digital compasses

Repeating the sentiment of the earlier reviews? Yes, I am. Important to do so? I'd say, yes, it is, since you might think the other three reviewers were just unlucky.

The Cobra 500 is absolutely useless. It locks onto the required 3 satellites ... sometimes. Usually not. But when it does lock on, it loses them within a couple of minutes. On the other hand, when you look at all the features listed in their literature and compare it to the modest price, you think it's too good to be true. Unfortunately, it is. Truly a P.O.S.

I purchased (through the Air Miles rewards program) the COBRA GPS500, not once, but TWICE. I first purchased the unit and believed it to be faulty it performed so poorly. Signal acquisition time seemed "forever" and it frequently lost satellite lock. On several occasions, between establishing lock, loosing lock and again re-establishing lock, the unit tells me I've moved upwards to one half mile whereas I've remained stationary, only changing the direction the unit was pointing. Simply changing the direction the unit was pointing (like changing direction in your car or boat) was enough to loose satellite lock! Very poor! I was able to exchange the original unit (unfortunately NOT able to return it) and when I received the replacement unit, it, like the first one, performs very, very poorly. The features offered on the unit would led you to believe it would "shine in the dark," whereas in actual fact, it is the poorest of any GPS unit I've ever used. And to add insult to injury, while I was awaiting deliver of this second unit, believing the first one faulty, I wasted an additional $100.00 by purchasing the PC interface cable, power cord and auto mount. What is that COBRA slogan: "Nothing comes close to a COBRA" You better believe it! Not even a satellite signal is able to get close!

I've just bought this gps , and I'm gonna tell you I'm totally dissapointed with this unit.At the same time my father bought a Garmin eTrex unit and it's much better. I now regret all the fun I've made about his GPS and mine because mine has 18 satellite connection and his just 12. Fisrt of all the Garmin connects in about 45 second while the Cobra in 2 minutes.
Meanwhile the Garmin gets 9 sats the Cobra only gets 5. Now I'm working with UTM coordinates and the Garmin shows me all the info I need while the Cobra doesn't.
The unit handling is friendly user for the Garmin while the Cobra doesn't.
An overall qualification 0 out of 10.