I think it's time I bought one of these gizmos, but which one is best for me?
I
need:-
Uber long battery life (I mean days if it can be recharged in under 8 hours or at least 12 days if recharge is slow. At least 48 hours without a recharge, but the more, the better) or something that can/does run on standard batteries that can be shop bought. If the latter, are there any issues of rechargeables not fitting. (Like I've had with a torch, my rechargeables were too fat to fit)
Software/mapping for on and off road in Britain and Europe (off road for Europe isn't essential yet, but could be in the future). If I can't have it ll at the same time, minimal faff to insert/download/install/whatever the mapping/software I will be using.
A rough and tough machine that isn't shy of getting wet and can handle lots of abuse.
I
would really like:-
Free software/mapping, I am a tight git
unless it's very poor. I don't mind paying for quality if it's worthwhile. But mapping does get out of date quite quickly. Cheap upgrades or replacements would be good, but I prefer free. I don't mind paying a few hundred quid once, but paying that much every 5 years or so will start to grate. I'm after a long term investment really.
Something which I can alter the route as I go along, and/or have several versions (the long/medium/short route) of the same route and switch from one to the other. Or perhaps an external way of storing different routes such as a SD card.
Something that I can take a route from Googlemaps type of thing on line (or from the sat-nav software downloaded/installed/etc/etc onto my computer) which I can drag the route around while I plan it, then zap it into the sat-nav.
To have on and off road for at least Britain all the time if I can't have Britain and Europe. (Good) cycle paths may be handy too, if they are possible. I believe there is one that goes from Dieppe to Paris, which I will look into for getting to and from PBP.
A sat-nav that won't become obsolete when new technology come along (I don't really want a Beta-max sat-nav)
Easy to use, as in, not a steep learning curve. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty clueless about sat-nav and hope to have it sussed at least on a very basic "tell me which way" level within a few hours.
I'd also like:-
One with lots of add ons, toys and gizmos, such as altimeter, gradient, pulse monitor or whatever else. Not essential, but I like looking at numbers and if it only costs a few quid more for lots of different numbers, then I like that sort of thing.
I'm not really computer literate and not clever with computers at all.
A local bike shop which I've only just found out about and seems like I might become a regular customer once I've sussed them out and decided whether I like them or not sells Garmins. So this could be a way for me to suss out my new LBS and get some help with using a sat-nav.
Money wise, for the sat-nav and software/mapping of Britain and Europe, on and off road, I don't want to go over £800 but will go a bit over if it's worthwhile. I can always buy the European software later.
If this has all bin done , just give me a link and I can delete this. I have had a quick look, but haven't really found anything.