Magellan's New Crossover GPSr

[+Jhwk]

Guess this guy is now being sold: Linky to product page

 

Not that I have any love for Magellan now that they have essentially ignored me and my eX600 for the last two years.

 

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts/ideas/comments/experience with the new product.

 

not sure I like the whole idea of having a hard drive in my GPSr. Couldn't they have gone with solid state memory instead.?

 

Price: $ 549.99

Edited February 6, 2007 by Jhwk

[+Jhwk]

More propoganda in case you don't want to make the jump;

 

Navigate the streets, trails, lakes and oceans with this pocket-sized CrossoverGPSTM. With all the standard features of the advanced Magellan auto navigation GPS products, plus the ability to go from the open road to the great outdoors. Enjoy driving, hiking, geocaching, boating, fishing and more, all with one GPS! Simple touch-screen menus, turn-by-turn voice guidance and upgradeable to receive Real-time traffic alerts.

 

Small. Powerful. CrossoverGPSTM.

 

Now, you can own a GPS with advanced vehicle navigation and outdoor GPS routing capabilities in the world's first pocket-sized CrossoverGPSTM. Simple touch-screen menus make it easy to select virtually any destination and get turn-by-turn voice and visual guidance while on the road. Or you can take it on your Saturday hike, mark waypoints along the way and save the route to go again next weekend. Detailed built-in street maps of North America and light topographic maps of the 48 contiguous United States mean you'll never be lost.

 

Add optional detailed regional MapSend® Topo1 topographic maps, MapSend BlueNavTM marine charts or MapSend Lakes charts via Secure Digital memory cards and navigate your outdoor adventures. The best-in-class battery offers up to 8 hours of use so you can navigate, search points of interest, plan trips, listen to music and view pictures from wherever you are.

 

Advanced auto navigation features include multi-destination routing, SmartDetourTM to route you around slow freeway traffic and SayWhereTM text-to-speech, which tells you both where to turn and the name of the street to turn on. The optional TrafficKit2 accessory makes it easy to avoid traffic with Real-time incident reports. (Subscription required for traffic reports only).

 

The sleek, rugged, and waterproof to IPX-4 design makes it easy to take it with you wherever your adventure takes you. The included Sport GuardTM provides added armor to enhance the Magellan CrossoverGPS' rugged endurance during outdoor use. The slip-resistant protection and built in lanyard hook make it easy to tackle the great outdoors.

 

Features:

CrossoverGPSTMexpandable - Easily navigate the open road and the great outdoor. Pre-loaded with topographic maps of the 48 contiguous United States to help you navigate all your outdoor adventures.

 

Waterproof to IPX-4 - Don't worry if you get caught in the rain, it's sealed to IPX-4 standards.

 

Easy-to-use - Simple touch-screen menus and quick-entry features

 

Pocket-sized & Lightweight - Easily transfer between vehicles, pack it for a flight or carry it in your pocket (4.3" x 3.4" x 1.1") and 7.8 oz.

 

Traffic upgradeable - Get LIVE traffic incident reports when you add the Magellan TrafficKitTM. (Requires service subscription after introductory period)

 

Turn-by-turn voice and visual guidance - BE THERE™ quickly and safely

 

Rechargeable battery - Best in class battery for use up to 8 hours without access to power

 

SirfstarIII chip set for quick access to a satellite signal

 

SayWhere™ text-to-speech - Hear the street name of your next turn

 

Multi-destination Routing - Select up to 20 destinations

 

SmartDetour - Automatically routes you around sudden slow freeway traffic using your own custom settings

 

Built-in maps - Detailed street maps of United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and topographic maps of the 48 contiguous United States

 

Bird's-eye 3D view - Clearly see your surroundings

 

SD card compatible - Insert outdoor maps, MapSend® BlueNav™ marine maps, music and pictures

 

Digital Music Player - Play your favorite music through the integrated speaker or your own headphones

 

Photo Viewer - View your vacation pictures while you're still on vacation

 

Auto re-route - Never miss a turn and quickly get back on track whenever you take a detour

 

Auto night view - Adjusts color and contrast for easy night viewing

 

QuickSpell™ - Easily enter addresses with efficient auto-complete feature

 

1.5 million points of interest (POI) - Easily find gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, airports, parks and more

 

Interactive POI icons - Touch an onscreen icon for a nearby destination; see phone number and get an instant route

 

4 routing methods available - Shortest time, shortest distance, least use or most use of freeways, avoid toll roads

 

Address Book and Favorites List - Create and store personal points of interest to easily route to places you go to often

 

Instant locate - One touch shows your location; quickly advise roadside assistance or emergency services

 

Specs:

Product Number: 980890-01

PHYSICAL

Case High-impact plastic

Base Map Pre-loaded with detailed street maps of 50 United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and topographic coverage of the 48 contiguous United States

Size 3.4" H x 4.3" W x 1.1" D

Weight 8.5 oz. with Sport Guard™ 9.4 oz.

Display 3.5" color touch screen display, 2.11" x 2.81" (53.6mm x 71.5mm)

Memory 4 GB hard drive pre-loaded with maps of the 50 United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and topographic maps of the 48 contiguous states

Data Storage Unlimited / Secure Digital (SD) Card compatible

Antenna Built-in multidirectional patch

Operating Range 14 to 140°F (-10 to 60°C) Battery charging temperature 32 to 113°F (0 to 45°C)

 

PERFORMANCE

Receiver 20 channels, SiRF Star III

Acquisition Time Hot: 1 second, Cold: 40 seconds, Initial: 5 minutes

Accuracy 3 to 5 meters (10 - 16 feet) - WAAS/EGNOS, < 7 meters (15 feet) - GPS only

Languages English

 

POWER

Source Li-Ion rechargeable 1900mA, 12 V AC or 12 vehicle adapter (sold separately)

Battery Life Over 8 hours continuous use

[MtnHermit]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts/ideas/comments/experience with the new product.

 

not sure I like the whole idea of having a hard drive in my GPSr. Couldn't they have gone with solid state memory instead.?

Sure is a Pricey Critter at $550!!!

 

I have to agree with you on the HD, especially since its only 4GB, 4GB SD's are going for ~$35 so why have a HD at all. While the crossover concept makes sense, the cost doesn't. Better to have a handheld and a dedicated car unit at less cost.

 

Hermit

[ZR-mindless]

Touch screens suck - especially in the great outdoors.

8 hour battery life?? ouch.

Would hate to see what happens to the hard drive when you drop that thing.

Not impressed.

[NSB]

Good points on the dropping and increases in SD card size. If they say 8 hrs of battery life i'd figure 6. Kind of like the new car that claims 40 mpg gets 25mpg at best.

 

I've been hoping the best elements of the auto gps and handheld models would combine. Seems like there are 10 auto models for every handheld model lately. Still i think this is a step in the right direction, but i'll be waiting for the price to drop.

[+kenk]

From looking at the Crossover on-line specs and the manual it doesn't look like it has the ability to use UTM coordinates. That's a big issue for me.

 

I was going to wait for the Crossover, but ended up buying the Garmin GPSMAP CSx instead. I'm glad I did.

 

If you compare the screens, the GPSMAP 60CSx actually provides more detail than the Crossover.

 

The prices are actually pretty comparable. The GPSMAP 60CSx base unit is only about $370, but with all the gear needed for in-car navigation (RAM mount, NA maps, power cord, case) the cost increases to about $600. The Crossover comes with all that stuff at a price of about $550. About the same.

 

The Crossover appears to be a good car-GPS and a mediocre trail-GPS. The 60CSx is a good car-GPS and a good (great?) trail-GPS.

 

Overall I do think the GPSMAP 60CSx is a better buy. But then, of course I'll say that because I just spent $600 on one.

 

Ken K.

Edited February 7, 2007 by kenk

[Suscrofa]

They should understand once for all that an outdoor product has to run on easy replaced standard batteries, rechargeable or not !

 

For these equipments, proprietary batteries SUCKS, cost a lot, disappear from the market fast. PERIOD

 

My camera, my GPS, my flashlight run on AA.

OK, not the mobile phone but that I can live without and turn it on only when needed, besides, last for more than 5 days in standby.

 

I wonder why battery mfgs don't agree to come up with a standard rechargeable LiIon battery format. May be this captive market brings them a lot of income !

[robertlipe]

I wonder why battery mfgs don't agree to come up with a standard rechargeable LiIon battery format.

The leading candidate for this market is called the RCR-V3 At least one GPS vendor, new to the market, uses them. There are other options, but those are the most natural for anything that takes 2 AA's.

 

May be this captive market brings them a lot of income !

Imagine that.

[+GClouse]

Actually the battery life probably drops significantly when using the hd a lot. And it is a bit pricey. You can get all the same features with a Mio or an iQue for close to the same price (or less if you shop around) plus all the pda features and the ability to add other apps. Or get a smart phone like a Treo, or Motorola Que and use the cellphone navigator app.

 

One of the reasons I use a Palm m125 for caching is that they are relatively easy to replace for few $$$. They show up at thrift stores and yard sales for as little as $20.

[planewood]

Sounds to me like something that stayed in the development phase to long, and when it finally got to market, had already been eclipsed by technology and consumer wants. Sure sign of a struggling company.

[Brentmeister]

Well, I took the plunge and bought one of these units! I was in need of something that I could use in the car, use to mark some areas on the deer lease and also mark some fishing holes. It comes with light US topo and Light US marine.

 

So far I have been very satisfied with this unit that can be had for around $450 at several online merchants. The battery life has been as advertised and replacement batteries shouldn’t be a problem because it is a fairly standard mobile ce/pc battery, although professional installation is necessary.

 

I have also seen the documentation that refers to a ‘hard drive’, but I think that may be a typo. Form the documentation that came with the unit, it implies that the internal drive is a ‘flash drive’. I can also hear no detectable hard drive spinning, but this probably means nothing.

 

The performance has been excellent thus far. The preloaded maps are very current and accurate. The navigation build seems to be very good with no ridiculous routing so far. Switching between Vechicle Nav/Marine and Topo is quick and painless. There is a compass/speed feature available from any screen and the satellite acquisition is fast and reliable even under heavy canopy.

 

There are some shortfalls:

1)The ‘shockproof’ rubber case is loose and slides around, I suspect that it would offer little protection in the event of a drop on pavement. The main case seems very durable.

 

2)The main drawback is the inability to drive to a lat/long destination. The way I do my caching is to enter the coordinates on the topo map and then tap on the closest street that appears on the topo map, which will give a pop-up with the street name and number. Then I switch to vehicle nav and drive to that street address, then switch to topo and walk it in from there.

 

All in all, I am very happy. I looked at every make and most every model and settled on something that met my needs. There are probably units in development, if not already on the market – but this unit fit the bill for me.

 

PS- Customer service is in India and from what I understand warranty work/defective part replacement is very slow.

 

I hope the helps – this is my first post on your forum!

[Brentmeister]

*Update*

As I stated earlier: I purchased this unit as a combo christmas/birthday present for myself (actually told the family not to get me anything for either event).

 

I have put this unit through its paces over the past month and I'll try to give a run down.

 

IN CAR: Works very well. Screen is easy to read in almost all lighting conditions, although a little bright for night driving even on the lowest setting. Maps are fairly well up to date, I did find some roads that are at least four years old and they are not on the unit's pre loaded maps. Reception is excellent, some routing is suspect, but then again I've never seen one that wasn't from time to time. Battery life is fantastic

 

ON THE TRAIL: The unit leaves some things to be desired. For starters the triangle that indicates your position is soo large that it obsecures the waypoints when you get close. Also the screen is hard to read in direct sunlight. It has been VERY accurate when geocaching taking me 'on top' of several locations. Loading/unloading POI's to the trail section is soo complicated that I have given up on this. I read on this forum about an upgrade/update for uploading POI's in th trail secion - until then, I'll just do it manually.

 

All in all - I am satisified with this uint. I bought it mainly for vehicle, but for occasional geocaching with my daughter. It has fufilled these requirements. In the future, I will probably have this uint for car navigation and upgrade to one of the garmin mapping units as my kids get older and we get into more geocaching.

 

This was my first civillian GPS purchase since leaving the military. I hope this helps other users and or potential buyers.

 

Brent

[+ADVILL]

*Update*

As I stated earlier: I purchased this unit as a combo christmas/birthday present for myself (actually told the family not to get me anything for either event).

 

I have put this unit through its paces over the past month and I'll try to give a run down.

 

IN CAR: Works very well. Screen is easy to read in almost all lighting conditions, although a little bright for night driving even on the lowest setting. Maps are fairly well up to date, I did find some roads that are at least four years old and they are not on the unit's pre loaded maps. Reception is excellent, some routing is suspect, but then again I've never seen one that wasn't from time to time. Battery life is fantastic

 

ON THE TRAIL: The unit leaves some things to be desired. For starters the triangle that indicates your position is soo large that it obsecures the waypoints when you get close. Also the screen is hard to read in direct sunlight. It has been VERY accurate when geocaching taking me 'on top' of several locations. Loading/unloading POI's to the trail section is soo complicated that I have given up on this. I read on this forum about an upgrade/update for uploading POI's in th trail secion - until then, I'll just do it manually.

 

All in all - I am satisified with this uint. I bought it mainly for vehicle, but for occasional geocaching with my daughter. It has fufilled these requirements. In the future, I will probably have this uint for car navigation and upgrade to one of the garmin mapping units as my kids get older and we get into more geocaching.

 

This was my first civillian GPS purchase since leaving the military. I hope this helps other users and or potential buyers.

 

Brent

[+ADVILL]

I have just purchased ones of these units too. I am struggling with how to get the cache coordinates loaded. I was hoping it could be done from GSAK, no luck so far. I have gone to the reference manual that came with the unit...no help there either! I would like to store 200 or more caches and dread the fact that they may have to all be manually entered. If you have figured out a better way please let me know. Much appreciated.

 

Advill

[dkile]

*Update*

As I stated earlier: I purchased this unit as a combo christmas/birthday present for myself (actually told the family not to get me anything for either event).

 

I have put this unit through its paces over the past month and I'll try to give a run down.

 

IN CAR: Works very well. Screen is easy to read in almost all lighting conditions, although a little bright for night driving even on the lowest setting. Maps are fairly well up to date, I did find some roads that are at least four years old and they are not on the unit's pre loaded maps. Reception is excellent, some routing is suspect, but then again I've never seen one that wasn't from time to time. Battery life is fantastic

 

ON THE TRAIL: The unit leaves some things to be desired. For starters the triangle that indicates your position is soo large that it obsecures the waypoints when you get close. Also the screen is hard to read in direct sunlight. It has been VERY accurate when geocaching taking me 'on top' of several locations. Loading/unloading POI's to the trail section is soo complicated that I have given up on this. I read on this forum about an upgrade/update for uploading POI's in th trail secion - until then, I'll just do it manually.

 

All in all - I am satisified with this uint. I bought it mainly for vehicle, but for occasional geocaching with my daughter. It has fufilled these requirements. In the future, I will probably have this uint for car navigation and upgrade to one of the garmin mapping units as my kids get older and we get into more geocaching.

 

This was my first civillian GPS purchase since leaving the military. I hope this helps other users and or potential buyers.

 

Brent

 

My Crossover arrived last week. This is my first GPS so not a lot for me to compare. I picked mine up through Amazon for $405 plus shipping.

 

I purchased it for driving and sometimes on the trail. I really like it it so far. I have been driving with it and seems to work great. Everything I expected from at GPS device. I like the size. I have loaded some POI's for Red Light Cameras and some Starbucks coffee locations. I like the alerts and I have added a few of my own POI's .

 

With several trips under my belt and one recharge earlier in the week I decided to see how long the battery would last this week. So far after the full recharge I am at 8 hours and 20 minutes and it is still running right now. It beat my expectations.

 

I took it for a hike over the weekend. A cold morning about 30 degrees. I left it on the whole time and it seemed to slow up in responding to some of the buttons I pushed as the hike went on. I would put it in my jacket as I walked and then take it out to see how it was doing. It lost the satellites when it was in my jacket. At one point it thought I was about 20 miles from where I was at. Between the cold and keeping it my jacket it it seemed to be a little out of sorts. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I ended up restarting it and it worked fine, even with the cold and my jacket? To be fair I can't say if I should expect it to work at those temps and it in my jacket. I will have to try it out further.

 

Again still very happy with it. I don't feel POI's were hard to work with. Any advice on using it or any GPS on a trail would be great.

[+geognerd]

I took it for a hike over the weekend. A cold morning about 30 degrees. I left it on the whole time and it seemed to slow up in responding to some of the buttons I pushed as the hike went on. I would put it in my jacket as I walked and then take it out to see how it was doing. It lost the satellites when it was in my jacket. At one point it thought I was about 20 miles from where I was at. Between the cold and keeping it my jacket it it seemed to be a little out of sorts. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I ended up restarting it and it worked fine, even with the cold and my jacket? To be fair I can't say if I should expect it to work at those temps and it in my jacket. I will have to try it out further.

I hope your experience isn't normal for this unit. 30F isn't that cold. The displays on my Palm and eXplorist (as well as the Palm's touchscreen response) get sluggish in the cold, but only when the temperature is in the teens. I am also surprised to hear that it lost reception while in your jacket. The SiRF III chip is supposedly superior to the eXplorist's, which has worked in my various interior and exterior jacket pockets.

[dkile]

I took it for a hike over the weekend. A cold morning about 30 degrees. I left it on the whole time and it seemed to slow up in responding to some of the buttons I pushed as the hike went on. I would put it in my jacket as I walked and then take it out to see how it was doing. It lost the satellites when it was in my jacket. At one point it thought I was about 20 miles from where I was at. Between the cold and keeping it my jacket it it seemed to be a little out of sorts. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I ended up restarting it and it worked fine, even with the cold and my jacket? To be fair I can't say if I should expect it to work at those temps and it in my jacket. I will have to try it out further.

I hope your experience isn't normal for this unit. 30F isn't that cold. The displays on my Palm and eXplorist (as well as the Palm's touchscreen response) get sluggish in the cold, but only when the temperature is in the teens. I am also surprised to hear that it lost reception while in your jacket. The SiRF III chip is supposedly superior to the eXplorist's, which has worked in my various interior and exterior jacket pockets.

 

I wanted to provide an update from a hike over the weekend. The temperatures was in the mid 40's for this trip as I tried a two mile trail I have never been on before. I wanted to see how the SiRF III chip worked under warmer conditions. I walked with it my hand for about .25 miles and then put it in and out of my raincoat. I left it in for a variety of times. I think the longest was about ten minutes. Worked fine no problems. I then tried it in my small backpack I use to carry my camera. I place it on top and zipped up. No problems again and was exactly where I thought I should be. I even tried to intersect my trail and it did exactly as I would expect to take right back to the trail.

 

One thing that I noticed was the topo lines did not seem to be very accurate. Right now I think it is rated for 90 meter contours, but they were clearly off as I walked around the lake. I understand there will be better maps for 30 meter resolution later in the year. I issue didn't bother me, just an observation.

 

Works fine with the car and driving. I understand it is the same model as the 2200.

 

The battery life has been the best surprise. I get about nine hours on a charge. Maybe a fluke, but I like it.

[+briansnat]

The battery life has been the best surprise. I get about nine hours on a charge. Maybe a fluke, but I like it.

 

9 hours is the best surprise? That would be unacceptable to me, more so in a unit that doesn't have field replacable AAs.

[dkile]

The battery life has been the best surprise. I get about nine hours on a charge. Maybe a fluke, but I like it.

 

9 hours is the best surprise? That would be unacceptable to me, more so in a unit that doesn't have field replacable AAs.

 

Yup nine. I think that is pretty good since it is rated for eight. The same way if you purchased a car and you get 30 mpg when they say it would only get 25 mpg highway.

[+Jumpmaster]

Well, I called and confirmed it cannot use UTM. This is a deal-killer for me. In fact, it would be nice if it had MGRS as well, but I'd be happy with just the addition of UTM.

[+Thrak]

I'll stick with my Garmin 76CSx. It does everything I want and does it extremely well.

[tossedsalad]

Well, I called and confirmed it cannot use UTM. This is a deal-killer for me. In fact, it would be nice if it had MGRS as well, but I'd be happy with just the addition of UTM.

 

I am glad that you called about this. A lot of people post misinformation here and then it is picked up and repeated as gospel. I find it odd that they would make this product so different from their other units, the difficulty another poster is having with downloads. But this may be due to the combination of two distinct product lines with incompatible software bases in terms of these features. For example, the road units may have a different download protocols since they do very different things than the trail units.

 

On thing I don't believe that was posted here is the internal hard drive. It is common that the term "hard drive" is used when talking about a flash drive. This is to separate it from flash that connects directly to a processor and can be executed from. I don't even know of any hard drives that are only 4 GB, although there may be some of the 1" units in that size range. I know the makers were really pushing to have them designed in, but even two years ago it was clear that flash had longer legs in the embedded market. Now I would not use a rotating hard drive in anything under 50 GB. Even if it is a bit pricey right now, in a year it will be much more affordable... maybe. Flash prices have really bottomed out lately. The makers are barely making profit and are switching a lot of capacity to DRAM. So look for PC memory prices to continue to fall and flash prices to stablilize and possibly go up over the next 3 to 6 months.

 

I haven't seen this unit, but this is the sort of unit I would like to have. I just want it to run open source software.