Magellan Over Garmin

[+Andy & Chez]

Evening

 

just been looking at a Magellan GPS unit thats for sale, as i had initally set my eyes on one of the Garmins i was wondering what people opinions of the Magellan's are

 

are they on par with the Garmin units or do some of you find them better ?

 

thanks for any feedback

[Deego]

I have always used a Garmin, but have cached with somebody who used a Megellan. They both do the job, but I did find that if we found the cache quick, it was the Garmin that was better, but if we searched around for longer the Magellan seemed to improve the longer we were there.

Edited November 30, 2005 by Deego

[+Teasel]

In the old days it seemed to be that Garmins gave more features for your money, whereas Magellans kept a better fix under trees. I don't know whether there's still any truth in that...

[+The Forester]

I've owned and used both Magellans and Garmins over the past 15 years.

 

The after-sales service from Magellan has been somewhere between poor and non-existent, in my experience on both sides of the Atlantic. Most people who had to use Garmin's after-sales have had very favourable responses.

 

As has already been said, the Magellan has better reception under tree canopy than Garmins.

 

Magellan has some very useful gimmicks, such as automatic averaging whenever the unit is stationary and being able to display co-ordinates in both WGS84 Lat/Long and OSGB grid co-ords on the same screen simultaneously.

 

Magellan is being flogged off by its parent company, who had only owned the firm for a few years. Dunno how stable the company will be in the short-term future.

[+Mad H@ter]

We currently use both a Magellan Spotrak Map and a Garmin GPSmap60CS so hear are my views for what its worth:

 

Under cover the Magellan does on the face of it appear to work better than the Garmin. The Garmin gives up very quickly under cover whereas the Magellan appears to still work. Although the Magellan is still working I am not convinced that it is giving a true position, but is taking an educated! guess going on last known position/direction/speed. The reason I say this is that it can be very inaccurate and slow to respond under cover.

 

I cannot complain about Magellan's after sales service. Ours had a stripped screw thread on battery cover (known fault with this model) and it was repaired with a new case free of charge and returned within a week from France. The staff at other end of phone where very helpful and spoke perfect English (probably better than me ). I cannot comment on Garmin (thankfully) but their service does appear to be almost legendary.

 

For finding caches in the open the Garmin homes in on the location very quickly whereas the Magellan will take you straight past the spot for some 40-50 feet before telling you to go back and gradually homing in on the spot.

 

Entering co-ords on the Magellan IMHO is much easier than on the Garmin.

 

Hope this is of some help.

Edited November 30, 2005 by Phillimore Clan

[+The Wombles]

If the news on a Garmin 60/76 with the SiRF III receiver chipset and transflash card storage are to be believed, then this is really easy. Details here.

 

The 60CSX is the GPS I've been waiting for!

[+Happy Humphrey]

Having given a SiRF III GPSr a bit of use over the last two weeks, if Garmin are going for this across the range, then they'll clean up. The first time I fired it up, it picked up the elusive EGNOS satellites for a few minutes (I hadn't seen them in ages). It gets a strong lock indoors (great for armchair geocaching). It gives an accurate and consistent position in thick woodland. The "static navigation" problem appears to have been addressed. It keeps lock easily anywhere in the car or rucksack. It only takes moments to lock satellites on startup.

 

Allied to a Garmin case and reliability: just what we've always wanted!

 

HH

[+minstrelcat]

We use Magellans - a GPS 315 and a MAP 330 - and often find caches in wooded areas fairly easily when previous logs are full of complaints about the tree cover causing no end of problems. Then again, sometimes our GPSrs go loopy in areas that no one else has complained about! Can't speak for after sales service as they are both second hand GPSrs.

 

Lisa

[+Belplasca]

I've never had a Garmin, but I have used three Magellans: a Sportrack, a Meridian Platinum and a meridian Gold.

 

All were great under tree cover - keeping a reasonably accurate lock when nearby Garmins had given up.

 

They do seem to suffer from an "overshooting" problem - until you discover that, when the Magellan says you are still 100 feet from the cache, you are actually pretty much there. The solution is to start looking for likely spots once you are within 100 feet. The GPS will gradually show you to be closer - even if you've stopped!

 

I've also used a couple of SIRF III chipset units with my iPAQ and they also keep lock well in adverse conditions (except over the weekend when my Bluetooth unit had to be forced to do a cold start before it would believe that the satellites weren't all lined up in a straight line... )

 

Bob Aldridge

[+Daisy&me]

We us a Sportrak Pro and an Etrex yellow. The Sportrak keeps a lock under trees long after the Etrex has given and you get used to the overshoot problem. Reports are that the Explorists do not have that problem.

 

You can get UK topo maps for the Sportrak but not for any of the Garmin range. The maps are very useful, particularly for ensuring you're the right side of a river! I wouldn't buy a Garmin until maps are available.

[+The HERB5]

So the Magellan guesses under trees and goes straight past the waypoint with a good signal.

Whereas the Garmin when it has no signal tells you straight away and goes straight to the waypoint with a good signal.

 

The Magellan needed repairing for a known fault and the Garmin hasn't

 

Hmmm, which one now.....

 

PS I'm a happy Garmin Legend owner.

[+Mad H@ter]

So the Magellan guesses under trees and goes straight past the waypoint with a good signal.

Whereas the Garmin when it has no signal tells you straight away and goes straight to the waypoint with a good signal.

 

The Magellan needed repairing for a known fault and the Garmin hasn't

 

Hmmm, which one now..... 

 

PS I'm a happy Garmin Legend owner.

I tell it as it is, and is my own personal experience only, so use my experiences as you will. I couldn't possibly give a recommendation as to which make to buy, as both have their good and bad points, it's up to the buyer to make that decision.

 

In defence of the Magellan it had a hard life before the fault developed and I'm certain that Garmin's have known faults. Although the Garmin has provided faultless service it is only 3 months old, so theirs plenty of time yet, but lets hope not.

 

I have tried to be objective and not bring this down to a Garmin v Magellan fight. I obviously have my preference of the 2 which is the Garmin but only because it is a much higher spec model. If they where equivalent models it would be a very hard decision.

Edited December 1, 2005 by Phillimore Clan

[+third-degree-witch]

I have 4 Garmins.....2 Yellows,a Venture and a Vista c...The yellows are hard working base models,ideal for caching.....The Venture is scared to death of tree cover it seems and loses signal if a leaf flutters past !!!!!..Then theres the Vista c.....colour mapping blah blah blah.....superb under trees !!!!!!, never lost a signal on it EVER in trees as long as you hold it horizontal.

Garmin backup.......

My vistas rubber gasket was becoming unglued, a common thing i hear..I sent it back and a new gasket was put on FREE.i had my vista back in my hands within 4 days !!..bloody good service in my view.

Having tried all these models i will be staying with Garmin for the forseeable future,i like the way the gpsr's work and the customer service is great

[+Belplasca]

I have 4 Garmins.....

 

Having tried all these models i will be staying with Garmin for the forseeable future,i like the way the gpsr's work and the customer service is great

And I'll be staying with Magellan!

 

Not least because I love the way that I can transfer my maps / Routes / Waypoints straight to the SD card using a card reader, which is MUCH quicker than connecting through the cabled interface...

 

This, of course, only applies to the Meridian models, not the Sportracks.

 

Oh, and the Directroute mapping even gives street routing on my handheld GPSr... No spoken directions, but it works remarkably well - well enough to be used in a car to get to the cache.

 

Bob Aldridge

[+third-degree-witch]

Horses for courses

[+Belplasca]

Horses for courses

Exactly!

 

Bob

[+The Forester]

Horses for courses

Horses are excellent navigators. They always know the way home.

 

Just head for the space between their ears. They'll do the rest!

[+Mad H@ter]

And I'll be staying with Magellan!

 

Not least because I love the way that I can transfer my maps / Routes / Waypoints straight to the SD card using a card reader, which is MUCH quicker than connecting through the cabled interface...

 

This, of course, only applies to the Meridian models, not the Sportracks.

 

Oh, and the Directroute mapping even gives street routing on my handheld GPSr... No spoken directions, but it works remarkably well - well enough to be used in a car to get to the cache.

 

Bob Aldridge

And just to keep it completely objective the USB2 enabled Garmin's ie GPSmap60 series have very fast data transfer rates and also have routing capabilities.

 

As you say "horses for courses"

[+Sue and Bernie]

Then theres the Vista c.....colour mapping blah blah blah.....superb under trees !!!!!!, never lost a signal on it EVER in trees as long as you hold it horizontal.

I'll second that!

 

As well as much improved reception under tree cover, I've noted that the battery life is also much better even though the screen is in colour and a wee bit wider.

 

The Vista C (or Legend C) are particularly good buys if you already have City Select or City Navigator software as supplied with hi-end Garmin autorouting units (such as Quest or Streetpilot). This software can be "unlocked" for use with a second Garmin GPS unit so you can get full auto-routing in the battery powered handheld Vista C as well as your main unit.

[+Alibags]

I have only ever used a Garmin, so cannot really comment on how fab or otherwise the Magellan is. However, a quick look at this cache puts the score at :

 

Garmin 3 - Magellan nil

 

it's not under trees though.