Nextar P3 GPS preliminary review

[Dexx]

just got one of these from Newegg.com this week:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858617006

After much searching and penny pinching and reading reviews. All I can really say after playing with it a couple of days is "WOW!" For my first GPS unit and for the price, I don't know how this could have been beat. Now I've got to get to work on the power source/mounting for the motorcycle. Couldn't have asked myself for a better birthday present:-D

[Jethro]

Wow, amazingly inexspensive! It wouldn't happen to be water resistant, is it?

[renobruce]

I'm in the market for a GPS, too. Let us know how it goes. And I'd like to see how you end up mounting it.

[Zooks]

I'll be watching this thread with interest too. My friends are all into GPS 'thinga-me-doodads' at the moment (some of them quite expensive) and they all seem to fail on a regular basis.

Still can't beat the standard street directory (the old paper kind) IMHO.

[renobruce]

It doesn't appear to be battery operated, which I would need. I want to to some geocaching (sp).

[Eli69]

the ad doesn't mention waterproofness which would be important on the bike. it also doesn't seem to have topographical maps available which is important for geocaching. it also doesn't say much about sensitivity, can it get a good signal under a forest canopy or cloudy, rainy weather? it is cheap though. from my experience magellan is the way to go for gps.

[Dexx]

As far as I can tell, it's probably not water proof , but i was intending to carry it in a pocket inside my jacket and just go by voice prompts, and my experience so far with the Venture in the rain is pretty much knees down get wet unless I'm standing still. As far as mounting it, agin, probably carry it in a pocket, but I'm already mentaly making plans on how I could mount it if I decide to, just a matter of tripping over the right materials at this point. If i figure it out I'll post something with photos. This is a "first" GPS for me, so the big seling points were the price and the headphone jack (I'm still confused by bluetooth). It has a non-replaceable battery that is good for about ten hours of continuous use between charges(according to the manual). The box comes with a vehicle charger, but a household charger is available and i've seen converters that you can buy for around the same price that you can use to plug an auto style charger into a wall outlet. I'm not sure about the signal under a forest canopy, but it pick up a signal in my living room just fine ( house is aluminum sided and surrounded by very tall old growth pine trees). As far as geocaching, I don't honestly know if there is a unit that does both. A friend of mine that is into it had to buy two different GPS Units to have one in the car and one for geocaching, but that was a couple of years ago. The biggest problem I faced in trying to purchase GPS is that there isn't a diversety in retail outlets around here and I really prefer to shop hands on when i can, which is part of the reason I was hesitant to drop 600 bucks on a Garmin Zumo. That and I really want to put progressive springs in the bike this season and get some paint work done to it, so i kind of had to go with a cheaper unit. Maybe next year after I get moved I'll be able to scrape together enough for a Zumo, but I have no reservations about keeping the Nextar to use in the truck.

Just found this link on the VetureRider site last night, maybe it will help somebody...

http://gpsinformation.net/