I bought a new Garmin GPSMAP 62s (currently running firmware 2.40). I already own a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSxso I will use that device as a reference for my evaluation of the 62s. I hereby post my findings with the device and silently hope that they will help improve the 62-serie so it can become the generally acknowledged follow-up to the 60-series.
Why I choose the 62s (and not the 62 or 62st)There are three types of 62-serie devices: the 62, 62s and 62st. I chose the 62s instead of the 62 because I want a barometric altitude meter and a 3-axis tilt-compensated compass which the 62 lacks. Furthermore I choose the 62s above the 62st because the 62st (European model) has a ‘built-in’ topographic map of Western Europe scale 1:100.000, where I strongly prefer the 1:50.000 scaled maps. Besides I like to have the in-device memory of 1,7 GB at my own disposal (which is only 400MB for the 62st with Western Europe map).
Tracks archiveThe 62-serie devices allows you to keep your tracks on the device, and load them back when you want. I like this feature because it would allow me to put all my tracks on the device so I can always get them back and-rewalk a route, or at least that’s what I would think. So when I copied all my walking tracks (more then 100 files) to the device’\Garmin\GPX\Archive folder, it froze indefinitely (on/off button not working any more).