While talking to a local PR contact for Garmin at a recent press event, I was pretty surprised to find out that its rugged and handheld navigation products proved extremely successful in many parts of the world over the past year or so, proving that more and more people prefer spending a lot of time in the wild. For this reason, it's really no surprise that the navigation solution manufacturer is trying its best to come up with new models in this successful series, including here the devices you'll read about as follows, namely the GPSMAP 62 series of rugged outdoor handhelds.

Featuring a 2.6-inch sunlight-readable color display, up to 20 hours of battery life and a high-sensitivity GPS receiver and quad helix antenna for good-quality reception, the GPSMAP 62 series features three distinct waterproof models to suit various activities and interests, starting with the basic GPSMAP 62, which includes a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief.

The GPSMAP 62s adds a 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass and wireless connectivity for sharing routes, tracks, waypoints and geocaches between other compatible Garmin handhelds. GPSMAP 62s also includes a barometric altimeter that tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. Users can also plot barometric pressure over time, which can help keep an eye on changing weather conditions.

The third model in the series, the GPSMAP 62st, adds preloaded 100K topographic maps for the entire United States (or preloaded 50K topographic mapping of Canada for the Canadian version). Coverage on GPSMAP 62st includes major trails, urban and rural roads, interstates, highways, coastlines, rivers and lakes, as well as national, state and local parks, forests and wilderness areas. One can search for points of interest by name or proximity to their location and view descriptive details for terrain contours, topo elevations, summits and geographical points.

Each device in the GPSMAP 62 series has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix and sports a universal mounting system that is compatible with the same accessories as Garmin’s Oregon, Dakota and Colorado products. The GPSMAP 62 and GPSMAP 62st models also feature high-speed USB for faster map transfers with a computer, as well as a 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass, which shows the user’s heading even when standing still, without the need to hold it level.

In addition to the preloaded topographic details for the entire United States, GPSMAP 62st features 500 MB of available built-in memory. GPSMAP 62 and GPSMAP 62s are ready to be customized to fit any user’s activity, thanks to 1.7 GB of onboard memory.

Unfortunately, no pricing details are available thus far, but we'll be back with more details as soon as they are revealed.


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