Delorme pn-60 vs Garmin Dakota 10

[+Second St]

Hi There,

 

I live in Ontario Canada and am wondering which unit you would recommend?

 

Thanks!

[+Triple Crown]

Hi There,

 

I live in Ontario Canada and am wondering which unit you would recommend?

 

Thanks!

 

The PN-60 is the top of the line DeLorme while the Dakota 10 is the bottom of the line Garmin, so I would choose the PN-60 of those two, however for me personally I would prefer the Garmin Oregon 450.

[+mpilchfamily]

I agree there is a wide range of difference between the PN-60 and Dakota 10. Now the Dakota 20 comes a little closer and are similar in price. But i wouldn't call the Dakota 10 bottom of the line for Garmin. The eTrex line on the other hand.

[+fizzymagic]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

[+mpilchfamily]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

Oddly enough it was the relative price of the Delorme that turned me away. Afraid there may be something wrong with the units if they are that price compared to the competition.

[+fizzymagic]

Oddly enough it was the relative price of the Delorme that turned me away. Afraid there may be something wrong with the units if they are that price compared to the competition.

That's too bad. The PN-60 is a wonderful device and comes with free topo maps of the entire US and Canada. Unlimited aerial imagery and USGS topo maps are available for $30/year. Excellent satellite reception and accuracy. Number of caches is only limited by the size of memory. Loads PQ gpx files directly. Rechargeable batteries can be charged in the unit; I never change batteries.

 

I think it is a great value.

Edited May 10, 2011 by fizzymagic

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Similarly, I never remove the rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack from my PN-60.

I use this adapter to keep it charged while driving or garaged at night.

[+Maddy-OCM]

I bought a PN-60 last year and live in the Ottawa area. Generally I've been very happy with my purchase (especially after the latest firmware update fixed the glacially slow searching). I also own an eTrex Venture HC and a Colorodo 300. A couple of minor gripes:

 

1) There's some errors in the Canadian map data. In some areas streets are way off from their actual position. It's difficult (but not impossible) to use things like OpenStreetmaps to get coverage for travelling outside of Canada/USA since there's no official Delorme maps for purchase. There's zillions of free maps for Garmin units if you know where to look.

 

2) Doesn't project in mils, which is a problem for doing some puzzle caches around here.

 

I have a full review and comments in this thread:

http://canadascapitalcachers.ca/forum/index.php?topic=214.0

 

If you go for the Garmin, I'd say spend a little bit more and get the Dakota 20. The compass and stuff is useful, but the real reason is that it adds wireless which means you can get caches in the field beamed to you from another Garmin GPS (more useful then you'd think) and you'd be able to do Chirp caches.

[+CacheFreakTim]

I played with both the PN series and Dakota and ended up with the Garmin. To me it came down to form factor and ease of use. It seemed like the PN series had more buttons to do tasks. I would say goto a sports/outdoor store and play with both and see what works better for you.

[+The Yinnies]

If you are going with Garmin, the GPSMAP 62S is a great unit but it does cost more. I have had one and really liked it. I also really like my PN-60.

Thanks

[+Pax42]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

Oddly enough it was the relative price of the Delorme that turned me away. Afraid there may be something wrong with the units if they are that price compared to the competition.

I hope you're not giving economic advise to the current administration.

[+mpilchfamily]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

Oddly enough it was the relative price of the Delorme that turned me away. Afraid there may be something wrong with the units if they are that price compared to the competition.

I hope you're not giving economic advise to the current administration.

I've had allot of experience with electronics. What i've learned is in most cases you get what you paid for. Items that seem almost too good to be true means corners may have been cut somewhere to keep it that cheap. So i rather spend the extra money to get good quality. At the same time i gotta be careful that i'm not jumping on inflated prices. You see this mind set play out over and over again on computer parts, particularly on PSUs. Cheap parts have been made with cheap components that are flawed and fail quickly.

[+michaelnel]

Will the PN-60 do turn by turn routing, and does it have complete city streets maps for navigating around in the city?

[+The Yinnies]

Will the PN-60 do turn by turn routing, and does it have complete city streets maps for navigating around in the city?

Yes it does and it works pretty good.

Thanks

[+Clint Cachewood]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

Oddly enough it was the relative price of the Delorme that turned me away. Afraid there may be something wrong with the units if they are that price compared to the competition.

I hope you're not giving economic advise to the current administration.

I've had allot of experience with electronics. What i've learned is in most cases you get what you paid for. Items that seem almost too good to be true means corners may have been cut somewhere to keep it that cheap. So i rather spend the extra money to get good quality. At the same time i gotta be careful that i'm not jumping on inflated prices. You see this mind set play out over and over again on computer parts, particularly on PSUs. Cheap parts have been made with cheap components that are flawed and fail quickly.

 

In a lot of cases you are paying an inflated price for the name.

[sviking]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

 

There's a reason for that.

[+TotemLake]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

 

There's a reason for that.

Yah. Garmin doesn't worry about market share. People will buy it just for the name alone and be willing to pay the extra price for it. I call it the 800 lb gorilla.

Edited May 13, 2011 by TotemLake

[+Mapperist]

As we Delorme owners always say: if you have extra money you need to get rid of, get the Garmin.

 

The PN-60 is the top-of-the-line Delorme, and the Dakota is an en try-level Garmin, but they cost about the same on Amazon.

 

shrug.

 

There's a reason for that.

Yah. Garmin doesn't worry about market share. People will buy it just for the name alone and be willing to pay the extra price for it. I call it the 800 lb gorilla.

 

There's a reason people buy Garmin's for the name...

[sviking]

Will the PN-60 do turn by turn routing, and does it have complete city streets maps for navigating around in the city?

Yes it does and it works pretty good.

Thanks

 

Uh, yeah...

 

Good luck getting new street map updates whereas Garmin releases one about every three months.

[+The Yinnies]

You have to pay for updates. I bought the 24K Topo for my area and there is some roads that were there for 8 years in town that it did not have. I am not cutting it down, but Delorme has had them on Topo 7.0.

Thanks

[sviking]

You have to pay for updates. I bought the 24K Topo for my area and there is some roads that were there for 8 years in town that it did not have. I am not cutting it down, but Delorme has had them on Topo 7.0.

Thanks

 

Well, of course, you have to pay for the updates. The point was that they're actually AVALIABLE, in a timely fashion, in the first place. How often does DeLorme update its ROAD map database? Seriously?

 

I've seen Garmin lifetime map subscriptions in the $70-80 range on Amazon. Just bought one for my new 3790t. Not a whole lot of money at all in the grand scheme of things...

[+user13371]

Re maps: Though DeLorme is primarily a map softwarwe vendor, there really is a wider variety of maps available for Garmin. In addition to Garmin's own commercial offerings there are third party commercial and free maps available. That kinda muddies the comparison, especially the cost/value argument. DeLorme has good value "out of the box" because a lot comes bundled with it; Garmin doesn't come with much of anything but you can usually get routable road maps and topo maps you need for free.

 

But relating this back to the OP, or any other specific user's needs, is tricky. My advise to the OP, both regarding maps and other points of comparison, is to get your hands on both of them and look for the differences betwene them that matter to YOU.

 

Between the two models originally asked about, I'd focus on things like touch-screen versus buttons, screen visibility under the intended use conditions, if "good enough" maps are available for where I'd be using it. Once you hit "good enough" the further discussions of "best" or "most current" are moot.

 

Find a sporting goods store near where you live, or connect with other Geocachers in your area, to see if you can find someone to show you the hands-on differences.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Portland Cyclist

[sviking]

Re maps: Though DeLorme is primarily a map softwarwe vendor, there really is a wider variety of maps available for Garmin.

 

I know that, but is DeLorme even a STREET map creator/vendor? Thought it was pretty much TeleAtlas or Navteq when it came to auto navigation maps.

[+user13371]

Yes, DeLorme does offer street maps. Got their start in print atlases decades ago and I sometimes wonder if a larger portion of the company's revenue still comes from bookstores rather than electronic products. They were one of the first (perhaps THE first) company to offer a computerized street atlas on CD. Street Atlas 2011 is a currently shipping product and has a lot of common parts with the Topo North America software that ships with the PN- series GPS.

 

Have they kept up in a rapdily changing market? Not an argument I'm prepared to make. It would be easy to say that Navteq, TeleAtlas and others have passed them by -- but as you've seen on this forum and can see elsewhere, they do still have some loyal followers.

 

Keeping it relevant to the OP and the question of geocaching: If the maps are "good enough" for the task at hand, anything beyond that is just talking points.

 

By comparison, I have a old Garmin and I use a few different open-sourced maps on it. Really NOT the best or most up to date maps available, but they suit my needs. So I don't really care what ELSE might be available. When I was using a DeLornme PN40 I could make the same argument for the Topo USA version 8 maps -- knock 'em all you want (and I often did ) but they were usually good enough.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Portland Cyclist