small gps with road navigation

[spectastic]

seeking input from all you adventurous folks out there. i'm looking for a small gps that doesn't need to be plugged in for a long period of time. I've looked through garmin etrex, montana and oregon, and they're all great, but none of them have street navigation, which need to be purchased for an additional $80, and I don't even know if that comes with lifetme update.

 

I've also looked into the possibility of using a regular street gps like a 4.3 nuvi or a tomtom and power it with one of these AA battery powered chargers (http://www.rayovac.com/Products/Portable-Power-Chargers/PS73-Portable-USB-Charger-Battery-Power-Pack-for-iPhone-Android-Micro-USB.aspx)

It'll be a lot cheaper. But it's cumbersome, and with 4 AA batteries (around 10000 mAh), I don't know how long a full charge would be able to power a nuvi, which is only rated for 2 hours battery life. manufacturer website doesn't specify the power usage for the nuvi or its battery capacity

 

the other option is to get an etrex, oregon or montana, and plan routes ahead of time using free online software like http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ or open street map, but I've heard that these aren't very good, and they give you weird routes. i don't want to spend $400 on a stupid GPS. I've had brief experience with the etrex 10, and I don't find the basemap very useful for what I want to do. street navigation is really what I'm after.

 

any help?

[Roll Right]

Why don't you use a smart phone? A droid RAZR mini or something will be much more compact and light weight.

[spectastic]

I don't want to get a data plan.

 

I guess I can still plan my route with wifi, and follow it. but the thing doesn't recalculate if I need to detour, and it drains the battery like a modaf*ker

Edited July 15, 2014 by spectastic

[ahlatsiawa]

You could look into an old Nokia Symbian phone (N8 or N9) with Ovi Maps or a cheap Nokia Lumia phone with Nokia Here. Both offer free nation-wide turn-by-turn navigation. Use it solely for GPS.

Edited July 15, 2014 by ahlatsiawa

[spectastic]

by nationwide, you mean US only. what If I want to use it overseas?

 

and is the map connected to the cloud? yet it requires no subscription?

[ahlatsiawa]

Yes, by nation-wide I mean the United States. The older devices which run on Symbian can be used worldwide. The newer Lumia devices apparently only offer coverage in the country whose SIM is inserted in the phone. There is an upgrade that you can purchase for EUR15.49 (one-time payment) for older Lumia phones which lets you use the phone overseas. This feature, caled the Drive+, comes pre-loaded in the newer Lumia models (link). AFAIK Ovi does not have Cloud support. Here does. Now if I were to make a suggestion, I would say go for a cheaper Lumia and make the upgrade to Drive+ when you need to use it overseas. 

 

Of course it goes without saying that if you do not use a SIM card, you won't get access to stuff like real-time traffic & weather monitoring and A-GPS. But rest assured that the phone will automatically reroute for you in case you miss an exit or make a detour. 

Edited July 15, 2014 by ahlatsiawa

[spectastic]

Yes, by nation-wide I mean the United States. The older devices which run on Symbian can be used worldwide. The newer Lumia devices apparently only offer coverage in the country whose SIM is inserted in the phone. There is an upgrade that you can purchase for EUR15.49 (one-time payment) for older Lumia phones which lets you use the phone overseas. This feature, caled the Drive+, comes pre-loaded in the newer Lumia models (link). AFAIK Ovi does not have Cloud support. Here does. Now if I were to make a suggestion, I would say go for a cheaper Lumia and make the upgrade to Drive+ when you need to use it overseas. 

 

Of course it goes without saying that if you do not use a SIM card, you won't get access to stuff like real-time traffic & weather monitoring and A-GPS. But rest assured that the phone will automatically reroute for you in case you miss an exit or make a detour. 

ok I think that could work. does the maps have life time update? I know I ask this question a lot. I'm kind of paranoid of it because the gps I have now is from 2008, and every time I try to find something, it leads me to the middle of nowhere. It finds addresses no problem, but the navigation route is a little screwed up, because it'll lead me to the off ramp on a highway and back on again because the distance would be shorter (stupid f*ing thing), or lead me to gravel roads.

[ahlatsiawa]

Well I have used Ovi maps on my father's E-52 many times in the past few years here in Saudi. The app receives regular updates to inform us of any possible roadwork that might have popped up and automatically assigns alternative routes. I myself have a Galaxy S4 but I have had several instances where its Google Maps failed to stay on top of any developing changes to the road network. Nokia has never given us any such trouble. Yes, the maps have free life-time updates. This is even their tagline: http://here.com/

[spectastic]