To find the best marine gps, you have to do a lot of comparison shopping and reading about the different brands before making an informed decision. Do some comparison shopping, read the many reviews, and shop around a little bit before making up your mind which is the best marine gps navigational receiver for your needs. A marine gps navigational unit needs to use at least 12 of the 24 satellites calculating your position. All 24 would be the best, of course. And a larger screen for reading and viewing the water below the boat would be ideal. Some of the smaller, handheld or portable marine gps units are not the best because the size takes away from the clarity of the picture. There are several that are up to 7" with a crystal clear LCD touchscreen so you are able to distinguish a rock from a fish when looking at the water or bottom of the lake or ocean.
Another item to consider when hunting for the best marine gps would be the amount of alarms it has on it. Some have alarms for the clock, off-course, anchor drag, too shallow, too deep, proximity, low battery, arrival, waypoint, water temperature and temperature rate of change and there are others, but the best marine gps would have all the alarms for safety reasons. Along with the alarms, one must consider the nightwatch and sunlight modes many of the best marine gps units use to help with the glare from the sun off the water or to help you find your way back in the darkness of the night.
You will need to decide if you are going to purchase a small, handheld or portable model or a larger, 'stay put' type model of marine gps unit. The portable marine gps navigational units are smaller and fit in a pocket or a purse. However some of the bigger units can be taken out and used in a vehicle such as an RV or a car, but the portable ones are made for walking, hiking, biking and moving about the city with easy. Both styles of marine gps receivers come with the same amount of software and options, it just depends on which you prefer to have outside of the boat.
Do you want to be entertained? Some of the marine gps navigational units come with an audio voice player to play books on tape, others, you have to purchase a subscription to something like XM radio or a weather channel, which is not a bad idea since the weather changes rapidly and you want to be on top of things when the weather starts to change.
Above all, make sure the best marine gps unit has enough software to accommodate all you want to do while out in the boat, such as find fish or avoid large chucks of debris. These things can be done and avoided by the type of software available to download or that has already been downloaded into the marine gps unit. Do you have to purchase more antennas? Or extra cords for your computer to be compatible? These are questions you need to ask yourself and the salesperson behind the counter or on the other end of the website.
