Handheld GPS Review

GPS reviews focus on accuracy and ease of use

This report covers handheld GPS receivers mainly intended for camping and hiking. A handheld GPS unit receives data from multiple satellites orbiting the Earth, performing the necessary calculations to arrive at a position fix accurate to within 50 feet. The GPS receiver can plot your location on a display, provide driving directions or help you find your way back to camp. Because they are meant to be portable, these units are smaller than car GPS units, which have larger screens (3.5 inches or more) for better viewing from the driver's seat. Handheld GPS also come with fewer road maps than car GPS receivers, but have longer battery life (15 to 35 hours) and are built to resist the elements. See our auto GPS report for more information about GPS receivers intended mainly for use in a car.

We found the best reviews for GPS receivers at GPS-enthusiast websites GPSTracklog.com and GPSMagazine.com. These sites are thorough and up-to-date, and their multipage reviews cover accuracy, ease of use and other performance aspects in depth. Most importantly, they directly compare GPS receivers to one another and make clear, well-reasoned recommendations on which is best for you. ConsumerReports.org has a comparative review of handheld GPS based on rigorous testing, but the analysis is nearly non-existent. GPSReview.net, on the other hand, offers some of the most in-depth analysis we found, but, as a policy, refuses to make a specific recommendation -- instead choosing to inform so the reader can make a selection that's tailored to his or her needs.

More and more devices are incorporating GPS functionality. PDAs, smartphones and even higher-end cell phones now include GPS abilities. For more on those options, see the separate ConsumerSearch reports on PDAs, smartphones and cell phones. Sports watches can also incorporate GPS so you can track distance along with some basic routing. These are covered in our report on sports watches.

Some pundits, such as Mike Elgan of ComputerWorld.com, claim that phone-based GPS beats using dedicated devices, though his comparison is to a dated (circa 2004) stand-alone GPS receiver, which hardly strikes us as fair. Singletracks.com, a cycling enthusiast website, pits the Garmin Edge 705 (*Est. $425) against an Apple iPhone to see which is the best GPS receiver for cycling. The iPhone more than holds its own, though the reviewer speculates that the iPhone won't do as good a job standing up to the rigors of off-road biking. For serious hobby use -- such as for geocaching or hiking or biking far from the beaten path -- standalone handheld GPS receivers hold the advantage of rugged construction and technology designed to deliver the highest degree of accuracy. On the other hand, for more civilized pursuits and occasional use, a phone-based GPS could more than fill the bill.

A crossover GPS receiver can be used both in a car and on foot. A good idea in theory, especially given the cost of buying standalone GPS receivers for each use, crossover GPS devices have fared poorly with the public. Issues are numerous, including missing features relative to competing handheld GPS receivers, car GPS receivers or both. Some crossover GPS receivers are deemed too large to be comfortably used as a handheld or screens that are too small and dim for use comfortably in the car. However, while crossover GPS receivers are on the decline, some options remain, and others may be on the horizon. For more information, see our discussion of crossover GPS receivers elsewhere in this report.