// May 18th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Adventures, Backpacking, Busnell, GPS, Garmin, Geocaching, Hand held GPS, Hiking, Lowrance, Magellan
Shopping for GPS? Confused on which model to get. We have the heaviest hitters on the GPS market here in a head to head shootout!
Magellan Triton 2000
Magellan Triton 2000- Needs to be commended for being the first to offer all of the whistles and bells! The first to offer the full color touch screen with 2MP camera/picture viewer, MP3 Player, voice recorder, led flashlight, 3-axis electronic compass, barometer and more! It also has an SD card expansion for storage of waypoints, routes, photos, geocaches, sounds, and songs. Comes with built-in base maps with preprogrammed points of interest of the 48 states and world wide boundaries. Magellan is now offering FREE download TOPO maps in order to keep up with the competition. The SD slot allows for downloads of more detailed maps such as National Geographic, topo maps, and marine cartography. It also has options for an external antennae and an audio jack to listen to your songs. It’s WAAS capability offers 3 ft accuracy and is great for geocaching! MAP Price $499
Garmin Oregon 550t GPS
Garmin Oregon 550t - The Garmin answer to the multi-gadget GPS proves to the the heaviest hitter yet! Improving on the already top dog Garmin Oregon 400t, the 550t full color touchscreen boast a 3.2 MP camera/picture viewer with 4x digital zoom and automatic geotagging of each photo. This will always lead you back to the exact spot of the photo. Photos can be stored online at www.Garmin.com and uploaded with Picasa. With 850 MB of internal storage and a micros SD card expansion slot, you will never need to miss a photo opportunity. For navigation it comes with detailed preloaded topo maps of the 48 states and worldwide basemap, 3 axis digital compass for 3-D views, barometric altimeter, and high sensitivity WAAS capability for those hard to reach places. It also capacity for up to 5000 geocache locations and 2000 waypoints which can be shared wirelessly with friends that have either the Colorado or Oregon series GPS. All this comes protected in a IPX7 waterproof rated rugged casing. MAP $599 (not available until July ’09)
Bushnell Onix 400 GPS
Bushnell Onix 400 - For those who travel in weather sensitive areas. This GPS is the first of its kind! It boasts satellite imagery, XM satellite radio and XM Weather Navigator. With a subscription to XM Satellite Weather, you get real time weather information and updates. Great feature for those whole like to travel in areas where the weather is highly volatile..ie Mt McKinley. Its layering ability allows you to download a satellite photo and layer topo map, compass, navigational aids and XM services on a single screen with a feature called TruView NavigationLayer. NEXRAD weather data down-linked from XM NavWeather can also be layered over a georeferenced satellite map of your location. This can help you pinpoint those nasty storms or areas of high winds. The subscription to XM NavWeather also allows access to over 170 channels of XM satellite featuring radio news, sports, talk, entertainment and music. Built with rugged rubberized armor offers IPX7 waterproof protection. It also has a high gain SIRF GPS receiver, digital compass, and embedded 128 Micro SD Card. MAP Price $499
Lowrance Endura Sierra GPS
Lowrance Endura Sierra - This is the Lowrance answer to the Garmin 400t with full color touchscreen and built in detailed topo maps, MP3 Player/voice record, picture viewer, 3 axis digital compass, and barometric altimeter. The topo maps are detailed with hill shade, topo graphic contours, trails and points of interests. Its has 4 GB built in memory and 32 GB Micro SD card slot allows the flexibility to directly accept GPX trails and geocaches, as well as POIs from web communities or other sources. Speaker, headphone jack, and microphone all built into waterproof IXP7 rated casing. It is also capable of turn-by-turn directions with optional purchase. MAP price $499 (available in July ’09)
Delorme PN 40 GPS
Delorme PN 40- If satellite imagery is your preference this unit is blazingly fast with high-sensitivity 32-channel STMicroelectronics Cartesio chipset. It boasts a NEW Dual-core processor for instantaneous map and satellite imagery redraws. This allows are downloading large aerial images files and works well on maps with multiple layers. This unit supports SDHC high-capacity SD cards (up to 32 GB) for fast and direct map transfer from the included maps discs.
Its 3-axis digital compass along with a 360 deg raster rotation allows you to view roads, buildings, trees, rocks etc as you rotate around or drive, bike, or hike down the path. It also comes with barometric altimeter, 1 GB internal memory that hold up to 100o way-points. Boasting itself and a pure hybrid, the unit comes with software with both detailed topo and Street maps and has access to up-to-date USPS Quad maps, NOAA Nautical Charts, and high resolution aerial imagery for yearly subscription of only $29.95. This rugged little unit it also waterproof IPX7 rated and is a lot of bang for its buck! MAP $399
