I'm sorry but an iphone or android does not make a decent GPS - poor battery life, very slow to get a decent fix, once it has a fix it is not that accurate in comparison and definately is not waterproof as it comes. I have my HTC HD phone in an otterbox cover and have an additional aquapac so I can take it canoeing but dont use it for navigating. Surprisingly I mainly use it for what its primary purpose is - to make phone calls ;-)
I even got a bluetooth GPS unit for my Android to address some of the issues with battery life & accuracy when using GPS on the mobile, but decided that the solution was getting too clunky
The Adventurer (when it worked) does a very good job of accurate navigating is quick to pick up satellites doesnt mind getting wet, though I wouldnt want to drop it in the water without other protection. I havent used it on the bike yet but looks up to the mark here.
Whether you prefer the Satmap I would say depends on useage. Mountain Rescue teams use the Satmap so it could be argued that this is the proven GPs for mountaineering. I still prefer the 3500 unit to the Satmap on a number of counts, but mainly chose the Adventurer because I already own (ie have paid MM a fair wad) all the maps I need and it is IP7 waterporrof rather than IP5 of the Satmap.
Ive got the UK marine charts as well as Land OS maps. The marine charts on the 3500 are great for inshore navigating in small craft eg kayak
Have you seen the cost of maps for the Satmap? and they do not offer a marine map

Thanks to everyone for your input. It all adds to my (or anybody else's) case for some satisfactory action from MM

FYO I have now sent my unit back to MM and will have to wait and see what the "repaired" or replacement unit is like.

If it still is jumpy I will be asking for a full refund (including the £9.05 postage for returning the thing to them).

Also, as you can see I have still not received any response from MM support staff!!!! - Very poor show!

Just got a replacement unit from Performance Products (Runcorn) but no improvement!! The screen still jumps when scrolling and the "Find Place" screen froze when "category" drop down menu was accessed. Had to remove battery to shut down then got error message when switched on again - fortunately no loss of data as was implied as possible in error message.
This is too much I need (and thought I had paid for) a robust, reliable, no fuss GPS but this thing is too tempermental - its going back to MM for a refund!!

Dear John


Thank you for your reply much of which I agree with however I feel I must explain why I do not think the 350 is reliable enough for me.

For the most of my time on the Moors, Hills, Mountains I use a paper map and compass aided by what I see with my eyes. I think no matter what tech device I have paper map navigation is the most reliable providing of course you know how to use it, many I meet these days rely too heavily on GPS units or their iPhone and as a result never really learn the trusted old method of paper maps and compass sufficiently well.

However I am a solitary walker, I roam off the beaten track in many of the wild places of Britain, yes there are still places that are wild and remote in Britain where you can walk or climb for hours even days without ever seeing another living soul, unlike our National Parks. Unfortunately these remote places are also prone to rapid weather changes fog being the worse. If you cannot see the terrain through poor visibility then paper maps are well, not that good, it is then that a GPS comes in very handy. My thoughts are that unless I can be as near 100 per cent as I can get that my GPS is reliable, (in fact I always carry my little ‘e’ trek as a backup as well as a modern unit just in case one fails) .

My point is that in very bad weather, fog blizzards, precipitation a reliable GPS is a boon and going off what I have read on this and on other forums and speaking to owners of the 350 personally the feedback I get is very mixed, some say OK others bemoan ever buying it. The GPS I now use may not have as clear and bright a map as the 350 does and I may not be able to load all my MM maps on to it but the feedback from owners of my present device is much more close to 100 per cent than the 350, so for me I have to go by the majority decision.

While any experienced climber or walker knows you should always carry a map and compass I find more and more people especially the causal walker relies totally on his GPS partly I feel because of the marketing of the units. Should a GPS fail while you are on mountain trails or remote moorland it could have serious consequences if that is your only navigation aid and in my opinion the 350 could fail more so than other brands.

Hi Sariel,

When i offer an opinion, its always based on my current unit and that alone, unless i have used others constantly enough to offer further advice. Anyway if you check some of my older posts you will find since the 3500 update... my only concern is the sometimes apparent screen jumping, which apparently affects some units, but not others. This is more of a nuisance rather than a show stopper.
Now i have used the 2800 and 3500 extensively during the last couple of years, walking and cycling milage in the thousands both here and in europe... and i can say without any shadow of a doubt the adventurer units are really stable devices, i have never suffered a crash in use, i have never been let down in any shape or form, in fact i would not see me buying a different brand if my current unit gave up the ghost.

My problem wih the units is, for some they are difficult to understand, i think let down my memorymap themselves.... pathetic user manual, also the halfhearted support you get from those in charge who should know better.

Like you say, it will not suit everyone, but i wouldn't change mine for the world, and yes i do carry a map and compass and brush up on my skills regularly

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And your talking about iphone my mate as a plug in external battery pack and it last forever (my 3500 most I have had is 5 hours and I always take my external battery with me) Also he as a ear piece on blue tooth and gets updates of our mtb bike rides as we travel calories, altitude, avg speed time stopped etc and he can take calls through is ear piece. and he as a far better mapping system than my memory map.
My adventurer 3500 is the biggest load of crap ever, sometimes you cant even get the slide on the turn on to stay across or the calibration screen to work. Tell me this how can they make a iphone or any mobile even cheap ones to do lots of different tasks but they cant make this yellow piece of crap do one simple task correct? answer me that

Its the software on the memory map 3500 that's at fault. I had the same problem with the screen but i sent mine back and got a replacement unit and that went the same way after a while, so that one went back too and i got another. I now have stopped investing in Memory Map and got a Garmin. Time Memory Map got Snooper to get their act together.

I have to admit, having been an advocate for the Adv 3500, it is now driving me crazy and is nothing more than a "yellow piece of crap". I have given up using the GPS as it crashes just about everytime I have it out so cannot be relied on. There must a serious bug in the software as it freezes or crashes at the slighest provocation in contrast with my andorid phone (which I never intended to use as a GPS but works perfectly) Used with an otterbox case, it has proven to be waterproof and a seperate BT GPS helps the battery. & I can load a whole pile of OS maps, waypoints and geocaches without any hesitation.
So MM can you at least look at this problem and sort out ?

We need new operating software, cant Memory Map get Android or ask Apple to do it then it will be a great bit of kit