Customer Reviews

Remanufactured Garmin iQue 3600 PDA/GPS Handheld System with Americas Detailed Street Mapping

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this product for my fiancee, who is always interested in using Palm OS based PDA. She loved the big bright screen and palm based features. However, there is one problem that she can't get over with - the GPS application. I bought this unit for her, primarily for the integrated GPS application on this palm. One thing worth mentioning before I went further to explain the detail, is that, in the product description, that the unit comes with an auto kit, with cigarette adapter and speaker. It is NOT TRUE. It is MISLEADING information. You need to spend another $60 or so to get the auto kit.

Here is the detail of the problem:

While the unit is on battery power and using GPS, even when the unit is fully charged, it shuts itself off after 1 minute, with no advanced warning at all (the power saving is set at 3 minutes). Only a hard reset will turn it on in this situation, reconnect it to a power source won't make it to come back on.

I bought it during Thanksgiving time last year (2006), it had this problem since day one.

The problem doesn't exist if it is connected to a power source.

Currently I am contacting the seller to get the issue resolved. We've used it for about 1 month and a half. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Unless you use this device as much as I have you can never know how sad I am that Garmin no longer supports it or even has a replacement for it.

I bought mine, refurbished, early in 2005, had a battery issue about a year later, it was dying much quicker than normal, Garmin quickly RMA'd the unit and I have had no problems since.

My wife and I have traveled quite a bit and always get a rental car. Prior to my getting the 3600 she would have every map for every place we we going printed up from online sources or fold up maps from gas stations and would navigate me towards our adventures. I think that she was a bit insulted when I told her that I had bought "Betty". But not any more.

I get anxious when I am driving and I am not sure where I am going; this makes it difficult to relax and enjoy myself; since we got this device driving to unknown places has been a joy. Whenever we would take weekend drives in our old convertible I was always conscious of where we were and how we were going to get home. Betty has a waypoint for HOME - no matter where we are, when we are ready to go home I click on that waypoint and Betty gets us home flawlessly.

She has had troubles once in awhile when we traveled in places with a lot of construction; sometimes roads she has are outdated; changed since her last mapset was compiled (she has v7 right now) it can get me a bit irritable, but ultimately she 're-calculates' and gets us to where we want to go.

Many many times my wife has echoed my thoughts when she says 'thank God we have Betty to get us where we are going.'

The 3600 not only shows you a map of where you are while you are driving, but also shows on top of the screen things like how much further till you will get your next instruction. For instance, we were driving from Scottsdale Arizona, to San Diego, Anaheim, and back to Scottsdale again. In California when we were on those huge highways I was calm because I could see in miles how long I had to go before my next exit, so I would get in a middle lane and let all the wacky drivers zip past in the left lane or fly onto the highway from the on ramps, and move over to the right lane when Betty would show her next command was coming up.

This is no longer the latest and greatest GPS out there, but it is a treat. I have 100's of address in the PDA's address book that are also waypoints for the GPS. The device will handle a 2gb SD card which will easily hold the entire USA.

Version 9 of the maps has recently been released on Garmins site and I am hoping that Amazon will get it too. IF YOU HAVE OR ARE GOING TO GET THE 3600 MAKE SURE THAT YOU ORDER THE *NON NT* VERSION OF THE MAPSET!! the NT maps are for newer GPS devices.

If you have the chance to get one of these and are not afraid of occasional quirkiness, then do so. Unlike regular dashtop devices it easily slips into your breast pocket of your jacket when you get out of the car.

Some pros:
slim design

pda address book 'talks' to gps so adresses can be set up as waypoints.

built in flip up antenna

plays mp3's

can be used as a voice recorder

photo viewing

can run many 3rd party palm applications


Some cons:
Battery life could be better, but there are other sites where you can find info on updating the battery to a higher capacity one

screen could be brighter, sun glare can wash it out.

Garmin no longer repairs them

it is not water proof

Overall I can think of a whole lot more reasons to buy it than not<g>

The device was not working properly from day one. Garmin replaced the unit and I had the same problems with a new one. It was locking up without any reason, erasing saved data, battery did not last more than 30 minutes, was operating very slow, constantly loosing signal (outdoor!). I really wanted it to work, I liked the idea of PDA/GPS - but that was not the case. Garmin has terrible customer service!!! Late on e-mail responses, and try to call them - you will be on the phone for more than 30 minutes before you will speak to anyone. Most of the times they suggest to call them some other time. It you'd like to test your patients try this: 1-800-800-1020. As soon as warranty was over the iQue 3600 broke completely and I had to buy new one.

Its an obviously dated Palm5 device. The price was in the appropriate range. I needed primarily a replacement Palm--and am not a fan of the current "Smartphone" crop.

The GPS functionality is a bit dated--but still quite useful.

The battery life is very measured.

If you know exactly what you need this is a good purchase.

The best deal out there for GPS in my ever-so-humble opinion is a refurbished Garmin iQue 3600. It comes with Maps for the whole USA or Europe depending on the version. It comes with a cradle that sits on your dashboard (a bit tight on my 2006 Vibe, but workable) whose power plug goes into your cigarette lighter socket, and includes a nice and loud speaker. The screen is big enough for my uses.

Plus, it is a Palm unit, so you can bring it with you for other uses, and use the built-in address book to store your destinations and waypoints. And for anything else you may want. Plus there are a lot of add-on programs to add functionality out there, most for free. You can even get a program that overlays satellite maps on the screen, so you can see the pointer showing exactly where you are on the terrain.

It is compatible with both Mac and PCs for syncing (though for initial setup and loading of maps, you DO need a PC or VirtualPC on your Mac).

The only downside is the battery is weak, so you probably won't want to use it for hiking, unless you have an external battery pack.

I can't recommend this GPS highly enough. We brought it to California and Minnesota (I like in CT) for weddings this year, and we were the only guests who never got lost driving between the various sites

The product was just like the new one I purchased a couple of years ago, only half the price. Great value!