Travel Technology - Suggestions on a GPS system - handheld or vehicle mount? Which one?

Ive decided to get a GPS system. Really for a toy as much as anything. Im trying to decide between vehicle mount, in which case I will almost certainly get the great deal ScottC points to at Radio Shack, or handheld. I have a Dell Axim X50V so possibly something that would work with that would be good. I would like to be able to record and dump positions and tracks that I am on while traveling. Any suggestions on what type, vehicle, handheld, BT to the Dell that is best and specific brand/model suggestions? Thanks for any and all input.

For a portable system: TomTom Go 300/700 or the Magellan Roadmate units.

For a PPC based system: TomTom Navigator 5.

AFAIK only the roadmates will let you download your tracks, I haven't seen that option in my TomTom.

For a portable system: TomTom Go 300/700 or the Magellan Roadmate units.

For a PPC based system: TomTom Navigator 5.

AFAIK only the roadmates will let you download your tracks, I haven't seen that option in my TomTom.


Thanks for the info. One issue I have with the Roadmates is that from reading the manual it is completely road/address based. I am interested in something that will work both off-road (with longitude and latitude presumeably) and on roads. Does such a thing exist? Im new to the whole GPS world and really dont know what is out there. Thanks again.

Thanks for the info. One issue I have with the Roadmates is that from reading the manual it is completely road/address based. I am interested in something that will work both off-road (with longitude and latitude presumeably) and on roads. Does such a thing exist? Im new to the whole GPS world and really dont know what is out there. Thanks again.

I am pretty sure my TomTom lets me do that, I'll pop out in a moment to check :)

Great, thanks. Ive been looking around and the Magellan eXplorist 600 looks like it does both on and off road and lets you store tracks on SD cards. Does anyone have any comments on these units?

Great, thanks. Ive been looking around and the Magellan eXplorist 600 looks like it does both on and off road and lets you store tracks on SD cards. Does anyone have any comments on these units?

That really isn't a good unit for vehicle navigation, perhaps in your case you'd be better of with 2 units; one for the car and one for off-roading?

Pretty much every handheld like the one you mention will store tracks, have a base map etc... but won't be any good at town and city navigation.

It looks like you can add something called MapSend software, in SD card format to the eXplorist line for about $150. It provides detailed road maps, routing, verbal cues and such for road navigation. Some places are selling it bundled with the 600 model for essentially no extra cost when the rebate is taken into account. I have no idea how good the software is. Has anyone used it?

Perhaps I should look at 2 units. I could get the one you mention at Radio Shack and one of the cheaper eXplosists or similar off road model for about the price of the 600 it looks like.

Edited to add:

In looking around, the Garmin GPSMap 60C looks like it will do both on and off road with added software (map data mainly). Does anyone have any experience with that unit?