GPS Review: Delorme Earthmate LT-20 with Street Atlas

Delorme has been around a long time with their StreetAtlas software, and its was one of the tools I used in the past to help me navigate on long bike trips. I used it to program in routes and then download onto a Garmin eTrex. It's powerful navigation software that also has the ability to listen to a GPS and help you navigate while on the road. The included voice promted can help it act as a full naviational aid with that GPS and your laptop. The Software is loaded with Points of Interest (POI's), and has some nice features that allow you to search for POI's in several ways while on a trip. I like it for the POI Radar tool that allows you to scan for POI's in a radius around your location, or in real time as you go along your route. Overall, I think that it's a better trip navigation tool than an around town navigation tool.

Over at PC Magazine, they recently reviewed the software and the Earthmate LT GPS receiver and thought that it had some great software features, sometimes better than the Microsoft Streets & Trips (see our article covering the Review of MS Streets & Trips) but that GPS accuracy was an issue.

The GPS receiver is small and is one of the smallest on the market, measuring just 1 7/8” w x 2 5/8” h x 9/16” thick. It comes with an attached 5’ cable with a suction cup on the cable designed to hold the GPS against the windshield or on the dash for optimum performance. Just plug the other end of the cable into the USB port of your laptop PC. It is best to avoid rapid and far-ranging temperature extremes, bringing the GPS indoors when not in use, just as you would a cell phone. The yellow reflective casing helps reduce high temperatures while on the dash.

"Though the user interface in Street Atlas 2006 has been updated, navigating through the icons across the top of the screen and the tabbed interface in the middle was more cumbersome than getting along in the Microsoft interface. This software also has many more features than S&T 2006. The combination means that despite the flash-based tutorial, a first-time laptop-GPS user will take significantly longer to learn this program than the less-full-featured Microsoft product. On the other hand, you would expect learning a more feature-rich product to take longer.

The true test of performance for a GPS-based product is a road trip, of course. When we ran the same routing test as we did with S&T 2006, the route recommended seemed less direct, and the map database didn't know about a recently completed ramp that was part of the S&T 2006 route. Granted, our test was over a fairly limited range, but it was designed to test new and old streets as well as residential and state routes. On the other hand, we liked that unlike S&T 2006, Street Atlas 2006 automatically recalculated our route after we made an (intentional) error.

Our biggest disappointment was with the GPS errors we encountered. We don't know whether they were related to accuracy of the hardware or to the mapping of the data, but in several of our tests, Street Atlas reported that we were off route when we were actually on well-established roads that were part of our course. This occurred both on New Jersey State Route 120 and on the main road near our home. Over the course of several days, the same errors occurred on the road near our home and on the mapping of streets in our subdivision. Poor satellite reception was not the cause, apparently. In all cases, Street Atlas reported a 3D fix, meaning that the receiver was in contact with three satellites. "

Summary - Delorme Earthmate LT-20 with StreetAtlas
"Street Atlas 2006, as noted, is much more fully featured than Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2006 but harder to use. That in itself isn't terrible, but our experiences showed GPS accuracy to be a serious problem."

Read the complete review.

February 4, 2006

GPS Review: Delorme Earthmate LT-20 with Street Atlas