Most of the time when we review a device we suck all the information and newness out of it and then put it aside, moving on to the next fad, erm, exciting gadget. But there are exceptions - devices that are not just innovative but also useful. They will be come part of the "stuff that gets used".

One of these devices is the Columbus V-900 data logger. I had the unit for review from BuyGPSNow.com the moment it became available - nearly a year ago. I had completed the review in my head after a short time. Yet I never got around to actually bring the review to paper (well, web page) and "move on". Somehow daily usage got in the way.

And today, a year later, the device still is in a class of its own, and I am happy to finish the review. I won't move on though, the V-900 will stay as a member of my "essentials" gadget collection.

The special status starts with the packaging. The V-900 comes in the most elaborate box I have ever seen for a device of this data logger category and price range. You feel the thought and affection that has gone into the design. Yes, I am still talking about the packaging box!

The receiver itself shows the same style. It is one of the nicest looking GPS receivers on the market. The back of the receiver is fully metal (although sadly not reacting to magnets - would have been cool if you could have just popped it onto a magnetic surface).

The laser engravings reveal one of the unique selling points of the V-900 - it comes with a microphone. We have been chewing the manufacturers' ears for years to include such a feature into data loggers, and it is nice to see that finally someone has actually implemented it.

The device is by no means waterproof. The 1000 mAh battery is non-replaceable which puts the useful life of the receiver somewhere around two to three years.

 The lanyard loop looks nice but it is rather fiddly. It took me a good half hour to coerce the supplied hand strap through the two oddly shaped holes, using lots of needles and swearing.

In stark contrast to the non-replaceable battery the storage memory on the data logger is very much replaceable - the V-900 features a standard Micro SD card slot. It doesn't seem to support SDHC, so the maximum card size is 2 GB. But just imagine that for a second - such a memory card can store up to 25 million waypoints - at a 1 Hz rate this would mean 289 days of recording!

This also explains the absence of any kind of recording mode selection for pedestrians, bicycle, car etc - the device just records at the 1Hz rate, and you can then pick the data points you need.

In reality there are a few limitations though - the most important one is that the card has to be formatted in FAT (not FAT32!) 3and thus the main folder (where everything gets recorded to) can only hold 512 files, be it journey data or voice recordings. So you'll have to do some periodic maintenance on the card.

You'd have thought that with all this beautiful design exchanging data with your computer would be as straightforward as plugging the receiver into a USB port on the computer and revealing the SD card as a drive. Alas, the USB port on the V-900 is only used for the charging, not for data transfer, and not for USB GPS mouse function.

To get to the recorded data you need to take the SD card out of the V-900 and put it into a card reader on your computer (you are also supposed to switch the receiver off before yanking the card out to make sure all data is written to the card). A cheapskate solution that somewhat diminishes the appeal of the device. It also limits the ability to apply firmware updates and configuration changes (more on that later).

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