New "Colorado" series Garmin GPS'es

[Boyd]

See the review here: http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2008/01/garmin_colorado_400t_review.php?page=1

I'm glad I got the 60csx. This new model has some interesting features, but I wonder why they don't just go with a touchscreen? After using a touchscreen unit it seems very awkward to use the cursor control on a handheld GPS.

More info from Garmin here: http://www8.garmin.com/ces/colorado/index.html

I guess these are Garmin's reaction to the Triton series from Magellan. But at least the Triton 1500 and 2000 have touch screens: http://www.magellangps.com/products/product.asp?segID=425

 

[Ben Ruset]

Touchscreens are more expensive and easier to break. I also don't think they can be made to be waterproof, like this thing is.

When I saw they named the scroll wheel the rock n' roller I wanted to cry. The UI in the thing looks way nicer than the one in my 76CS, and the pre-loaded topo maps are also nice (depending on what level of detail they have, which I imagine is far lower than the standard Garmin topos.)

It's nice but I don't think I'd run out and buy one.

 

[Boyd]

Hmm, I don't know.... there's this touchscreen thing called the iPhone and they seem to be holding up ok And Magellan's high end handheld now has a touchscreen. Most of the time it doesn't bother me on my 60csx, but if I want to enter a waypoint name or coordinates it drives me nuts to scroll through the alphabet with that terrible user interface.

Really no reason why they couldn't preload the whole US topos, my TomTom GPS has 4GB internal memory so the Colorado might have that as well. I'm guessing the whole US Topo 2008 would fit in a little over 2GB. I tried loading about half the US onto an SD card with my 60csx. There was no problem, but each time the GPS started up it paused for a long time checking/loading the maps. That was so annoying that I loaded a smaller area to reduce startup time. But if they optimized the Colorado that could probably be avoided.

 

[Boyd]

Specs from the Magellan Triton:

Case: Rubber armored impact-resistant plastic, water-resistant seal, IPX-7

Display: 2.7" (6.86 cm) diagonal, QVGA (240X320) resolution and touch screen (LED backlit)

Sounds pretty rugged, but 320x240 is pretty lame for a screen by today's standards....

 

[Ben Ruset]

The Colorado is waterproof. The iphone is not. Water resistant != water proof. The Colorado can be submerged.

Touchscreens on devices such as the iphone, PDA's, etc. are known as passive digitizers. They usually require some electrical current to flow across the screen. Large amount of water (more than getting splashed on) would cause problems for these devices.

There are waterproof tablet PC's, but these are pretty expensive and may also use active digitizers, which could be easily waterproofed.

I'm with you that the interface on your 60csx sucks -- it's the same one that I have on my 76cs.