DeLorme PN-20 Handheld GPS

As part of CES 2007, DeLorme has finally announced and put out information on its handheld, the Earthmate GPS PN-20, a color screened capable looking GPS. The unit will put mapping and maps front and center in its execution. The unit will be capable of displaying DeLorme’s excellent Topo maps and their street maps that make the PN-20 a route generating handheld. With its color screen and these features it will put it up for competition against some of the best handhelds on the market. The unit’s launch is as significant as the recent Bushnell launch of the ONIX 200 CR that has similar layering capabilities of maps and images under your basemaps to allow you to see where you are in a realistic (satellite image) situation (see images below).

The unit will comes with the ability to download maps, again similar to Bushnell, and you will pay for them. The units ship with some free maps/satellite images/aerial images, up to several hundred square kilometers, which isn't bad. My expereience is that you might want to download for targeted areas anyway, so a state park for example, and not a whole state itself, so this may not be a big expense in the long run.

The unit will be available in various bundles atarting at $369 at the DeLorme website.

The Earthmate GPS PN-20 will resolve a central problem facing handheld GPS users—the difficulty and expense of displaying high-quality maps on their devices. DeLorme has designed this receiver specifically to optimize the display of DeLorme mapping content, and to maintain core desktop capabilities such as routing and annotation.

“In recent years, there has been steadily mounting demand for the ability to display DeLorme maps on a color-screen handheld GPS receiver,” said Caleb Mason, Director of Marketing for DeLorme. “With the Earthmate GPS PN-20, we have maintained our long-standing commitment to innovation, high-end capabilities, and exceptional consumer value.”

On-Device Routing In addition to standard handheld GPS capabilities, the Earthmate GPS PN-20 will support on-device routing. Using DeLorme’s proprietary software, users can also create routes on their desktop or laptop PC and transfer them to the device. Routes, waypoints, and tracks can be exchanged between receiver and computer with ease, using the standard GPX format popular among outdoors enthusiasts and geo-cachers.

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