Big screen, intuitive menus.

I bought the Brunton Atlas because it was on sale for half price at a local outdoor store. Before I actually purchased it, I did some research on the internet. There was only one review available (it was a positive one) but it became obvious that not many people sell, buy or use this unit. Garmin seems to have a lock on the consumer GPS market. However, based on the positive review by an outdoors magazine and the price (50% off) I bought it.

NOTE: This unit is the same as the Lowrance iFinder, so accessories for the iFinder are compatible with the Atlas.

My first reaction to using it was that it has a pretty intuitive menu system. Without reading the manual, I was able to perform basic functions immediately. I have an older Garmin GPS so I was familiar with most GPS functions already. The rocker pad and the buttons are all located on the front of the unit and are clearly labelled, so there's no need to remember what each key does. (I had played with a friend's Garmin eTrex and didn't like its interface as much.) The buttons are large enough and spaced far enough apart that I can operate the unit while wearing gloves on my motorcycle. This is a big plus for me.

The Atlas comes with base maps of the world, so land masses and major bodies of water are shown. Basic highway information is also provided for the USA. This includes Interstate and State Routes as well as some exit information (restaurants, gas stations, rest stops, etc.) I live in Canada so I purchased the MapCreate Topo software for Canada and the memory card reader. The software includes street level detail, points of interest, topographic information, etc. It is a very comprehensive piece of software, providing everything you will need for driving, hiking or boating. Transfer of data between the software and the GPS unit is by MMC card. This requires a lot of plugging and unplugging of the MMC card into the unit and into the card reader. The card slot on the unit is located underneath the batteries, so you have to remove the batteries every time you want to insert or remove the memory card.

One thing about using the software... it did not work right away because the GPS unit did not have the latest firmware installed. This was not readily apparent on any of the documentation provided with the software and I didn't figure this out until I read the fine print at the back of the manual. After searching the internet for updated firmware, I finally came across it on the Brunton web site only after typing "brunton atlas software update" into Google and hitting what was probably an old link. I could not find the software update on Brunton's site just by surfing the site itself. One more thing... lucky I bought the card reader and an MMC card because I would not have been able to transfer the new firmware to the unit without it.

Once I figured out how to get the software talking to the unit, I loaded a map of my city onto the Atlas. It provides a ton of detail, which can clutter the screen. You can turn off layers to alleviate this, which is what I have done.

While riding my motorcycle, the display is easy to see and the information provided on the screen is useful. There are four pages that can be viewed: satellite status, global position and trip info, compass and navigation pointer, and map. Each page can be customized to include the information that you want.

In general, I would recommend this product. The screen is the biggest I've seen on any handheld and the controls are easy to use. The software took some getting used to and is not really user friendly, but now that I'm up and running I like it. It would have been nice if the GPS unit was connectable to the computer via a USB cable. This would avoid the need to keep swapping the memory card in and out of the unit.

One final note: When I was having troubles getting the software working, I e-mailed Brunton's support department. They never responded, not even with an acknowledgment of receipt.