Hey all!

I am new not only to this forum, but to geocaching in general!!     I've ordered my Geocaching for Dummies book and have read tons of reviews on various GPS units.  My main concern is this: I don't want to buy a cheap unit as an introduction to a hobby I know I'm already going to love.  Thus, I'd rather spend a little more money upfront and get the unit that I'll use for years to come.

As such, I think I've wittled down the options to two units:  The Garmin Oregon 400t  OR   the DeLorme PN-40

Does anyone have opinions to share on these units?  Or about any other GPS units I should look into?

I'd love to hear any suggestions you have.

Thanks!
-Angel

Hi And Welcome to Geocaching in Central NY.

This very question came up on NYCRG (New York Capital Region Geocachers) forum today and Rusty-O-Junk has both the Delorme PN-40 and the Colorado and here is what he said about it:

I don't have both but pretty close.  I  have a Colorado and a PN-40.

I've had stability and accuracy problems with my Colorado.  Probably because I was expecting the same stability and satellite lock as the old Magellan Platinum but that's not going to happen.  I also learned today while doing a firmware update on the Colorado my there were also two chipset updates for it.  Maybe the chipset updates will fix the signal bounce and wandering the Colorado has been suffering from.

GPX files can be loaded into both units enabling paperless caching without the need of a pda.  Both units will accept a wide variety of maps but the PN-40 excels in maps with the ability to use color Google satellite photos and aerial imagery. 

The Colorado is remarkably more user friendly and easy to navigate its menus.  The PN-40 has a much higher learning curve not only for the gps unit itself but Delorme's software is like none other and again a very big learning curve.

PN-40 is much faster with its duel processor but this is paid for in terms of battery life.  Without backlight 5 to 6 hours is tops on a new set of Alkaline batteries. 

The Colorado screen is much bigger than the PN-40 and that's a big plus for old eyes like mine.

The PN-40 can not do wherigo caches where the Colorado does.

For an experienced gps user I'd recommend the PN-40 hands down but for a novice I would recommend the Colorado or Oregon for the ease of use and a larger user base to seek help from.  The Oregon is no more than a Colorado with a touch screen and a patch antenna.

Yes, and you'll probably have even less of a learning curve if you stick with the same company