I'm interested in getting an N810 for both net-tablet use and also as a GPS... and while I've seen lots of reviews of using it as a "calculate a driving route" style GPS, I'm more interested in using it as a hiking-and-outdoors GPS (specifically, for recording locations of cave entrances) -- generally in out-of-the-way rural areas that are almost certainly not going to have WiFi or WiMax coverage, thus no net connectivity.

And as an added bonus, the locations I might want to record are often in somewhat canyon-y areas, thus with more limited satellite visibility. (Newer SirfStarIII based systems generally do OK in these areas, but older chipsets often have problems getting fixes.)

I haven't seen many people talking about using it in this way -- anyone had any experience using it like this? Pros or Cons? Would I be better off buying a dedicated GPS unit for this?

It seems quirky. It was in my shirt pocket yesterday for a motorcycle ride which was about 250 miles round-trip. Outbound it worked great, the return trip was spotty. Sometimes it locks on in seconds, other times it takes minutes (with a clear sky).

It is fairly sensitive and accurate and tends to stay locked as long as it gets a signal.

It also doesn't consume much power. There was no visible battery drain from 3 hours of use (I wrote zmapper that turns it on and logs the GPS stream to a file even when the map program is off, so with only the GPS active - no other programs I probably could have gone the whole day, but I had a USB battery pack to top it off).

That said, I think a BT GPS (for $50-$70) would be better since you can position them in your backpack or whatever where they will see the signals better, and they have better antennas - size matters and they can't put a real strip antenna in an N810.

Save money, get the N800 and bluetooth sirfstar 3 based GPS. Since routing isn't a requirement for you - you can download the google maps (both satellite and topographical) for the entire region at various zoom levels onan 8GB sdhc card, and use that to locate the cave entrances. Satellite imagery should be better than most dedicated gps systems.

I tried using it for looking for a geocache last week. The GPS is accurate enough for driving, but looking for an exact spot in the woods it was pretty sketchy.

plus when i was hiking last month in nevada at the ring of fire state park (very pretty by the way) i was happier with my garmin legendc the form factor for hiking is better with the garmin as opposed to the n810

Ummm... N800 screen washes out completely in sunlight (it is not transreflective). N810 screen is transreflective and if you intend to use n8x0 outdoor in bright sun, n810 may be the only option.

Hey, check out Cave of the Winding Stair in the Mojave. But that was before GPS I was in that one. Caves are cool (literally). We could have used GPS; we spent a day exploring the wrong mountain looking for it.

N810 using maemo-mapper for recording mountain biking trips works quite well. I put the N810 in it's standard pouch, then inside an Aquapac with a sheet of foam for protection. Turn on at the car, check it's got a lock and is recording the track, then pack it inside the Camelbak and forget it's there, export GPX files once you're home and view routes in something like SportTracks.

Maemo-Mapper with the standard maps + google maps and google satellite imagery) works quite well. You can pre-cache the area you are going to, so you have a bit more than just track recording should you need it. I did find this useful when travelling abroad and also when trying to find our original track whilst out biking, to confirm current location relative to the rest of the route.

It's not quite as slick as a Garmin Edge or other outdoor specific GPSes, but if you just use it occasionally and don't want to spend twice as much, the Nokia works pretty well.

I'd go with a conventional GPS and have . Just easier all around and batteries last a lot longer, you can do routing on the device and a lot more that the current offerings for the NITs don't yet.

I wish the Garmin could use the BT GPS as it is faster and more sensitive. At least the Garmin takes an external antenna which does help sometimes.

I've had great experiences while taking trips with my mountainbike.
I use the N810 to listen to music and use maemo mapper. The N810 is kept in a cargo-pocket in my trousers. GPS reception works alright.

I have found google terrain to be an excellent choice of maps, because of height lines.

I've only had troubles once to get a lock, but that was in a canyon.