Posted on 07/22/2008 8:26:42 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Garmin International today plans to launch a series of more-rugged Nuvi portables that combine street navigation with outdoor recreation capabilities.
The Nuvi 500 series was designed to be taken from car to trail to bike to boat, said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales.
“This product allows us to combine features from several of our most popular automotive and outdoor navigators into one compact unit,” Bartel said. “From weekend trips to the lake, to a hike around the trail, Nuvi 500 is ideal for people seeking automotive and recreational navigation in one dynamic device.”
The 500-series Nuvis feature a 3.5-inch waterproof touchscreen and include a compass page, track log and removable, rechargeable battery.
The Nuvi 500 is loaded with both road maps and U.S. topographic maps for the lower 48 states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The Nuvi 550 includes street maps for the U.S. and Canada.
Users can add optional marine charts to either.
The units retail for $499.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
I wonder what the contour intervals are for the topographic map? It doesn’t say. When they get the maps with 10 foot contour intervals, that will be something.
I’ve got a Lowrance iFinder H20c with LakeMaster maps and it shows bottom contours at 1 ft. increments on most major lakes. I think you need to install a map chip if you want better detail, the base maps are kinda worthless.
I did buy the topo map software but it is 50 foot contour intervals. I am looking for topo maps that are similar to the USGS 7.5 minute topo maps. As far as I know, no GPS units have those maps yet. It probably has something to do with file size. To get all those maps just for one state would be huge.
They may be a little late and over priced with this newer model.
Last year for Christmas, I got the Magellan Crossover GPS. It works in a car, a boat, a kaykak, in your pocket or where ever. Its cost was $200. It is basically the same size as the one in the report.
This past winter, we took a cruise out of San Pedro and drove down 101, which we had never driven. Due to a late start, we hit the LA/San Diego Freeway at about 5:30 pm. It was dark. Thanks to the Triple AAA trip printout, we knew how to turn and make exits.
The little unit told us exactly where we were, and when my wife finally said where are we as we were on the designated road off the freeway. The unit said we were there, and sure enough, 50 feet down the road was the motel’s driveway.
The maps are very up to date for both the trails, basic water and streets/highways.
It worked all the way to and from on 101.
It has a built in Outdoor map as well as a road map. You can buy a more detailed SD card for marine and outdoors for the outdoor stuff, but so far that hasn’t been a need.
A younger and very active outdoors man I know, has two of these when he gets taken back into the wild via pack horse or mules. He has the extra SD card and a small solar charger. Each day he charges one of the units and uses the other with the SD card. The card goes to the charged one at the end of the night for his next day ventures. He enters the base camp in both units on his arrival. I think he got the two units and the SD card for $500. He said that is less or about the same for a single pocket unit that is hard to read with a smaller screen and about as heavy.
Now if I can find a deal on DeLorme Topo 7...
Sams has the 200W (wide screen) for $10 more.
They also have the Nuvi 750 for $299.00 I know cause I just bought that one.
@#$&!
Not gonna say it...
Bookmark for later ref.
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