Holiday Shopping: GPS

December 11th, 2007 Emile

I have been wanting a GPS so bad I can taste it. Granted it’s more for driving around this small town vs driving around being outdoorzy, but that is beside the point. The fact is I don’t really need one (hey where’s the mall, oh same place it’s been for the past 20 years, thank you GPS,thank you), but I sure to want one, so let’s look at a couple I have been considering blowing some cash on.

The first one is the Garmin nuvi 250w. It has a 4.3″ wide screen and comes with preloaded maps of North America (no Mexico). Some GPS systems these days come with MP3 player, Bluetooth and text-to-speech, this one does not. However, it is packed with Points of Interest (POIs). The nuvi is also portable and fits in a backpack or purse. It has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which has about a 5 hr life. Here is a good review of the Garmin nuvi 250w.

This other model is the TomTom ONE XL. It also features a 4.3″ wide screen and maps of US and Canada. Like the nuvi above it doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles (MP3 and text-to-speech), but it does have Bluetooth. It has an expansion slot for 1 gb flash SD card which pictures can be uploaded to and viewed. The battery life is also about 5 hr. Check out this thorough review of the TomTom ONE XL.

Note: These are the car models, I don’t have much experience with any other type. I know there are some great ones out there for hiking. Do any of you guys use any that you might suggest to some of the readers?

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