Handheld GPS Recommendations

[traben27]

So, I recently received a nice little Christmas bonus from work and decided to take the plunge on buying a handheld GPS. I've been researching for hours because I have no background in this, but haven't been able to come to any conclusions. The guide in this forum helped a lot, but I'm still stuck on what to do.

The main purposes of the GPS would be for:
1. Hiking/Backpacking
2. Use on the trail
3. Possible use in deep canyons (so that hints towards good reception, although it's inevitable to lose it in places)

I've been looking at the Garmin 60CSx as well as the Delorme PN60, but I don't know if either of those would fit my needs.

Any recommendations/advice?

[mastacox]

I have a Garmin Oregon 300 and love it (nowadays you can get the 450T for the same price, or even cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Oregon-450-Handheld-Navigator/dp/B00313JX4W/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1292096954&sr=1-1) The 300 has all of the features of the 450t, but without the built-in topo maps. The Oregon is waterproof, ruggedized, has a good amount of built-in memory, digital compass and barometer, and can be expanded with a MicroSD card.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EzEU5O0xL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

You don't need to get a GPS with built-in Topo maps, it's easy to find free topo maps for Garmin GPS units of any state in the US on www.GPSFileDepot.com (http://www.GPSFileDepot.com), I have 20 ft contour maps of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado on my GPS right now, all free and excellent quality!

[Seanz0rz]

ill be buying the PN60 Se or whatever with the spot included. the idea of sending texts with it is good for me.

[troyboy162]

ill be buying the PN60 Se or whatever with the spot included. the idea of sending texts with it is good for me.



im about sold on that as well...all just for the text feature.

[Crinale]

i didnt know they made a gps with texting capability :-P

[traben27]

The texting feature is cool, but it's not pulling on me hard enough to give up the extra money. The regular PN60 looks pretty good to me, has anybody had any experience with it?

[Seanz0rz]

check on expedition portal, i know there are at least 2 threads (one started by me) about it.

[traben27]

check on expedition portal, i know there are at least 2 threads (one started by me) about it.


There was some good information over there, thanks for the tip. I ended up going with the PN60 without SPOT, ordered it last night since bestbuy actually has a fairly good deal on them right now. Hopefully it gets here soon so I can start messing around with it and let y'all know how it goes!

[Seanz0rz]

THANKS!

[Scuba]

I'm searching for a GPS too.. That PN60 looks NICE!
I wonder how it does with street nav though. Because I need that too.
EDIT. DAMNIT WHY DOES THAT THING HAVE TO RUN OFF OF AA BATTERIES?!?!
EDIT again. NVM. Found a Li-ion battery with car charger...

[traben27]

I'm searching for a GPS too.. That PN60 looks NICE!
I wonder how it does with street nav though. Because I need that too.
EDIT. DAMNIT WHY DOES THAT THING HAVE TO RUN OFF OF AA BATTERIES?!?!
EDIT again. NVM. Found a Li-ion battery with car charger...



From what I read, the street nav is not the greatest on the Delorme's. If you're looking for a dual set up, the Garmin 60CSx would do a much better job. On the other hand, the Delorme does better with offroad/hiking than the Garmin. (Of course, I have no first hand experience, so...maybe I'll let you know once I get mine and have more experience.)

[Scuba]

Yeah.. Now that I think about it.. I'm not too worried about street nav from the GPS unit. I've got that on my iphone. The PN60 is on sale at Best Buy for 231. And my friend gets a pretty good discount from them since he works there. I'll probably be getting one of those soon. From what I've read, and seen from screen shots and such, the Delorme maps are a lot better then Garmins. And for only 25 bucks you have unlimited access to all of their maps and airial views.. SWEET.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to adapt it to my Pro-fit GPS mount.
Maybe a mishmash of Ram mounts added to it. Who knows.

Enough with my rambling. If I get this unit I'll chime back in with how I like it :D

[troyboy162]

geeze if everyone gets this one then you guys can teach me how to use it :)

[Scuba]

Then.... I'll just pass my maps on to you. Then.. Between my GPS skill and your map reading skills.. we'll never get lost..

[mastacox]

I'm going to be the devil's advocate in this Delorme love-fest... :flipoff: :gay2:

The PN-60 is sweet and the SPOT add-on is very cool and a definite plus in emergency situations, but as a handheld/offroad GPS unit the PN-60 is going to be a frustrating choice due to it's small screen size (2.2") and shoddy resolution (220x176 ?!). Yes it supports aerial photography, but the screen is such a tiny low-res pile you'll be better off with a grayscale topo.

I functioned for quite some time with an old-school Magellan Meridian Platinum, and with a 160x120 screen resolution it was nearly worthless with topos. My view is that screen size and resolution is king on a GPS that you plan to download topos (and/or aerial photos) on to.

FWIW, the Garmin Oregon has a 3" touch screen with a 400x240 resolution. For those counting, that's 96,000 pixels, compared to the PN-60's 38,720 :tapedshut: For this reason alone, I would not buy the Delorme. Screen size/res is too critical! My Oregon works with free hi-res topos, and the screen resolution is great for Topos/photos (I don't think the Garmin supports aerial photography overlays unfortunately, not a deal breaker for me- aerial photography on a gps is more of a techie novelty IMO). If there was a waterproof & ruggedized GPS with digital compass, barometer, and the screen resolution of my Droid (3.7", 854x480) I would get it no question. Until then, the Oregon seems to be the next best thing IMO.

You can get free 1:24,000 topos for the Garmin of about every state by the way :bowdown:

[mastacox]

EDIT. DAMNIT WHY DOES THAT THING HAVE TO RUN OFF OF AA BATTERIES?!?!


BTW, I think it's a good thing to have a GPS that runs off AA batteries. They're cheap, easy to carry spares, and it's likely for other people to have emergency spares as well.

This is all assuming the GPS has 20 hours or better of life with one set of AA's... My Oregon lasts around 20-25 hours on a set of Alkalines, slightly less on NIMH rechargeables.

[mastacox]

It seems to me that the Garmin Oregon has the largest, highest-resolution screen of any ruggedized hiking gps out there. I checked Lowrance, Magellan, Delorme, etc. and all their units have smaller screens with lower resolutions... The Lowrance Endura and Magellan Triton come closest with 2.7", 320x240.

Anyone know of a handheld ruggedized GPS that beats the Oregon?

[Okie81]

The 60CSx, as mentioned, is a great GPS, rugged as he*l. Your map capacity is going to be limited by the size of your micro SD card though. To solve this, I have 1 micro SD in the GPS and another one taped to the back side of the battery case. Between the two, there's room for most of the western US along with 24k topos of all the National parks, water navigation tables (for fishing) and a handful of custom maps i've made myself. It's a very capable device, although I've been reading a lot of good reviews on its little brother, the Oregon.

[traben27]

Yeah I've heard good things about both the Oregon and the 60CSx. We'll see how the Delorme does, still waiting on it to get here!

[Scuba]

Ended up with the Garmin Oregon 450. The BestBuy sale on the PN60 went away before I could buy. So the Delorme PN60 was more expensive than the Garmin 450. The 450 doesn't have preloaded maps, but theres always GPS depot for those. I'll have to spring for the on road navigation stuff so I can have dual purpose. But it looks like a good unit. And I've always been a fan of Garmin.

Now, hopefully I can adapt it to this damn Pro-fit mount.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/Sycosurfer150/IMG_0999.jpg

[mastacox]

You can adapt that mount with the Oregon bicycle mount, which is just a plastic mounting block and a couple of zip-ties.

[Scuba]

You can adapt that mount with the Oregon bicycle mount, which is just a plastic mounting block and a couple of zip-ties.


Hopefully a couple of different things from RAM Mount will work to kind of adapt the Oregon to the Pro-fit mount. We will see. I will post up whatever I end up doing.

[mastacox]

The bicycle mount's only $10 on Amazon, which is a plus: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-11023-00-Colorado-Oregon-Mount/dp/B0012MI7QE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293459470&sr=8-1

You'll probably want a power cord too, so you don't have to use batteries while driving around in the car... I bought the Garmin vehicle mount kit which comes with a cig-lighter adapter ($30 for the kit, $17 for just the power adapter :shake:), but I <think> most mini-usb power cords will work. The Garmin one turns on the GPS immediately when you power up the cig lighter, a "standard" one will put it in data mode for like a minute first and then power into GPS mode (my father-in-law has an Oregon 300 too, and he has a generic cable from Radio Shack which does this).

[traben27]

Well...I ended up canceling my order. After 2 1/2 weeks they sent me an email saying it was backordered, which was kind of frustrating. Also, it turns out I'll be going on a 10 day backpacking trip down in Peru with some buddies, so the money will be better spent there. Hopefully some useful information came out of this thread, sorry I won't be able to give any info on the PN-60!

[mastacox]

It's an omen... you'll have to get an Oregon now :lol: