Garmin iQue 3600 GPS

I see that Garmin is close to releasing its iQue 3600 GPS/PDA and that Amazon is accepting preorders for $549.99. Info here.

web page 1 and web page 2

I've been looking at handheld GPS units lately, and starting to home in on the etrex legend or vista, until I saw the iQue 3600. It has a much larger 320x480 color LCD display (I have older eyes), autorouting, voice guidance, unlocked Americas Autoroute CD included, and you can expand the memory by another 256M with an SD card. Seems like a pretty nice unit, and all the PDA features would be there too (just a bonus as I wasn't shopping for a PDA).

The price is higher than the etrex vista, but I don't think the vista price includes the more detailed street software that I would definitely want.


For you GPS experts, is there something I should be wary of in looking at this new GPS? I would probably use it mostly for automobile navigation, but seems like it might be OK for outdoor activies also.

It's a PDA as well. A glass touch-screen will be much more delicate than the Behind-thick-plastic displays of the Etrex legend and vista.

My concern with any new product is how stable and reliable it is in both hardware and more importantly software.

I anticipate many bugs in the first release and I'm waiting for reviews.

Things I'm looking for is if they pulled off the receiver design well and that it has similar good reception and sensitivity as standard units.

I'm concerned with all the features and processor speed that battery life will be too limited for a single all purpose PDA + GPS for geocaching.

That's what I use currently a PDA and a GPS.

I have an older Palm 3xe and a Garman V. The palm is good for several weeks before I have to change the batteries and the V can run nearly a full day on a fresh set of batteries.

I have a Vista...
No, is comes from the factory, with just a base map, just main highways.

You can read my review on the Vista at:
http://trotto.zmoz.com/review

Garmin iQue 3600 GPS-Now shipping

Many online stores have the Garmin iQue 3600 in stock now and are selling in the $455 ~ $470 range.

If you're interested, there's lots of discussion about it at these forums.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GarminPDA/

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=108