Magellan, where are you off to now?

[+Jhwk]

Well, rather than focusing on the handheld market, or improving it's customer support, apparently the big M has decided to release another new product line. ooops, we spoke too soon...

 

I can hear the meetings now:

 

"if we just keep pumping out "new" new products, we can call the old new products legacy and not really support or fix anything."

 

Example you ask? My 2 year old eXplorist 600 has had exactly one software revision.

 

nice

[+storm180]

They really seem to be pushing the mobile market. I personally own a Roadmate 760 and a Roadmate 6000T and I like them alot. Never have had any issue with them. It weird with them coming out with a new line since they just came out with the crossover series. Looks like they are looking to replace the 3000 and the 6000 series with this new one just from looking at what features they will have.

 

As for the handheld units, I also have a 600 and would love a new firmware to fix some issues with the unit.

[+geognerd]

Looks like this is Magellan's attempt to compete against Garmin's nuvi.

 

Do we really need anymore firmware updates for the eXplorist? I can think of a couple of improvements that could be made to the Geocaching POIs. Otherwise the unit performs as I expect. The European update for the 210 was nice because it brought the 210 to the level of my 400NA in terms of acquisition time and Geocache POI functionality. However, I found I could care less about the additional data screens. For that reason I haven't updated my 400 with the new European firmware because the additional screens are the only new feature.

 

Route calculation could be faster, but I don't think they would release a new firmware revision to fix that. That's more like an improvement they would make for a whole new line of handhelds.

 

In terms of competing with Garmin's handheld hardware, Magellan is well-positioned against Garmin's big sellers (GPSmap series, eTrex Color, and old eTrex). We used to be well ahead of Garmin in terms of reception. They just caught up with the GPSmap series. We're still ahead in terms of file management. What Magellan has on the market does what it is marketed to do, so the lack of firmware and new handhelds is forgivable. I haven't had bad experiences with Magellan's phone tech support, but since others have, that is something they need to work on because Garmin is smoking us in that department.

Edited February 22, 2007 by geognerd

[+letmein]

"Do we really need anymore firmware updates for the eXplorist?"

 

It would be really nice for some of us. I race my brother on snowmobiles and would love to have the speed screen that has been released for the Europe models. At over 90 miles per hour I'd rather watch the trail than the speedometer, and check my max speed later on my GPS.

[+Fuzzywhip]

I have been using an eXplorist 100 for over a year and have been very happy with the performance and accuracy. I made a screen protector from a generic Palm screen protector (at a fraction of the price) and have had no problems.

 

I am concerned about Magellan's reputation with customer service, but from what I have read lately, they have improved (while still not up to what Garmin provides).

 

I actually bought and tried a eTrex Legend around Christmas. A nice unit with good accuracy, but I found it hard to read the small numbers :-) Still like the large numbers on the eXplorist.

 

Right now I am struggling with either keeping my 100 (simple to use with good accuracy), upgrade to a 210 (although C$188 is a bit much just to get PC connectivity) or upgrade to a 500LE (love the color screen, similar price to the 210, but hate to change to AAA batteries).

 

Comments?

[smokingpipe]

Geognerd mention above about Geocaching POI's. I have a eXplorist 500 and I made a post about this earlier. So the firmware is to blame for that problem, eh! Yes, I'm Canadian, LOL.

[+Marky]

Example you ask? My 2 year old eXplorist 600 has had exactly one software revision.

 

nice

 

I had high hopes for the 600 and had worked with Magellan to give them a geocaching perspective. Unfortunately, the initial update fell far short of from what we had suggested. I still love my 600, but it could have been SO much better. I don't know how the crossover would be to use, but I'm not likely to find out because I just don't need it (between the 600 and my TomTom 910, I have all I need).

 

--Marky

[+Team Noltex]

...Right now I am struggling with either keeping my 100 (simple to use with good accuracy), upgrade to a 210 (although C$188 is a bit much just to get PC connectivity) or upgrade to a 500LE (love the color screen, similar price to the 210, but hate to change to AAA batteries).

 

Comments?

 

DON'T USE THE AAA BATTERIES! I bought some NiMH rechargeables when I first got my 500LE, but hardly got any time out of them at all - a couple hours at best. It was so short that I thought my unit certainly must be defective. The battery clip pops out of the 500 LE and you can use the L-ion battery. I found the L-ion cell phone batteries on eBay for about 2 bucks each and now can go all day without needing to recharge. There's another thread on it here. You want to get the SNN5595B battery. It's a cell phone battery, so it's very readily available for very cheap. I bought two, just to have a spare. Two batteries plus shipping was $11.80, about the same price as a set of NiMH's.

 

Also, the NiMH batteries won't recharge in the GPS with the cable attached. You have to take them out and put them in a charger. The L-ion batteries will. And full recharge only takes a short time.

 

When the Explorist line first came out and I heard that they wouldn't use AA or AAA batteries, I thought it was extremely stupid. However, with the L-ion batteries and quick in-unit recharging, I'm now a believer.