Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Garmin 3200 isn't perfect, but it's close. If you need a new PDA and want to add a GPS system to use in the car, this is the way to go (if you don't want to spend the extra $150 or so for the Garmin 3600). I've had mine for about three weeks now and I love it. The PDA has features similar to most Palm operating system PDAs. The GPS is very nice, but with all of the features available it takes some time to figure it all out. It has voice commands for directing you along your route, will tell you when you're off-route , and quickly recalculate a new route. As others have mentioned though, battery life goes rather quickly when in GPS mode. Because of this, it's really a car GPS and not useful for hiking.
The PDA is linked to the GPS through the Address Book. This means you can locate any address in your address book on the map and calculate a route to it. The 3200 also comes with a suction cup windshield mount that works well - but I found that in one of our vehicles that has a longer sloping windshield the unit ends up being a ways away from you while you're driving.
The screen on the 3200 is smallish, 2-1/4 inches square because the Graffiti 2 data entry pad is permanent at the bottom of the screen (you can use the keyboard though for data entry by tapping on the "A" at the bottom left corner of the Graffiti pad for letters or the "1" in the lower right corner of the Graffiti pad for numbers). The 3600 has a bigger screen because the Graffiti pad is not permanent - it can be hidden and brought up when needed, giving you an additional 2-1/4 by 1 inch screen space. The 3600 also has a built in mp3 player. However, I couldn't go the extra $150 for the 3600 considering the extras you need for both the 3200 and 3600 (see below), and unless you buy the bundled version of the 3600, it doesn't come with an automobile mount.
Despite the shortcomings, I rated it 5 stars because at the $351 I paid for it through Amazon, it's a great value.
As I mentioned, though, there are some extra expenses to consider before you buy either the 3200 or 3600:
1) Buy an SD card at the same time you buy this unit.
32MB is not enough memory to hold the Palm programs you want and the maps you need. Without the additional memory of an SD card, you will only be able to load detailed maps for a small area, which means if you travel over a wide area you'll be continually deleting maps to free up memory and loading the new ones you need. I went with a 512K SD card for about $50, loaded detailed maps for 5 Midwestern states on it and still have 325K of free space left. You can get SD cards with less memory, a 256K Simpletech card is about $25.
Also, not all SD cards are created equal. I've had very little experience with SD cards, so when I look at the reviews of PDAs and other equipment that uses SD cards, if they complained about SD card problems I paid attention to the brand name of the card if they mentioned it. I also looked at the reviews of the SD cards themselves. After looking at all of this information, I went with the SimpleTech card, it cost a little more than other brands, but I popped it in and have had no problems. It's possible that some of the SD problems mentioned could be due to the card and not the unit.
2) Staying with the provided Document/E-mail software will cost you
For the PDA document and e-mail sharing with your computer, Garmin includes the DataViz Documents To Go software. It's great software for moving Word documents and e-mail (including attachments!) between the PDA and your computer. However, this s a trial version that's only good for 30 days. After that, you'll need to pony up $30 for the registered version. DataViz also offers two other versions of this software with additional features - I ended up going with the next step up version for about $50.
3) You will need to buy a case for it
As with almost all PDAs it seems, if they provide any kind of cover or case for it, it's usually junk. Same with the 3200. The unit comes with a leather-covered flap that is hinged at the bottom of the unit and does not attach at the top, which means it flops around a lot. While the flap does fold backwards to lay against the back of the unit while you're using it, you can't put it in the cradle this way - instead, it will sit in the cradle with the flap laying out in from of it, very annoying. There are lots of cases available, some specifically for the Garmin 3200 & 3600.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Garmin iQue 3200 PDA/GPS Handheld System with North America Detailed Street Mapping
Specifications.INTEGRATED QUE TECHNOLOGY FEATURES GARMIN GPS & MAPPING SOFTWARE.WAAS ENABLED, 12 PARALLEL CHANNELS.INTEGRATED FLIP-UP GPS PATCH ANTENNA CAN BE POSITIONED FOR OPTIMAL RECEPTION.BUILT-IN 32 MB OF MEMORY FOR DOWNLOADING MAP DATA & OTHER PALMOS-COMPATIBLE SOFTWARE.POWERFUL 200 MHZ ARM 9 PROCESSOR FOR FAST SCREEN REDRAW & GRAPHICS.DEDICATED GRAFFITI NOTEPAD AREA.EXPANSION SLOT SUPPORTS SD?/MMC? PRODUCTS.RECHARGEABLE INTERNAL LI-ION BATTERY.BUILT-IN SPEAKER FOR VOICE-GUIDANCE COMMANDS.VIBRATING ALARM.IR COMMUNICATIONS.EXTERNAL GPS ANTENNA CONNECTIONS.INTERFACES: RS232 & USB.PALMOS 5.2.INCLUDES AUTOMOTIVE WINDSHIELD MOUNT WITH INTEGRATED CHARGER & SPEAKER, PROTECTIVE FLIP COVER, METAL STYLUS, USB RECHARGING HOTSYNC CRADLE, A/C POWER/CHARGING ADAPTER, CITY SELECT NORTH AMERICA DATA CD-ROM WITH FULL COVERAGE/FULL UNLOCK, QUICK START GUIDE & INSTALLATION/APPLICATION CD-ROM INCLUDING MANUAL.
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