I feel like goldielocks.... Nothing is "just right&quo

mcewena

I’m looking for an autonav GPS and I can’t figure what to buy, every product I look at seems to have some fatal flaw. My requirements don’t sound that hard to fill but I’m stumped.

Requirements: small shirtpocket sized unit with decent battery life (so I can take it out of the car and still use it), good maps/software and maps for North America and Europe. I’m from Canada so most of my traveling (pleasure) is mostly in the US and Canada but I was in France 2 years ago and would love to have a GPS unit the next time I go to Europe.

Garmin.

Their maps seem to be state of the art and the units appear to be rugged and feature filled, however:

The 3200 has a small screen and poor battery life, plus I don’t really need a PDA.
The 3600 has even worse battery life, but a nice big screen and great interface.
The M5 is pricey, the battery life is more or less acceptable but reviews seem to indicate the processor is too slow for missed turns and maybe not as nice to use as the 3200/3600.

The Quest is the right size, I could deal with the small screen but the North American version simply doesn’t have enough memory for a European trip and I refuse to pack a laptop (and worry about it in the luggage) do deal with it’s shortcomings. I don’t think I’m unreasonable here.

Magellen Roadmate

Same great map source and apparently an even easier interface then the Garmin, but only the 300 has internal batteries and you can only buy it in North American OR European versions, so I can’t buy Euro maps later if I buy it here now (or vice versa). No technical reason, just marketing.

Navman

The 510 looks great but I can find absolutely no data on the completeness and accuracy of the Telatlas data for Canada.

The PIN is the same price as the 510 so you sort of get a PDA for free but the mapping software is older then what’s on the 510 (V2), even though you can buy V3 software for pocket PC separately directly from navmanusa.com (what’s with that?).

Mitac 136, Navigon etc..

Same hardware as the 510 but software & Canadian map quality is a complete unknown quantity, not marketed in Canada anyway.

TomTom

Funky shape means it’s hard to carry, same telatlas mapping issue.

PDA+ bluetooth receiver

2 sets of batteries to manage. Potentially 2 sets of support organizations to deal with. Don't need a PDA but if I were to spend the money I'd want one with wifi.

The leading contender is the navman right now… with the Garmin units a distant 2nd & 3rd. It seems like the manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot as far as getting the features/marketing together…

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