UKH

Hi everyone,

I've searched and found a few threads covering this topic, but some of them are quite old so wondering if anyone has anything new to add...

I'm looking at buying my first GPS and am looking for advice on what features are useful, any particular makes/models people recommend, what to look out for, and so on.

I've always been a map and compass guy, but also am usually with at least one other person.  I'm doing more solo but also now taking my (young) dog with me too - and so a map becomes a bit more cumbersome and awkward.  The idea of planning my route in the house and then transferring to my device and the simplicity of following that appeals!

I'd like a specific GPS rather than using my phone as I'd much rather keep my phone charged and safely stored in my rucksack in case it's needed, rather than drain the battery running a navigation app.

I know I don't want a touchscreen as I'll be out in all weathers and seasons around Scottish highlands, occasionally Lake District.  And I know Garmin are a good brand. 

I usually go outdoors around the UK, though occasionally in Europe, North America and Asia.  Mostly hiking and climbing, with some canoeing and kayaking in there too.

Any thoughts, comments or recommendations gratefully received!

Satmap 20s are very very good, but quite expensive (sometimes they have deals on their website selling reconditioned units I've seen). I use mine weekly, battery life is good, ease of use is excellent, touch screen or toggle. Bright screen and good battery life. Waterproof. Their customer service and tech support are both very good.

Only downsides are cost and it's quite a chunky unit.

Etrex 20 or 30

Free maps availible online, slightly better maps from Garmin for lots.

Have a look at the Garmin wrist-mounts 601/101 etc. I had one for several years. Polar opposite of the Satmap but I found mine to be very good, and for your kayak trips might be good to have a gps on your  wrist. 

In time honoured UKC fashion I will partially ignore the fact you are after a dedicated GPS and suggest some alternatives.

Firstly if it is battery life that is your main concern with your phone, one thing that can help mitigate this issue is to put it into flight mode for the day, unless you need to make a phone call. You may need to turn on the location separately once you have done this. It doesn't completely avoid the issue, but certainly makes a huge difference in battery life. The touchscreen issue remains though.

The other option worth considering is a cheap small (7"?) gps enabled tablet. I have used this in the mountains running a navigation app (I use viewranger which works well for me, pretty intuative to use), combined with a properly waterproof flexible map case (ortlieb). Not used this that much in the rain but seems to allow use of the touchscreen through the case even when wet on the outside. I have used this with the A4 version of the map case, which fits the tablet into half the case, so I can have tablet and map back to back in the case. Folded in half with tablet visible for general use, un folded to view map area on the back as required. There are a number of advantages to this, not least a larger map area visible on the tablet/gps at one time (which I find helpful when navigating), as well as having the map to hand for a bit more of a readable overview, while still small enough for holding in one hand. It has some drawbacks in terms of size, and may not work for what you want, but I find it a very useable and flexible system, worth adding it to the mix.

Haha - thank you!!  This is all really good stuff.  I do a lot of it already (flight mode, I have an aquapac, and so on) - but I'm afraid to say I'm still after a seperate GPS :p

I have a second hand Active 10 which I have replaced with an Active 20 (the power button died on a cycle tour and I needed a replacement at short notice).

You are welcome to the newly repaired unit (new front and rear clamshells so all buttons work), spare battery, silicone case, bike handlebar mount and carry case for £40 including P&P.

No touch screen, easy to use, Adventure Maps (essentially Open Cycle Map) for the whole of the UK cost 40 quid.

Picking up satellites can take 5 minutes or so.

Won't be able to post before next weekend as currently on holiday. 

Garmin eTrex is perfect for what you're after. I had the same criteria and now use the eTrex 20. It's cheap, simple, reliable and bombproof in all weathers. Incomparable to a using a phone (I also have a smartphone with premium Viewranger subscription, which is great but not comparable).

Shouldn’t be, it’s your safety and you have to be confident of your set up. I’ve always done separates.

Even in Scotland, all weather, all seasons can be an experience 😉. 
I think it’s prudent to have a separate GPS if more extreme circumstances might be expected and I’ve never regretted it being independent.

I’ve currently got a now old Garmin 62s with full OS mapping. One of the main reasons for choosing this model over others I’ve had, is it can be used with full thickness winter gloves in weather conditions you can reasonably expect in winter unlike some other models, and take AA batteries (up to 20 hrs use(iirc). 

Mine has been through some really horrendous weather conditions and not once in over the years has it had any fault or given me any concerns whatsoever.
 

Yes the mapping area is small so not that easy to view without enlargement, but I always had paper maps backup. They are expensive, bulky (but therefore easier to hold in a gale!), another thing to carry, and back up batteries, etc.

Always been happy with Garmin, and very with the 62s. Newer models I think might be 64 or 66?

To add: 

I also thought the “external” aerial was more reliable fix overall (maybe just in my mind!) than internal aerial. That said I’ve had/used a few of the smaller, cheaper, Garmin models and all did me well within their limitations.
Top tip would be get to know whatever GPS you buy really really well in good conditions. I’ve had at least four folk over years I’ve had to help off the hills who had GPSs but didn’t know how to use them when really needed.
One didn’t even have his GPS set to British grid. He argued with me for at least 10 mins that I was in the wrong place not him, despite it was him that was lost!

Hi Spenser - thank you very much for the offer. It's not quite what I'm after I don't think, so I'll pass and let you open it up to the free market   Thanks again.

No worries, I hadn't planned on offering it up until I got home anyway. 

It depends on how you're going to be using it.  If you want a unit that you can use in a similar way to a map (i.e. look at the image and translate that into real world terrain) then you want one with a big screen (SATMAPs already mentioned are good for this).  If more just for getting an immediate position fix and track recording (i.e. a grid ref) then small, cheap wrist mounts are ideal.  Somewhere in-between you have the likes of the garmin 60/62/64/66 models and the more basic etrex models which have enough screen to see the mapping for your immediate surrounds but are a bit more compact and (I find) usable with gloves than large screen models.  I've a Garmin 62s and think it's a good compromise unit in that respect.

I'm a fairly similar approach to yourself in that I prefer to keep my phone for emergencies rather than doubling it up for nav.

Things I'd look for in a mapping GPS:

1) HD mapping and screen (SATMAP beat Garmin on this one IMO).

2) Options to have different map scales and toggle between automatically.  I've UK in 1:50k and Cairngorms NP in 1:25k so when I zoom in on the 1:50K enough it switches to 1:25k.  I like this, others won't.....

3) Decent button pad so that I can use it with winter gloves.

4) Power source - I prefer AA rechargeable to lithium ion as if away for a longer period I can just buy batteries if needed rather than worrying about recharging.

6) Transfer-ability of mapping - if you purchase mapping try to make sure it's not tied to a specific device.  e.g. Garmin download mapping is tied to your device and if you buy a new one no guarantee they will transfer it.

7) If buying mapping on an SD card, get the highest capacity card you can for your unit as it allows you to save more additional mapping on the card.

8) Magpie factor - any other functions you specifically want e.g. Garmin 66i has inreach built in so can communicate via iridium satellite network to send out emergency txt where you don't get phone signals- but requires a subscription

Cheers,

Stu

Was reminded when out today mt biking, another reason I went for the 62s rather than more basic versions was the electronic compass works whilst stationary. I’ve had cheaper models that use GPS movement for compass and you had to sometimes move as much as 10 m or more if GPS signal restricted (woods for example) to get it to react. 

A small point, but in some highly technical terrain or even whiteouts or very poor weather, can make a potentially live saving difference imo. Whether the “extras” of the more expensive models is worth though is a personal thing.

I have an eTrex 10. I really like it for the following reasons:

• Cheap
• Really long battery life due to lack of features
• Good weather protection
• Takes AA batteries (rechargeable AA too) so useful if you won't have charging points internationally
• I either put in waypoints/coordinates and keep it bare bones, or if detail is needed I plot routes using Google Earth and export it into the device (really easy to do) so I have a path to follow. You can download or share routes as well. 

Things I don't like:

• It has no terrain on the screen, so if you don't know where you are, have no route preplanned or don't have a waypoint you are heading to, all you can see is your previous steps, which isn't super helpful. The plus side is you never have to buy maps to program into the device. Many international destinations don't have available maps, this put me off getting a map programmable GPS at the time. 
• WORST THING ABOUT THIS DEVICE: It has no compass. This means if you stand still it can't point you in the right direction. You have to be moving to get a bearing, which for obvious reasons can be problematic or just annoying. The eTrex 30 has an electronic compass, which solves this, but it's well over 2x the price. 

The eTrex 10 is great for cheap and simple navigation. If you put in the work on Google Earth in advance you can have some extremely detailed routes that negate the need for maps (worked for me on many expeditions). If you're looking for all the bells and whistles then I'd look at the GPSMAP 64, or even better an Inreach Explorer (great for added security on solo trips/routes).

That's extremely helpful - thank you!

I have the eTrex 10 as well, mainly as a backup, preplanned routes and for the longer battery life compared to the more advanced models. 

Although I wish they didn't cripple it so much by limiting the memory (8MB!!! That's less then my Amiga had thirty years ago!) and lack of a compass. A simple no-touchscreen B&W model (much longer battery life) with enough memory to load maps and compass & barometer would be so nice.

BTW, with a bit of work (not that much, really), you can load useful B&W maps into even the eTrex 10 or Fenix watches. They are simplified, but still useful, derived from OpenStreetMaps. The limited memory is a big minus, but you can load only the relevant map sections for each trip, see here:

http://www.gmaptool.eu/en/content/maps-garmin-fenix

One problem with eTrexes (and possibly other Garmin models) is the really stupid lack of button lock and Garmin's zero commitment to adding it in firmware (Garmin's support sucks). Every inadvertent touch of the little joystick in your pack or pocket brings the backlight on, draining the battery and sometimes even changing settings or adding waypoints on its own! I use mine with a rigid case, but obviously that might not help the signal strength. Just something to be aware of...

One last thing - If you decide to get an older or second hand unit, make sure it has a firmware update available for the GPS roll-over bug. Some of the older ones don't. 

The solution for the joystick/waypoint creation problem for me is pressing the back button and leaving it on the compass screen. The joystick doesn't do anything there and the only way out of it is to press the back button. Crazy there isn't a screen lock but it stops the issue. 

That would work somewhat, thanks for the idea! Still, in a tightly packed pack (I usually carry the GPS in the pack's brain, just for backup and tracking), sometimes even the backlight button got double pressed and changed the backlight level from my lowest setting to the max (which drains the juice a lot). I still like the unit for the simplicity and monochrome display, but the issue is something to be aware of before buying it. I just carry it in a case, much like a headlamp without a hard lock off feature. Would be simple to correct in software, alas...

Check out the Fenix monochrome maps, I found them pretty useful at times, much better than the default world map, if you can live with the hassle of loading partial maps into the limited 8MB memory before a trip (you should still leave some of the memory free for saving the tracking data).

Still looking for an ideal cheap GPS unit (long battery life, compass, barometer, AAs, more memory, no backpack button presses), but we can't have all I guess...

There used to be a kickstarter for an E-Ink weather resistant GPS tablet targeted for outdoors use and it seemed nice, but it never materialised, sadly.