yeahbaby
Pack Dog
I have used a 76cs since 2007, I bought it second hand (3 Years old) for R2800 and it has served me well. It one of those things you own that never changes in value, it also lets you know from time to time that you indeed have one of the best GPS’s you can get in it’s price range - and above, I would dare say that, in some aspects, all price ranges. I was however starting to notice that as the SA Map got bigger, it had more and more difficulty in redrawing the maps when scrolling. Also in comparison to a Nuvi it started showing its age quite distinctly, it just looked old and only had 150MB for maps. I had an eye on Gumtree for a while, in search of a 76Csx, this model had the memory card slot, it also had a slightly faster processor, the map redrawing happened quite a bit, faster, but the search was in vain, the more I looked the more I realized that the owners of these knew better and held on to them.
Having given up hope in April this year, I bought an Oregon 550 to replace the 76cs. It was a lovely piece of equipment, but it suffered horribly in readability in direct sunlight, by the you settle your glasses and flip your visor down, the only chance of reading the screen is a fat chance. It also seemed to have a healthy appetite for batteries. I kept it for two days and then sold it.
The situation was dismal, but with the news of the 78s release things started to look up. I was quite keen to see what they did, and, if it worked…. I secretly feared it was not going to crack.
But my fears were needless. It does not surprise or impress you however, it just pleases. It works very similar; in fact it reeks of the logic and menus that drove the old 60 and 76 ranges, but somehow spruced it up with different fonts, icons and ribbon menu that rotates as you press the page buttons.
That seemed to have worked, you're at home with it, navigation is easily learned and it gets around pretty quickly. Entering text is still the same. Inherently it is much slower than a touch screen, what helps it is that it attempts to match what you type with possible matches it can find (as on the 76), that does cut time in half. I would have liked the option for a QWERTY layout, I just cannot get used to that stupid archaic layout.
The fonts are like that found on a Oregon 550, readable and clear, however it has the same ability as the 76cs, that is; it can be read in direct sunlight with no backlight, something I wished the Oregon 550 could do. I think that the 20 hours claimed will be reached; the 76cs could easily do it. There are different navigating views; one of them is a 3D view, similar to the Nuvi’s. It is DEM compatible and the detail they achieve on, quite frankly, a low tech screen is remarkable. The ‘s’ model does have a built in tri-axial compass and barometer, nice to have, the compass especially, since I am going to try my hand at some geo caching. I did notice however that It does not switch to the turn screen when it alerts you for a upcoming turn, as the 76 does.
It is well finished, not as military looking as the 76 (thank heavens they dropped the earth logo). I do suspect it would last as long as the previous range it replaces. At the back of the unit under a rubber flap, it has an old school four pin power jack, I prefer these to the usb port as it is more waterproof, I had one for the 76 and it fits straight in, the mount however does not fit. Right next to it is an usb port. Both these connections still do not charge the battery, - WTF?? It does however switch on if powered by the cable unlike the 76Cs, it stayed off.
For maps it has 1.7GB on board memory, more than big enough for now, plus it can accept a mem card.
The 78s has the wireless share function, but it can only chat to another 78 or 62 and can only share waypoints, photos are accepted as waypoints, the EXIF has to have the co-ords.
Hopefully in 5 years time they would have fixed the brightness issue the Oregon has, but until then I rate it better than the Oregon range, it most certainly surpasses the 76Cs, and in true tradition, I am pleased with the upgrade, 'surprised' would be too rich
Having given up hope in April this year, I bought an Oregon 550 to replace the 76cs. It was a lovely piece of equipment, but it suffered horribly in readability in direct sunlight, by the you settle your glasses and flip your visor down, the only chance of reading the screen is a fat chance. It also seemed to have a healthy appetite for batteries. I kept it for two days and then sold it.
The situation was dismal, but with the news of the 78s release things started to look up. I was quite keen to see what they did, and, if it worked…. I secretly feared it was not going to crack.
But my fears were needless. It does not surprise or impress you however, it just pleases. It works very similar; in fact it reeks of the logic and menus that drove the old 60 and 76 ranges, but somehow spruced it up with different fonts, icons and ribbon menu that rotates as you press the page buttons.
That seemed to have worked, you're at home with it, navigation is easily learned and it gets around pretty quickly. Entering text is still the same. Inherently it is much slower than a touch screen, what helps it is that it attempts to match what you type with possible matches it can find (as on the 76), that does cut time in half. I would have liked the option for a QWERTY layout, I just cannot get used to that stupid archaic layout.
The fonts are like that found on a Oregon 550, readable and clear, however it has the same ability as the 76cs, that is; it can be read in direct sunlight with no backlight, something I wished the Oregon 550 could do. I think that the 20 hours claimed will be reached; the 76cs could easily do it. There are different navigating views; one of them is a 3D view, similar to the Nuvi’s. It is DEM compatible and the detail they achieve on, quite frankly, a low tech screen is remarkable. The ‘s’ model does have a built in tri-axial compass and barometer, nice to have, the compass especially, since I am going to try my hand at some geo caching. I did notice however that It does not switch to the turn screen when it alerts you for a upcoming turn, as the 76 does.
It is well finished, not as military looking as the 76 (thank heavens they dropped the earth logo). I do suspect it would last as long as the previous range it replaces. At the back of the unit under a rubber flap, it has an old school four pin power jack, I prefer these to the usb port as it is more waterproof, I had one for the 76 and it fits straight in, the mount however does not fit. Right next to it is an usb port. Both these connections still do not charge the battery, - WTF?? It does however switch on if powered by the cable unlike the 76Cs, it stayed off.
For maps it has 1.7GB on board memory, more than big enough for now, plus it can accept a mem card.
The 78s has the wireless share function, but it can only chat to another 78 or 62 and can only share waypoints, photos are accepted as waypoints, the EXIF has to have the co-ords.
Hopefully in 5 years time they would have fixed the brightness issue the Oregon has, but until then I rate it better than the Oregon range, it most certainly surpasses the 76Cs, and in true tradition, I am pleased with the upgrade, 'surprised' would be too rich
