Garmin Dakota 20

The Garmin Dakota 20 is an outdoor navigator that features a touch screen. It spots a rugged, palm sized design that is combined with touchscreen navigation, a high-sensitivity GPS with HotFix satellite prediction, barometric altimeter, 3-axis electronic compass,microSD card slot and a worldwide basemap. The Garmin Dakota 20 is designed with the budget conscious market in mind.
Specifications
The Garmin Dakota 20 measures 55 mm x 100 mm x 33mm (W x H x D) in dimension and weighs approximately 148.8 g including its standard provided battery. It also features a display that measures 36 mm x 55mm (W x H) or even 2.6 inches diagonally. The display is a Transflective colour TFT touch screen that has a resolution of 160 x 240 pixels. It is powered by 2 AA batteries which are not included and have to be purchased separately. The Garmin Dakota 20 works best on NiMH or Lithium batteries which can provide up to 20 hours of battery life based on typical usage. The Garmin Dakota 20 also incorporates IPX7 technology which makes it waterproof. Besides that, it also features a high-sensitivity receiver, a USB interface with an RoHS version available. In terms of maps and memory features, the Garmin Dakota 20 comes included with basemaps. It also has the ability to add maps into its built-in memory of 850 MB. Besides that, the Garmin Dakota 20 also has the capacity to store up to 1000 waypoints/ favourites/ locations, 50 routes, and 10000 points, 200 saved track logs. There is also an option for memory expansion via its built-in memory card slot for microSD cards. Additional features include automatic routing with turn by turn routing on road with optional mapping for detailed roads, compatibility with custom maps, and is also Geocaching friendly (paperless). Besides that, the Garmin Dakota 20 also includes a hunt/ fish calendar, sun and moon information, tide tables, area calculation, unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar units) and custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest). There is also a built-in 3-axis electronic compass that is tilt-compensated. The Garmin Dakota 20 comes with a tough, sunlight-readable colour touchscreen display that displays an easy to use interface that allows you to spend more time enjoying the outdoors instead of searching for information. It is built to withstand the elements, including bumps, dust, dirt and water as it is both durable and waterproof. In addition to that, the Garmin Dakota 20 also features paperless geocaching which allows you to download up to 2000 caches with information such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description, requiring no more paper printouts and manually entered coordinates. Not only that, the Garmin Dakota 20 also allows you to explore the terrains using a built-in worldwide basemap that allows you to navigate easily anywhere. Besides that, additional maps can also be loaded onto the internal memory, extending from Garmin’s wide array of detailed topographic, marine and road maps. In addition to that, the Garmin Dakota 20 also allows you to store and analyze your activities by allowing you to simply connect the Garmin Dakota 20 to your computer and to the Internet for a detailed analysis of your activities. Tracks can also be sent to your outdoor device using Garmin Connect, a one-stop site that offers an activity table. This feature also allows you to vie your activities on a map using Google Earth. In addition to that, it also allows you to share your routes with the other 12 million customers, as well as explore the other routes uploaded from them.
Reviews

“I have two complaints about the Dakota: display readability and GPS receiver performance. The display is too hard to read especially considering that this is a screen which has the same resolution as the GPSMAP 60CSx. I believe that the display alone may turn some people away from the Dakota to a GPSMAP 60CSx, an eTrex or a Delorme PN-40, all which have similar size and resolution screens but are easier to read outdoors. And then there’s the STM Cartesio GPS chipset which still has issues at walking speeds under tree cover. I’m hopeful that these problems can eventually be fixed in software which would be a boost to the entire Oregon product line as well.” (GPSFix, 2009)