GPS Business News is reporting that Garmin will be using the SiRFstar III LP chipset in their upcoming nuvi 200 series, rather than a MediaTek product.
This directly contradicts Craig Ellison’s trashing of the nuvi 250 on PCMag.com, for losing satellite lock indoors, a lame excuse for his 3 star review (IMHO):
I also noticed that my 250 test unit did not use a state-of-the-art SiRFStarIII receiver module such as the one found in the 350. Garmin describes the 250′s receiver, without a brand name, as simply a "sensitive GPS receiver," which sounds to me as if the company has cut costs on it. That might be why the 250 displayed fewer signal-strength bars and lost satellite lock indoors more easily than the 350. That said, I didn’t experience reception problems on my road tests.
Now maybe he had a pre-production unit with a different chipset. Then again, if it was a MediaTek, they’ve been getting pretty good reviews. Hopefully, Garmin will clarify this in the near future.
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Nuvi 200 series to use SiRF Star III LP
So, when I reviewed the Nuvi 250 a few weeks back, Garmin was a little guarded about the chipset used in teh Nuvi 200 series, well it appears that they will be in fact using a SiRF star IIILP…