Versatile GPS sat nav for road and hillwalking use ?

DeadHead_4

Hi all

i'm considering getting a sat nav, but i'd like one that I could use in the car (obviously) but also to go out hillwalking with OS landranger maps.

anyone any experience of these ?
any recommendations?

thanks in advance

VictorMeldew

Don't really have any experience of these myself but my sister has recently ordered the Mio P550 and the reviews of this look really good. Might be worth a look.

ManAtHome

Problem with the in-car ones is (lack of) battery life and ruggedness. The good handheld ones for walking generally have over 20 hours life (in car ones/PDAs etc probably 2-3 hours) and are waterproof and drop-proof to some degree.

Other problem is map size and detail - an in-car one only needs roads and streets, whereas a "walking" one needs a higher level of detail which normally means a smaller geographical area (Lands End to John O'Groats would need to split into separate uploads - but you'd be unlikely to walk it in a day or two...).

If anyone does a reasonable multi-purpose one, likely to be Garmin or Magellan, but haven't seen any reviewed or even advertised.

chris_aaaaa

I have a garmin etrex and an acer n35, the garmin stays in the bag or gets used as a logger.

The PDA can get me right accross the country to a distant car park and then up a mountain/hill in great detail. I use tomtom and memory map (it came with some comedy navigation software in the box - who makes this stuff).

The acer is great, but my wife just broke the screen, the only time she has taken it for a day to use! The main drawbacks are the insensitive gps (I use and external ae in the car) and the naff power/sync connector. So I think a mitac p550 next.

I will never travel without one now, speed camera in this country, door to door all over the world and no more arguments with the wife

Chris

I always carry a map up a hill too!

shown73

Have a look at https://www.pocketgpsworld.com seems to be pretty comprehensive.