Newbie Question

[+DeenMartin]

What are some of the better GPS units to buy?How important is colour and expandability?I am looking in the $300.00 range(can).

[+Jhwk]

OK - I will give you the magellan slant, and soon a garmin user will pop up and give you theirs. On the magellan side, I would go for either the eXplorist 500 (newer) or the meridian Gold or Platinum. The eXplorists are newer but have a few bugs that still need to be worked out with a software update. They have USB connectability, and accept SD cards (I got a 1 GB in my 600). They are pretty compact, lightweight, and have good coverage under heavy cover (i.e. trees). The only difference in the 500 and 600 is a barometer/altimeter/compass on the 600. Right now they are of limited use. I carry a compass with me The older meridian gold is a solid performer and has held up well in the field. It also has SD expansion, but connects via serial port and has a grayscale screen.

 

I have both a platinum and a eX 600. I like the 600 better because of the high resolution color screen, and the smaller size, and the USB.

 

Think the comparable garmins are the 76 series and the 60 series, but I'll let others with more experience chime in on those and other units available.

 

Have fun!

Edited July 17, 2005 by Be-a-Jayhawk

[+Miragee]

If you do a search of the Forums, you will see that this question comes up all the time. The Magellan people will tell you to get a Magellan, the Garmin people will tell you to get a Garmin. The Lowrance guy will tell you to get a Lowrance, but everyone will tell you to stay away from Cobra.

 

I'm a Garmin person . . . so for that money, for the GPSr alone, I would get the Garmin Vista C. However, the maps are going to cost you about $130 more.

 

If $300 is all you can spend, including the maps, you might look at the Garmin eTex Vista or eTrex Legend and the Mapsource maps that would be most helpful for you.

[Bullsfan80586]

I love my GPS V that I purchased on Ebay. It isn't color and it only holds 19 MB worth of maps. Look for something that has more memory, but still allows for turn-by-turn directions. I like Garmin because it doesn't take too long for it to determine if you have missed your turn. It will simply recalculate the route.

Edited July 23, 2005 by Bullsfan80586

[+kingquad]

I bought 4 GPS before I got to the one I realy want, so if you think you want a feature dont settle for less, because on the long run it costed me more to always upgrade than it would have costed me to go for the GPS I really wanted.

I had a yellow etrex, a etrex legend, a GPSV from Ebay, and finaly I got the one I really like the GPSmap 60C,