Dosido Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 (edited) I've seen a bunch of recommendations for inexpensive GPSrs. One of them is the Lowrance IFinder Go - probably the cheapest of the 'new' GPSrs. I have been looking on EBay/'Net to find an inexpensive GPSr to introduce my brother to the game, however my price point was $50-75. I finally bit on the IFinder from Tiger GPS - $77 including shipping. I just got the unit today, and played around with it a bit. I have owned a Sportrak Topo ($285) and currently own an Explorist 500 ($280), so I can compare it to them. My first impression from the IFinder is that there's no mistaking that it's a cheap model - the shiny plastic case is visibly lower quality than the other units - looks kind of like a 'playskool' GPSr. The battery case is a bit tough to close, and the AAs are very tight - I don't think there are any illusions to this unit being waterproof (Though the unit is spec'd to meet IPX7 standards, which means it should be waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes). The unit comes in a small box with a abbreviated manual and a lanyard - you can download a very detailed manual online, however. The other item that struck me was the very small type face that the unit has - I'd say (and the pictures really don't do this justice - that the size of type is perhaps 1/2 that of the Explorist. All screens show this small type. Now, for a cheap unit, this puppy packs in the features. It has an 'easy mode' that shows only three 'pages' or navigation screens (map, location & compass), and with advanced mode, it adds in the satellite screen. Add on the 32MB of memory and basemaps, and it's a pretty nice deal. Also there are lots of opportunities to customize the navigation screens, and the unit also has WAAS capabilities. The waypoint entering screen is very intuitive, but the familiar Magellan 'keyboard' is not there, and you must use the up/down keys to scroll through the alpha/numerics listing to enter the waypoint names. In fact, I had initially planned to enter the 20 closest caches to my brother's location, but gave up after 10... I got a good fix within about 2 minutes of 'initializing' the unit. I thought the unit performed well in my short time I used it, though the small type faces started to really bother me, and the contrast/brightness was disappointing as well - I had to change the constrast/brightness from using it in sunlight to using it in the house at night. A photo comparing the IFinder Go to the Explorist 500 A photo of the Maps on the IFinder - the GPSr location type is very small - you need good eyes for this unit! A photo of the two 'satellite' screens - the Explorist was just turned on, thus no fix yet. Showing the two 'location' screens - note that the IFinder has 6 customizable items on this screen! This shows the comparison of the compass screens. Again, the IFinder has 4 customizable fields to the Explorist's two. I don't expect that someone who is really into geocaching will want to keep this unit once they figure out they're hooked, simply due to the lack of a computer interface. Having to punch in waypoints to me is too time consuming and error prone. However, for the money, this looks like one pretty nice unit, and something that you could probably use for a first unit or a backup. Once you decide to upgrade, it looks like you could make most of that $70 back and put it towards a new unit if you tried to sell the used one on EBay. Brian Edit: added a little more detail, fixed broken image link. Edited May 4, 2005 by Dosido Quote Link to comment
+IVxIV Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Nice review & good pics I haven't had either the GO or the Explorist in my hand yet, and can imagine the casing of the GO would be pretty entry-level material. Hopefully the thing is waterproof as they do claim it is on their website. The tiny text could be a nuisance to deal with, but the maps sure seem pretty amazing considering the thing only cost around $70. I'd be very interested to learn how well the GO and Explorist compare when it comes to grabbing and holding satellite signal lock in various terrains (treecover, etc). They both have patch antennas and are both new models. I would guess they should perform fairly similar. Quote Link to comment
skillett Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Thanks for the info. You have answered a qustion for me that I can't seem to find the answer to. Mainly Does the I findergo have a computer interface. according to the manual at lowrance IT does. I have posted numerous messages here trying to get an answer but have'nt. I even emailed lowrance tech support but just got back a canned reply.(that was a week ago) So thanks again for the update skillett Quote Link to comment
+Tahoe Skier5000 Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Wow, im always amazed that Lowrance manages to sell such a great GPS for the price! That screen looks really good for the price! Excellent detail. Is it really waterproof? Quote Link to comment
Dosido Posted May 4, 2005 Author Share Posted May 4, 2005 Lowrance says it is - should be waterproof to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. My only concern was the tight fit on the battery compartment. I'd tend to guess, however, that while I didn't test the waterproof ability of the unit, that Lowrance did. So, I'd go with their findings over my observations. Brian Quote Link to comment
tossedsalad Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 In another thread I have been discussing the computer interface on the Go and Go2 units. I called Lowrance and was told that they do have PC interfaces and that you can upload waypoint data. But I am trying to get a confirmation by email about this. I do know that you can buy a PC cable for it. skillett, what was the "canned" reply that you got? Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 Here are some pics I took today. I have some of the same impressions that the OP had. The small fonts on the display are a sticking point with the GO and GO2, but overall its a pretty nice unit for the price. GO2 The GO2 alongside several other popular units Sat display compared with other units. Note the sat bars in this photo and the above are almost identical to the eTrex Map pages. Vista and H20 have topo. Meri has Streets and Destinations and the GO2 has its base map. You can see the lack of detail in the Go2's map Quote Link to comment
tossedsalad Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 The pics are interesting. Someone had posted illustrations of just the display and it made the Go look great. But that was just showing the number of pixels basically and did not account for the small size of the Go display. The added pixels are not such a plus if they are so small. But considering price, shouldn't a low end unit be added to the comparison, like maybe the eTrex, even if it doesn't have maps? The Go can be compared to mapping units since it has maps, but a lot of people will buy it as a low end unit (ignoring the maps) because of the price. Quote Link to comment
+IVxIV Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 Yes great pics, thanks! But in that particular roundup the iFinder GO2 is a humble Chevy surrounded by Porches & Ferraris though can't forget how much cheaper the GO2 is. It's probably more direct competition to models like the Magellan Explorist 200 or Garmin Geko 201 based loosely on features. By the way briansnat, what has your impression been of the iFinder H20? Could you post an impression of it, perhaps in a seperate thread? Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 By the way briansnat, what has your impression been of the iFinder H20? Could you post an impression of it, perhaps in a seperate thread? I'm pretty impressed so far. I'm not crazy about the "feel" of the unit and haven't taken it out under heavy tree cover yet, but its a very good unit. The topo software that it came with is far better than Garmin's. Quote Link to comment
+Tahoe Skier5000 Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 By the way briansnat, what has your impression been of the iFinder H20? Could you post an impression of it, perhaps in a seperate thread? I'm pretty impressed so far. I'm not crazy about the "feel" of the unit and haven't taken it out under heavy tree cover yet, but its a very good unit. The topo software that it came with is far better than Garmin's. Hows the accuracy of the Topo maps? Im thinking about getting the software... If its pretty accurate and up to date, I might just do so. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 By the way briansnat, what has your impression been of the iFinder H20? Could you post an impression of it, perhaps in a seperate thread? I'm pretty impressed so far. I'm not crazy about the "feel" of the unit and haven't taken it out under heavy tree cover yet, but its a very good unit. The topo software that it came with is far better than Garmin's. Hows the accuracy of the Topo maps? Im thinking about getting the software... If its pretty accurate and up to date, I might just do so. I'll let you know when I travel on a few roads that I know are missing on Mapsource Topo. Quote Link to comment
+Cache-N's Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 I am thinking of getting the Ifinder Go for my 8 year old grandson to do geocaching. He learned how to use my Garmin eTrex Vista very quickly, and was hooked! Do you think the Ifinder Go is as easy to use for entering waypoint coordinates (manually) and finding caches? How about accuracy for locating caches compared to Garmin? Thanks, -Dave Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 I am thinking of getting the Ifinder Go for my 8 year old grandson to do geocaching. He learned how to use my Garmin eTrex Vista very quickly, and was hooked! Do you think the Ifinder Go is as easy to use for entering waypoint coordinates (manually) and finding caches? How about accuracy for locating caches compared to Garmin?Thanks, -Dave Its very easy to enter waypoints. One nice thing about it is that it has a basic mode and an advanced mode, so a kid can just stick with the basic mode until they learn a bit more. As far as accuracy and reception its as good as any other. Quote Link to comment
+Cache-N's Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 Thanks, Briansnat. That's good to know. I think I will order one for my grandson. He will love it! -Dave Quote Link to comment
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