Garmin Dakota GPS promises to stop you getting lost

Smaller than the Oregon 550, bigger than the eTrek

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26 June 2009 20:04 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Hot on the heals of the Oregon 550 and 550t, Garmin has announced a new outdoor handheld GPS device in the US, it is called the Dakota.

The Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 handheld GPS navigators look to be housed in the same tough casing of the 550 and 550t, packing a 2.6-inch colour screen, high-sensitivity GPS receiver, worldwide basemap and colour touchscreen display into a compact, waterproof device with up to 20 hours of battery life.

The new device will come with 850MB of internal memory, which, say Garmin, can store up to 1000 waypoints, 50 routes, 2000 geocaches and an active tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks.

Elsewhere you'll get a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter, a microSD card slot for increased mapping and memory storage, and wireless unit-to-unit connectivity for sharing your waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with compatible Dakota, Oregon, Colorado and Foretrex devices.

Dakota 20’s 3-axis, tilt-compensated electronic compass shows your heading even when you’re standing still, without needing to hold it level.

Dakota comes preloaded with a worldwide basemap and is compatible with Garmin City Navigator NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart g2 for marine charting, and TOPO U.S. 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail (each sold separately).

No word on pricing as yet.

We will keep you posted