Garmin Hardware

Many Garmin GPS units have a combination of the letters C, S and X after them. These indicate the following capabilities.

• Colour - that the unit has a colour display
• Sensors - that the unit has sensors such as the bariometric altimeter and electronic compass
• eXtendable - that the unit supports additional memory cards to expand the capacity for maps and other data (note that this only applies to the newer GPSMAP models, and doesn't include some of the older models such as the 12XL)

However, Garmin does not have appear to have used these labels consistently. It is assumed that this is because of marketing and naming reasons.

Here are a couple of articles that were posted on the Garmin Blog recently.

Firstly, Garmin appears to be following a number of other technology companies into the realm of setting up their own dedicated retail store. Of course, I expect it will be a long time before we get anything like that here. There is a Garmin press release available here.

Secondly, a tale of a rather hardy GPS unit...

...it was no surprise that the display was nothing but a horizontal straight line; I did not give up. I put the thing in my oven at 200 degrees for 1.5 hours. When I turned it back on...