Any recommendations re satnav/gps

[idleowen]

Hi

Noticed some older threads but wanted to ask if anybody has bought gps/satnav recently and have any recommendations,noticed good deals at the moment ? Garmin/TomTom,Navman etc??
One question (could be a dumb one)........is it possible to use these as walkabouts as well (or do they need to be plug into a source all the time),if so can you buy trail maps to upload and use for hiking??

thks,Nigel

[Hudo]

Hi Nigel,

Loved my Tom Tom (top of the line at the time) until it was stolen from the car around 16 month ago. Replaced it with a cheap Tom Tom that lasted about 11 months before it just stopped working. Now replaced it with a Mio that seems to be old stock Navman rebranded. It's Ok nothing flash but I did not like the new Navman touch screens. Think of a iPhone with a touch screen that doesn't feel right.

About a month ago purchased a Garmin esstentailly for Geo Tagging. Basic unit model GPS 60 https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=144&pID=6446 Comes with basic mapping sotware for the PC, battery life 20hrs and is portable. Found it to also be compatiable with Google Earth which is awesome. Easy to use and does the job for plot the point where I took an image when I press the mark button on the unit. We have also been using it while walking for exercise to simply know how far we have walked. A good unit for basic use. They do have more expensive ones with more complex mapping if that's what you need.

Hudo

[Marvin]

I love my garmin nuvi. I used it in Italy as a walk around, no problems.

[Mr Darcy]

The in car ones can be used as walking ones BUT
They generally have non replaceable batteries, so they need to be recharged rather than drop some new batteries in. Battery life tends to be relatively short (a couple of hours rather than a day)
Also, they are not waterproof & bulky. Great though if the non-car use is just for sight seeing. Less so if you plan on using it for bushwalking.

The dedicated walking ones tend to have poor maps & don't talk to you,

There are also crossover ones that have full mapping capability, small and run all day on a couple of AA batteries.
I have the Garmin Oregon300 which falls into this category. It lasts about 15 hours on a set of Imedions, though I rarely use it more than about 4 hours at a time. Love it.

About a month ago purchased a Garmin esstentailly for Geo Tagging. Basic unit model GPS 60 https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=144&pID=6446 Comes with basic mapping sotware for the PC, battery life 20hrs and is portable. Found it to also be compatiable with Google Earth which is awesome. Easy to use and does the job for plot the point where I took an image when I press the mark button on the unit. We have also been using it while walking for exercise to simply know how far we have walked. A good unit for basic use. They do have more expensive ones with more complex mapping if that's what you need.

I used to use a Garmin 12XL this way. I found in practice that I would often forget to mark the waypoint though. It is better and simply to simply set the GPSr to record your route & use GeoSetter (or similar) to work out where you were when you took the photo. This relies on the unit having enough memory to record the track though. the 12XL didn't, but the Oregon does. Something to cosider in your purchase.

[idleowen]

thks for the quick responses.........I thought I might be hoping for too much re good for driving and hiking.....
anybody got any feedback on buying a device from say JB HiFi , Dik Smiffs etc