I’ve been reading the various recent threads about GPS devices and found some valuable info there, but I have a question I didn’t see addressed.
I want a device that can ride on my dashboard and does all the usual tricks, of course, but I also want to be able to turn the thing on in the morning, drop it into my pocket/breifcase/pack and leave it there all day without having to worry about recharging it, and take it out at the end of a long day and have it tell me where I’ve been every minute of that day.
Looking at a couple Garmin and Tom Tom devices on-line, however, I find battery life to be projected at 3 or 4 hours only.
It’s okay if I have to turn the display off for this purpose. And, also, I would want it to be absolutely quiet while it’s in my pocket/breifcase/pack, so turning off it’s voice wouldn’t be a problem, it’d be a requirement.
Does anyone have any experience/advice for me on this matter.
I may be wrong, but unless there have been any major changes in the market recently, I think you are conflating two different types of GPS unit.
The Tom-Tom dashboard-style ones are simply designed for on-road navigation. They don’t keep track of where you’ve been or anything like that. Garmin nuvi devices are also of this type (I have one myself).
If you want to log where you’ve been, you need a hiking type of unit - these don’t typically have voice commands or even necessarily provide on-road directions. They just keep track of your location and can store a “breadcrumb trail” of where you’ve been. You can also save waypoints and navigate back to them, but the more basic models don’t have a built-in map (or maybe just have a very basic one).
A simple unit like the Garmin eTrex might fit the bill. It claims a battery life of 22 hours and will store a tracklog of 10,000 points.
Hmmm, looking at the Garmin Nuvi reviews on sites like this one led me to believe that their track log was just what I wanted.
But I know nothing about them personally.
Last time I was even vaguely in the market, the Nuvi was the only “hybrid” car-outdoor GPS on the market-- I don’t know if this has changed or not. Then it seemed like you paid a lot more for the Nuvi and it wasn’t the best car GPS on the market and it made a pretty unwieldy outdoor unit, so I concluded it would make more sense to get two recievers. You can get a no-frills monochrome outdoor unit for about $75 if you shop around-- even less if you buy used.
