Garmin 60CSX, Magellan eXplorist 500, Magellan eXplorist XL, Magellan Crossover

[+Cacheola Crew]

I'm looking to augment my old Map 330 with something that can do autorouting and POI functions, but small enough to use on the trail and in the kayak.

 

I think I have narrowed my choices down to these four. If you own

one of these units, could you tell me what you have found about it

since you got it home that you love and hate?

 

Friends let me look at their 60CSX and Magellan

Explorist XL, so I know that both of those can support auto-routing

(turn by turn directions) with the proper software. Does anyone know

if Explorist 500 can?

 

Do all of these offer the POI feature as well (where you can ask for

the nearest ATM, Gas station etc and it will give you lists)

 

I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter which GPS I get, but that it

is the software that matters. Any opinions on the software necessary

to get the functionalities I want?

 

Cacheola Crew Mom

Edited September 4, 2007 by Cacheola Crew

[Dosido]

Explorist 500:

 

Yes, autoroutes with DirectRoute software. Yes, both have millions of POIs.

 

Pros:

 

Size, USB connex, geocaching feature, SD card usability, speed of waypoint entry

 

Cons:

 

after about 800 caches, the click stick rubber has ripped, lack of firmware update support

 

The geocaching feature of the Explorist is pretty good, with the caveat that it's not great and isn't a replacement for the palm (though neither is Garmin's) - the hints get truncated if they're too long, and you can only show 200 caches at one time.

 

Now, the Explorist allows you to maintain as many 200 cache files on your SD card as you'd like, as well as having multiple map files - which I'm not sure is the case with the Garmin.

 

Also, it appears to me that I can manually punch in waypoints much faster than garmin users, as the interface is different - only useful in the field when you're racing other users to a multi or puzzle cache. It also is my opinion that the Garmin (at least the 60csx) has better routing options than the Explorist.

[+Jenischmeni]

If you purchase the mapping programs to go with a 60CSX, yes it will give you points of interest like hotels, food and such and yes it will navigate you to those spots.

 

You push "find" and the options are there (with the mapping software).