Garmin have released a new top end GPS device

I am finding it hard to justify the price of a Garmin GPS when smartphones are now so cheap with much better screens and a broader range of software and maps available. A Motorola Defy with a couple of spare batteries is extremely tempting.

If you find a good Smartphone that does the GPS thing well then it'd be alright. My work recently bought me a Samsung Galaxy S, which is nearer to the higher end of Smartphones, but the GPS is crap. At first I thought it might have just been me holding it wrong, but some research proved that it's known to have a weak GPS with a dinky little antenna tucked away in a spare gap they had inside the case. I think a general weakness with Smartphones (today at least) is that they're designed to do a million things. Having excellent GPS hardware isn't usually high on the list, especially since they're usually targeted at people in populated areas, and phones used in such places have several faster tricks for locating themselves accurately enough, making the GPS function less important. The most common are triangulation from celltowers, and from wireless access points, but they'll also use tricks with accelerometers and other sensors to try and detect movement. Smartphones are often designed with a presumption that GPS receivers are less important. Another reason I wouldn't trust my Smartphone is the battery won't last longer than 8-10 hours, at a guess, if I'm using it frequently. With my Garmin eTrex HCx I can just leave it switched on in the top of my pack for 24+ continuous hours on a single set of batteries and it does a great job of tracking without me having to think twice. Similarly a friend of mine with an HTC Desire kept getting frustrated when we were out tramping, because he couldn't use it for *just* the GPS without it repeatedly wasting battery trying to do other things like uselessly looking for cell towers. The battery thing isn't a problem around town because I just leave it on a charger if it needs it when I'm at a desk or at home or in the car, but outdoors that's not enough. It's not designed to have the battery swapped out frequently, so if I went to all the trouble of finding replacement batteries, it's still a complex mission to yank off the back and twiddle several things to get at the battery, all the time risking losing my SIM card. It's not the sort of thing I'd want to do anywhere but inside. If there's a perfect smartphone out there then I might well use it one day and maybe that's not so far into the future, but my experience with this particular smartphone doesn't give me any motivation to leave my dedicated purpose-built proven Garmen GPS at home.

My iphone 4 paired with memory map makes a really nice little gps unit - but as Izogi points out battery runs flat pretty quick - so only ok for overnighter (unless you take a solar panel usb type charger or spare battery) - and it definitely does not work in some areas (Like the Ruahine Gorges) I have used it in the Kaimanawas though and works really well there - but would not trust it - so always pack the Garmin in too.

Thanks for the assessment of smartphones izogi. I guess it depends how you use your GPS. If you only switch it on when you want to find out where you are then I guess a smartphone would do. However I tend to use mine as a track logger as much as anything else so I need to have reliable coverage and plenty of track log space. I am interested in vector vs raster maps as I have seen raster maps working quite nicely on an iPad. Mrfizz, are the Memory Maps on your phone raster or vector, if you know the difference? Garmin GPS use vector maps because they are more efficient for memory space and processing speed. However raster maps are simply images of the Topo50 maps so are much more user friendly. The new Garmins can use raster maps but there are probably limitations to how much you can load at one time.

The new GPS looks interesting but may be too big and heavy for general tramping use in my opinion. All I want is an Oregon with a half decent screen. It is just too hard to read in bright sunlight. I have gone back to my older Etrex - no maps but lighter and easier to read. Alan

Hi pmcke - definitely raster on the i-phone with memory map - very nice images - very clear just like looking at a topo map - pity it does not work all the time tho - as I find the vector maps (i use fresh map) on my Garmin GPS map 62s a lot harder to read than the nice raster maps off the iphone - view ranger also do really clear and crisp maps for iphone (and android i think) too - it would be good to find out if i can use a raster map on the Garmin - will investigate that.

I should say that I didn't mean to completely hammer smartphones. There will be better GPS phones out there than my own one, and they'll probably get better in the future, but they're really designed for a different market. A company like Garmin, on the other hand, starts by assuming you want a good GPS and then designs the rest of the device around it. I'm not sure I'd even trust my SGS even if I only wanted a position occasionally. It'd be better than nothing, but at times I've left it running for 10-15 minutes and it still refuses to get a fix. Around town I rarely even try to use it, because the non-GPS techniques that combine sensing wireless access points and comparing with downloaded data are so much more effective. If you specifically want a GPS then I think it's risky to go for a smartphone without being certain that it's what you want. If you have a smartphone for other reasons and it does everything you need, then great.

All this talk about Garmin and maps is very interesting. I have returned from USA with a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx and would like some advice on buying Topo maps to put on it.

There's a pretty good summary of what's available here http://www.nzopengps.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12:topo-maps&catid=9:gps-use-and-applications&Itemid=17 Personally I use Gart Turners maps http:\\www.gtmaps.co.nz but some of the free ones mentioned here are fairly good. You might want to look at them first