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Electronics : Earthmate GPS PN-20 |
- Hidden capabilitiesA most versatile product for handheld use. I have navigation in my car and a low cost Garmin nuvi I use for driving when using rentals, but for all other uses this unit is substantially more complex in capabilities and benefits. Excellent screen fully visible in full sunlight. Also, the unit will use SDHC cards up to 32 GB. I confirmed this with Delorme customer support before trying it.
Rating:
- GPS device is decent, software isn't.I have been using Delorme software since Street Atlas 4.0 (1996) and their Earthmate GPS devices since they were released- unfortunately the software interface has barely changed since then and it's difficult to use when compared to much more intuitive mapping software like Google Maps/Earth, Microsoft Live Maps, and Mapquest. In fact after buying Street Atlas 2007 last year and a car with a GPS built in I figured I would probably never buy or need Delorme software again... but then I picked up a boat... in researching products I was back at Topo USA 7 and from both the box of the product and the Delorme website you see it mention NOAA marine charts and I thought that this was the answer I needed, when I saw it packaged with a new Earthmate color screen GPS and considered myself lucky.
I was not. the software came in and I guess I could have lived with the dated Delorme interface, but the program is a memory hog and took close to an hour to install on a decent Sony Windows XP laptop with a gig of ram. Even after being installed the software is slow and "3D" mode whatever that is causes a fatal error, which is strange as Google Earth and other 3D software work just fine. Didn't matter too much, I wasn't interested in 3D, just those NOAA charts.
Unfortunately none of the charts are included... you must setup a web account and buy and download each chart- each one costing $10 and to cover say New York waterways in general would easily cost more than the device itself. No where on the box or website did it mention you had to pay extra for these charts- which is strange since it did mention you had to pay extra for the aerial/satellite imagery.
I purchased the 1 chart I would use the most and the process was fairly straightforward after I gave them all my personal and credit card info... Of course once the time came to put the chart on the GPS I was again stuck in what seemed like a much prolonged process of Topo7 making, saving, and then transferring the data to the device, it was close to another hour.
The Earthmate GPS PN-20 is decent enough. It was able to get a lock when I turned it on in my living room near the window which was impressive. I was sad to see it used 2 AA batteries and not some sort of rechargeable. Further upsetting was the non-standard USB or miniUSB cord but a USB cable specific only to the Earthmate PN-20 so if it is lost or damaged you'll only be buying your replacement from Delorme.
Overall I gave this 2 stars as I was disappointed on all accounts- I would have skipped on this purchase knowing what I know now.
Rating:
- meant for hikersI have been very happy with the Delorme products on my laptop. I have also been quite unhappy with other GPS devices like Garmin and TomTom, so I decided to try the PN-20. This is for use in a vehicle and the display on the PN-20 is too small for use in a vehicle. I have returned the PN-20 and will continue using my laptop.
Rating:
- unstable firmwareOut of the box, the unit I got kept locking up and rebooting. Very unstable. Delorme suggested I upgrade to firmware 1.3, but the unit was already at that level so N/A. Unuseable.
Rating:
- A really great GPS unitI bought this unit to use outdoors because I have been a big fan of their paper Atlas for more than a decade and more recently of their software. This GPS unit is a real gem! Extremely rugged, water proof (it even floats in case you ever take it with you fishing). Initially, I had planned on only using it recreationally, but I have Delorme's XMap software for work and discovered that I could scan our company system maps and download those onto the PN-20, too.
I do however wish that the screen was a little bigger, sometimes it is a little difficult to see the small screen.
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