A good friend of mine needed a GPS for a trip he's taking. I loaned him my old 60C (actually a 60CS, same thing with a pressure sensor and magnetic compass). He likes it so much I sold it to him since I've been thinking of upgrading to the 60Cx (actually I went for the 60CSx 'cus I like the sensors).
Anyway, I've got some time so I thought I'd write up a couple of thoughts.
I wanted to upgrade only because the 60Cx units use a memory card instead of a fixed amount of built in memory in the 60C units. First off, the cards are ridiculously small. Way too small to carry on their own. Maybe 3/8" X 1/2"; about the size of the end of one of the AA batteries. I was able to purchase a 2GB card for $30.
The amount of the memory in the regular 60C units is adequate (54MB). Unless you are taking a several day or longer trip, it is enough. But you do have to be frugal and spend time selecting the map data. With 2GB, the entire country is easily covered. And while the 10,000 point track limit in the 60C is also adequate for anything but a long journey, this was one thing I just don't want to run out of and the 60Cx can put a copy of all of your track data on the card. It would take a very long time to fill the remainder of the 2G card with track data.
But it's interesting how the 60Cx does this track data thing too. It just works exactly like the 60C except you can set it to make a copy of all the track data on to the card. The data card track data is only accessible by a PC (or Mac) though. But it is incredibly easy to access. You plug in the unit to your PC USB and can dig through a couple of menus on the unit, and the card will simply appear like a disk drive. It appears as though the unit can be used as a card reader for these little cards. The track data is there without Mapsucks! It's in the common .gpx format that GoogleEarth and many other software packages recognize. Very cool. While you can't manipulate or view the data on the card with the unit itself, the track data is saved to it day to day and you can delete it by the day. This alone made it a worthwhile upgrade *to me*.
Another positive difference that frankly kind of blew me a way is the GPS receiver itself. I've always felt the 60C had a fantastic receiver and would always get a fix quickly even in harsh settings and keep lock very well. If you've ever used an eTrex series, well let's just say they have never impressed me and the 60C has always blown it away. The 60Cx is simply amazing. I pulled it out of the box sitting on my sofa (I'm kind of sofa bound right now), and this is a poor reception area. Pretty much all the GPS's I've used (a lot), coming out of the box, they always think they are in Kansas (at best) and take some time to figure out where we are and get initialized for the first time. I turned it on and it was completely "aware" in about fifteen seconds! I was completely floored. I put it in my pocket, got into the car, went to the store and drove back home. It never lost lock during the whole trip in my pants pocket. Wild.
Anyway, I still firmly believe that the 60C is an (if not "the") excellent minimum unit. Since the 60Cx series came out they can be had used or refurbished for very cheap. They have enough memory to do the job and the receivers are very good. They have enough functionality to be very useful and a fantastic display for the size and they run easily on vehicle power. They are exceptionally rugged. But the 60Cx is worth the extra beans. I paid $329 for the 60CSx so I'm sure the 60Cx can be had easily under $300. It came with 128MB card; plenty useful and they only advertised it as coming with 64MB. But spend another $30 for a 2GB and you will never need more. The 60Cx has a faster processor too. This addresses a minor complaint I had with the 60C unit's map draw time. They say that the 60Cx has about 10% less battery life, but I see this as a non-issue since they truly sip batteries. The one downside the 60CSx has is that the 60CS could be set to sip the barometer every fifteen minutes with the unit off so it could be set to be a very effective trending barometer. I miss this, but most people likely won't care at all.
My biggest gripe with the 60C (and 60Cx) series units is the inability to add route vias on the fly. This makes the difference between a unit that will route and a unit that will be very useful for routing. If they could do this I would have a hard time finding much to gripe about with these units. And I'm picky.
Anyway, I've got some time so I thought I'd write up a couple of thoughts.
I wanted to upgrade only because the 60Cx units use a memory card instead of a fixed amount of built in memory in the 60C units. First off, the cards are ridiculously small. Way too small to carry on their own. Maybe 3/8" X 1/2"; about the size of the end of one of the AA batteries. I was able to purchase a 2GB card for $30.
The amount of the memory in the regular 60C units is adequate (54MB). Unless you are taking a several day or longer trip, it is enough. But you do have to be frugal and spend time selecting the map data. With 2GB, the entire country is easily covered. And while the 10,000 point track limit in the 60C is also adequate for anything but a long journey, this was one thing I just don't want to run out of and the 60Cx can put a copy of all of your track data on the card. It would take a very long time to fill the remainder of the 2G card with track data.
But it's interesting how the 60Cx does this track data thing too. It just works exactly like the 60C except you can set it to make a copy of all the track data on to the card. The data card track data is only accessible by a PC (or Mac) though. But it is incredibly easy to access. You plug in the unit to your PC USB and can dig through a couple of menus on the unit, and the card will simply appear like a disk drive. It appears as though the unit can be used as a card reader for these little cards. The track data is there without Mapsucks! It's in the common .gpx format that GoogleEarth and many other software packages recognize. Very cool. While you can't manipulate or view the data on the card with the unit itself, the track data is saved to it day to day and you can delete it by the day. This alone made it a worthwhile upgrade *to me*.
Another positive difference that frankly kind of blew me a way is the GPS receiver itself. I've always felt the 60C had a fantastic receiver and would always get a fix quickly even in harsh settings and keep lock very well. If you've ever used an eTrex series, well let's just say they have never impressed me and the 60C has always blown it away. The 60Cx is simply amazing. I pulled it out of the box sitting on my sofa (I'm kind of sofa bound right now), and this is a poor reception area. Pretty much all the GPS's I've used (a lot), coming out of the box, they always think they are in Kansas (at best) and take some time to figure out where we are and get initialized for the first time. I turned it on and it was completely "aware" in about fifteen seconds! I was completely floored. I put it in my pocket, got into the car, went to the store and drove back home. It never lost lock during the whole trip in my pants pocket. Wild.
Anyway, I still firmly believe that the 60C is an (if not "the") excellent minimum unit. Since the 60Cx series came out they can be had used or refurbished for very cheap. They have enough memory to do the job and the receivers are very good. They have enough functionality to be very useful and a fantastic display for the size and they run easily on vehicle power. They are exceptionally rugged. But the 60Cx is worth the extra beans. I paid $329 for the 60CSx so I'm sure the 60Cx can be had easily under $300. It came with 128MB card; plenty useful and they only advertised it as coming with 64MB. But spend another $30 for a 2GB and you will never need more. The 60Cx has a faster processor too. This addresses a minor complaint I had with the 60C unit's map draw time. They say that the 60Cx has about 10% less battery life, but I see this as a non-issue since they truly sip batteries. The one downside the 60CSx has is that the 60CS could be set to sip the barometer every fifteen minutes with the unit off so it could be set to be a very effective trending barometer. I miss this, but most people likely won't care at all.
My biggest gripe with the 60C (and 60Cx) series units is the inability to add route vias on the fly. This makes the difference between a unit that will route and a unit that will be very useful for routing. If they could do this I would have a hard time finding much to gripe about with these units. And I'm picky.
