It's Summer, Time for Our Annual Consumer Product Review
June 3, 2009 By: Stephen ColwellTime again for the annual new consumer gizmo product reviews. (This will be concluded next month.)
The warm, lazy days of summer are here, and it’s time for all GPS World readers to be reminded to hang up their lab coats, loosen their ties, and put their computers into sleep mode. Break out to the warm sunshine where children still laugh, parents are plotting their summer vacations and outdoor trips, and floating on their boats.
We spend our lives at GPS World bringing you the latest news, technical analysis, policy decisions, system status, business outlooks by segment, trends, commentary, and the like. The heart of all these working parts provides the consumer and enterprise user with astonishing GNSS products. That’s it. Simple.
Summer is the time on the consumer side that we see the biggest proliferation of both new recreational products and applications being rolled out, and this summer is no different. It’s a good time for manufacturers to heal some wintertime losses and give us some fun new toys to play with. In this column, I will spotlight a couple of product categories as well as two products I feel are more than worth mentioning. Note: These are product reviews of desirable new equipment and are not rated in relation to any like or comparable product.)
The categories are:
- Vehicle auto navigation
- On the water, in the woods with GPS, and two-way voice (non-cellular)
The envelopes, please:
Vehicle Auto Navigation: Magellan Maestro 4370
There is something about Magellan nav products that feel like home. Perhaps it’s because I watched the company grow from its VC origins back in the late ’80s and have owned every one of their nav products. In fact, when I started GPS World way back when, the first edition featured an article on the new start-up. In the ’90s I tested their first portable unit — which weighed about 5 pounds complete with CD player — on up to various new offerings in the last few years. Magellan has had more owners over the years than most of us have relatives, but have maintained good product consistency and a high level of innovation. Currently Magellan is owned by Mio, which purchased the company from Shaw Venture partners earlier this year.
The 4370 Maestro is on the top of Magellan’s Auto nav food chain with very reliable features and ease of use that I have learned to expect from the company.
Out of the box, the 4370 felt well built and sturdy. I avoided the instructions (do not try this at home) and hit the on button, setting it in my office window to update its satellite position. It came with all the typical goodies like an AC charger, DC charger cord, carrying pouch, cables, window mounting bracket, USB cable, and software manual on CD. I set the preferences on the unit: north up, map style, language, speaker preference, etc., and we moved to the car to head to lunch.
Navigation search was easy with the larger buttons found on the Address Input screen. The “one-touch feature allows the user to quickly capture or find point of interest (POI) locations. There are about six million loaded, but who’s counting? The 4370 lets you add your own file of POIs and locations that can be easily accessed.
The fairly new industry-standard 4.3-wide screen was sharp, owing to its 480 x 800 WVGA characteristics and innovative map color schemes. One of my favorites was the sort of “Earth-friendly” green theme, which utilizes a nice pallet of relaxing colors versus the typical “jump in your face” style of red, yellow, and blue maps. I need lots of comfort when it comes to navigating.
One of my favorite new features, found on higher-end auto navs, are the 3D landmarks that allow you to see (sort of) the outlines of buildings along your route. Every manufacturer needs more work done on this feature. Lane change notification was good, as was the traffic report feature. (Be careful before you let any of the systems re-route you, as I always seem to get channeled to some obscure path whose road has not seen a tire in a long time.)
One of the nicest features the 4370 has going for it is an FM transmitter allowing the voice guidance to be played through your car audio system. Speaking of wireless, the 4370 is Bluetooth compatible, of course. For a PND, it’s rock solid with a few small things I’d like to see refined or changed, but looks like a strong contender in its field.
Rino 530HCx: FRS/GMRS Radio and GPS
Now, this product is just good old-fashioned fun. Garmin’s high-end Rino 530HCx bridges a gap between PND, stand-alone handheld, and cellular smart navigators. It’s an easy purchase to justify because we all have the PND and the cell phone with GPS, but then we step into the vast wilderness where cell-phone coverage is sketchy, and if you’re trying to locate a friend or family member, these devices won’t communicate or cut it.
There are plenty of the handheld outdoor recreational GPS units with tons of features to take you down the trail or on the water. But if what or who are important to you and their location is within 5-10 miles (depending on terrain visibility), the Rino is are invaluable.
Garmin founded this product area sometime back, and has continued to deliver more powerful features in the radio and its software. From unpacking the box to beginning to charge the unit took about 10 minutes. The software locked on to the satellites and we had an initial position in about two minutes. It was time to preview the handy waterproof pocket guide and unlock the mystery of the Rino’s functionalities.
First and foremost, the multiple product benefits are clear.
- Be able to locate and send your position to multiple users you designate.
- Ability to poll the last known or current location of another user.
- Easy-to-use screens that map all the users and their current location, including “navigate to” functions.
- Distance, speed, and heading to get to another user.
- The ability to talk to each user either with standard voice or “scrambled” for privacy.
- Multiple channel configuration and automatic weather alerts.
- Ion lithium 14-hour battery life.
Additional features make the Rino valuable in many other aspects of being outdoors such as inclusion of a barometric altimeter, electronic compass, SD slot for more detailed maps, automatic routing, and turn-by-turn instructions with the inclusion of MapPoint map data. Waterproofing ensures that the occasional dip in the steam or ocean will not be a negative event. Remember, Rinos like water!
I tried the units on land, the river, and the sea, and realized the worth of this niche product. It’s the perfect product to strap on your eight-year-old when camping, boating or geocaching. If the chid disappears, you get to see where he is and give him your two cents worth via the radio. If it was one of my kids I could hear it now: “Dad, you’re breaking up….” Well, not this time, fella.
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