When it comes to hand held mapping waterproof GPS units primarily intended for backcountry GPS use, it seems there are only a few manufacturers that happen make these. Garmin, Magellan and Delorme are ones that come to mind. Perhaps I should, but I have not tried any of the Magellan or Delorme units before. The problem is, to really get to know the capabilities and limitations of a GPS unit for these purposes you have you actually use it in the field, instead of just fiddling with it for 10 minutes in the store or a sales guy simply demo’ing it to you. If you don’t know someone with one of these units you can try, there’s simply no opportunity to try it in the field, you have to simply research online and pick one unfortunately.
That said, I have had a Garmin Colorado for the last three years.. actually I had two of them. I had to send my original one in 2 years in, because the mini USB connector had stopped functioning and I got a refurbished one back after paying $120 for it. The Colorado was quite new at the time, it had a wheel like interface with a rocker/button in the center of the wheel and two buttons on either side of the wheel. This model is now discontinued and I’d hazard a guess it is likely due to the clumsy and difficult wheel interface. For simple tasks, it was fine, but for things like entering text it was a nightmare, sort of like the entering your initials on old video game credits – you had to scroll through the entire alphabet to find the letter or number you are looking for, only to have to repeat the process for the subsequent letter. Frustration is an understatement. I would still have this GPS, if it were not for the fact that this GPS is now rests under a train bridge, at the bottom of Bronte Creek in a fast moving section. I lost it there last week while kayaking when by kayak got caught under a log and I had to eject. The GPS was in a marine mount and I suspect it had gotten pushed down until the latch on the mount holding the GPS released, enabling the GPS to slide out of the mount and fall off. At least this is what I figure happened – at the time I was too busy trying to grab my paddle and get my ass out of the frigid water. So I researched the different GPS products out there and decided to pick up a GPSMAP 62s. I chose Garmin again, because of familiarity, and the fact that the trusted and true GPSMAP 60Cx is still somewhat the benchmark of what this genre of handheld is compared to, and the 62s is the ‘next generation’ version of it. Call me old fashioned, but I still can’t stand touch screen devices. They still never work all the time, such as when my hands are cold and dry, and suffer from lack of tactile feedback and fat finger syndrome where something gets selected that is not intended to. Not only that, it takes energy to run the sensor for the screen, and if you drop it and crack the screen you are SOL for using it. So I ordered a GPSMAP 62s online on sale from a company in Calgary and got it two days later.
There’s just something about Garmin units that I notice when I get one of their units. I noticed it when I got my Colorado 300 and now that I have the 62s, I notice it again. Compared to other handheld electronics on the market at this time, Garmin products always just seem to be a ‘this generation’ model, if even that,… just always seem a little underwhelming to me. The styling is great and up to date, just it seems like Garmin isn’t trying hard enough or doesn’t want to push technology too fast, quite unlike phone and camera manufacturers, likely due to the lower competition, and overall GPS market segment than say, a phone or a camera. Things that instantly are noticed that reinforces this thought when I started playing with the 60s are some of the following: very low resolution screen, the small screen size itself, battery type, heavy weight and size of the unit and some other functions. The screen is a ridiculously low resolution 160 x 240 screen… seriously Garmin – get into the 21st century and get a decent resolution screen. The screen size itself is unnecessarily quite small as well. Other electronic manufacturers have gone through great pains to maximize the screen sizes on the given real estate of the form factor, whereas on the 60s head on, there is tons of real estate that could have been used, even without increasing the unit size, in order to maximize screen size. There is an unnecessary wide black bezel around the screen, the buttons on the bottom can be made slightly smaller, closer together, and lower on the unit, there’s much more room available towards the top of the unit as well that could be used. It looks like Garmin just wanted to drop an old, already existing screen into the unit and not have to bother with developing a new one.
The unit still uses AA batteries. Lithium batteries would seem like they would be the more progressive choice for a design of a new unit, all other electronics use them nowadays for their advantages over NIMH AA batteries. There are some small advantages of using AA batteries such as being able to find them everywhere, but the pros of lithium batteries really should make that the choice over NiMH. I don’t mind buying an extra lithium battery for my camera so I can have a spare on hand for longer journeys. A lithium battery would offer better charge times, lighter weight and smaller unit as well. It can also be sized accordingly for whatever battery life the designer chooses. I would also wish manufacturers to standardize lithium battery form factors and chargers in general which would benefit everyone in the end, but I digress.
The GPSMAP 62s is a heavy brute. I am not sure why, but it seems like the Garmin product designers don’t even have low weight on their radar for a design target when designing new units. Obviously people are backpacking and lugging these things around, mounting to different surfaces, etc. and a lightweight unit would definitely be desirable, but it isn’t the case with this. I know the unit needs to be rugged, but again, I suspect Garmin hasn’t really optimized the casing to be low weight yet rugged at the same time, instead just throwing more plastic into the case to withstand beatings. Not to mention there’s a huge chunk of investment cast aluminum that’s just used for the mounting interface at the rear of the unit – way overkill IMO. Every fraction of an ounce counts to many people who use these types of GPS units.
Some other issues that I consider slight annoyances with this unit, I see others complaining about online is the squeaking case and the variable barometer function. The case on my 62s squeaks a tiny bit if I squeeze it hard, which does not bother me all that much. If it gets worse, I’ll just unscrew the two halves of the case and apply silicone grease to the interface. I don’t know how that compares to earlier 62s units, but there seems to be many people complaining about it. The barometer spikes a little if I press hard on the case – the air pressure around wherever the sensor is must increase a bit and temporarily shows a few meters higher elevation before it settles back down. I read online some people saying it spikes if they just press a button, but this doesn’t happen with mine.
One last annoyance is the Garmin’s Steve Jobs-like obsession regarding piracy and controlling what software applications the device uses, trying every trick in the book to make the maps difficult to use, not caring about extra difficulties they cause to people that want to use legitimate maps on their devices. Now the firmware on this GPS checks or ‘authenticates’ maps. This can cause some issues even with legitimate software that is frustrating to say the least. When you load the maps on the unit from MapSource, it can give you a ‘can’t authenticate map’ error and simply makes the map totally unavailable to use.
Now that I have unloaded a dump truck full of initial bad impressions and complaints about Garmin itself off my chest, here’s some good improvements I have noticed, at least over the Colorado: battery consumption, lanyard slot, three axis compass and battery cover design.
I’ve only used my new GPS a couple times for short trips. I can say that the menus are a little difficult to navigate, although I will get used to them after learning to use them. One other thing, when I want to zoom in and out of maps, I find I keep reaching with my thumb for the non-existent wheel at the top with my thumb that my Colorado had. The buttons placed at the bottom do make for less than convenient ergonomics, sine your thumb or fingers aren’t naturally in those locations when holding the GPS in your hands. From the limited time I have used the GPS, it seems to have much better battery consumption than the Colorado. One thing I hate is when batteries run out of juice and I can’t even log my track to geotag pictures or save my track for other purposes. I see Garmin took a suggestion I sent to them to heart, or perhaps others did as well – to add a mode where you can turn the screen off completely when not touching the buttons for a number of seconds, for the device to conserve battery power by not using up power to display the map constantly when it is not needed.
The whole reason why I in fact needed to get a new GPS is due to the fact that the Colorado had no lanyard ring to secure it to something… i.e. my kayak, so when it came out of the mount, it disappeared into the murky depths of Bronte Creek. But, thankfully, the 62s has a slot in the bottom of the case for a lanyard, even when mounted in the marine mount, which by the way, is the same mount as the Colorado, Oregon and Dakota series.
The three axis compass is a vast improvement on the Colorado’s compass. The base model GPSMAP 62 does not have a compass or barometer, but the 62s and the 62st (with built in topo maps as well) have the three axis compass. The calibration takes three steps for each of the axes but is much less frustrating than the Colorado. It always seemed I was rotating the init too fast or too slow on the Colorado, but the GPSMAP is more forgiving about the speed and allows you to rotate it faster. Since the GPS is tilted at a 45 degree angle or so on my kayak, the Colorado had trouble sensing the true heading and the maps frequently were displayed sideways to my direction. This seems to fix that.
OK, one last comment for now, this one regarding the battery cover seal. Thankfully, the previous horribly designed slide on cover the Colorado has wasn’t brought to the 62s. The sliding cover on the Colorado frequently was had to come off if your hands were slippery with water or sunscreen or whatever, and anyone that knows anything about oring seals knows you don’t design something to seal the way the Colorado did. The 62s has a hatch that has a tab on one side and is pushed down and locked a quarter turn latch. Much better.
Anyways, that is way too much for now. I’ll be making comments on this unit more as I get more experience with it.
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