Which GPS is best?

Pling

Before you make the decision just check this one out .

Garmin Colorado 300

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I would back up Dougs recommendation. Its a real GPS rather than a street directions GPS. If you want offroad thats the animal to go for, check out the costs of maps too before you buy

Pling

Here is a website with a very comprehensive review of the
Garmin Colorado 300/400t

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Hi Pling, i know a guy that has the triton 1500 and he is not happy at all,

Now if you want another opinion I still think the Garmin 60Csx is the best to buy but something a bit more compicated to use would be the Oregon 300 this has a touch screen . The 60Csx screen is far better then the Oregon screen The 60Csx has an external antenna socket but i don't think the Oregon has, the battery life from the 60csx can be upto 30 hours compared to i think 12 hoursor there abouts on the oregon unless this has changed from the new sw update. you can get the free Shonkymaps from the net or Buy the OztopoV2.1 for around $229

Garmin

this has a good selection of receivers and he includes free Topo , but it's not Oztopov2.1

Before making a firm recommendation, it would be nice to know what features are important to your line of work. What is the reason for choosing the 1500? Touchscreen, SirfIII chipset, microphone for field notes are some features which may be the reason for choice and as such would influence any recommendation.

BTW, based on those features alone, the Garmin Colorado doesn't meet requirements, rather i'd be looking at the Garmin Oregon 300.

Other members (The Explorer etc) may be able to help with this Magellan Unit. From a quick glimpse they look the part.

Andrew

Hi Pling

I concur with other posts that suggest you firm up your requirements before the best reccomendation can be given.

If its an off-road GPS you wish then I would not have thought the 1500 or the Garmin 400 are the right product for you, they are both optimized as handheld units and have vertical screen presentation, with smaller screens, and there operation
is such that your hand tends to cover the screen which isn't the best when driving.

Is this the type you wish ?

If your after a unit which will mostly be used on the cars dashboard and used for 4wd tracks and following tracks you might download from sites like this other types are better.

For a number of reasons I still prefer the larger type dashboard unit and have often reccomended the older Garmin 276c as the most appropriate unit.
While it can be used hand held , it has an excellant hand held cousin the garmin Csx 60 - if smaller size is important.

If brought in Australia the 276c is near the top of your budget, and then you also have to buy maps and special memory cards.

Many buy them overseas at half the price, mind you that was when dollar was worth 75 US (It will be a little while before that happens again).

The operational reasons for this unit are many, including that it runs direct of 12v and can even read these volts, display them and ring an alarm if low, however its its bright screen,SRF3 chipset, keypad buttons to one side, and ability to load a track from a pc into it and actually navigate that track that make it stand out.
I.E. It can talk to you and give directions relating to your own downloaded track which is the sort of thing the Ozi-explorer laptop based stuff cannot do.

It also has two different modes of operation that are really useful to switch between.
One is a marine mode with lots of user definable variables that can be displayed and an automotive mode , which amongst things can put a large readable speed display on its screen.

You can load in your own waypoints even and have the unit ring an alarm when you get within a fixed distance of them.

I set mine up such that it uses the normal roads maps for navigation and I can quickly switch to contour/track maps for when in the bush / or special marine sea maps as appropriate.


Check it out at www.GPSoz.com.au and similar

I was given a brand new never used Magellan Crossover. Took a bit of fiddling around to work out all the complexities of this modern day technology ( I`m techology challenged when it comes to all this new fangled stuff ) and have had no problems when it comes to navigating unknown streets ( it has all the maps for Australia including topograhical maps, plus a host of features that make off roading more enjoyable). It also has marine functions if you want to go off shore but my biggest whinge is that is has two useless features - for me that is - one being the photo section and the other is the music. Dont need either of those two features, but overall am incredibly impressed with the performance of this unit. Also plugs into the cigarette lighter, so the NiMh battery is always fully charged. Showed that my speedo over read by 4.7 KMH ! Cost was over $1000 Used it in Victoria in August and it got me to my destination within one metre of the driveway in Benalla, and considering its 25 years ago since i was last there I was very impressed. Have stored all the tracks in WA and Vic for future reference when we go back in 2009