What you should know before buying a GPS...Our Personal Recommendations For: - [Updated June 2009]
- City Driving, Business, Tourists & other Travellers.
- Farming, Field Work, 4x4 & other Outdoor.
- Hiking, Camping, Climbing & other Handheld.
- Fishing, Sailing & other Marine.
- Running, Jogging & other Fitness Training.
- Motorcycle, Quad, Mountain-Bike & other 2-Wheel.
Key:
Important Features: What we consider critical or very important features for the purpose.
Nice-To-Have Features: Nice-to-have features available on some of the units listed within the category.
Suitable Systems: All systems that could be suitable for the purpose. Our recommended units are in bold and linked to that specific units' product page.
Personal Comments: Our personal comments, observations and recommendations on the various features and units available.
City Driving, Business, Tourists & other Travellers.
Important Features:
Autorouting, Voice Prompts, Ease of Use, Touch Screen, Colour Screen.
Nice-To-Have Features:
MP3 Player, Text-to-Voice, Custom POI's (for Speedtrap Alerts), Bluetooth (for handsfree cellphone interface), Language & Travel Guides, Calculator, Currency & Measurement Converter, Audio Book Reader, 3D Map Perspective, Garmin Lock Anti-Theft feature.
Suitable Systems:
Nuvi 205 (basic, entry level Street Navigator) and Nuvi 205W (with wide screen), Nuvi 215 and Nuvi 215W (both with Bluetooth - the 215W with wide screen), Nuvi 500 (waterproof for use in outdoor applications as well as normal street navigation), Nuvi 860 (with wide screen and all the "Bells & Whistles" including voice recognition), Zumo 400 (a bikers unit that is also perfectly at home on a car dashboard).
Personal Comments:
Imagine yourself in heavy or peak hour traffic. You are late for a meeting and are trying to find the right offramp / turn-off in a strange area. The roads are chaos and you barely have time to glance at the GPS screen on the dashboard while avoiding suicidal taxi drivers. Worst case scenario? You bet, but unfortunately, an all too common occurrence on our roads. You need a GPS with Voice Prompts and a menu system that is as easy to use as possible along with a nice big touch screen to simply punch in the street address that you are navigating to.
Our recommendation for this category would be the Nuvi 205W or the Nuvi 215W. We chose these units mainly for their ease of use, but also for their reasonable price. The perfect units for the city user who simply wants to climb in their vehicle, quickly look up an address and go there - no fuss, no bother, no worries. Both of these units also have the new ecoRoute feature built-in.
For a system with quite a few more bells and whistles you would be looking at the Nuvi 860 with voice recognition... That's right folks, you talk to it and it talks back to you! This is the perfect traveling companion for both the local businessman regularly commuting between our fair cities as well as the seasoned international traveller and even for those dedicated gadget junkies out there.
The Nuvi 860 unit is top of the range and includes a whole bunch of features like Bluetooth (to use it as a hands-free car kit for your cellphone), Custom POI functionality (for those handy speedtrap alerts), FM Transmitter (to divert all sound through your car radio speakers), the ability to load (optional) Country Travel Guides and Language Dictionary's for Europe and the USA, a built-in MP3 player (for those long, boring plane trips), calculator, currency & measurement converter, an audio book reader (also for those long, boring plane trips) and the "Text-to-Speech" feature to pronounce the name of the street that you need to turn into (i.e. instead of the standard "turn left in 100 meters" voice directions, the unit will tell you to "turn left into Smith Street in 100 meters"). This unit also comes preloaded with both the standard Southern Africa Streetmaps as well as the full City Navigator Europe detailed mapset for the whole of Western Europe.
In our experience though, most South Africans are looking for a "Dual Purpose" GPS unit, with as many of the City Nav features as possible for use during the week at work as well as full Outdoor functionality for those weekends on the 4x4 trail, quad riding, biking, hiking, fishing, hunting or camping. In the past there have been a couple of units which were ideal in this category but unfortunately these units have either been discontinued or the technology used in them is now so old and expensive as to make them obsolete.
At present there is only one unit that comes reasonably close to being "Dual Purpose" and that is simply due to it being a waterproof Street Navigator - the Nuvi 500. This is a unit with the standard street navigation functions including those all important Voice Prompts, a (basic) Tracklog feature (breadcrumb tracking) and an easy to use menu structure with a Touch Screen but, the fact that it is waterproof also enables it to be used in most outdoor applications.
Side Note: Be careful of some units that are presently being offered at really low "bargain" prices as many of them have already been discontinued in South Africa (like the Nuvi 200, Nuvi 200W, any of the Nuvi 3xx series or Nuvi 6xx series, the Nuvi 710, Nuvi 760 or Nuvi 770). For more information on this please read our blog post Should I buy a discontinued GPS model if the price is right?
Farming, Field Work, 4x4 & other Outdoor.
Important Features:
Map-enabled, Ability to Capture, Input & Navigate to Coordinates (not just look up a street address), Tracklog, Basic Autorouting (voice prompts not necessary), Tough & Durable, Waterproof.
Nice-To-Have Features:
Electronic Compass, Barometric Altimeter, Area Calculation, Expandable Memory Capabilities.
Suitable Systems:
eTrex Legend HCx, eTrex Vista HCx, GPSMAP 60 Mono, GPSMAP 60Cx, GPSMAP 60CSx, GPSMAP 76, GPSMAP 76S, GPSMAP 76Cx, GPSMAP 76CSx, Colorado 300, Oregon 300, GPSMAP 276C.
Personal Comments:
We get many requests from farmers looking for a suitable GPS system to map their farms, game farms, property boundaries, fences, roads, positions of buildings, windmills, towers and other infrastructure. Our first question to them is: What sort of accuracy do you require?
Most manufacturers will state the accuracy figures for their GPS systems as <15 meters (under 15 meters), 95% typical (95% of the time). What this effectively means is that for 95% of the time (an averaged figure I might add) you may indeed be accurate to within 10-15 meters as usually shown on the screen, however, the other 5% of the time (again... averaged) you could be out by up to 30 meters. I say 'could' because, as mentioned before, this is an AVERAGED figure. The algorithms within the software are designed to cut out the (high and low) peaks and work out the accuracy of every point calculated on the number of points taken over a period of time (remember that with a one second update rate the GPS is calculating it's position every second). There are also many other factors that can affect the accuracy of a 'Recreational Grade GPS' receiver. Also remember that these accuracies are only applicable to the 'X' and 'Y' (latitude and longitude) values. The altitude reading ('Z' value) is the least accurate and can be out up to 300m on a standard GPS system. A GPS unit with a built-in Barometric Altimeter will bring this accuracy down to a more respectable 30-50m (providing, of course, that it is configured correctly).
As you can see from these accuracies, it would not be advisable to depend on a standard GPS unit for critical measurements and if you need better accuracy than described above, I would suggest that you get in a surveyor to map the farm - or at least someone with a surveyor quality GPS system (DGPS - or Differential GPS) which is accurate to <1m.
If you would still like to use a standard handheld GPS then we would suggest looking at the GPSMAP 60CSx or the GPSMAP 76CSx units (both units have a built-in Electronic Compass and Barometric Altimeter).
For other outdoor and 4x4 enthusiasts, we would recommend the GPSMAP 60Cx or the GPSMAP 60CSx (the 60CSx unit is the one with the built-in Electronic Compass and Barometric Altimeter). Both units have expandable memory capabilities for loading multiple maps and both units have basic autorouting for that occasional city use (remember - no voice prompts in any of these Handheld Outdoor units).
For something a little more "upmarket" you may want to take a look at the latest Oregon 300 units. This new generation of handheld outdoor systems has a few extra "latest technology" features built in to them, like the ability to load the DEM mapsets (DEM = Digital Elevation Model maps which are a very "pretty" version of the Topographic maps that show the contours as 3D shaded portions on the map). The Oregon 300 also has a Touch Screen, the ability to exchange waypoints, routes, tracks and geocaches wirelessly with other Oregon units and five customisable user profiles for automotive, marine, recreation, fitness or geocaching use. All of these are really "nice-to-have'" features but, in our opinion, none of them are critical for an outdoor unit - unless you are a keen Geocacher of course ;-)
Hiking, Camping, Climbing & other Handheld.
Important Features:
Small, Light, Good Battery Life (preferably using easy to obtain penlight batteries), Ability to Capture, Input & Navigate to Coordinates, Tracklog, Tough & Durable, Waterproof.
Nice-To-Have Features:
Map-enabled, Electronic Compass, Barometric Altimeter, Expandable Memory Capabilities.
Suitable Systems:
Geko 201, Geko 301, GPS 72, GPS 76, GPS 60 Mono, eTrex H (Basic - Yellow), eTrex Venture HC, eTrex Legend HCx, eTrex Vista HCx, GPSMAP 60 Mono
Personal Comments:
The cheapest and most basic unit would be the eTrex H. A non map-enabled unit (i.e. cannot load detailed maps on to the unit) the eTrex is perfect for those simply wanting to enter, store and navigate to waypoints. Waypoints can be saved to memory on the spot or typed in as coordinates on the unit. The unit will direct you ‘as the crow flies’ i.e. straight line distance and direction with a compass bearing and arrow on the screen.
For those who need the ability to load detailed maps to the unit, the eTrex Venture HC or the eTrex Legend HCx (includes Garmap SA Streetmaps detailed map software in the bundle).
The eTrex Vista HCx is the unit to consider for those wanting the built-in Electronic Compass and Barometric Altimeter features.
Fishing, Sailing & other Marine.
Important Features:
Waterproof, Unsinkable (floats when dropped into deep water), Good Battery Life (preferably using easy to obtain penlight batteries), Ability to Capture, Input & Navigate to Coordinates, Tracklog, Tough & Durable.
Nice-To-Have Features:
Map-enabled, Electronic Compass, Barometric Altimeter, Chartplotting Capabilities, Expandable Memory Capabilities.
Suitable Systems:
GPS 72, GPS 76, GPSMAP 76, GPSMAP 76S, GPSMAP 76Cx, GPSMAP 76CSx, GPSMAP 276C, GPS 60 Mono, GPSMAP 60 Mono, GPSMAP 60Cx, GPSMAP 60CSx.
Personal Comments:
A basic marine requirement would be that the GPS unit is not only waterproof, but actually floats as well. The 70 series units are the only Garmin units that float. The GPS 72 would be the cheapest and most basic unit while the GPSMAP 76Cx is a lot more advanced with the ability to load multiple detailed maps and charts.
For the more serious marine user, we have the GPSMAP 276C with full (marine) Chart Plotting capabilities.
Running, Jogging & other Fitness Training.
Important Features:
Small, Light & Wearable, Easy to use, Good Battery Life, Auto Pause & Auto Lap Training Timer, Virtual Training Partner, Tough & Durable, Waterproof.
Nice-To-Have Features:
Heart Rate Monitor, Speed/Cadence Sensor, Training Center software.
Suitable Systems:
Forerunner 305, ForeRunner 405.
Personal Comments:
Well, what can we say… If you absolutely insist on torturing yourself in this manner then you may as well have the best tools that money can buy to be able to show and boast to your friends about how much pain you can really take.
Seriously though, if you are simply a ‘casual jogger’ then rather wear a watch and time yourself. It’s cheaper and it tells you all you need to know (i.e. you’re late again).
However, if you are serious about training then there is no such thing as too much information. The ForeRunner 405 (with Heart Rate Monitor) will keep you updated on your progress and your bodies reluctance to take another step as well as enabling you to download your run and analyze it in detail after your workout.
Motorcycle, Quad, Mountain-Bike & other 2-Wheel.
Important Features:
Small, Light, Easy to use, Good Battery Life, Tough & Durable, Waterproof.
Nice-To-Have Features:
Map-enabled, Electronic Compass, Barometric Altimeter, Expandable Memory Capabilities, Autorouting, Heart Rate Monitor, Speed/Cadence Sensor, Training Center software.
Suitable Systems:
Zumo 400, eTrex Legend Cx, eTrex Vista Cx, GPSMAP 60 Mono, GPSMAP 60Cx, GPSMAP 60CSx, GPSMAP 76, GPSMAP 76S, GPSMAP 76Cx, GPSMAP 76CSx, GPSMAP 276C, Edge 305 HR (with Heart Rate Monitor), Edge 305 Bundle (with Heart Rate Monitor and Cadence Sensor), Edge 705 HR, (with Heart Rate Monitor), Edge 705 Bundle (with Heart Rate Monitor and Cadence Sensor).
Personal Comments:
Most of the handheld GPS units on the market today can be used on a bike. However, only the Zumo series (for motorbikes) and the Edge series units (for cycling and training) were designed specifically with the biker in mind.
The Zumo 400 is the most advanced motorcycling GPS available at this time. Along with a ‘glove-friendly’ touch screen, left-handed controls and oversized screen icons and menus this unit contains all the latest technology features such as custom POI capability (for those damned speedtraps again), Garmin Lock Anti-theft feature, MP3 player and many more. The unit also comes with a locking motorcycle mount. What more could a guy want?
Hardcore off-road and quad bikers on the other hand, need a unit that is a bit smaller and as tough as they come. The GPSMAP 60CSx will give you expandable memory capabilities (for loading multiple detailed maps for those trans-Africa trips) and a rugged casing built to endure the roughest handling.
The mountain biker and the cyclist in training could do a lot worse than the Edge 705 Bundle (with Heart Rate Monitor and Cadence Sensor). Designed as a training tool, this unit has the ability to measure pedaling cadence, heart rate, speed, distance, time, calories burned, altitude, climb and descent, plus much more. The included Training Center software gives you the ability to overlay your ride data onto a course map. It offers interactive analysis tools that measure your speed, distance, climb, and descent against varying terrain, elevation and more.
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