Geko 201: The Sweet Spot of Low-End GPS Receivers

I hardly go outdoors (in the wilderness I mean). I don’t go camping. And I haven’t gone fishing since I was 10. So, why would a guy like me get a GPS unit? I do a lot of traveling for work and find it really cool to mark off places where I have been. I used to use my Garmin eTrex Legend a lot, but it is a bit bulky and is somewhat on the fritz. I went to look for a GPS unit that was inexpensive, yet had an interface for connecting to my computer. And what I turned up was the Garmin Geko 201.

Hardware

The Geko 201 is almost the same as its little brother, the Garmin Geko 101 except for some major stuff. First, the Geko 201 is more expensive by about $30. The 201 has more options and stuff for the geeks. The 201 also has the computer interface (though you’ll have to shell out for the interface cable) which makes the whole $30 well worth it. With the 101 you can mark lots of waypoints in the unit itself, but you cannot transfer it anywhere, except by hand. With the 201, I can connect the unit up to my iBook and transfer all the waypoints to my computer. But there is a bigger thing here; if you have the computer interface you can easily use the 201 with mapping software on a computer or PDA – whereas with the 101, you cannot do such a thing. One other thing that the computer interface lets you do is to upgrade the firmware on the unit, and there have been multiple firmware releases since the unit has been put onto market. With the 101, there is no way to upgrade the firmware and you are stuck with whatever bugs are in the firmware that is loaded on the unit from the factory.

The Geko 201 is really small; it is a lot smaller than my eTrex Legend. It is about the size of a really small Nokia mobile phone. The display has a resolution of 64x100, which is not “high resolution” as the specs sheet say, but it is enough to show off all details and get fonts to look OK on the display. The higher resolution of my eTrex Legend is better for maps and finer print. The unit is really light and is easy to throw into any backpack or messenger bag. The screen also features a green backlight (that you can turn on by pushing and holding the power button), which really helps in dark situations.

The greatest thing about the Geko 201 is that it is really easy to operate. There are only five buttons on the face and the manual is clear about what each button does. When I compare the easy of use of the Geko 201 to the “geek only” use of the eTrex Legend, it is almost night and day.

The Geko 201 gets about four hours of operation on a fully charged pair of NiMH AAA batteries. If you use alkaline batteries, you’ll get between six to eight hours of use out of the unit. In the system setup there is an actual setting that you can flip to let the Geko 201 know which type of batteries you are using – it will let the Geko know how to calibrate itself.

The hardware is waterproof and tough – mine has already gone through the washer once and survived with flying colors. There is a rubber grip that goes all the way around the unit that makes it easy to hold the unit. The plastic that makes up the unit feels very strong and does not creak when twisted or squeezed. The screen has not scratched yet and I have thrown this thing in my messenger bag and backpack along with my other gadgets.

Software

Upon turning the unit on for the first time, it will take between five to 15 minutes for it to acquire satellites “cold”. This means that it is the first time that it is turned on and it does not know where it was, it has to figure out things by scanning the sky for satellites and then work things out. On “warm” boots (when the unit is turned on in subsequent uses), the Geko will have a map of the sky in its memory from the last time that it was on and will try to find satellites that way – this makes for satellite acquisition much quicker, between a few seconds and a minute.

As with the hardware five buttons, Garmin has made the software easy to use also. There are built-in games that I have not tried, but the meat of the unit is the mapping (bread crumbs), waypoints and routing. These all work as expected, though the waypoint names are limited to six characters which makes for difficult naming of things, I wish there could be more characters uses (like in my eTrex Legend). There is no built-in base map on the Geko 201 (the eTrex Legend has one), nor can the Geko 201 accept any map uploads.

Conclusion

The Geko 201 is the Geko to get if you are looking for an inexpensive GPS unit. Yes, you can save a few bucks by getting the Geko 101, but you’ll be kicking yourself later when you want to hook the GPS unit up to a computer or find that you want to upgrade the firmware. If you are looking for a GPS unit with more functionality, then the eTrex family of GPS receivers will a better choice for you. But if you are looking for something small with no frills and is easy to use, the Geko 201 is perfect. There is a Geko 301 which includes a barometer and compass, but at that price, a low-end eTrex will be better. The Geko 201 is the sweet spot in the low-end GPS receiver market.