Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

PDA + GPS versus stand alone

Dec 18, 2007 1:03PM PST

We are Australians who are frequent travellers in both Asia and Europe and hoping to go to Sth America next year. We want to buy a GPS but are reluctant to add yet another 'gadget' with accompanying cables and chargers (we currently carry a mobile phone, a storage devise for our digital photos and would also like to be able to have something to send/receive emails). Therefore, we are considering buying a PDA/GPS combo but dont know if they operate equally as well as the stand alone models. Also not sure what maps are available for these units. We are not particularly worried about weight or price (at least those are not our primary criteria for selection) but rather whether all the features are of the same quality/capacity as the stand alone devises.
If the combo is the way to go - what is the best model on the market
If stand alone is recommended - what is a middle to top of the range brand and model

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
I have both.
Dec 18, 2007 11:27PM PST

I have the Delorme software on a PalmOne TX and a bluetooth GPS. I don't suggest this. It's feature poor and tough to set up. While I'm pretty good (I write Palm applications) this is not a good solution.

There is TomTom for the PDA which is fair but slow compared to a real GPS device. Also, here it's cheaper to just get the TomTom.

Bob

- Collapse -
Best answer I can give you
Dec 27, 2007 5:58AM PST

When looking at items like this you should take into account two things. First what is teh devices main function, second what do trhe real experts say. now let's face it the Treo is a phone first and foremost, everything else it does is just an add on. Te experts I can point you to on this are Gumball 3000 veterans who regularly drive 3000 mile routes across the US europe and asia continents. I think every one will agree that a seperate device is teh way to go, to furtehr drive this home they have tried your idea on teh last few gumballs by issuing every one treos with mappoint software, and teh results were less than favorable. If weght is really that much of a concern you can ussually rent these devices from whatever teh car rental agency is however I must say teh new garmin Nuvis take up less room than the maps I bring. hope this helps