iPaq or Garmin ?

Pedro

Guest
Thinking about investing in GPS and since I already have an iPaq wondered whether to go for the Navman 3000 receiver or just buy a Garmin V. Any thoughts ??
 
I've got the NAVMAN 3400 and find it better than most in car navigation systems I've tried. The maps look good, the route planning is fast but thats probably because it tends to favour main roads a little too much. For road use it is generally excellent. However, there is no facility for off-road route planning or even giving you directions in the form of a bearing and distance to an on-road waypoint, so off-road capability is pretty much non-existant. I can't really comment on the Garmin offerings (as I only have a Garmin III Pilot for flying), hopefully someone else will be able to explain the virtues of these. The NAVMAN now comes with mapping for UK Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden. As with all Navtech mapping the coverage varies from country to country but I don't believe it is any better or worse with the NAVMAN package as any other package that Navtech supply. The mapping can be put on any available storage on the iPAQ (i.e. main storage, Plug in SD Cards, Plug in CF Cards) the GPS comes with a compact flash card slot built in but to the best of my knowledge does not come with a CF card (Worth checking with suppliers, I bought mine as a software only upgrade to the Compaq iPAQ Navigation System which uses the same GPS but different software). CF Cards are available up to 2GB now but reasonably priced ones are 512MB and under, and SD Cards are also available upto 512 MB. The UK takes just over 91 MB, France 118 MB. You could put UK Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland easily onto one 512 MB card.
 
I have an Ipaq but decided against due to the battery life issue. I bought an Emap which runs for up to 12 hours on a set of two AA batteries. If its for car/bike use only I guess you could plug it in somehow but then I wouldn't be too sure about the robustness of the unit especially when introduced to water!
 
I have the GPSV - great machine only a bit slow if you need to upload new maps regularly. Mostly though it's just waypoints or tracks whish only take a few minutes . It's small and very robust and really waterproof. There are lot's of different handlebar mounts available so check out the options before you just buy the Garmin one . I rate it very highly and I use it in my car as well without an extended antenna. Over here in Belgium they cost about Euro 950 with one base map - so in your case all the UK . You then have to pay extra for the rest of Europe about another Euro 150 if I remember correctly. I am very happy with it - it eats batteries at an unhealthy rate so rig up some hard wiring on the bike - don't just rely on the batteries because they always run out just when you need it the most !
Good luck
 
Pedro,
It's been mentioned twice so far but not as a question to you. i.e. is your navman waterproof. Think bikes, think rain, think short circuit!:(
 


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