I was looking at the car GPS systems for a while. Ever since I drove to San Diego with my friends GPS guiding me I really loved the idea of not getting lost again. But getting a dedicated car unit seemed pointless and limited. Hand held units on the other hand had too small of the screen. I even thought about getting a separate GPS for my PDA but didn't like to carry different pieces around. So after few conversations I made a list of features I wanted:
-small unit
-durable
-can be used inside the car but also for regular navigation on land or water
-upgradeable maps
-easy to read screen
-accurate
-good battery life
-works in urban environment
I chose Garmin 60cs as my GPS. Unit is small enough and compares in size to Rino 120 which I own (or a pack of fags). Now battery life is about 20 hrs but I will settle for conservative 14 (2 AAs). Screen which is color is excellent to see at night and decent during the day. Unit has a night and day mode which changes background colors of maps and menus to maximize visibility. 60cs is accurate and it took it about 5 minutes to get satellites aligned when I got it out of the box but now it takes it only 10 seconds to get going. It is also waterproof and has alarm clock and games to keep you entertained while on the few days hike and that paper back novel got really boring. Car navigation portion works just as any other car dedicated gps would with turn by turn directions and prompts (no voice guidance thou). Yes it doesn’t compare to a 4 inch screen of dedicated car GPS but smaller screen is just fine and works well keeping up with sharp turns. It also recalculates new route even thou it takes a bit longer to realize that you went off course.
Maps that come with it are not really all that good but I bought a dedicated Navigation package. Maps are segregated by regions and some areas will cover 50 sq miles and be 2 MBs vs some areas in NYC which will cover 7 sq miles and be 2.8 MBs. I guess it all depends on the density of roads. But I have all the maps I need for all five boroughs, Long Island and big chunk of upstate and regions around me. Still one weak point of the unit is that it only has 56 MBs of memory and you can't fit your entire cross country trip inside. Kit comes with sort of pernament mount, led shot filled non slip mount, cigarette lighter adapter and maps. I use the non slip mount and even making wildest turns in my ambulance I couldnt get that thing to fall off. It is a good package althou when you add everything up it comes out to about $550. For that price you can have a dedicated car unit. But this is a good price to pay to have all around gps that can be taken anywhere.
Room for improvement:
-bigger memory
-expandable memory with cards
-easier type it in mode (touch screen with stylus)
-even brighter screen
-user definable colors on map legend
And this unit saved me already. On Friday night my unit got sent 8 assigned areas over to a place we never been to willingly. Call was miscarriage. I new how to get there a long way but GPS gave me a more direct route and got me there faster. Which meant that it can keep up with overhead trains, dense high rise buildings and fast driving. On the way back I also knew how to get to the hospital but using the long way. GPS got me there is under 10 min. It works and this is one of the products I highly recommend. Saved petrol and time. Can’t go wrong.
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