I bought my SporTrak Topo about a month ago.
The first thing I noticed is that the thing picks up signals in the city, on the lake, in the woods, on the road, and even in my house! I have spent probably 150 hours using this thing so far in the boonies (deep woods in the U.P. of Michigan... when the trees still had leaves) and have never lost a signal including a trip into a 100' deep rock cut on a waterfall hunt. So, this thing gets an A+ for reception.
The unit is just big enough to handle without it feeling too big, and just small enough to carry on my belt or in my backpack webbing with no problem. It's about the size of a cellphone and about as comfortable as you can get. The buttons are about the right size. Not too big or too small. No joysticks. Menus can be tricky to learn, but once you get the hang of it, you can really make hay. I give this toy an A for comfort & ease of use.
The resolution isn't perfect, but you can adjust the zoom to get the clarity you need to really take advantage of the topo lines. Hell, the whole reason I bought this thing was I enjoy hiking in the boonies and I like walking up hills. Anyhow... I'm getting off track. The resolution isn't as good as my buddy's Garmin, but he's always looking at me asking "how far to that hill over there..." The topo data is very accurate for everywhere I've been up here except for a few spots. For instance, Lake Superior is at 600-603' (depeding on her mood), and there are a few areas where the thing reads 595' when you go inland about 50'. Weird... On the other hand, I live at 986' and the topo data says I'm at 982' (but when I hold it I'm at 986'). You can also project topo details of the course you are on as well as roads. Northfinder works fine. Bottom line is the topo is very useful but not 100% accurate (more like 90%) B for resolution... B+ for topo accuracy (but it does what I wanted it to, so I'm happy).
The software kicks butt. I mean... it really kicks some serious butt! I go on these 4 day hikes and come back and upload all the data of my hike onto my PC and fire up the Magellan Topo software and it tells me everywhere I was, how fast I was moving, what elevation I was at, and all kinds of other stuff I don't really need to know but just like looking at and thinking "uhhh... cool". I was a little dissapointed that you can't upload detailed maps of the entire midwest onto the GPS due to space limitations, but I do have a huge swath of Minnesota, Wisconsin, the entire U.P., and a huge chunk of northern lower Michigan on this baby. When you get into the detailed maps, you can find two-tracks and railroad grades- that's pretty good detail. It also has a ton of points of interest on there too. It's cool finding stuff out in the woods that I didn't even know was there. I'm still learning the ins & outs but I'm already blown away by it. One thing I learned it that you can upload 4 different "boxes" to the GPS at once, so you can kind of create a patchwork of areas that you like to roam in. That was good to finally figure out. So this thing gets an A+ for the software.
Since I don't live anywhere near Hawaii, I can't tell you what you're getting into with a Topo out your way. However, I can say if you're in northern Michigan or Wisconsin... this thing works like a charm. Overall, it gets an A from me.
Probably more than you wanted to know... but good luck!
