Garmin Quest EU version

[TheJoker]

I've been researching the available options a bit more (btw, did you know they're about to release two colour eTrexes?! Cool!), and the EU version differs from the US version.

The EU version has got at toal of 243mb free memory for additional maps (and other data), which I find quite substantial! Cool!

Every site says avaialbility August (or end of August), does anyone know more specific when it's going to be available?
And, when is Aspid or Sportextreme going to include it on their sites. Prices so far have ranged from £469 to £512... Would be nice to know a bit more exact than that

Questions, Quest-ions...

PS, cheapest so far: http://w01-0504.web.dircon.net/acatalog/Qest.html

 

[PanEuropean]

I have no idea when it will be available - but what you have noticed is that the Garmin engineers are paying quite close attention to the needs of the European market.

In North America, we need about 2 megs of storage capacity for each 1 million people. In Europe, the figure is closer to 4 megs of storage per million people, due to more dense and complex road structures (North America is basically just one big piece of graph paper, road-wise).

These figures will increase with future releases of cartographic products. When I first posted about this difference - back in 2000 - the numbers were 1 meg per million in North America, and 1.5 megs per million in Europe. My guess is that by the end of 2005, it will probably be 2.5 megs and 5 megs per million, respectively. That's without allowing for cartographic product growth that might come from enhancements such as terrain shading, phone number lookup, etc. being added in the future.

There are three things in life you can never have too much of: money, horsepower, and memory capacity.

 

[chasr]

So, will it be worth 'upgrading' from a SPilot III to this new Quest?

 

[PanEuropean]

Chasr:

I have not seen the new Quest 'in person', so I can't really comment. My first thought it that the Quest is probably faster, because most likely it has a faster processer in it, but, it also appears (from the measurements given on the Garmin website) to be a very small unit. It is possible that the SP III has a larger screen than the Quest does.

I don't think anyone will be able to answer your question until they get their hands on a Quest and try it out. I have been busy since the springtime testing new software for the 276C and 296, so I did not participate in the development of the Quest.

PanEuropean

 

[BurnieM]

Looking at the screen dimensions, it appears to be very much in the GPSmap 60/76 vein, a 'mini StreetPilot' so to speak.

Hearing some interesting things about the unit/mapping bundle pricing here in Australia.
If they can meet the rumours then this unit will sell really well in Oz.

 

[Howard Millichap]

Is "The Joker" getting mixed up?

Yes they are launching a e-trex Vista with colour screen and auto-routing BUT it still only has 24Mb of memory (according to the Garmin web-site).
The Quest is a completely different animal by the looks of it AND the web-site says it has 115Mb of memory. So you could run into problems if doing a long tour.

Where d'you get your info Mr TheJoker?

 

[TheJoker]

Is "The Joker" getting mixed up?

Yes they are launching a e-trex Vista with colour screen and auto-routing BUT it still only has 24Mb of memory (according to the Garmin web-site).
The Quest is a completely different animal by the looks of it AND the web-site says it has 115Mb of memory. So you could run into problems if doing a long tour.

Where d'you get your info Mr TheJoker?

Howard,

The comment about the colour eTrexes was a complete side track, and they're launching an eTrex Vista C and an eTrex Legend C (which would be my favourite of the two).

So, the eTrex comment is out of the way...

.. Right, the Quest, yes, the Garmin site says:

Internal memory: 115 megabyte internal memory (U.S. only) for loading MapSource detail including marine BlueChart and topographic cartography

Key being the parenthesis; "U.S. only" - As PanEuropean has stated, the EU maps require much more memory for the same "thing" (technical term ). So that's why the European version comes with a larger internal memory (total 256Mb compared to 128mb - not all of it free due to basemap and other "things").

However, one sad thing about the EU version is that it looks like the US version has got a larger capacity battery.
From Garmins site:
http://www.garmin.com/products/quest/

Battery: Internal Li-ion battery, 1050mAh
Battery life: up to 20 hours (typical use)

From the Hitch n' Hike site:
http://w01-0504.web.dircon.net/acatalog/Qest.html

Power:
Source: Internal 970mah Lithium Ion
Battery Life: Up to 20 hours (typical use)

How they can do the same battery life is beyond me, but apparently they've got different battery capacities.

My source is, as usual, Google, I've searched for websites that have advertised the Quest in UK (Europe).
They've all got the same information up, I take it straight off a Garmin Press Release, and thus I find it quite reliable.


BurrieM:
Yes, you're right, it's very much a landscape 60C adapted for Automotive use, see the other thread where I umm-n-aarh about it:
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24573

Chasr:
I reckon that an "upgrade" is in order, if you like what the Quest has to offer. I also reckon that the Quest is substantially smaller than the SPIII.
The SPIII has got replacable batteries, while the Quest has got an internal battery (BAAAAD MOVE, Garmin!).
Just to give you an idea; The SPIII weighs 635g, and the Quest is a dinky 155g!
A more "natural" "upgrade" is probably the SP26XX series.
It seems that the Quest is an evolution of the GPS V or the GPS III/+



PS, I wouldn't get lost, as I'd carry a map, but I also always carry my laptop - and this one is truly portable (ie, not a drag-top)

 

[chasr]

I've been thinking of replacing my SPIII for a while. It works well, and I can move it between the bikes & cars, but it's so sloooooow at calculating on the move. The 2610 looks good, but the BMW buttons are essential = GBP lots. 500 quid for a faster Garmin, which just happens to be smaller & lighter seems too good to be true. The loss of CN, replaced by CS, I think I can live with. Of course Pan's right; someone needs to play with one before deciding.

At the moment, though, for normal bike use, on-road, touring & back lanes etc, why would anyone shell out for the more expensive units? My earlier question was just me 'wondering' if a move from SPIII to Quest would be a downgrade or backward step in some way.

 

[TheJoker]

Aspid Export now report

Upcoming Products Date Expected
Quest™ - Pocket-sized, portable, and loaded with the high-end navigation features you want. 01/09/2004
eTrex Legend C and Vista C - Now with color display 01/09/2004
Garmin iQue 3200 01/09/2004
Garmin StreetPilot 2660 - Dead reckoning, 2.2 GB CF 01/08/2004

September...

 

[PanEuropean]

The Quest is a very interesting looking product, but let's go slow before we jump on a "Quest for motorcycles" bandwagon. One concern I have is how well that flip-up antenna will stand up in a motorcycle environment. I doubt if it was designed to have 70 MPH winds blowing on it. The other concern is screen size. If you're 18 years old, a small screen is fine. If you've seen 40 come and go, then a larger screen has considerable advantages.

I'm not dissing the unit at all, just saying (like I always do) that if buyers do a thorough, non-rushed job of due diligence before making a GPSR purchase, they will avoid unwanted (and sometimes unpleasant) surprises.

As for the battery capacity, my guess is that Garmin has just made a running engineering change and switched to a higher capacity battery in ALL Quest products. They often do this (product improvements during the manufacturing cycle) without making any mention of it. Because the European Quest information was published at a later date than the North American info, it is likely more up to date.

PanEuropean

PS to Chasr: Based on what I know at this time - which is what I read on the Garmin website, without having seen a Quest - I suspect that going from a SP III to a Quest would be sort of a downgrade. Although the Quest most likely calculates faster, and has 'similar' memory capacity to the SP III, the small screen, by itself, would make it a downgrade in my own opinion.

You can't really compare the two products to each other, though - it would be like comparing a 4 year old top of the line computer to a new entry level computer. It's not really "apples to apples". My personal suggestion to you: Just sit tight on your SP III for a couple of months and see what happens next. That is what I would do if I was in your shoes today.

 

[chasr]

Thanks Pan. That is exactly what my wife has told me I am going to do.

By the way, has anyone had any experience of using a Blaupunkt E1 in their car?

 

[Howard Millichap]

I can see this "Quest" superceding the GPS5.

I do agree with "Pan" about the screen size.
The first unit I mounted on the bike with the intention of road navigation was an E-trex Vista. All was well until my eyes started to go at around 43~45 years old. I now have an SP3 which I can still read without my reading glasses.
Also, it's one thing being able to read it in the shop but quite another reading it when you and it are bouncing about on the bike.
I think this could be why BMW chose the SP3 to base "their" unit on. Bigger screen for the old men that ride BMWs. Ha!

 

[Trevor S]

I have no idea when it will be available - but what you have noticed is that the Garmin engineers are paying quite close attention to the needs of the European market.

How so ? If that was the case they would use something ubiqutious like SD memory (to suit the small footprint of this unit, CF for the larger units), then the memory size virtually becomes a non issue. It's as inane as Sony and their ludicrous experiment with Memorystick

There are three things in life you can never have too much of: money, horsepower, and memory capacity. [/B]

I don't agree with the first two but the last one I definetly agree with. I am waiting a 276c syle Garmin with CF or SD memory I probably would have looked seriously at the Quest if it had expadable memory.

 

[PanEuropean]

Hi Trevor:

Reasonable expectations (above), but do keep in mind that your level of knowledge of GPSR use and configuration is probably in the top 1% of all users, and the marketing and product development strategy for any product will always be driven by the buying plans of the 80% of the customers who are in the middle of the demographic.

Putting the required hardware components into a GPSR to allow for removable memory (such as the SP III, SP 26xx, and 2x6 series have) really has a huge impact on the manufacturing cost, and thus the retail price. Plus, the Quest is (as far as I can tell, just based on what I see on the public website) designed to be a "jack of all trades" GPSR, and most likely it will be the replacement for the very popular GPS V. It's small, simple, fairly inexpensive, and fits in your pocket. Those four criteria could not have been met if the Quest supported removable media.

As for the 276 and the proprietary Garmin chip - remember, the 276 is primarily a marine unit, and the 296 is primarily an aviation/marine unit. Upgrading marine users most likely already have a library of charts on the Garmin proprietary memory chips, and new marine (and aviation) users don't need more than 128 megs of map storage. It's only the automotive users that need huge quantities of map storage. If Garmin had switched over to CF card media in the new 2x6 units, or switched over to a built-in 256 meg memory configuration, there would have been HOWLS of protest from the upgrading users who would then have had their existing investment in marine charts wiped out. These folks would not accept needing to buy new cartography just because the media changed.

So, think of the proprietary chips as the "floppy disk" of the GPSR world - because it was the first standard, it will be around for quite a while in order to allow for 'grandfathered' data. Eventually it will go away, but my guess is not for another 2 years or so, because the marine cartography doesn't get revised as often as the automotive cartography.

For the last 3 years, Garmin has been selling marine cartography on CD's, just like the automotive cartography. Once all the marine charts have cycled through one revision, I think they will probably drop the proprietary chip format (and throw a big staff party in Olathe on that same day). But, it would have been too soon to have dropped it this year, when the 2x6 models were released.

PanEuropean

 

[TheJoker]

Aspid Export have recently included the Quest in their product catalogue.

It's priced at £377,28 (£448,97 with 19% tax)
To compare it with the GPSMAP60C at £270,92 (£322,40 with 19% tax)
But a fairer comparison would be to compare the Quest with the 60C + Nav kit as the Quest comes with map software, cable and holder. GPSMAP60C + Nav kit is priced at £393,29 (£468,02 with 19% tax)

So, in plain English
Quest: £448,97
60C + Nav: 468,02
60C: £322,40

Which to me is a bit annoying, as I would rather buy the 60C, but I'm aware that buying "just" the GPS isn't really sufficient.

From not playing with them, and at these prices, the Quest seems to be the better deal - swipe £50 off the 60C + Nav kit compared to the Quest, and I'll have one... Right now, I'm holding... *rolling-thumbs*

Oh, almost forgot: The link to the page!
http://www.aspidshop.com/export/store/product_info.php?products_id=156

On that note, the eTrex Legend C (colour) is also included:
http://www.aspidshop.com/export/store/product_info.php?products_id=158
Priced at £191,95 ( £228,42 with 19% tax ) Maybe I should get that insted...

 

[PanEuropean]

Joker, for Pete's sake, no-one has even SEEN the thing yet - it's a little premature to be suggesting that it is better (or worse) than a known product.

You can't choose on specifications alone.

PanEuropean

 

[TheJoker]

PanEuropean,

You're, as always, right. I guess my point is more that even without having seen one, I'm not happy with the "skewedness" (new word?) of the specs and prices comared to the 60C.

Chances that me getting one without playing with both of them are very slim - I do admit I have a severe gadged deficiency syndrome at the moment and that might make me do, what my girlfriend would call, stupid things.