Moving Up

[+alphawolf88]

I have a Garmin III+ but have been looking at the Explorist 500 or 600. My girlfriend is looking at the 210. I hope this is that right place to ask these questions . First, what is the difference between the 500 an the 600 (other than $50.00) as the specs look identical and is it worth the extra money? Second, my girlfriend wanted to know if the 210 would make her a good first unit? Thanks for the time and bandwidth.

[+Miragee]

Is there some reason why, if you have a Garmin, you aren't looking at getting a new Garmin?

 

I have both the Vista and the Vista C, which is capable of auto-routing, with the City Select software installed.

 

I like the small size of both units, and they are very durable . . . I wish I didn't know this first hand since my Vista C looked a lot better before it got the dents.

 

Because the new Gamin 'x' units are out, these GPSrs should be discounted quite a bit. I think you might find the Vista C for only $200.00 now.

[+TheGeoHunters]

I have a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. I had used an Explorist 210 but returned it and also the Explorist XL but also returned it. I am extremely happy with the Garmin 60csx though. I use it mainly for geocaching and it works very well. The downside - the price. Other than that, it's perfect!

[+Munin]

First, what is the difference between the 500 an the 600 (other than $50.00) as the specs look identical and is it worth the extra money?

Ignore the silly Magellan "Product Comparison" page (where the two units look identical ) and instead look at the product description pages instead. The 600 adds a 3-axis electronic compass (i.e., one oriented by magnetic fields rather than GPS data), a barometric altimeter, and a thermometer.

 

Whether that's worth another $50 is sort of a judgement call on your part. My 2 cents (a deal at half the price) - I'm using a Garmin 76CS, which has a 2-axis compass and a baro altimeter. I actually do use the compass fairly frequently - especially for orienting the map display when I'm standing still (like when I get to a trail intersection and want to figure out which branch seems more likely to lead towards the cache). It's simpler than taking out my traditional compass and mentally realigning the display, which is what I used to do with my previous GPSr. It's hardly critical to have an electronic/mag compass built into the GPSr - I survived quite nicely for over a year using my old Foretrex and a separate compass - but I certainly appreciate the convenience of having the map on the 76CS auto-orient itself. To me, that was worth the extra money. (I'll note that I still bring along my regular compass as a backup. )

 

The baro altimeter, on the other hand, isn't something I use at all. It's all well and good to know that I've just climbed a 572 foot hill, but I'm generally aware of that just from the creaking of my knees and the spots dancing in front of my eyes - seeing the elevation profile on my GPSr doesn't really add anything to my experience. But some other folks seem to like having a baro-driven elevation profile - if that's something that you'd have fun with, then who cares what I think?

 

Second, my girlfriend wanted to know if the 210 would make her a good first unit?

No first-hand experience with the 210. I've used the older Explorist 200 (which eventually became my brother's starter GPSr), and thought it was adequate - low end featurewise, but good enough to find a cache. From the specs, the 210 corrects the two main features that were missing in the 200 - you can transfer waypoints to/from a computer, and you can download additional maps with better detail. Having the 210 show up on the computer as a USB drive sounds like a pretty neat concept. Just going by what's on the Magellan site, the 210 seems like a decent starter unit.