Saturday, June 18, 2011

Garmin GPSMAP 60CS Water Resistant Hiking GPS (Electronics)


Garmin GPSMAP 60CS Water Resistant Hiking GPS (Electronics)


I replaced a Magellan Map 330 GPS with this Garmin unit - what a difference. I looked at the Magellan color GPS and chose the Garmin because of the better display and the wealth of features. Even though I'm familiar with the Magellan interface, the Garmin was a snap to get used to. The navigation features are awesome and the configurability - to make it work the way you want it to - is amazingly flexible. The display is great at night and also very readable in varying light during the day as well. The automatic switching between a daytime style and nighttime style is very cool.



Pros: Very colorful, brightly reflective and backlit display. The navigation feature set is great, I did not expect such features in something less than the automotive navigation GPS units. Having an external antenna connector greatly improves your mounting options in a vehicle (and one person even mounted an antenna inside a hat, so he can track well even while the GPS is on his belt!) The rest of the pros are too numerous to list, check out the details at Garmin's web site.



Cons: somewhat expensive and proprietary mapping software. The waypoint manager software and the topo package are in dire need of updating. A 5-year old California freeway is not present - bad! I do not have the streets software yet, so I can't speak to its accuracy. Putting the unit in and out of a mounting cradle with the power plug is problematic. My old Magellan just popped in and made contact in the cradle. The Garmin method has a plug that needs to be dealt with each time you take it out or put it in. It's a tight fit if you have to plug in the power first and then fit it to the mounting.



Having said all that, though, the Garmin 60CS is everything that's needed for my upgrade from a monochrome display GPS. If you need more mapping loaded (i.e.; more memory), you'll need to go to the 76 family, but the cost is significantly more. I rarely change maps, so I find the 56mb in the 60CS to be just fine.



So, sorry about that, Magellan. The Garmin is a better step up.



Update:

I've had a chance to use the compass where I needed direction when stationary and it's another excellent use for this Garmin model. I wasn't sure whether I should get the CS model with the compass and barometer - and I am very glad I went for it. If you do have the need for the compass, it's worth the extra bucks.

Garmin GPSMAP 60CS Water Resistant Hiking GPS (Electronics)





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