Garmin Intros Dakota 10 & 20 Outdoor GPS Units
Garmin has been steadily expanding its Nuvi GPS lineup for quite some
time, but the company's latest introductions are more for the outdoors
crowd. The Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 handheld GPS navigators each include
a high sensitivity GPS receiver, worldwide basemap and color
touchscreen display. Both are completely waterproof and up to 20 hours
of battery life. 20 hours!
In theory, anyway, the GPS systems could be used as one's main system, but these are tailored for use in hiking and trekking scenarios. The rugged nature ensures that they can withstand the elements, and the extra-long battery life keeps 'em humming even after long stints on the trails. The high sensitivity receiver ensures that they can still maintain a GPS signal even under deep brush and tree cover, and the built in HotFix technology automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position.
Garmin is marketing the units to geocachers, youth scouts, surveyors and hunters, noting that these folks can take advantage of Dakota’s 850 MB of internal memory, which can store up to 1,000 waypoints, 50 routes, 2,000 geocaches and an active tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks. The Dakota units are based off of the long-standing Oregon series, and specs wise, you'll find a 2.6" color touchscreen display, a compartment for two AA batteries, a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter, a MicroSD card slot and a weight of 6.75 oz. Dakota comes preloaded with a worldwide basemap and is compatible with Garmin City Navigator NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart g2 for marine charting, and TOPO U.S. 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail, but there's no mention of price just yet.
In theory, anyway, the GPS systems could be used as one's main system, but these are tailored for use in hiking and trekking scenarios. The rugged nature ensures that they can withstand the elements, and the extra-long battery life keeps 'em humming even after long stints on the trails. The high sensitivity receiver ensures that they can still maintain a GPS signal even under deep brush and tree cover, and the built in HotFix technology automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position.
Garmin is marketing the units to geocachers, youth scouts, surveyors and hunters, noting that these folks can take advantage of Dakota’s 850 MB of internal memory, which can store up to 1,000 waypoints, 50 routes, 2,000 geocaches and an active tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks. The Dakota units are based off of the long-standing Oregon series, and specs wise, you'll find a 2.6" color touchscreen display, a compartment for two AA batteries, a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter, a MicroSD card slot and a weight of 6.75 oz. Dakota comes preloaded with a worldwide basemap and is compatible with Garmin City Navigator NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart g2 for marine charting, and TOPO U.S. 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail, but there's no mention of price just yet.
