected iy would. You just punch an address or an intersection or scroll the cursor to a (poi) and it will give you turn by turn directions and will calculate your ETA according to the speed you are traveling. Actually this GPS has so much useful info that you just have to go play with one. And after you buy one you will find out just how much information this great GPS will give you. I could go on and on about all the menu’s and all the features but I have to go out and find some more backroads to nowhere.

Bought it before a family trip to Central Florda. Ripped open the box in the parking lot and it worked like a charm! Easy to enter address info, even if you have big hands.

Good Points of Interest, especially in the Orlando Area. However, I live in Chesapeake, VA, and it’s missing quite a few two-plus year old restaurants/drug stores and even the 10 year old Wal-Mart (Gasp!). Not a deal breaker, probably an issue with all GPS’s.

Seems to adapt to driving patterns as it recommended a “shorter as a crow flies” route to my work, but definitely not the quickest or practical. After two days of taking my usual route, it now “tells” me to take my way instead. Noticed this in Orlando, too, but the way it wanted me to go wasn’t really out of the way.

The MP3 player, by itself, is a bit lame, as the speakers are tiny. It does work well for audio books though. You can hook up the MP3 player to your cassette deck if you have one of those older adapters that were used for your old “Discman”. I actually had one and it works really well and the sound is decent.

The “Text to Speech” is MUST HAVE and I couldn’t imagine having a GPS that simply says, “Turn left in .4 miles”. The NUVI swiftly guides you with, “In .4 miles, turn left on Second Avenue”. Then, about 200 feet from the intersection you hear, “Turn left on Second Avenue”. Priceless!

If you miss your turn or go your own way, it quickly recalculates and provides an easy to follow alternate. A few times it told me to “go .5 miles and make a U-turn”, when I could have made a U-turn much closer, but a minor issue that is easily overshadowed by the NUVI’s outstanding features.

It also has the best window suction cup I’ve seen, especially compared to my SIRIUS cup. Seems like a minor thing but it doesn’t vibrate or fall off.

In closing, its a bit more than the “entry-level” GPS’s but believe me that it’s worth the extra bucks.

Okay, so that title covers just about ANY decent GPS you can buy these days…

Why this one? While being only marginally larger than the Garmin Etrex Summit/Vista/Legend/Venture series of devices it has some HUGE advantages over the top of the line Venture with it’s Altimiter and Compass. Chief amoung these is it’s larger, easier to read screen, external antenna port and cleaner, easier to use control layout. It’s also a bit sturdier (imho) than the Extrex series, and the fit (both in hand, and in pocket) is excellent!

Have you ever gotten in the car and had the urge to ‘just drive’? Have you ever been low on gas in an unfamiliar part of town? Do you know someone with a ‘bad sense of direction’? Than a GPS system might just be for you.

The Garmin nuvi 760 is my replacement for the aging Garmin StreetPilot III I have owned since the early millennium. The old workhorse did it’s job, but newer models have more map data onboard, faster calculation times, and have bigger and better screens. Touch screens on most new models also make them easier to use as well.

I will preface this review by saying that I will be comparing this unit to my other GPS, the NavMan iCN330, which I reviewed here:

http://www.epinions.com/content_406517091972

I purchased this Garmin unit as a refurbished deal for my parents. I wanted something simple for them to use, with sufficient functionality. They live in Canada, so it had to have both Canadian and US maps. For the last two days I have been driving around with both the NavMan and the Garmin unit mounted on my dash, and have evaluated the differences in how they operate.