The Garmin GPS V Deluxe is a handheld GPS receiver that's comes out-of-the-box ready for land or water use. The maps supplied with the GPS V can guide you around the country, your town, or to a favorite fishing spot. And if the fish aren't biting, it even has two video games you can play.

The 2.3" H x 5.0" W x 1.6" D case of the GPS V is fully sealed and certified to work after being submerged in water for 30 minutes. The receiver is powered by 4 AA batteries for up to 25 hours of use. A cigarette lighter power adapter is also supplied for use in a vehicle. Using an optional power/data cable, the unit can also run a boat's battery of 10 to 32 volts. The receiver's antenna swivels for clear satellite signal reception. It's also easily removable and can be replaced with a remote antenna if called for.

The display for the Garmin GPS V measures 1.5" x 2.2" (2.6" diagonal) and is a 4-level grayscale LCD. With adjustable contrast and backlighting, the display is easy to read in both bright sunlight or complete darkness. The screen image can be rotated for viewing either horizontally or vertically. This lets you read it when mounted in a vehicle or held upright in your hand.

The basic accuracy for the GPS V is a position error of less than 15 meters. This can be reduced to less than 3 meters when using the receiver's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) processing. If you're unable to use WAAS in your location, the unit is also Differential GPS (DGPS) ready. DGPS does reduce position errors down to under 5 meters, but it also requires the use of a DGPS beacon receiver.

For major map features, like cities, highways, and rivers, the basemap of the Garmin GPS V is sufficient. For more detailed information, you can use map data from the MapSource City Select CD, included with the receiver. The city maps, when used with the autorouting feature, give you door-to-door directions to your destination. Also included is a serial connector cable for the data transfer from your PC. The GPS receiver has over 18 MB of non-volatile memory for storing the maps of your choice.

With just nine keys, the GPS V provides all the control and data entry functions. Like the display, the keys are also backlit so even operation in total darkness isn't a problem. The page key lets you quickly see the information screen you want or change the viewing orientation from horizontal to vertical. You use the large rocker keypad to select options from a screen menu and move a cursor on the map page. The zoom key adjusts the map scale to show a smaller area with greater detail or a less-detailed larger area.

The Garmin GPS V can tell you a lot more than your location. The trip information page shows, among over things, your current heading and speed, the distance you've traveled and how long it took. The compass page has a graphical compass and includes the time and distance to your next waypoint as well as the current elevation. If you want the sun or moon rise and set times, or moon phase for any date and location, you can find them on a separate page. Another page shows the best times for hunting and fishing for a given location and date. There's also a calendar page, a calculator page and a page for figuring gas mileage.

If you're the kind of person who just likes to take off without a lot of planning, you'll like the track log feature of the GPS V. Even when you're not going along a preplanned route, the track log automatically records your movements. So if you pass by something of interest, you can retrace your steps later to find it. The receiver can save 10 track logs for future use.