Garmin 496 compared to the 396

Fortunately for Garmin, if you want XM weather in a box, they are
currently the only show in town.

vistanav also provides XM weather. It looks like a waaaay bigger bigger
display, too.

If you read my original posts, you'll know why I considered -- and
rejected -- all the tablet-PC-based versions.

Basically it came down to price for a flash-memory based system. $4K-
$5K was just too much, and they were futzy.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article .com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Fortunately for Garmin, if you want XM weather in a box, they are
currently the only show in town.

vistanav also provides XM weather. It looks like a waaaay bigger bigger
display, too.

If you read my original posts, you'll know why I considered -- and
rejected -- all the tablet-PC-based versions.

well, I thought I did read them, but that was, what, four days ago.
You expect me to remember that far back? :-)

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Jay Honeck wrote:
If you set detail levels to so that Joliet doesn't disappear at that
zoom level, you can't see it, cuz it's buried in too many airports.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?


Yes. For $3000, I should be able to demand any cheese I'd like.

Face it -- Garmin just hasn't kept up with the competition in the
crucial area of display design. Worse, the only work-around to using a
too-small display -- slewing around -- doesn't work very well because
of insufficient processing power.

It's a design flaw.

Fortunately for Garmin, if you want XM weather in a box, they are
currently the only show in town.

Yes, exactly. So they can extract whatever price we are willing to pay. We both
voted with our wallets. When the competition comes out, Garmin will either adapt
or die.

Anyway, all designs are a compromise. Bigger displays demand more power, bigger
batteries, shorter battery life, faster processors (which in turn demand more
power...). A bigger display mounted on a yoke hides the instruments behind it. A
bigger display increases manufacturing cost.

It's all driven my the manufacturer's desire to maximize the bottom line,
including his perception of customer demand. I think Garmin pretty much hit the
sweet spot with this design, and I think that's been reinforced by their
marketing susccess. You may disagree. OK. You're free to vote often with your
wallet.