Looking For Opinions Gps/pda

[+vulture19]

OK, I've made the decision to go with a garmin ique (I can use the PDA, I drive over 50K miles a year in New England/PA, I am an occasional GC'er).

 

So, here's the deal. I can go with a 3200 for about $380, a 3600 for about $480, and a new M5 for about $570. Should I go for the bargain, or go with the new technology at a greater price?

 

TIA for the advice.

[+Red90]

I have a 3600. The screen is 50% bigger than the 3200, so that is nice for car navigation.

 

M5 Pros: Removable, larger capacity battery. Bluetooth.

 

M5 Cons: Cost. Lower resolution screen (half that of the 3600).

 

The lower resolution killed the M5 for me.

 

I wouldn't plan on using the iQue for caching. Get a simple rugged handheld for the cache searching and use the iQue for road navigation and cache page storage and logging.

[+vulture19]

Thanks Red, that was exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for. I guess I didn't realize that the rez was that much lower. I think I was dwelling too much on the OS.

 

As an aside, given that my caching tendencies are to go for only one at a time, do you think that it would be adequate?

[+Kymus]

I've had my M5 for over a week now and I simply love it. Red90 is correct, the resolution is slightly lower on the M5 (15 percent smaller or .3 inches diagonally accourding to ZDNet) (wtf were you thinking Garmin?) - however the processor speed is 2x as much (400 mhz) as is the memory (64 mb). The resolution may be a problem if you are used to something bigger, however I've never owned a PDA or GPS before so there's nothing negative there for me to notice. However, I do want to note that at home I have a 21" monitor that is always at a resolution of 1024 x 768 - so I do enjoy a high resolution! But if the resolution was honstly a largely noticable problem - I'd be the first to complain about it.

 

The way I look at it is this: Purchasing a 3600 (let's say $450) and then you more or less will have to get the Road Maps ($70) if you want to go just about anywhere (it's pretty bad without it, imho) will come out to about $520

The M5 ($570 is what I paid for it) comes with the latest version of the road maps so the difference in cost is around $50. For $50 more you're getting Blue Tooth capability (although some have complained that it's not all it's cracked up to be), a removable battery, 2x as much processor speed and RAM, but a lower resolution.

 

the M5 runs on Windows Mobile 2003 second edition, whereas the 3600 runs on PALM OS 5.2.1 . The last I used a palm OS, it was back when the Palm Pilot II was out - so I'm not going to comment on the differences between the OS's. I know I'm happy with what I got, and I'm sure that someone using the PALM OS will say the same. The one thing I enjoy is being able to play something in windows media 10 in landscape mode - but I'm sure that PALM has something that does just the same.

 

If you plan on caching with it - I would strongly reccomend you get yourself an Otterbox Armour 3600 with the Deep Expansion kit. This will make your iQue water proof and crushproof. Of course, this isn't cheap. I just ordered the Armour 3600 + the Expansion for a total of $113. Some here reccomend using a different product (like an E-Trex Legend) for caching, while others have reported caching numerous times with their 3600/M5.

 

ZDNet has a review of both the 3600 and the M5 - so maybe that will help you decide better as well:

 

3600: http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/handhe...10005585,00.htm

M5: http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/handhe...39195200,00.htm

 

Whatever you choose, be sure to plug the products into Froogle(.com) and make sure you'll get the cheapest prices

Edited April 25, 2005 by Kymus