Friday, April 1, 2011

DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)


This review is from: DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)


If the reason you're considering the pn-40 is because you're driving to meet friends and they call you on your cell to tell you that they're going to this other restaurant and here's the address... and you want to type that into your gps while you're stopped at a traffic light and have it give you the route, well, read no further - this is not for you. The pn-40 won't do that, at least not unless you've got your pc in the car with the topo 7 software loaded onto it. On the other hand, if you're looking for a gps to use after you get out of the car this is it.



I was about to buy a (cheaper) Garmin vista HCx but heard about the pn-40. I've been a huge fan of Delorme atlases for many years and I decided to give them my business. Here's why I'm glad I did:

1) there is the huge library of satellite imagery and aerial photos and more available for download (you are going to pay for the $30 annual subscription, get used to it) - it really is something like having google earth on a hand-held gps. If you're going on a hiking trip and you want to have arial photography available for the place your walking to, you just download it and copy it to the pn-40. You can have a variety of map types loaded onto the gps and select which one you want to look at as you go

2) the pn-40 has onboard memory and an SD card and it's fast

3) while I don't find the topo 7 software stunningly intuitive and I don't care for the help screens, it is powerful and gets the job done (note, if you want to get to the waypoint tool, you have to be in the draw tab)

4) despite what I said above, the pn-40 comes with *excellent* onboard US street maps. If you have the foresight to create waypoints for the places you want to go before you leave the house you can ask the gps to give you a route from whereever you are to your waypoints.



With respect to the topo 7 software: the package comes with an offer to get an upgrade to the most current version within 6 months of your purchase (it costs $10). I'm holding onto that offer, and hope that Delorme makes some improvements.



The reason I almost didn't buy the pn-40 is because I periodically hike out of the US in South America and Asia and spots like that. I asked DeLorme about their international support and they honestly admitted they weren't planning anything special. That said, they do have basic international coverage (borders and major roads) which sounded pretty skimpy, but then I couldn't find evidence that Garmin or Magellan had anything much better.


DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics) at amazon.com
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