Product Description

GARMIN 010-00543-00 GPSMAP 478 Chartplotter/GPS. Go from box to boat to dash with the portable and versatile GPSMAP 478. This combination color chartplotter and land navigator comes preloaded with U.S. marine charts utilizing elements of the latest BlueChart g2 technology, in addition to detailed street level mapping. Optional weather and sonar capabilities combined with the ability to conveniently add plug in data cards, let you easily add more maps and features/making this one incredible GPS navigator for land and sea. From curbside to dockside, the GPSMAP 478 has you covered /no downloads or computer required. Its built in marine charts utilize the latest BlueChart g2 technology and feature coverage for all U.S. coastal areas, including Alaska and Hawaii. Our g2 mapping technology offers a smoother, more fluid presentation on your screen. For road trips, the 478 along with its freshwater counterpart, the GPSMAP 378, come preloaded with City Navigator NT detailed street maps for North America and include automatic routing with voice guidance along with an industry leading database with more than six million points of interest/ including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, marinas, attractions and more. An included marine mount and automotive kit make it a snap to transfer the unit from boat to car.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4941 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Garmin
• Model: 010-00543-00
• Released on: 2006-11-01
• Platform: Mac OS 9 and below
• Dimensions: 3.20" h x 1.90" w x 5.70" l, 6.58 pounds
• Native resolution: 480 x 320
• Display size: 6.95

Features

• WAAS-Enabled, 12 Parallel-Channel GPS Receiver
• For Offshore Applications
• Features Built-In Marine Detail Charts Of The United States Coastline, Including Alaska & Hawaii
• Utilize Elements Of New Bluechart G2 Technology
• Preloaded With City Navigator Nt Detailed Street Maps Of The United States, Canada & Puerto Rico

Amazon.com Product Description
Go from box to boat to dash with the portable and versatile WAAS enabled, 12 parallel channel Garmin GPSMAP 478 GPS receiver. This combination color chartplotter and land navigator comes preloaded with United States marine charts utilizing elements of the latest BlueChart g2 technology, in addition to detailed street level mapping. With a 3.8-inch diagonal, 480 x 320, 256-color TFT screen with adjustable LED backlight, this navigation system supplies easy to read information to help chart your boating and driving trips. It also offers optional weather and sonar capabilities and gives you the ability to use plug in data cards, so you can instantly add new maps to your GPSMAP 478 without connecting to your computer. Designed for use both on land and in seawater, the GPSMAP 478 is ready to go, right out of the box--no downloads or computer required.

The GPSMAP 478's built in marine charts use the latest BlueChart g2 technology for a smoother, more fluid presentation on your screen, and feature coverage for all U.S. coastal areas, including Alaska and Hawaii. For road trips, this system comes preloaded with City Navigator NT detailed street maps for North America and offers automatic routing with voice guidance to help get you where you're going quickly and easily. The GPSMAP 478 also includes an industry leading database with more than six million points of interest including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, marinas, attractions and more. This system also tracks 10,000 points and the automatic track log saves up to 15 points. For additional flexibility, an included marine mount and automotive kit make it a snap to transfer the unit from boat to car.

With the GPSMAP 478, weather and audio options travel with your plotter, whether you're navigating on land or sea. In fact, this system can display real-time weather information on the high-resolution 256-color sunlight-readable TFT display. To help make sure you're prepared for whatever comes your way, view NEXRAD radar, storm cells, wind speeds, surface temperatures, forecasts and more than a dozen other weather attributes, so you can spend more time enjoying the water and less time worrying about the weather. And with the GXM 30 antenna, you also have the option of receiving XM Satellite Radio's 150 plus channels of commercial-free music, sports, news, talk and entertainment programming.

What's in the Box
GPSMAP 478 chart plotter, preloaded with U.S. marine detail maps (g2 technology), preloaded City Navigator NT North America (full coverage), Trip and Waypoint Manager, USB/PC interface cable, power/data cable, marine mount, automotive mount, universal friction mount, 12-volt adapter cable with speaker, AC charger, protective cover, owner's manual, and quick reference guide.

Customer Reviews

Really Great Unit for both Water and Land
I have been using this unit for about a month now. It is really great. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend this much for a GPS and so I almost went with a handheld model (GPSMap 76CSx) instead, but by the time I added up all the extras I needed for the handheld (memory card, maps, etc.), it was almost as much as this unit. I am very happy with this purchase and would heartily recommend it to others.

The BlueChart g2 marine charts are really great, and this unit comes with everything preloaded. I love being able to move from my car to my boat with this unit without even turning it off. The battery keeps her going. In fact, I haven't even installed the power cord yet on my boat yet because the battery keeps this baby going for many hours just fine. The boat mount keeps it pretty secure, but I did have it fall off once when hitting some rough waves. Because I didn't have a power cord plugged into the unit, it dropped about 4 feet to the deck. The unit held up fine from being dropped like this. I just put it back in the mount and kept going as if nothing happened.

The g2 charts are impressively detailed, giving island and reef names, showing contours of channels, rock piles, channel markers, depths, etc. The unit tracks where I go both on land and sea and has plenty of memory for keeping the tracks for many trips.

The unit acquires satellites pretty fast and is very accurate. I can tell immediately what part of my driveway I am on. Amazing. The speed this unit reports corresponds almost exactly with the speedometer on my car and instantaneously tracks with it. It will even tell me how fast I am walking as I carry it to the boat from my car. The voice prompts work very nicely through the included car power cord with speaker when navigating to destinations. I like the sand bag mount for the car because I can use it in any car without installing anything. It nicely sits right on the dash. The unit has a very nice option to power on automatically when the car is started and to power off automatically when the car is turned off. There are many points of interest preloaded into the unit. If I want to find the nearest McDonalds, Burger King, Walmart, etc., it is as easy and scrolling through the menu to navigate right to it. I find the menu system very easy to maneuver. This GPS includes tide tables for numerous locations near me. It reports sunrise & sunset times, moon rise and set times, as well as fishing quality prediction. I really like that I can later buy sonar and xm satellite antenna to work with this unit. I'm interested in the weather information, but the satellite subscription price is the thing keeping me from adding it now. The price is $30 to $50 per month depending on the amount of weather information that I want. If that price comes down, I could see myself adding it in the future.

The unit comes with MapSource software that lets me backup my waypoints, routes and tracks. I haven't used it too much yet, but I did notice that it would not backup the maps. I waiting for an e-mail from tech support to find out why. I used the Web Updater from Garmin and had a problem where the g2 maps seemed to disappear. It was very easy to get a tech support rep on the phone who helped me turn off the automotive maps in order to see the g2 charts. For some reason, the updater left both maps enabled when only one should be enabled at a time. Tech Support response from e-mail has been very quick and good. I'm comfortable that Garmin is standing behind this product.

Cons:
I live near sea level in Florida, and I have seen the elevation drift sometimes by as much as 90 feet even when I'm sitting still. This does not happen all the time, but it has happened a few times, and so if it tells me I'm at 20 ft elevation or 2 feet elevation, I'm not sure I can believe it.

The power plug seems rather difficult to plug into the unit. I wish it was easier.

The little rubber covers also don't always fit nicely over the holes they are suppose to cover.

My street name changed about 6 years ago, and the unit reports both names depending on where I am on the street. Mostly it reports the wrong name. I assume that newer maps in the future would correct this problem.

All these negatives I mention are relatively minor. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and heartily recommend it to others.

Garmin GPSMAP 478 review
I bought this product for equal use on my boat and in my car. Over all, I would say that it has met my expectations.

PRO:
1. Contains detailed coastal charts and street maps for the United States and Canada.
2. The screen resolution is very good for its size. The screen is large enough to see will driving or on the boat, but the unit is small enough to be portable.
3. The unit come with just about all the accessories one might ask for.

Con:
1. An external antenna is recommended for use in boat a car and inside a boat. Satellite aquisition can be a problem with out a clear view of the sky. I have seen other gps units that did a better job with the built in antenna.
2. The XM receiver option should include traffic information. The receiver has the capability, but the 478's software does not include this cababilty. I would have thought that it would have been a no brainer to have this feature. Certainly, this would have made this one of the most desirable units on the market.
3. The removable memory otion uses a propretary card. The use of SD or mini SD cards would have been a real plus. Garmin's cards are expensive and do not as large a capacity as commonly available types of cards.
4. The G2 charts do not include pictures of harbors, landmarks, etc. To get this cabability, it is necessary to buy the same charts on preprogrammed cards. Bathymetric display is not supported.

Garmin 478
Excellent portable chartplotter. Picks up GPS signal quickly. Screen is very readable even in bright sunlight (we use it on the flybridge quite often). Interface (once you've used any Garmin device) is easy and intuitive. It's limitations are, in my view, strictly a function of its size (the screen) and available real-estate (e.g. limited "buttons" for entering waypoints).

This is an ideal device as a back-up to our Ramyarine E-120 -- we feel safer with the Garmin on board -- or to take with you in rental cars or on bareboat charters. Relative to only a year ago, the pre-loading of all US coastal charts and road maps is a real bargain (I actually bought the device although I alread own a 376C because it was cheaper to buy the whole new 478 than three bluechart chart regions for the 376C!Garmin GPSMap 478 GPS Navigator and Chartplotter).

Bravo Garmin!

Douglas