Brand New: Garmin aera 760 Portable Navigator

The unit itself is the largest portable Garmin has produced. At 7 inches diagonally, it's not as big as an iPad mini, but it's a good deal more sizable than all but the most comically large phones. The display, says Garmin, is very bright and easily dimmable to a low level. The battery is good for four hours at 80 percent charge, says Garmin, so when you turn it down, you'll get a lot more endurance. It charges via a USB C jack, so charging is fast, and it boasts built-in Wi-Fi, which seems basic these days given the ubiquitous nature of Wi-Fi devices, but as far as aviation portables are concerned, it's a relatively recent advance.

It can do everything you'd expect it to and then a lot more. It has 3D synthetic vision that can be hooked up to a source of attitude information to back up its built-in GPS derived attitude, a plethora of charts, of course, including instrument procedures---a number of different database packages are available for it---and for pilots who fly into previously unknown airports regularly, its SafeTaxi utility, with a rich database of airport ground features, could well be worth the cost of admission. Also available are terrain awareness, traffic (when connected to a compatible Garmin ADS-B receiver) including Garmin's TargetTrend and TerminalTraffic utilities, and weather, both FIS-B and from SiriusXM, when paired with the appropriate receiver. There's fuel price info (which will pay for the price of the databases if not the unit itself), and much more.

And seemingly, like all of Garmin's products these days, the 760 can be connected to compatible Garmin products, like navigators, though a serial or wireless connection, and it features the company's Connext wireless transfer and data sharing capabilities. The aera 760 can even be connected to a compatible Garmin autopilot to drive VFR procedures, including vertical nav.

So the question is, what can the aera 760 do that an iPad can't? Well, as you just read, a lot. And because it's ruggedized for the cockpit environment, optimized for pilot use---its user interface makes use of standard Garmin symbology---and made to work specifically with existing Garmin avionics that might already be in your panel, it has a number of features that no iPad will ever have.