The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
The biggest improvement the Garmin Quest 2 offers over its predecessor is that the device is preloaded with maps of North America, including Puerto Rico, so you don't have to transfer maps from your PC. Just power it up and you're ready to navigate to your destination. If you plan to take your Quest 2 off the beaten path, you can download optional MapSource cartography, such as U.S. Topo for detailed coverage of national parks, U.S. Recreational Lakes with Fishing Hot Spots, and BlueChart for all you boaters.
You can route to your destination by address, intersection, or saved locations. When you're planning a trip, use the Find Near feature to locate points of interest along the way, such as lodging, gas stations, or restaurants. You can instruct the Quest 2 to create routes based on whether you're driving, walking, or biking, and it can calculate directions by fastest time, shortest distance, and off road. You also have the option of avoiding certain roads, such as highways or toll roads. If you happen to veer off course or run into a construction zone or blocked road, don't worry: The Quest 2 will automatically recalculate your route or accommodate detours. There's also a nifty TracBack feature that acts like a breadcrumb trail and keeps track of your travels whether on the street or off the road.
The Quest 2 lets you view maps in one of two ways: North Up, where North always faces up, or Track Up, where the direction you are heading is always at the top of the page. When you approach a turn, the Next Turn page appears with a map of your route and text-based directions. Because voice-guided directions are spoken through the power adapter and not the device itself, you'll have to rely solely on the text directions if you're walking or hiking with the Quest 2. Also, unlike newer systems, the Quest doesn't have text-to-speech functionality, so you'll get only generic voice prompts (for example, "Turn right in 100 feet") rather than specific street names. You can zoom in and out of maps and customize the map page to include useful information, such as traveling speed, distance to next turn, and estimated arrival time. The Trip Information page also records useful data about your trip, such as total travel time and average speed.
We tested the Garmin Quest 2 in San Francisco, and the unit took about five minutes to acquire our position (four satellites locked in) from a cold start. Subsequent starts were much faster, but more importantly, the Quest's receiver did a good job of tracking our location. The unit lost its fix a couple of times when we drove or walked in areas where tall buildings dominated the sky, but this isn't unique to the Garmin Quest; most GPS devices experience the same problem.
Directions and route guidance were also accurate. Although we didn't download any maps for hiking, we used the Quest 2 on a downtown walking tour, and it never steered us wrong. The only disappointing aspect of the Quest's performance was battery life. Garmin claims the unit's rechargeable lithium-ion battery can last up to 20 hours, but in our tests, it petered out after 8 hours. Still, this is impressive compared to other portable navigation systems, which typically offer 5 to 6 hours of battery life.
