Active 10 by SatMap

Introduction

There are plenty of GPS mapping handhelds on the market. I am here talking about this one mainly because I own one and can talk about it from experience. I bought it because, at that time, it seemed to me to be the best buy for a walker who wanted good support in the Alps as well as the UK.

To buy one you need to budget over £300 for the unit and something like £40 to £120 for every map that you buy to use on it.

Pros

• Comprehensive cover with the facilities on-board
• Larger than average screen size
• Maps available have good coverage

Cons

• A prolific and bewildering menu system
• A big heavy handful - but screen still not easy to see
• Zoom-in and image is pixellated
• Zoom-out and image detail is hard to read
• You can load tracks on the SD card, but your expensive maps reside there
• Can handle tracks, but makers focus on routes
• Consumes power even when switched off, needing regular charging

Verdict

• Hard to navigate a track due to small screen size
• I nearly always leave it at home and carry a more useful GPS
• It has given me an aversion to GPS mapping handhelds

Explanation

The idea of having a map as the background to a track has obvious advantages. The reality is that you need to zoom out to see more than the immediate neighbourhood. When you zoom out the detail becomes more or less unreadable!

As a rule of thumb I would say that a mapping screen has got to be at least A5 in size - and none of them are remotely near this size!

The maps are quite expensive for the 1:50k maps - and these do not have field boundaries included!!!! The 1:25k maps are just too expensive to consider unless perhaps the users are from an institution that has all its activities on the same map.