It appears to be a replacement for the PN-20 which costs $300. If you read the various forums, there are some issues with that unit, so we will need to see the reaction to the new model. That press release lays on the hype pretty heavily ("blazing fast").
But I think it's going to be really limited by its screen. They don't give any specs but it's obviously really little and the screenshots they posted are only 176x220. For a unit designed to show 24k topos and satellite imagery, that's pretty lame. Garmin's Colorado has a 240x400 screen, almost twice the number of pixels. But that's still way behind the 480x272 standard for most automotive widescreen GPS'es.
On the DeLorme, you evidently need to buy their XMap program if you want to make and convert your own maps, and it's not cheap ($200 for the base version):
http://www.delorme.com/xmap/
There's also the Magellan Triton, which looks very cool and uses the National Geographic 24k Topo Maps:
http://www.magellangps.com/products/product.asp?segID=425. Unfortunately it sounds very buggy and there are plenty of irate customers complaining about their terrible support... for example:
http://www.gpsreview.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3170
If you want
real USGS topos, then I still think OziExplorer CE is the way to go (see:
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/showthread.php?t=4892 and
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/showthread.php?t=4912). They've released a new version which adds lots of nice features and you can design your own screens with the companion Settings Manager program. Aside from that, it's really cheap.
Now you do need to make your own maps, but I've already made USGS 24k topo's most of the pines using USAPhotoMaps. I would be willing to share these, but don't know what the legal issues might be. Send me a PM if interested... they are really BIG files.
I'm still running it on the iPAQ 310 and it's great for auto use, but it really isn't ideal as a handheld. You're much more plugged into the whole "Windows Thing" than I am Ben... I'm sure some company makes a ruggedized little Windows Mobile machine with a built-in GPS which would be a good platform for this software. I know that 640x480 screens are common on these things now, and that's a LOT better than any of the units from DeLorme, Garmin or Magellan.
