Handheld GPS Comparison

Handheld GPS Comparison

Handheld GPS Comparison

04th May 2003

Article by Dave Burrows There are so many handheld GPS Receivers out on the market, it's starting to become very difficult to find the wood from the threes. Most of the receivers are of similar specification, but some can be quite different in price, so we've tried to bring together the most popular handheld GPS Receivers and compare the complete manufacturer specifications. You can also read the review on any of these GPS Receivers if a review has been written by clicking on the Read Review link under each GPS Receiver.

	Magellan Meridian GPS	Magellan Meridian Colour	Magellan Meridian Gold	Magellan Meridian Marine
Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review
Basemap	2mb cities/highways	16mb cities/highways	16mb cities/highways	16mb cities/highways
Number of Screens	7	9	7	7
Position Update	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec
TTFF Cold	<2 mins	<2 mins	<2 mins	<2 mins
TTFF Warm	<1 min	<1 min	<1 min	<1 min
TTFF Hot	15 secs	15 secs	15 secs	15 secs
Max Velocity	951 mph	951 mph	951 mph	951 mph
Weight	8 oz / 227gm	8 oz / 227gm	8 oz / 227gm	8 oz / 227gm
Display Size	2.2in x 1.75in	2.2in x 1.55in	2.2in x 1.75in	2.2in x 1.75in
Display Resolution	120 x 160	120 x 160	120 x 160	120 x 160
Colour Display ?	Grayscale	High-Colour	Grayscale	Grayscale
Backlit Display	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antenna	Quad Helix	Quad Helix	Quad Helix	Quad Helix
Horizontal Accuracy	<7 m	<7 m	<7 m	<7 m
Horizontal Accuracy WAAS / EGNOS	<3 m	<3 m	<3 m	<3 m
Battery Type	AA	AA	AA	AA
Battery Life (hours)	14	14	14	14
Additional Memory	SD Cards	SD Cards	Built In	Built In
Additional Maps	MapSend	MapSend	MapSend	MapSend
Waterproof	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Min Operating Temp	-10C / 14F	-10C / 14F	-10C / 14F	-10C / 14F
Max Operating Temp	60C / 140F	60C / 140F	60C / 140F	60C / 140F
Max Operating Alt	60,000 ft / 18,288 m	60,000 ft / 18,288 m	60,000 ft / 18,288 m	60,000 ft / 18,288 m
Waypoints	500	500	500	500
Routes	20	20	20	20
Trackpoints	2000	2000	2000	2000
Datums	76	76	76	76
DGPS/WAAS/EGNOS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Electronic Compass	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Barometric Altimeter	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Hunting/Fishing Calc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Celestial Information	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Interface	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial
	Magellan Meridian Platinum	Magellan SporTrak	Magellan SporTrak Map	Magellan SporTrak Pro
Review	Read Review	Coming Soon	Read Review	Coming Soon
Basemap	16mb cities/highways	Cities Locations POI's	2mb cities/highways	9mb cities/highways
Number of Screens	7	9	7	7
Position Update	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec
TTFF Cold	<2 mins	<2 mins	<2 mins	<2 mins
TTFF Warm	<1 min	<1 min	<1 min	<1 min
TTFF Hot	15 secs	15 secs	<15 secs	<15 secs
Max Velocity	951 mph	951 mph	951 mph	951 mph
Weight	8 oz / 227gm	8 oz / 227gm	6.1 oz	6.1 oz
Display Size	2.2in x 1.75in	2.3in x 1.4in	2.2in x 1.75in	2.3in x 1.4in
Display Resolution	120 x 160	160 x 104	160 x 104	160 x 104
Colour Display ?	Grayscale	Grayscale	Grayscale	Grayscale
Backlit Display	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antenna	Quad Helix	Quad Helix	Quad Helix	Quad Helix
Horizontal Accuracy	<7 m	<7 m	<7 m	<7 m
Horizontal Accuracy WAAS / EGNOS	<3 m	<3 m	<3 m	<3 m
Battery Type	AA	AA	AA	AA
Battery Life (hours)	14	14	14	14
Additional Memory	SD Cards	Built In	Built In	Built In
Additional Maps	MapSend	n/a	MapSend	MapSend
Waterproof	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Min Operating Temp	-10C / 14F	-10C / 14F	-10C / 14F	-10C / 14F
Max Operating Temp	60C / 140F	60C / 140F	60C / 140F	60C / 140F
Max Operating Alt	60,000 ft / 18,288 m	No Info from Magellan	60,000 ft / 18,288 m	60,000 ft / 18,288 m
Waypoints	500	500	500	500
Routes	20	20	20	20
Trackpoints	2000	2000	2000	2000
Datums	76	76	76	76
DGPS/WAAS/EGNOS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Electronic Compass	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Barometric Altimeter	Yes	n/a	n/a	n/a
Hunting/Fishing Calc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Celestial Information	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Interface	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial
	Garmin eTrex	Garmin eTrex Summit	Garmin eTrex Legend	Garmin Venture
Review	Read Review	Coming Soon	Coming Soon	Coming Soon
Basemap	n/a	8mb	1mb Cities / Highways	24mb Cities / Highways
Number of Screens	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Position Update	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec
TTFF Cold	5 mins	5 mins	5 mins	5 mins
TTFF Warm	45 secs	45 secs	45 secs	45 secs
TTFF Hot	15 secs	15 secs	15 secs	15 secs
Max Velocity	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Weight	5.3 oz	5.3 oz	5.3 oz	5.3 oz
Display Size	2.1in x 1.1in	2.1in x 1.1in	2.1in x 1.1in	2.1in x 1.1in
Display Resolution	128 x 64	128 x 64	288 x 160	288 x 160
Colour Display ?	Grayscale	Grayscale	Grayscale	Grayscale
Backlit Display	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antenna	Patch	Patch	Patch	Patch
Horizontal Accuracy	15 m	15 m	15 m	15 m
Horizontal Accuracy WAAS / EGNOS	n/a	n/a	3-5 m	3-5 m
Battery Type	AA	AA	AA	AA
Battery Life (hours)	22	22	18	20
Additional Memory	None	None	8mb Built In	1mb Built In
Additional Maps	n/a	MapSource	MapSource	MapSource
Waterproof	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Min Operating Temp	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F
Max Operating Temp	70C / 158F	70C / 158F	70C / 158F	70C / 158F
Max Operating Alt	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Waypoints	500	500	500	500
Routes	1	20	20	20
Trackpoints	1536	3000	2048	2048
Datums	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
DGPS/WAAS/EGNOS	No	No	Yes	Yes
Electronic Compass	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes
Barometric Altimeter	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes
Hunting/Fishing Calc	n/a	n/a	Yes	Yes
Celestial Information	n/a	n/a	Yes	Yes
Interface	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial
	Garmin Vista	Garmin Camo	Garmin GPSMap76	Garmin GPSMap76S
Review	Read Review	Coming Soon	Read Review	Coming Soon
Basemap	24mb Cities/Highways	n/a	8mb Cities/Highways	24mb Cities/Highways
Number of Screens	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Position Update	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec	1 sec
TTFF Cold	5 mins	5 mins	5 mins	5 mins
TTFF Warm	45 secs	45 secs	45 secs	45 secs
TTFF Hot	15 secs	15 secs	15 secs	15 secs
Max Velocity	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Weight	5.3 oz	5.3 oz	7.7 oz	7.7 oz
Display Size	2.1in x 1.1in	2.1in x 1.1in	2.2in x 1.6in	2.2in x 1.6in
Display Resolution	288 x 160	128 x 64	240 x 180	240 x 180
Colour Display ?	Grayscale	Grayscale	Grayscale	Grayscale
Backlit Display	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antenna	Patch	Patch	Quad Helix	Quad Helix
Horizontal Accuracy	15 m	15 m	15 m	15 m
Horizontal Accuracy WAAS / EGNOS	3-5 m	n/a	3-5 m	3-5 m
Battery Type	AA	AA	AA	AA
Battery Life (hours)	12	22	16	10
Additional Memory	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Additional Maps	MapSource	n/a	MapSource	MapSource
Waterproof	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Min Operating Temp	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F
Max Operating Temp	70C / 158F	70C / 158F	70C / 158F	70C / 158F
Max Operating Alt	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Waypoints	500	500	500	500
Routes	20	1	50	50
Trackpoints	3000	2000	2048	5000
Datums	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
DGPS/WAAS/EGNOS	Yes	n/a	Yes	Yes
Electronic Compass	Yes	n/a	n/a	Yes
Barometric Altimeter	Yes	n/a	n/a	Yes
Hunting/Fishing Calc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Celestial Information	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Interface	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial	9 pin Serial
	Garmin Geko 101	Garmin Geko 201
Review	Coming Soon	Coming Soon
Basemap
Number of Screens	n/a	n/a
Position Update	1 sec	1 sec
TTFF Cold	5 mins	5 mins
TTFF Warm	45 secs	45 secs
TTFF Hot	15 secs	15 secs
Max Velocity	n/a	n/a
Weight	3.1 oz	3.1 oz
Display Size	0.92in x 1.44in
Display Resolution	64 x 100	64 x 100
Colour Display ?	Grayscale	Grayscale
Backlit Display	Yes	Yes
Antenna	Patch	Patch
Horizontal Accuracy	15 m	15 m
Horizontal Accuracy WAAS / EGNOS	n/a	3-5 m
Battery Type	AAA	AAA
Battery Life (hours)	12	12
Additional Memory	n/a	n/a
Additional Maps	n/a	n/a
Waterproof	Yes	Yes
Min Operating Temp	-15C / 5F	-15C / 5F
Max Operating Temp	70C / 158F	70C / 158F
Max Operating Alt	n/a	n/a
Waypoints	250	500
Routes	n/a	20
Trackpoints	3000	10000
Datums	18	100
DGPS/WAAS/EGNOS	No	Yes
Electronic Compass	n/a	n/a
Barometric Altimeter	n/a	n/a
Hunting/Fishing Calc	n/a	n/a
Celestial Information	n/a	n/a
Interface	n/a	9 pin Serial

GPS Hardware TTFF (Time To First Fix) Cold Test 1 Cold Test 2 Cold Test 3 Cold Test 4 Cold Test 5 Cold Test Average Warm Test Hot Test CoPilot CF 1m 22s 1m 8s 56s 1m 17s 54s 1m 07s 52s 16s Emtac Sleeve/CoPilot 40s 37s 42s 37s 46s 40.4s 10s 9s Emtac/Socket BT GPS 47s 53s 42s 36s 38s 43.2s 10s 17s Garmin eTrex 39s 44s 40s 41s 43s 41.4s 8s N/A Garmin eTrex Summit 38s 41s 45s 39s 42s 41.0s 8s N/A Garmin eTrex Vista 37s 57s 32s 35s 38s 39.8s 17s N/A Garmin GPSMap76 42s 34s 23s 56s 32s 37.4s 12s N/A Garmin GPSMap76S 32s 53s 32s 39s 36s 38.4s 11s N/A Garmin Geko 101 1m 37s 45s 38s 44s 41s 53s 15s 13 Garmin Geko 201 34s 45s 38s 43s 40s 40s 19s 10 HaiCom 302 CF 50s 33s 1m 25s 36s 1m 25s 57.8s 23s 10s HaiCom 303 MMF 42s 1m 05 s 41s 1m 02 s 1m 18s 57.6s 36s 3s Holux GM-210 42s 38s 35s 37s 42s 38.8s 30s 4s Holux GM-270 54s 1m 07 s 1m 03s 50s 1m 12s 61.2s 39s 4s Holux GM-270U 46s 49s 42s 1m 01 s 49s 49.4s 35s 3s Holux GR-230 1m 02s 55s 50s 49s 52s 53.6s 39s 5s LeadTek 9531 / 9532 29s 37s 39s 41s 43s 37.8s 9s 5s Magellan Meridian Range of GPS 38s 53s 43s 33s 35s 40.4s 18s 15s Magellan SporTrak Range of GPS 37s 47s 46s 41s 41s 42.4s 19s 16s Navman 3000 (ROM 2.0.0) 49s 52s 1m 33s 3m 23s 8m 5s 2m 56s 20s 11s Navman 3400/3420 (ROM 2.1.2) 1m 33s 2m 30s 1m 32s 52s 1m 17s 1m 32.8s 20s 12s Navman 3450 (ROM 2.1.2) 57s 50s 1m 09s 48s 1m 0s 56.8s 20s 11s Navman 4400 53s 1m 03s 1m 19s 54s 53s 1m 00.4s 0s 0s Pretec Compact CF 1m 28s 2m 47s 57s 45s 1m 2s 1m 23s 1m 16s 12s Pretec Compact LP CF 3m 48s 5m 32s 4m 59s 1m 53s 4m 02s 4m 04s 52s 33s Rikaline X5 41s 41s 34s 41s 42s 39.5s 39s 0s Rikaline X6 34s 60s 44s 48s 57s 48.6s 38s 0s RoyalTek Onyx 1m 28s 1m 39s 2m 23s 1m 38s 1m 35s 1m 46s 1m 24s 17s RoyalTek Sapphire RGM 1m 02s 1m 0s 56s 41s 55s 54.8s 37s 10s RoyalTek RBT-3000 57s 46s 43s 41s 55s 48.4s 30s 9s RoyalTek RGM-2000 48s 52s 40s 45s 39s 44.8s 33s 7s SysOnChip BT GPS 48s 77s 66s 67s 51s 61.8s 37s 4s SysOnChip CF Plus (SIRFXTrac) 40s 30s 33s 38s 39s 36s 30s 0s TFAC MG30 Mouse 1m17s 1m 26s 1m 38s 1m 36s 2m 11s 1m 37s 34s 4s TomTom Bluetooth GPS 48s 52s 46s 59s 51s 51.2s 37s 3s Fastest TTFF Cold Tests Slowest TTFF Cold Tests Manufacturer Stated Times Warm TTFF Tests Manufacturer Stated Times Hot TTFF Tests Manufacturer Stated Times CoPilot CF 54s 1m 22s Not Stated 52s N/A 16s N/A Emtac Sleeve/CoPilot 37s 46s Not Stated 10s N/A 9s N/A Emtac/Socket BlueTooth GPS 36s 53s 1m 20s 10s 45s 6s 10s Garmin eTrex 39s 44s 45s 8s 15s N/A N/A Garmin eTrex Summit 38s 45s 45s 8s 15s N/A N/A Garmin eTrex Vista 32s 57s 45s 12s 15s N/A N/A Garmin GPSMap76 32s 56s 45s 12s 15s N/A N/A Garmin GPSMap76S 32s 53s 45s 12s 15s N/A N/A Garmin Geko 101 38s 1m 37s 45s 15s 15s 13s N/A Garmin Geko 201 34s 45s 45s 19s 15s 10s N/A HaiCom 302 CF 33s 1m 25s 48s 23s 38s 10s 8s HaiCom 303 MMF 41s 1m 18s 48s 36s 38s 3s 8s Holux GM-210 35s 42s 45s 30s 38s 4s 8s Holux GM-270 50\s 1m 12s 45s 39s 38s 4s 8s Holux GM-270U 42s 1m 01s 45s 35s 38s 3s 8s Holux GR-230 39s 1m 02s 45s 39s 38s 5s 8s LeadTek 9531 / 9532 29s 43s 48s 9s 38s 5s 8s Magellan Meridian Range of GPS 33s 53s <2m 18s <1m 15s <15s Magellan SporTrak Range of GPS 37s 47s <5m 19s <1m 16s <15s Navman 3000 49s 8m 05s 2m 0s 20s 48s 11s 18s Navman 3400/3420 (ROM 2.1.2) 52s 2m 30s 2m 0s 20s 48s 12s 18s Navman 3450 (ROM 2.1.2) 48s 1m 09s 2m 0s 20s 48s 11s 18s Navman 4400 53s 1m 19s n/a 0s n/a 0s n/a Pretec Compact CF 45s 2m 47s 1m 0s 1m 16s 45s 12s 8s Pretec Compact LP CF 1m 53s 5m 32s 2m 10s 52s 45s 33s 20s Rikaline X5 34s 42s 45s 39s 38s 0s 8s Rikaline X6 34s 1m 00 s 45s 38s 38s 0s 8s RoyalTek Onyx 1m 28s 2m 23s 45s 3m 0s 45s 17s 20s RoyalTek Sapphire 41s 1m 02s 45s 37s 38s 10s 45s RoyalTek RBT-3000 41s 57s 45s 30s 38s 9s 8 RoyalTek RGM-2000 39s 52s 45s 33s 38s 17s 45s SysOnChip BT GPS 37s 77s 45s 37s 38s 4s 8s SysOnChip CF Plus (SIRFXTrac) 30s 40s 45s 30s 38s 0s 8s TFAC MG30 1m 17s 2m 11s 45s 34s 8s 4s 0.1s TomTom Bluetooth GPS 48s 59s 45s 37s 38s 3s 8s

Connecting a handheld GPS Receiver to a PC or Pocket PC Both Garmin and Magellan handheld GPS Receivers ship with a cable that will connect it to a PC, but none of them ship with a cable that will allow you to connect it to a PDA (Palm or Pocket PC). PC-Mobile supply a cable set. The cable should comprise of two parts, the first part is the cable that screws onto the back of the Magellan like the one below. Magellan GPS Cable Garmin GPS II / III / V / 12 / 30 / 40 / 45 / 48 / 89 / 90 / GPS76 / StreetPilot / GPSMap Garmin eTrex / eMap Cable The second part of the cable will have a 3.5mm socket on one end which will connect with the 3.5mm plug (left) and the other end of the cable will have a PDA connector. This then allows you to use your favourite GPS Receiver on your favourite PDA and utilise a whole host of other mapping products anything from Topographical products like Fugawi, OziExplorer, Memory-Map to Street Routing software like TomTom Navigator, PowerLOC Destinator and you don't then need to purchase a second GPS Receiver if you're primary use going forward will be on the Pocket PC!

from :http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/handheldcomparison.php