Which BlueTooth GPS is the King of the Hill in 2007?

axjax · 04-01-07, 06:42 PM

I'm really curious. I bought my GlobalSat BT338 last year after having two years of great fun using my iPaq and NavMan sleeve, and briefly in-between I tried a CF GPS but that never worked right so I returned it in less than 30 days (Thank You BuyGPSNow), and the vendor allowed me to buy the BT338. That unit was rock-solid for almost 11 months and then it just quit even though it lights up, and is easily "discovered" by other BT devices.

Since my GPS is useless as is, I have to call GlobalSat and see if they will RMA my unit, and if not... then I will have to consider an alternative. I'm not 100% convinced that buying another BT338 is the smart thing to do as I've heard of some others crapping out too. But last year when I was doing my research... it seemed that the BT338 was being re-badged as other brands or the guts were the same in many others.

So I'm curious if there's any breakthru product out there in case I have to get another unit, and I'd like some opinions.

04-02-07, 11:36 AM

Well, I like my BT-339 and thankfully it hasn't crapped out yet. Course, I haven't had mine nearly as long as you have had yours. I sure hope mine doesn't die soon.

04-11-07, 04:30 AM

Globalsat unit always works great. BT-359 would be a good choice. Recently, the MTK chipset based units such as iBlue 737, Qstarz 818, iTrek M5+ has been popular as well.

GPSPassion has a review of SiRF III VS MTK chipset performance and MTK chipset seems to be equally as good as SiRF units.

dvmed · 04-11-07, 11:37 AM

MTK chipset's sensitivity is almost at par with Sirf III but has lower power consumption meaning better battery life. However, I read somewhere (not sure where though) that they improved a Sirf type battery life to equal that of MTK's and Nemerix.

In choosing a GPS receiver, it depends on how you are going to use it. If you're going to use it as a pedestrian, beware of static navigation. Depending on the unit, directional movement will not register for speeds below 3-5 mph. That makes MTK chipsets a mediocre choice for geocaching and hiking. Sirf III has a utility to turn off static navigation, not sure with which devices will it work tho.
i-blue with nemerix is good for hiking and geocaching.

I personally am using the i-blue 747 data logger. I love it's sensitivity, I get satellite signals even in the basement with no windows of a two story house. It has auto on/off to improve battery life. Doesn't need a PDA to log. Because of static navigation, it is superb when driving but mediocre when walking. Unlike the non-data loggers, this one has a USB interface to download logs and to configure the GPS. The advantage of this is that you can send commands to configure the device (eg. turn SBAS (WAAS) on and off). The only way to do that with other units (eg. i-blue 737) is that you have to physically modify the unit by adding a resistor in order for the unit to accept commands via bluetooth. In my opinion, I'd give the MTK chipsets a 5 of 5 for driving; 2.5 of 5 for walking/hiking/geocaching; 4.9 of 5 for battery life.

axjax · 04-11-07, 01:26 PM

As noted elsewhere in this forum, USGlobalSAT has RMA'd my unit, bench tested it and found it to be defective. My new BT-338 is enroute to me as I write this. I've also heard that early BT-338's had some firmware issues that was corrected as production ramped up, so I have to assume that I will get one with the updated firmware.

I'm still contemplating jumping ship but I haven't made up my mind. Reading that the Axim line is dead isn't helping either. I'm seriously considering selling off the entire bundle and buying a dedicated GPS, but I would miss having all the little niceties like having family still shots and video clips that I can carry around and show everyone. The other alternative is a PDA/Phone that would be compatible with a BT GPS, but my cell is provided by my company and they won't spring for anything beyond a basic phone.