sergio_bzh a member of the French version of the site compared the GPS reception of his Garmin GPSMAP 60C and his newly acquired 60Cx. One of his reasons for upgrading was the sometimes spotty reception of his 60C while biking in the woods, even compared to the Magellan SporTrak. I translated his comments below.
"Note: the 60Cx is equipped with the SirfstarIII that should normally significantly improve reception compared with the Garmin chipset (see the Chipset Comparison Article). The other differences I've noticed so far are : - The internal memory has been replaced by a Transflash (or MicroSD) memory card with capacities up to 512 Mb (a 64mb card is included with the 60Cx). - The 60Cx can now be powered via USB.
I "stuck together" the 2 GPSr's and I made a few screenshots. You should be able to figure out which one is which ;-)
In a room with a single window :
On the left the Garmin 60c doesn't have a fix yet
In a living room with several windows :
On the left the 60c doesn't have a FIX - On the right, the 60Cx sees 8 satellites and uses 5 in the Fix
Inside a car on the floor at the feet of the passenger :
The 60x does better on the right
Below are the tracks recorded with the two receivers
The GPSr's were placed in the glove box that was kept open. The 60Cx is in red, the 60C in green. The slight "lapse" shown with the arrow took place when I stopped on a parking lot with some trees (few leaves in the winter though). The track of the 60Cx "sticks" much better to the actual route, while the 60C is struggling to keep up.
Green for the Garmin 60 - Red for the Garmin 60x
Conclusion : GPS reception has gone from average (some would say "weak") to excellent. To me, the 60Cx has already become a reference GPSr. I will update this page with battery comparisons and tree covered test runs.
An interesting read ;-) I've been using the 60Csx on the runs for the past week (see GpsPasSion Live) and must say I have been happy to get the same level of performance as with my other SiRFstarIII receivers. I'm less convinced by the compass though, but that will be for another thread.
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Garmin SiRFIII - Comparing the 60C to the 60Cx
Posted - 10 févr. 2006 : 20:01:36
