Magellan Vs. Garmin

[+guido666]

Why did it creat so many trail marker points? (I'm assuming there were automatically created as you walked the trail, and not waypoints downloaded from the software.)

[Honest Pleasure]

Hey - GPSMAP 60CS Ver. 4.00 as of June 20, 2005

 

Too Bad - Just a fix to the broken code. Those Russian programmers just can't seem to get it right.

[Honest Pleasure]

guido666

 

“Why did it creat so many trail marker points? (I'm assuming there were automatically created as you walked the trail, and not waypoints downloaded from the software.”

 

Nope – That’s the whole idea. Mark the trails and campsites in TOPO US – Put them in to categories in MapSource – download them to the 76CS……….and……………Whalla ! A big list of Garbage – Waypoints showing up on parallel trails that didn’t mean anything for two days………Fun stuff.

 

Good thing the bugs weren’t too bad – I did a lot of standing and staring at the unit using the rocker to sort through the data.

[+briansnat]

This is not correct, You will not find a Garmin Hand held in which you can expand the memory wth an SD card, which you can do with the explorist 400, 500 and 600.

 

Really?. Ok its a bit pricy but at 5.7" W x 3.2" H x 1.9" it certainly qualifies as a handheld.

[+wickedsprint]

Let us not forget the e-map which took up to a 128mb card. The 276 series and the 196 also take memory cards.

Edited June 22, 2005 by wickedsprint

[+sbell111]

I really can't speak to the quality of Magellans, since I've only bought and used Garmins. I remember about a year ago, I was looking at new ones. I had only actually used my 3+ previously, so this is what my perception of a good unit was. The 3+ is a sturdy unit that is nice and heavy. It was made to take abuse and the buttons have a good feel. I held a Magellan (I don't know what model) and it was somewhat lighter and the buttons felt cheap somehow, sorta like a cheap calculator's buttons.

[+GOT GPS?]

The whole reason that Garmin is better than Magellan, is that the Tracklogging is more accurate, and also the Trip Computer Information, much more accurate too.

 

Magellan still better with it's use of Off-the-Shelf memory cards, and the TOPO mapping is better too.

[+JohnnyVegas]

Let us not forget the e-map which took up to a 128mb card. The 276 series and the 196 also take memory cards.

Yes, but it is a Garmin Card that Garmin charges to much for, they could have used a std off the shelf card but Garmin decided to use there own so that they could shaft the people that purchased the e-map. and the e-map is not water proof.

[+Renegade Knight]

The whole reason that Garmin is better than Magellan, is that the Tracklogging is more accurate, and also the Trip Computer Information, much more accurate too....

Very True.

[+Indotguy]

I prefer the Magellans based possibly on some outdated perceptions. I have a Magellan 315 and have tried to follow the new ones through the years. I have noticed that it seems to be a very similar comparison to "IBM PC vs. Mac" if you follow computers. The Garmins are all very pretty, their interfaces are pretty too. They are very "map oriented". It uses the map as its base of operations. Any menus that give you detailed data are popups over the map. If not a map then some other graphical goodies. The Magellans seem to be very data oriented (at least with the exception of the eXplorers, but I'll get to that.). They have lots of navigation screens with nothing but data. Or maybe a graphic widget, and a bunch of data. I like that, it's like having a car with lots of gauges on the dash, instead of just the more simple to use single warning lights.

 

Now the eXporists puzzle me. For all intents and purposes they seem to just be Magellan brand Garmins. It seems in the past each company's products filled a niche, going after users with slightly different tastes. Magellan seems to be trying to take over both sides possibly?!?

 

What do other people think?

I am a Magellan user and concure. I presently own a Meridian Gold and prior to it a Garmin Etrex. The Gold does suffer a bit of "boomerang effect" but this it is not difficut to work around once you get used to it. I am very attached to the Gold's Large Data Screen and customizable data options. I would like to have an Explorist but due to the lack of the large data screen I refrain. Garmins are excellent units. I have no problem with them other than the same one I just mentioned with the Explorist.

[+embra]

The whole reason that Garmin is better than Magellan, is that the Tracklogging is more accurate, and also the Trip Computer Information, much more accurate too....

Very True.

Very cool presentation of the tracking comparison data. I would raise the question, though, of whether the Magellan track might be more comparable if it was set to lay down a waypoint at its most detailed setting (.01 mile) rather than the auto-detailed setting. The .01 setting would seem to follow a more comparable algorhythm to the etrex's. Auto-detailed has its strengths, but also its weaknesses...fortunately, one can choose between them depending on the situation.

[+guido666]

Do the Meridians and the eXplorists come with the auto-detail setting?

[+Hard Oiler]

Do the Meridians and the eXplorists come with the auto-detail setting?

Both do - I use the 0.01km setting which is slightly more detailed than the 0.01 mile. I've found the accuracy of the tracking much better on the Explorist 500 than on the Meridian Gold. With the Explorist I've seen less difference between auto-detailed and the 0.01 km setting - I suspect because it does less aggressive averaging and thus has a minimal boomerang effect.

 

Not going to get into the debate about whether Magellan is better than Garmin but I've had no problems with the Explorist tracklog accurately recording trails even in fairly heavy tree cover.

[+geobc]

Nope – That’s the whole idea. Mark the trails and campsites in TOPO US – Put them in to categories in MapSource – download them to the 76CS……….and……………Whalla ! A big list of Garbage – Waypoints showing up on parallel trails that didn’t mean anything for two days………Fun stuff.

They should've categorized the waypoints by symbol, instead.

 

Garmin should also remove the categories from Mapsource until they can implement them in the GPS receivers.

 

GeoBC

[+geobc]

The Garmins are all very pretty, their interfaces are pretty too.  They are very "map oriented".  It uses the map as its base of operations.  Any menus that give you detailed data are popups over the map.  If not a map then some other graphical goodies. 

Not exactly true. The only page that uses the map as its "base of operations" is the map page. That's one out of, what, 7 pages?

 

I also don't know what you mean by "graphical goodies." Navigation is done by paging to various main pages, and drilling down through pop-up menus via the MENU and sometimes the ENTER buttons.

 

The Magellans seem to be very data oriented (at least with the exception of the eXplorers, but I'll get to that.).  They have lots of navigation screens with nothing but data.  Or maybe a graphic widget, and a bunch of data.  I like that, it's like having a car with lots of gauges on the dash, instead of just the more simple to use single warning lights.

I don't follow your analogy but I can't think of anything on the Garmin that constitutes a "warning light" in lieu of actual data. It also depends on which Garmin you're talking about.

What navigations screens does your Magellan have? My 76C has these screens that could be used for navigation:

- Map display

- List of text only display of turn-by-turn directions

- Compass display

- 3D-like course display (hard to describe)

 

I'm not sure what else would be needed. I didn't mention the trip computer display where it is all text/numeric data since it would be rather tedious to use that kind of data for navigation.

 

In short, I've owned a Magellan ColorTrak (I think that's what it was called) and four different Garmins. I didn't find Garmin's interface to be non-data-centric at all. I found it to be very easy to navigate and operate and very consistent w/o requiring use of a manual.

 

IMO, Magellan's greatest advantage is its broader adoption of SD cards.

 

GeoBC

[+guido666]

My Magellan 315 has several different navigation screens. It has the satellite signal page (doesn't really count), data page (current coordinates, heading, error, time, date, more), the compass screen I showed in the picture above, a "road" screen (where it shows whether you are on track by turning the little picture of a road), a "driving" screen (where it only shows 4 selectable data, but they are big so it's easy to read while driving or biking), it has a primitive map (with known locations shown with title, it draws a line as you go, and you can select scale), a speedometer page (with 4 selectable data like on the top of the compass picture above, and a visual speedometer adustable for scale, and a trip odometer), a "time" page (with ETA, total time travelling, current time, and a couple other timers I forget), and there are a few more screens I forget about. All in all, there is a screen for every situation, like those for driving, those for when you only care about times involved, navigation, map oriented, coordinate-oriented data (for use with a map). Most of the Garmins that I have seen, as well as the eXplorists only have the 4 screens you mention, which seem to be very going-somewhere-only oriented (the provide the most valuable information when you are going to a specific destination). The speedometer and coordinate screens on mine are useful when using the GPS while just doing things. The time page is great when rally racing, etc. since you can let it do all the time calculations for you. I often use the "driving" page's big numbers when I have the GPS in my car, it makes it fast and easy to read.

 

I'm just as upset that the eXplorists don't have these features as I am that the Garmins don't. I can honestly say that I've gotten great use out of every one of these navigation screens.

[+geobc]

My Magellan 315 has several different navigation screens.

[snip]

Most of the Garmins that I have seen, as well as the eXplorists only have the 4 screens you mention, which seem to be very going-somewhere-only oriented (the provide the most valuable information when you are going to a specific destination). 

Actually, I only mentioned those since I thought we were talking about navigation-only screens. For a lot of screen shots, have a look here:

http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/gps60screens.html

 

The only one that is missing is an analog display of the speedometer. Everything else you've described, the Garmin can be configured to display the same. However, if all those display combos you mentioned are on separate screens, then I will agree that the Magellan makes it easier to get to them. OTOH, sometimes its nice to now have to page through the unwanted screens. Speaking of which, my 76C allows me to suppress any pages from the main rotation (it still allows me to get to those "hidden" screens by going to the main page selection screen).

 

The speedometer and coordinate screens on mine are useful when using the GPS while just doing things.  The time page is great when rally racing, etc. since you can let it do all the time calculations for you.  I often use the "driving" page's big numbers when I have the GPS in my car, it makes it fast and easy to read.

Yes, I can see how that can be useful. Back in the day, I wrote a BASIC program for my Tandy Model 100 to calculate Course Avg Speed, ETA, etc which came in very handy, even though we had to keep adjusting for wheel slip by guesstimating to entering adjustment values. Just out of curiosity, have you compared the accuracy of a GPS to a true rally computer? I'm wondering how it fares.

 

I'm just as upset that the eXplorists don't have these features as I am that the Garmins don't.  I can honestly say that I've gotten great use out of every one of these navigation screens.

My Garmin 45, II and III+ all had a data-heavy page that let you squeeze in a lot data displays. But it was similar to the Trip Computer page. I don't have my 76C with me at the moment but I think it got amalgamated with the Trip Computer page. I kinda miss it because it let me view Sunset/Sunrise, Alt, ETA, Speed, Avg Speed, and a slew of other configurable fields all on the same screen. The 76C have about 2/3 or 1/2 of the number of fields available for configuring on that same page. At least I think it does...I haven't tried to see how many fields I can add (you have the option of reducing/increasing the displayed field count).

 

GeoBC

[Trail&Stream]

Wickedsprint:

 

What model GPSr do you have that shows that HSI/VLS type screen? I just got my 60C and don't see how to make it show vertical/horizontal course deviation lines on the compass screen like that.

 

FiddlinFool

I want to write a few lines about the Magellan vs. Garmin debate that seems popular. Everybody has a point that it's like Coke vs. Pepsi. Some models appeal to different users for various reasons. Being completely new to the GPS game, I want to add some comments. First off, having ANY GPS is cool. NPS buddy still can't afford one. I have a Magellan Sportrak that a buddy gave me. I was going to get a Garmin Legend if he hadn't given me that one. As he has the Legend, we put them side by side. The Magellan was quicker to lock onto satellites, and seemed to have a bit stronger signal. I wonder if it's because the Sportrak's antenna is slightly above the display wereas the Garmin's is behind it? Anyway, I had my Magellan on a canoe trip down the Green River at Mammoth Cave National Park. It performed very well fastened to a dry bag. Although a couple of times, it had a weak signal when I was holding it. Same thing happens when I park by my house. It can't see peripheral satellites as easy (I think...). On the way back to my truck, we drove down a winding road, which goes between ridgelines, with dense trees. It never lost a signal. I think a 2-way UHF radio would have had a difficult time in those trees, but the GPS kept a strong satellite lock, usually with 4-5 locks. Sometimes, I had 6-7. I'm looking at the Magellan Meridian Color as an upgrade when I can afford it. I just didn't like the feel of the Legend's keypad. That joystick, while handy, was a pain to use. The Magellans have simple navigation buttons, a great directional thumbpad, and a nice display. Anyway, I've had 2 Honda motorcycles and loved both of them. I live in a Harley town and they would be low on the pecking order. So, my opinion of GPS units is that if you like it, then is is the best one for you! Most differences are subtle.