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Handheld GPS - Tool or Toy?
Story by Paul Crawford

Every year about this time, we see a steady stream of questions from folks just entering the GPS market for the first time. There is plenty of room for confusion with various advertising claims, endless options, add-ons, all piled on the basic magic of having a satellite 11,000 miles above the earth lead you by the hand to that secret sunken brush pile or the next Pizza Hut down the road.

A natural tendency related to financial self-preservation is to just try and dip your toe in this cold water first, so we see a lot of questions about getting a handheld GPS to start with, then we'll look at the bigger, more expensive units later.

With all of the advances the last few years in handheld units, it certainly seems like a reasonable course of action. However, the Electronic Revolution of late has brought us not only very capable handheld units, but very affordable console units as well. What is a newbie to do? Go with the handheld or risk buying a console unit that they will outgrow in a season? It's gotten to the point where it confuses me, so I can only imagine what a new user is faced with.

I got in early on the GPS scene so I was used to big bulky expensive gear and I am duly impressed with today's modern marvels. While following the manufacturers claims and dockside banter about handheld units, I was at once impressed, confused, and rather irritated at the mix of claims, experiences, and in too many cases, misinformation presented on the mighty mites. However, I couldn't really challenge over-the-top claims because I had to admit to never owning a handheld unit. Now GPS units number among many things that irritate me at this stage of life, and I'd probably have just left them on the "minor annoyance" pile had not my wife produced a newspaper ad about combination GPS units / MP3 players with some not so subtle hints that we should soon invest in new technology. It was time for me to investigate the facts and fiction of handheld units and find out for myself whether they were a useful tool or just one more hi-tech toy to buy and be disappointed with.

I made a call to my friends at Lowrance Electronics. I'd reviewed several of their units in the past and liked them enough to buy them for my own boat. (Yes, outdoor writers do occasionally have to buy products.) Looking through their catalog, I asked them to lend me one of their iFINDER® ® units for a product review and extended field test. I sensed this request rather caught them off guard since outdoor writers as a rule always ask for the latest, greatest, and most exotic units. After some convincing that I was serious about a real world test, they were kind enough to send me the very unit my wife was looking at, the iFINDER® PHD.

The iFINDER® PHD is an excellent example of the high end multipurpose handheld units of today. It is a mapping GPS that has the additional map-making software for your PC. The PHD also has the capacity for removable MultiMedia Cards (MMCs) to transfer maps and data between your PC and the unit. It will also accept aftermarket maps from Lowrance, LakeMaster, Fishing Hot Spots or Navionics. Lowrance also offers hundreds of lake contour maps for free download from the web site www.lowrance.com. In addition, it has a built-in MP3 player so you can take your tunes with you. Since I wanted to try this baby out as my only GPS for the test, I also needed a way to mount it. So, I ordered the optional RAM® mounting kit. No sooner had the stuff arrived, then I was ready to give it a try.

I had several questions I wanted answered over and above, "Does this thing work?" I wanted to know how well do handheld units acquire their signals? I wanted to know if I could mount it secure enough in the boat to use it while on the move? For that matter, my wife wanted to mount it in her truck and find her way to the grocery store with the thing, (too many TV commercials.) I wanted to know if the aftermarket fishing maps worked? She wanted to know if her MP3 Audio Books would work? I wanted to make some new maps, she wanted to use them. I was interested in some of the advanced features, she wanted the most basic usage as a new user. Could one relatively inexpensive unit do it all?

So, does this thing work? I expected that any GPS unit would be accurate and indeed that remains true. The GPS system timing, and thus accuracy is a function of the satellite signals, not the chip set in the unit. You do get different accuracies with units that see different numbers of satellites, but with error correction if your unit can "see" and utilize 5 birds (satellites), then all GPS units' accuracy will be the same regardless of model.

This immediately brings us to how well the handheld units can actually see the satellites and how long does it take them to "acquire" or use them? Turns out that is another pleasant surprise. The iFINDER® acquired the signals in a very reasonable time and could do so under some surprising conditions. Picking up the weak signals from the satellites has always been a little bit of a trick. There are a lot of things that can get in the way or cause errors in the signal. The satellite clocks have a little error in them, the orbits aren't exact, the atmosphere causes a few problems, and the signal can bounce around the ground off of various surrounding objects similar to ghosting on your TV set. Add all of this stuff up and it's a wonder we get any signal at all. That makes it all the more surprising that you can lock on while traveling inside your car, or even sitting in a chair in your living room, (actually did it!) Now, if you look at the signal page, you'll see that the unit is switching between birds all of the time but the location accuracy appears steady to the user, (all of the switching is invisible.) The console mounted units we use in our boats usually don't have to worry as much about overhead interference or multi-path errors from surrounding structures. Overall. you have to take your hat off to how well the handheld can ferret out a signal.

Now that we knew the thing worked, it came time to find a way to mount it in my boat. The RAM mount system has been around for years but I had never bothered with it before. I got several styles of bases to try. The easiest and therefore the first was a suction cup design. The idea is to find a nice flat space and pull a vacuum with the suction cup, thus securing everything at your choice of flat areas. Of course the first observation is there are very few flat areas in a modern boat. Assuming you find one and clean it sufficiently to get a suction, then the base will indeed stay fairly secure. Unfortunately that security did not survive mounting the unit on the base's swivel arm. Try as I might, I could never get the base to stay stuck with the weight of the unit pulling any leverage at all. Now someone might get the thing to work, but I wouldn't trust the cup to keep my unit aboard a bouncing boat. Much better results were had when I switched to a fixed mount. I found a little hidden space where I was willing to drive in a screw and mounted the unit on a long swivel arm. Now that mount was impressive. Even when plowing through big whitecaps, the mount kept the unit secure and in place. I was getting tossed around the boat but the mounting arm never budged or sagged. The whole mount would vibrate a bit but it never slipped out of my chosen adjustment. And as tight as it held the unit, a simple twist of the adjustment lever and it would easily swing to any new position. If you're not going to dash mount your unit, the RAM mount proved to be the way to go. This one I'd trust to keep the unit aboard.

Mounting the unit in the wife's truck encountered similar problems as with the boat. The suction cup mount requires a smooth surface, something we couldn't find in her cab, although I have to admit I never tried the windshield. Since she refused my offer to drill a few holes in her dash, we propped the GPS unit up against the window or in the cup holder of her console. If you're a little more intent on mounting the unit, I'm sure you could find a hidden spot that would work in most vehicles without cosmetic damage. My wife just didn't care enough to prove it.

The mounting of the unit was only the first in a succession of disappointments for my wife. She suffered the very typical problem of overblown expectations. She had seen one too many TV commercials for voice-directed GPS units in her car and was devastated to find out it didn't work that way. First was the matter of the interface. About the only thing obviously useful for her about the controls was the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons. The power saver mode that comes as a default setting had her convinced she broke the thing. The menus, while well organized for the experienced user, just added to her confusion and frustration. Even if the PHD had an Easy Mode, (couldn't find one in the manual), the wife would have never given it a chance. After the fascination of watching the map move as she rode along wore off, so did her interest in learning to use it. There was trouble in paradise.

Next up was the mapping software. I told the wife that we could add detailed maps to the unit and it would show her where interesting businesses or highway exits were located. She was willing to give it another chance and spent some quality time with the documentation. But in the end, her unrealistic expectations got the best of her again. I programmed up the local area with some points of interest from the MapCreate™ software. We had detailed street names, gas stations, exits, and several other things I deemed worthwhile all displayed on the unit. She started out using some very unladylike language about the search function interface, but I thought she just needed some time. The end came abruptly when we had maps that showed exactly where the point of interest was, but didn't plot out the street names of how to get there. She just couldn't get over that the GPS unit was not going to be Map Quest in a bottle for her. I was awarded custody of the unit along with storage location suggestions while my wife went off to find the Tom-Tom internet site. Now I seriously considered around that time to call up Lowrance and talk to them about their iWAY™ units that I had heard so much about and thought was exactly what the wife wanted. Then, I wondered aloud just why I'd want to switch from fishing to driving products, give up the opportunity to have endless playtime with the iFINDER and an excellent excuse for uncontested boat time to conduct the test. Upon further reflection, I decided to not only let sleeping dogs lie, but leave quietly as to not arouse them on the way to the lake. So much for the driving tests.

Long story short, if you're looking for a highway driving aid to tool around town, the iFINDER is probably not the best unit for that.

I think we also uncovered a "new user" flaw for an inexperienced user. That is, the full capability that's built into the iFINDER lets you do anything with the handheld you can do with a bigger unit. In fact, as near as I can tell they actually run the same software, sharing menus, functions, and interface. All of this power is bound to cause an introductory problem. A simple quick start user's guide to go along with the reference manual could go a long ways toward relieving the frustration. Short of that, I'd recommend any new user to curl up with the manual and perhaps download the free on-line emulator from the Lowrance website. In spite of what they might say, instant gratification is not a hallmark of consumer electronics in the Information Age.

Now that I had sole possession, it was time to put this thing to work! I wasn't interested in how the unit worked in town. I wanted to know how it worked on the water. Exit the street maps, enter the lake maps. Since the iFINDER® will only take one card at a time, I came upon an old problem. The commercially available lake contour maps come on their own memory cards. While it is possible to add street maps you're risking corrupting you precious contour maps if you blow the memory limits. So, you're left with a choice, do I load up the lake or the road to it? The stock answer from the designers is that you're supposed to have both cards and switch between them when you get to the water. My realistic outlook is that I've already lost one mapping card in transit and changing cards is a pain in the patoot. This goes double for the iFINDER® since they tucked the card slot inside the water resistant battery box, of course below the batteries. Switching between cards will work, but the pain level is just too high for me.

Now the really good news is the memory cards are the same between the iFINDER® and the console units. This opens up my favorite use for the iFINDER® , taking it with me to someone else's boat. What once began as article research became standard gear for me. On those occasions I become a passenger, I always find room to pack the iFINDER® . This gives me at least two advantages. First, being able to lead us to my offshore honey holes, Second, capturing the GPS coordinates of new spots that my partners are willing to share. Without a doubt, that capability alone is worth the price of admission. If you're someone who has a library of plots and trails you've saved up from one of the big combination units in your boat, then you'll be pleased to know they plug and play with the handhelds. This makes the iFINDER® the perfect complement to your bigger rig and a secret weapon for draw tournaments. At the very least, it stopped a lot of the arguments over who's boat we ought to take. If I'm fishing my own water I don't care that much which end of the boat I'm fishing from.

The memory cards aren't limited to maps with the PHD but offer your own private juke box as well. The basic idea I wanted to try out was to load audio books on the unit. The memory was certainly large enough to hold book chapters and it seemed an excellent replacement for the wife's CD player, discs, cords, and other paraphernalia that routinely travels with her on a day's fishing trip. Just a couple of things spoiled this plan. First is that card switching thing that meant when we got to the fishing spot, I had to remove the batteries, load up the new card, and then yield the GPS to my wife instead of monitoring my position. Okay, life is full of compromises. The second thing isn't a fault of the unit at all, but of the nature of MP3 players. It turns out not all MP3 files are created equal. One of the very unequal file types was the one my wife subscribed to on her web service. They just didn't fit the standard format. We both agree that listening to a book on the PHD would be a nice alternative to the CDs if the audio source supplier distributes in a more standard format. As it is, the PHD was reduced to music and other audio clips, albeit with very good sound quality and a good user interface. Even with the capability, given the bother of switching cards on the water, I'd still prefer to buy the wife her own MP3 player and keep my GPS for monitoring our drift while we're fishing.

The one real complaint I had trying to use the handheld unit for monitoring drift, course, or anything else is the obvious limitation you have with small screen size. The display is actually quite good for its size, but you can't change the fact it is small. If you're holding the unit in your hand, reading the display isn't too bad if you get the bifocals at the right angle. When you start mounting the unit in one of those out-of-the-way spots, there is no right angle. Simply put, every time I left the unit in its mount it was too far away to comfortably read. The detailed contours on the lake maps just made matters worse by providing enough background clutter to obscure any current path information. Add some vibration from running across choppy water and you're left somewhere between a hint and a guess of where you're at. Now if you're holding the unit, you can see just fine even while running. It's just a little awkward trying to steer a boat jumping whitecaps with one hand and hold a GPS in the other. I suspect the visibility would be dramatically improved with a color display, something the PHD lacks. Still, small screens are, well, small and that does limit what you're going to do from a distance.

Night time viewing is excellent, at least once you figure out how to keep the back light on. The default power settings turn off the back light after a few seconds to save batteries but you can modify that default from a menu. You can change the contrast and light level in order to yield an excellent night time display. Just one more example of why I like Lowrance screens and graphics.

So, what's our verdict? I'd give it a solid "B" for useful tool and a rather weak "C" for toy. The large capability interface and learning curve makes just playing around too intimidating for a new or casual user. The MP3 capability is good but the reality of switching out the cards behind the batteries limits the fun. As a primary unit for guiding your boat it has all of the capabilities but small screen size limits the presentation of the information. The MapCreate street maps and points of interest work for the experienced user but it's not a substitute for a turn-by-turn routing product. As an auxiliary unit to pair up with a bigger console unit as a traveling companion, it's A+ all of the way. It held up wonderfully over a season of beatings, and being dropped a few times, knocked off a table by the cat, and a couple of rain storms.

I'm going to ask my wife to get me a new console unit for the boat and an iFINDER® to go with it for my next birthday. I'm going to get her an iPod.

Until next time, have fun and stay safe.