Memory-Map Adventurer
2800 - Quick Look
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Price:
£250
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Weight:
135
grammes
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Features:
50 channel high sensitivity GPS receiver with Memory-Map
software and OS mapping, full colour 2.8" touchscreen,
weatherproof casing, microSD card slot for mapping,
compatible with Memory-Map v5 maps, includes 2GB microSD card pre
loaded with British National Parks. Internal Lithium Polymer battery
with both mains and car charger provided. Includes lanyard and
belt-clip.
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What Is It
For?
It's a purpose-built outdoors GPS navigation unit which runs
Memory-Map's own mapping software and is compatible with all MM's v5
maps including 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey mapping of the
entire UK. You can also upload and download tracks and routes to and
from your PC.
Technical
Lowdown
We're not going to go into the extreme technical details of the
Adventurer 2800, but a couple of quick notes. One is that the unit is
described as 'weatherproof' rather than 'waterproof', so it's not
intended to be submerged, but should cope with normal wet weather use.
Maps from Memory-Map's V5 range are loaded using microSD cards up to
16GB in size, the whole of the UK at 1:50,000 scale would require a 4GB
card.
Finally the internal lithium polymer battery - similar to a mobile
phone - should last for approximately one day's walking or cycling and
you can maximise battery use by minimising backlight time on. There's
also a 'hot standby' setting which will allow you to check your
position on demand, but last 'many days' on a single charge.
How It
Performed
We love OS mapping on a GPS unit - for us it's the point where GPS
starts to make sense and there's now a choice of options out there
including purpose-built units from Satmap and Garmin, ViewRanger
software for smartphones and an increasing number of iPhone apps. The
Adventurer 2800 is the new kid on the block.
There's much about it that we like - it's light and compact, about the
same size as a large-ish mobile phone and the colour touch screen is
bright and clear and displays the OS National Park maps supplied
clearly. Scrolling and zooming is fast and easy and the screen, while
smaller than that on the Active 10, is large enough to be useable.
At that basic level, it's fine, but things go downhill from there. The
screen and software have seemingly been designed for use with a stylus,
which isn't always practical outside and particularly in gloves. Using
fingers alone is hard, for example, menu-closure icons are sometimes
right in the corner of the recessed screen and hard to reach and some
of the text is so tiny that it's virtually inreadable.
The menus themselves aren't very intuitive - even an experienced MM
user struggled - and the track and location are depicted with thin,
hard to see clearly, red lines. You can plan routes on the unit, but it
means selecting the tool menue from the icon on the map, then
'Overlay' then 'Create' then 'Route'. It's all a bit clunky and over
complicated, though we're sure you'd get used to it with time.
Weight, size and map reproduction, clarity and speed of scrolling and
zooming are all good, though the screen itself has a slight
unconvincing, flimsy, plastic feel to it. Annoyingly, you get the
feeling that the unit can do pretty much everything you need it to, but
the clunky software interface - drop down menus straight off a PC - and
the need to use a stylus make it less than intuitive in use. That said,
it's cheaper than the competition and may make sense if you're an
existing Memory-Map user and want a unit which will work with your
mapping.
Buy if
you're an existing Memory-Map user with compatible mapping and don't
mind the clunky interface.
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Screen clarity, mapping reproduction and speed, weight, size and price.
 Clunky,
non-intuitive interface, need to use a stylus.
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Know more or want to?
If
you'd like to add your own
experiences of this
product check out our user review system and post your opinions to
the world. If you have questions you can mail
us
direct, ask
Richard Gear or try
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