Garmin Announces A New GPS GPSMAP 696

I’ve been a big fan of the Garmin brand of GPS units for a long time. I own two personal Garmin GPS units, one for my wife and one for my self. In fact, I believe that dedicated GPS units in general are more useful devices than those integrated into PDAs and my own Apple iPhone. The reason is simple, it’s just less complicated and less things to worry about breaking.

Garmin has been steadily increasing the sizes of their LCD screens, which is a great benefit for those of us who need glasses even to read a 15″ laptop monitor. And, the announcement of the GPSMAP 696 is no exception. It comes with a gorgeous 7 inch portrait screen, which makes it possible to see the whole approach path on one screen.

The other thing that Garmin has been doing very well is making their LCD screens bright enough to be seen even in bright daylight. This is one of the biggest fault of many of the other lesser name brands. I can’t tell you how useful a big, bright display is when you are either driving or flying an airplane. The GPSMAP 696 has the fantastic feature as well.

Garmin has thought of everything when it comes to this handy little aviation device, including softkeys on the display itself with the most commonly used functions, such as page, weather display, flight plan, zoom in and out, and much more. Other portable Garmin devices are true to form also with easy to read and use function keys for local addresses, nearest gas station, etc. They are indeed a pleasure to work with and use.

The GPSMAP 696 does not stop there. There are so many features built into it that will tempt many pilots to leave their charts at home (althought I personally always like to keep a backup). For example, the GPSMAP 696 offers diplays of jetroutes, minimum altitude, rivers, state boundaries and much much more. Again, this is also true of the multitude of features and mapping/topology detail standard in even their basic portable auto GPS units.

The Garmin GPSMAP 696 has so many features that any pilot would welcome such a great unit in such a small footprint. For example, the database includes runways, taxis, hangars, and even ground transportation, restaurants and lodging. Just like its pedestrian / auto GPS units the GPSMAP 696 can be easily updated by purchasing and downloading new maps from Garmin. This will ensure that the information is always fresh and up to date.

Finally, XM satellite radio is providing audio and weather data to this really cool device. The street price for this unit will like come out between $2,700 and $3,200.

I cannot emphasize enough how great Garmin devices really are to use. Commercial, aviation and personal / auto use Garmin GPS units have the great ease of use and bright LCD screens. Garmin is clearly the leader in this space also because they never fail.

And, by the way, you get get $500 toward the purchase of any Garmin unit by clicking here http://everypathnbeyond.com/Garmin.