Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Offroading Nothing Else Comes Close, January 5, 2008
I've waited to buy GPS for my vehicle because I wanted something that would provide good auto-nav for trip AND be useable on 4x4 trails and fire roads. The Lowrance XOG is, for under $250 street price, a super value. For those wanting a auto-nav vehicle GPS to use offroad, its optional maps make it the only game in town (unlike the competition who's detailed mapps are still vaporware).
I won't say much about the normal auto-nav beyond the onboard maps being accurate, a large base of points-of-interest, and easy to use. Voice commands are clear and the interface isn't complicated. Its "normal" use is probably par for units in its price range.
The BIG deal for the XOG is the ability to use optional maps from Lowrance's MapCreate software, and 1:100,000 BLM maps, close-up detail 1:25,000 USGS Topographic Quad maps (scanned), and even satellite photo images; all from Lowrance MapSelect webpage, and even Lowrance fishing maps of lakes for boat use. It overlays the road data over the option maps and you can turn them on/off with the menu. Its notable that Lowrance has a long and solid history in marine electronics.
The optional maps are loaded on a SD card (not supplied). Though at $5/map, they could get expensive for large areas, but two or three will cover a lot of trail country. I've used the USGS maps and they cover roughly 6x6 miles (in great topo and landmark detail). Anyone who has used USGS topo maps will instantly recognize the quality of the higher resolution details. Though they're scanned images, they don't look it. Satellite images are smaller area. The XOG records your track, which can be downloaded, and you can designate trip routes. I also found Lowrance support to be very good (and domestic). It also plays mp3s through its speaker (not exactly hi-fi) and will diplay jpeg pictures if they're loaded on a SD card.
Downside: for out-of-vehicle use, the battery is only good for 2-3 hours, though there are external AA battery packs; visiblity in bright sun is marginal (but par with similar touchscreen units), and the operating instructions though adequate and clear could provide more info.
Updated June 2009: My XOG has been dependable and I still think it's a great compromise for travel nav/offroad use. Alas the market didn't agree and Lowrance dropped it.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great off-road/ great on road GPS, December 6, 2007
This thing is great, It has the latest Navtec maps built in, Plenty of POI,s Auto-routing with voice but where this really shines is for off-road, You can load Topo maps from Lowrance onto an SD card or you can download Satelite images/USGS topo/BLM mapping from there website. It will allow you to save tracks and you can import tracks also, It will hold up to 100 tracks at up to 9,999 points in each track, Garmin only lets you load in 20 tracks at up to 500 points each. and their street units ( Nuvi, Quest, Street pilots etc), well forget it as they do not allow you to import tracks. Tracks are the best way to share rides or other type of adventures with others.
This also has a great GPS chip , it is very sensitive, maintains lock in heavy foliage and in other places my Garmin will loose it signal.
I have over 700 miles with it on my Dualsport bike and it is holding up great.
At this price and the things that this will do it is a very good bargain.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great downloadable maps, good ruggedized device, December 27, 2007
I gather from the online forums that people buy this device for its amazing map selection, either through the manufacturer's software, website or third-party mapping software (all sold separately... starting at $5 for a few square miles online). I've purchased satellite overlays and USGS topographical overlays for the XOG's standard maps, and am very pleased with both. Maps for fishing/hunting/four wheeling are also available. These mapping choices really make the XOG stand out.
Also, the device itself is quite tough: It's splash proof and appears to be able to take a fall. On the downside, it's screen isn't super-bright, or as beautiful (pixels/colors) as similarly priced units. And the battery life is under three hours.
My neighborhood in Washington DC has narrow streets, tall buildings and foliage. Unfortunately, the XOG struggles with these... taking a long time to locate itself (initial triangulation on both "warm starts" and "cold starts") and frequently incorrectly guessing which block I'm on, and even what direction I'm moving.
However, outside of my dense urban neighborhood, the XOG reception improves considerably and it works spotlessly in the suburbs.
Other well executed features include voice directions, quick re-routing, auto-zooming, saving/uploading of tracks/journeys and what I'll call numbers/letters-to-speech (the XOG does read numbered/lettered street names and exit numbers, but does not do text-to-speech).
In general, I am very pleased with the devise.
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