Magellan Explorist 210, Sportrak Pro, or Sportrak Color?

[+whitneymvp]

I will be getting a Garmin Summit HC for my birthday in March. I still want to pick up a used handheld for geocaching with my grandson for well less than $100. All we will do is off-road stuff. Major roads would be nice, but not necessary.

 

I like what I read about these Magellan units but I'm open to a Garmin also. I read that the Sportrak Pro is good and readable in sunlight but the Sportrak Color is just as good but not readable in sunlight?? I THINK an electronic compass would be nice but not necessary. I don't need the ability to download cache info because I'll probably enter manually. The only thing that a PC connection might be good for for me is to update firmware ... then USB is a must.

 

Your advice will be welcomed.

 

Thanks

[+JohnnyVegas]

Of those I would select the Magellan Explorist 210

 

I have a Sport Track color, the screen on that GPS can be hard to read in direct sunlight.

The sport track pro is a good unit but the Exporsit 210 is a better choice.

 

All the Magellan you list can be loaded with waypoints with a computer.

 

A better deal right now is on the Magellan Explorist 500LE, if you are a costco member you can order it from the costco web site for about $119.00 plus shipping, I just got one for $136.00 total after shipping and sales tax.

[+whitneymvp]

It looks like the only difference between the 210 and 500LE is the color display. Is that all and is color better/easier to see? I saw a 210 at the local walmart marked down to $59 and a see a local ad for a sportrak color for about the same price. That's not a lot of $$ so I probably can't go wrong, but if one is better than the other I'd rather do it "righter" the first time.

 

How important is electronic compass for geocaching?

[+Dick'n'Tracy]

I have an Explorist 210 and it works just fine for caching. If I would have had the $ at the time, I'd recomend the 500. It has just been discontinued by Magellan, but it has the color screen and can take up to a 2GB SD card for more storage space......

 

I have never used the other models you are referring to......

[+briansnat]

Of the ones you mentioned, I'd have to say the 210

[+JohnnyVegas]

It looks like the only difference between the 210 and 500LE is the color display. Is that all and is color better/easier to see? I saw a 210 at the local walmart marked down to $59 and a see a local ad for a sportrak color for about the same price. That's not a lot of $$ so I probably can't go wrong, but if one is better than the other I'd rather do it "righter" the first time.

 

How important is electronic compass for geocaching?

 

As far electronic compass for geocaching, IMO they are a waste of money and not needed. I gave the electronic compass in my sport trak color a try, It was really not very usefull, I ended up turning compass off.

Edited February 23, 2008 by JohnnyVegas

[+DanTheMan81]

I just bought an eXplorist 210. I found it very easy to use and pretty much self explanatory. I jsut used it yesterday to find my first cache.

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

The 210 is a Spotrak Pro with a new casing. Ok, it has the geocache mode that the Spotrak Pro doesn't have. Otherwise, it has the same capacity for maps.

 

The latest firmware for the 210 brought back some screens that the Spotrak had. That was funny to see.

 

Still, i'd go for the 210.

[+JohnnyVegas]

The 210 is a Spotrak Pro with a new casing. Ok, it has the geocache mode that the Spotrak Pro doesn't have. Otherwise, it has the same capacity for maps.

 

The latest firmware for the 210 brought back some screens that the Spotrak had. That was funny to see.

 

Still, i'd go for the 210.

No, No, No, Not quite-the Explorist 210 is not the same as any Magellan sport trak.

 

The sport tracks do not have the file managment system that the Explorist have.

 

The Explorist also do not have the boom-a-rang effect that the Sport tracks and Meridians have.

Edited February 25, 2008 by JohnnyVegas

[+julianh]

As far electronic compass for geocaching, IMO they are a waste of money and not needed. I gave the electronic compass in my sport trak color a try, It was really not very usefull, I ended up turning compass off.

It's funny how the geocaching world seems to be firmly split into two camps - those who think the compass is useless, and those who think it is really useful.

 

I belong to the latter group - the compass on my Summit HC works fine, and will point you straight at your destination even when you are standing still. Without a compass, you have to be moving for the GPSr to be able to work out the direction you are currently facing.

 

However, you can disregard the compass when you get to within about 5 metres of your destination, because it can tend to swing about then - I guess this is because you are approaching the limits of precision of GPS technology. Probably time to start using your eyes to locate the cache at this point!

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

No, No, No, Not quite-the Explorist 210 is not the same as any Magellan sport trak.

 

The sport tracks do not have the file managment system that the Explorist have.

 

The Explorist also do not have the boom-a-rang effect that the Sport tracks and Meridians have.

 

You're right. The file-system of the 210 is a plus vs the Sportrak.

 

The "slingshot effect" is something that (we) Sportrak owners have learned to live with!

 

As I wrote, I'd go for the 210.

[+JohnnyVegas]

I still have a sport trak color, I never understood while people had a problem with the slingshot effect, it is not a real big deal. Of course one cacher I know still has problems dealing with it, but then again I does not know how to save his current position into his Sport Track and meridian gold-but he has only had them for about 4 years

 

I kept my old Meridain gold, it is a good thing I did, both my Exporist 500 and Garmin were stolen in a truck break in last week. The Meridain I find more usefull than the Street Pilot 320 anyway and I already got a new Exp 500.

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

The problem for Europeans with the Explorist/Sportrak range is the absolute lack of updated maps. The last Directroute Europe (v 2.00c) is from 2005(!) and has many flaws.

[+JohnnyVegas]

The maps for the USA also have flaws in them, In my map software from Magellan and Garmin I have found streets with the wrong name, I have seen roads on the software that go the wrong way of that have never been bulit and I have found dead end roads that are not dead end roads in the software.

 

It is not just a european problem

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

Definitely. But you can buy Directroute V3, right? That is of course an updated versions of the maps. For europeans, we're stuck to good old maps from early 2005.

 

Garmin keeps updating the maps.

[cowboyshootist]

Definitely. But you can buy Directroute V3, right? That is of course an updated versions of the maps. For europeans, we're stuck to good old maps from early 2005.

 

Garmin keeps updating the maps.

 

No. Navteq updates the maps (at least for the US) and Garmin and Magellan incorporate those updates into their products. From what I have seen Garmin and Magellan are working off relatively new map sets. It would appear, from looking at some things in my local area, that the maps are no older than 2006 but it's hard to be sure. And yet there are still errors.

 

What I don't understand is why, in this digital day and age, does it take 2 years to bring maps to the GPS. Can't we figure out a way to incorporate near real-time updates as they become available? Instead of yearly updates why not quarterly or even monthly?

 

Can you imagine what it would be like if the phone company said it would take 2 years to update directory assitance?

[+Night Stalker]

I had a SporTrak Pro before I bought my Garmin 60CSX. I found the SporTrak Pro very easy to use. It was somewhat hard to read in direct sunshine, but I suspect that all of the older black and white models had this issue. I got used to the boomarang issue, all you had to do was slow down as you got closer to the cache. I cache with a Garmin user and we would always give each other a bad time about the GPS he was using, but when our GPS's settled down we were always within 6' or each other. Sometimes I was closer, sometimes he was closer to the cache. I was a great disappointment to him when I bought a Garmin. He couldn't harass me anymore about my choice in GPS's.

[+treasure inc]

The eXplorist 210 is great if you dont own a computer that runs Vista OS. Mine worked great until I got a new computer. Now it's a $150. paper weight.