Advice on GPS hardware for Ipaq and Tomtom?

[rmines]

During a recent holiday to the West Country I borrowed a friend's TomTom setup, and was suitably impressed, my own sense of direction being somewhat lacking.

I already have an iPaq 5450, and have already added an Arkon powered mount, which provides suitably boosted volume and power.

My main decision then is what GPS hardware to go for - either an in car wired solution, a sleeve option or a bluetooth unit. I intent to use the system almost exclusively for in car navigation, though I guess it's not impossible that if I could use it whilst walking I might find the odd use for it.

BT seems to provide for the "cleanest" install, though I don't really want the hassle of constant battery charging, and hence would look to wire it in. I guess this negates the wireless benefits a little, though my thinking is that it tends to be cabling to the ipaq, which will be moved around, which causes the most hassle so BT is probably still quite handy.

Alternatively in car "mice" seem to be somewhat cheaper, and argueably can be wired in almost as cleanly. Alternatively I could stick with a sleeve option, negating the need for any sort of installation. The hardware my friend has is a Pretec Compact, and though reception is great I can see that having the GPS external does provide for a smaller unit, and would allow me to revert to using the default protective sleeve - a small consideration perhaps.

I'm guessing that it really comes down to personal preference, but I thought I'd see if anyone had any considerations I hadn't thought of. I have heard a few horrow stories regarding BT performance, so anything of this nature that's relevent would be useful to know about.


Regards,

Richard

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