9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Cant beat it for the price
Date of Review: Dec 22, 2003
The Bottom Line: Great value for money. Fast and accurate but requires some learning curve.
Okay.. I had been contemplating buying the GPS for 3/4 months and checked out numerous sites and reviews for many GPS solutions. One of the thing I was kinda hoping to find in the solution was that it should be able to work with both laptop and PDA. Most of the more popular softwares require a lot of extra $$$ to make them compatible with both. But Delorme Earthmate and Street Atlas 2004 was one which came to about a little over 250 (130 for SA2004 + receiver and then cable and 2004 handheld). So it was kinda a pretty nice deal even though for the starters I just chose laptop installation and paid 130 $$ for it.
The package I got contained a mall matchbox sized GPS receiver which can be hooked on to the windshield of the car and connected to laptop using an included USB cable. There are no power units etc. since the receiver draws power from the USB port of the computer. So it was a pretty nice and convenient set up in the car without a lot of messy wires.
I have used in over the last 3 months in all sorts of places including deep in smoky mountains, Atlantic City, Washington DC, Atlanta and Orlando and well I have to say I am more than satisfied with the accuracy and performance of the software and receiver both. Agreed the software is not very intuitive and takes a little getting used to, but well that little time spent is well worth it. It is able to acquire satellites in less than 30 seconds and I havent had any loss of signals even in dense forest and in downtowns in the middle of tall buildings. I cant get signals in tunnels and all but then thats too much to ask for :-).
Route calculation is not the best however, and even though the software makes you believe that the route you have is the fastest but if you compare the results with AAA Triptik and Mapblast etc. you can find shorter and faster routes. I usually do that and it is a breeze to customize the route to what you want it to be. Just click on the Map and select Add Via option and you have the new route.
The map is detailed to the extent that you can find the closest McDonald's, Walmart or an italian restaurant. Whew.. it usually doesnt get better than that. I was able to travel through the alien streets of DC and Orlando like a pro with the laptop guiding me with voice prompts as to "TURN LEFT IN 30 seconds" messages.
What I can say about is, There are probably better softwares, for a better price, but for 130 $$, it doesnt usually get better than this.
I would however like to have some kinda support option given out by Delorme, wherein we can update the maps to reflect the new streets and roads to keep up with the changes. Maybe a paid subscription plan wouldnt be a bad idea. Sometimes the streets you are looking for in the map are just not there or the access to them has been changed by new ramps etc. That can get annoying but then all softwares suffer from that problem
