Satmap Active 10

I was really looking forward to this device as it seamed the best of the GPS units available,after reading many reviews and phoning up the company I bought the limited edition version from Amazon for a good price,it's good to have every Land Ranger map with you at all times while out walking or cycling,but this gadget doesn't perform as expected,firstly the battery doesn't last nowhere near what the company says it does,even in advanced power mode with the lithium battery and the brightness turned down to 20% this unit only lasts 8 hours fully charged,not the 120 stated,however the conventional lithium batteries last much longer,I have got 16 hours out of them with still plenty of life left,however fitting the battery caddy is rather fiddly,my other gripe with this device is it's supposed water resistance,it has an IP rating of 65,how it got that I don't know,because if used in the rain on my bicycle water gets in behind the screen,not just the cover the actual screen,my IP rated mobile phone survives far worse than this,so if used in bad weather it needs covering with plastic,so the two reasons that appealed to me turned out to be false,the device it's self looks and feels pretty well made,although the cover clips can break easily and the back cover doesn't fit very flush.the planning of routes needs seriously tweaking,because it assumes you are an aeroplane and only plots straight-lines,you can move the route around the bends of country roads,but it's a tedious affair,why they couldn't have included a mode for cyclists wanting to use quite roads I don't know,google maps does this,so why can't they,also compatibility with my computer is a problem with the online route planning as I use a mac with a Power Pc processor and Tiger,it needs Leopard or above on an intel machine,so while I am happy to upgrade to Leopard I am not buying a new mac just for this,lastly the screen is nigh on impossible to read in sunlight even with the sun filter on and the screen brightness turned right up,so a coloured snap on cover would be a good idea,finishing off this device is good in that it's an electronic map,but bad for the fact the power doesn't last,so I think in this respect it fails,but for a GPS used with a conventional map for walkers,it's probably ideal,but noway is it worth the money,particularly as additional maps cost so much money on top of what you have already spent,but with some R&D this product could be much better in the future.

The Satmap Active 10 TREK has finally come to the US, four years after its introduction in the UK. And what a difference four years makes. We didn't have touch screen Oregons then, and super-thin iPhones and GPS receivers with raster imagery were just...

If you're fed up with carrying OS maps, then Satmap's Active 10 navigation device is certainly worth a look.

Ordnance Survey maps in the palm of your hand

The Active 10 Plus is a one stop GPS solution giving outdoor sports enthusiasts the hardware, software and route planning tools they need to get out and explore. It's preloaded with UK maps and has a SiRF Star III GPS antenna, a 3.5-inch LCD TFT screen...

What's It For? We first tested the Satmap Active 10 GPS almost a year ago, this is a follow-up to our original test, since Satmap has upg...

The Satmap Active 10 can make your outdoor adventures even more amazing. Your sense of discovery will surely be enhanced with this stand alone GPS unit that could tell you where you are and where to go with its electronic compass, direction indicator,...

Ordnance Survey maps in the palm of your hand

alaTest has collected and analysed 312 user reviews of the Satmap Active 10 from Amazon.co.uk. The average user rating for this product is 4.0/5, compared to an average user rating of 4.0/5 for other GPS on Amazon.co.uk.

I like to take into account previous reviews before buying as I respect other buyers opinions and comments. So, I noted all the comments on the Satmap arriving with the cracked rear removable battery cover, mmm!, so I still ordered and guess what, mine...