New Adventurer 3500 has a larger colour touch screen, swappable battery and is waterproof too.
Memory-Map is launching a new OS mapping-compatible GPS unit in the form of the Adventurer 3500 which will be on sale in early November, 2010.
The new unit is visually similar to the Adventurer 2800, but uses a significantly larger 3.5-inch colour touchscreen display as opposed to the 2.8-inch on the existing model.
The other main difference is that whereas the 2800 is weather resistant, the new 3500 is waterproof to the IPx7 standard, so should cope well even with wet days out and paddling.
Another significant difference is that the rechargeable lithium ion battery is user-removable, so it's possible to carry a spare with you and swap it over on multi-day trips for example.
Priced at £380 - £85 more than the smaller version - the new GPS comes with a 4GB Micro SD card loaded with the whole of Great Britain on OS 1:50,000 Landranger mapping as well as Memory Map PC software and mapping for your PC. You also get a free subscription to the Trailzilla route-sharing web site. It's also compatible with any Memory-Map V5 mapping you already own.
The software is the same as the stuff on the 2800, which means it's basically Memory Map's own Windows Pocket PC. We've found it a little user hostile in the past with hard to read sub-menus and annoying difficult to close windows, but if you're already a Memory Map user, it should be more familiar and the larger screen may make the text easier to read.
Weight is a very reasonable 190 grammes and size 122mm x 75mm x 20mm, so not thick. It comes with a silicone case for additional knock protection and the unit comes with a cycle mount in the box so you can take it along on two-wheeled adventures too.
More information at www.memory-map.co.uk.
