Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
I purchased the 60Cx to replace a Lowrance H2Oc I received at the beginning of the year. The Lowrance is a nice unit, but lacked trip routing, which I initially thought I didn't really need, but turned out to be wrong.
The 60Cx has an excellent feel in the hands, the buttons are surprisingly firm and responsive, where my Lowrance unit's were a bit mushy. The screen is excellent, highly visible in bright light, and the backlight is effective. The factory settings for turning the light off are a bit conservative, most likely to prolong battery life. As with most anything with a screen these days, the screen itself seems like it would scratch or scuff easily. I suggest putting some kind of protector on it. I cut a protector for a Sony PSP screen to fit.
I have not yet had to test the waterproof claims, but these were important to me, as one of my intended uses for this is mounted on my motorcycle while I'm out and about. I've used it all last season for this and it was great! If you are going to be using the unit for navigation etc you absolutely must acquire City Navigator North America, or whatever is appropriate for your region, or the pre-loaded cards. Base map detail is not enough for more then good sized city routing on highways. I also took the unit to New Zealand and it worked fine there, although Garmin's map availability is laughable, I had to purchase maps from a local shop. This is an advantage though, as apparently it's possible for 3rd parties to create compatible map data, so you are not completely reliant on Garmin.
RAM mounts are probably not your only option for this device but I'd imagine they are among the best. For cars or other vehicles, the suction cup mounts are excellent. For motorcycles there are specific handle bar mounts usually.
The unit also supports external antennas, although I can't imagine needing one, the reception and lock times are excellent, it it sports the well regarded SiRFIII chip. I was able to get solid locks even under thick tree cover while in New Zealand. I can also get a fairly good lock in my home without being near windows(but my house is also not one that would tend to block signal as much as many others).
Realistically, unless you buy preloaded cards, you will also want to purchase an additional microSD card to load maps on to, microSD memory is cheap these days, don't get less then 1GB. There's a great deal of discussion as to if a 2GB card will work or not, but as far as I can tell from said discussion it will. With a 1GB card, I can load full detail and POI data for about 1/2 the continental US.
Another bonus, the unit can be powered from it's USB port. I highly recommend you get some sort of power source for it if you will be using it in a car. This will allow the backlight to stay on while in use, which is very useful.
While in New Zealand, my friend had an older model dash Garmin (color touch screen, voice prompting, the works) and we found that other then the touch interface and voice prompting, my handheld was nearly identical in function. My lock did seem to be faster and better though, which was expected.
I highly recommend this unit. At least 2 people I know have purchased the identical unit after using mine, primarily for geocaching. The 60CSx, one step up, includes a barometric altimeter and electronic compass, which could be useful in certain situations, but I don't think justify the added expense.
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
BUY Now Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment