Portable GPS Systems

ManaBlue

Canada10458 Posts

December 26 2007 01:35 GMT

I want to buy a portable GPS system but I've never owned one and I'm not sure where to start.

Alot of them have features, like bluetooth/voice recognition software/music capabilities, that I think are dumb and unnecessary.

What I want is a portable GPS system that is simple to use and works well.

Please post reviews or experiences (good or bad) that you have had with portable GPS systems. I'm sifting through online consumer reviews right now and I'm not getting a whole lot out of it.

NewbSaibot

3849 Posts

December 26 2007 02:28 GMT

The most important aspect of a gps device is the gps receiver built in. Last I checked, I believe the SurfStar III chipset is considered best among the consumer grade market. Fancy pants gps devices arent worth shit if they are inaccurate and put you 100 feet off of your actual destination, slow to respond, and have difficulty locking on to satellites.

I own a PDA/GPS combo. I went this route b/c it allows me to load custom GPS software rather than using whatever the vendor provided. For instance, all the TomTom devices you see use map software developed by a company called TeleAtlas. TeleAtlas is a cheapie gps mapping company who has many outdates maps lacking new roads, old points of interest that dont exist, road that werent even covered, etc etc. Navteq had maps so accurate that they could even tell me which side of the road something was on, unlike TomTom and the GPS's built into friends cars (pretty useful to know if it's on the left or right side of the road). Then come the 'functional' aesthetics such as giving proper warning for exits and turns before it's too late (something you would be surprised a lot of other GPS software fail to do. "Turn NOW!" and you miss the turn, etc)

With a PDA that runs windows I was able to load gps software that utilized the NAVTEQ mapping engine, this is what mapquest uses. Very accurate, very up to date (usually no older than 3 years), etc etc. I was also able to use marine chart maps and aviation mapping software all with a single GPS purchase. With the SF3 chip it would take no longer than 30-60 seconds to establish a full gps lock from cold start. A cold start means the GPS has no idea where you are at all and has to triangulate all information from scratch based off available overhead satellite coverage. Now you might turn off your gps for 6 hours and then back on, in which case some of the satellites have changed. This would be a warm start. SF3 gave me about a 10 second lock under these conditions. It would also work indoors partially (very slowly) and would not lose its signal under forest coverage, mountains, etc etc, unlike many other GPS systems. Many GPS's today can take 2-5 minutes to establish a satellite lock from a cold start.

But ultimatley it's still the chipset that matters, so make sure you find out whatever the most modern receiver is you can get and get whatever GPS comes with that one.

turk

United States383 Posts

December 26 2007 06:58 GMT

please accept what i have to say:

1) the pda/gps i had was slow when recalculating my route if i missed a turn or something

2) i now own two garmin street pilots (older model and newer model). very quick at recalculating. you can search for things like restaurants by type like chinese or mexican or do a name search.

3) the newer one has text to speech (verbally tells you which street to turn on instead of reading it for yourself on the gps). it has bluetooth so i can dial restaurants after i search for them directly on the gps. for ex. "lets eat chinese tonight. i heard blah blah blah is really good, let's eat there, it's not too far from here. found it. ok, let's make a reservation" (click dial button on gps).

4) it also included a free one year subscription to msn direct (traffic reports, movie times, weather, gas prices) cool when the gps automatically changes your route to avoid traffic problems. but the only problem with this is that if you don't have it connected to a satellite for about more than a week, it takes forever for the gps to get reconnected to msn direct.

5) preloaded maps obviously saves you some time, but not that hard to do if you can install programs on a computer.

good luck!

ManaBlue

Canada10458 Posts

December 26 2007 14:55 GMT

Cool stuff.

Thanks for the info guys, those are very detailed posts. I really appreciate it.

I'm going on a shopping spree today to see what's available to me. I'll let you know the route I went and how it worked out.

teh leet newb

United States1999 Posts

December 26 2007 15:36 GMT

I only have a $100 Mio Digiwalker C230 that I got on Black Friday @ Circuit City. Cheap, but it works pretty well.

XCetron

5226 Posts

December 26 2007 16:43 GMT

I have a $300 Garmin 250W 4.3" and it worked ok. I don't have much to complain since its the first one I bought but I can see a lot of improvements to be made.

Ace

United States16096 Posts

December 26 2007 17:41 GMT

If there is a way for you to get the GPS system Verizon uses for their cellphones it would be excellent.

It's called VZ Navigator.

Youtube video of it:

Ace

United States16096 Posts

December 26 2007 17:49 GMT

Also, VZ navigator has the option to call places that you've picked up in on searches.

For example, if you're sitting around and looking for a movie theatre VZ Nav will search in a very wide area for the nearest ones and return a listing.

In each listing is the Address, Phone Number, and even Longitude/Latitude info.

NewbSaibot

3849 Posts

December 26 2007 20:19 GMT

Phone number database, location radius, directory of 'points of interest' are all common features present in just about any gps software by the way.

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