Magellan Explorist GC

[+Terrier Team]

What do you think of the Magellen GC? I've been thinking about upgrading. Pros? Cons? Favorite feature? What about price? I know it's $200.00 on the magellen web site. Can I get it cheeper anywhere else? Thanks!!

[+breaultm]

I'm waiting for Magellan to process my order and ship it so I can play with it !

 

I can't really talk about it much since I'm waiting to get it. What made me choose this one instead of better Paperless units such as the Garmin Dakota and Oregon is the price difference. This difference comes at a cost, no turn-by-turn or true navigational (for car) features. It is a a Geocacher's GPSr. But, for me I didn't need those features, so I'm saving about $100 (CAD).

 

I'll let members with more experience advise you better on the pros and cons.

 

Can I get it cheeper anywhere else? Thanks!!

 

Magellan's own Online Store offers a discount and free extended warranty to AAA members.

Edited May 17, 2010 by breaultm

[+miniwhip]

Come on over and see what the owners have been saying!

[+EScout]

The GC has been recently at US$163.72 including delivery on Amazon.

It has some good features and is missing other features that prevent it from being a full featured handheld GPSr. It works decently as an urban caching tool.

 

Good: Full paperless cache details and sorting. Easy to load large numbers of caches with GPX files. Full street maps of USA. Uses standard mini-USB cable.

Bad: Tracking function is incomplete and non-functioning. Cannot name and save tracks, no track-back function, no converting tracts to routes. Compass pointer to waypoint needs improving.

 

It has potential after a good firmware update. It is a fair value, but is not my first recommendation.

[+FrogTales]

I am curious... when did you see that price on Amazon? I have been watching. Is it Amazon or a seller on Amazon?

 

Also, I am curious, what would be your 1st choice for a GPS?

[+EScout]

Frog:

I paid $156.74 plus $6.98 shipping on May 4 for the eXplorist GC.. It was sold by AntOnline (Atlanta Network Technologies) on the Amazon site. It was packaged well and arrived quickly.

 

My first choice for most people as a first unit, best utility for the price is the Delorme PN30. I got mine for $200 last summer and I have seen it recently for $175.

 

I understand that there is a new firmware for the GC being tested, and there are expected improvements.

[+FrogTales]

Nice, I will have to look around. I have used a Tomtom for the driving and then my palm couppled with Geoniche for finding cache's once we are out of the car. It was a cheap way for me to test out GCing.

 

I am contemplating finding an easier unit to load. The palm works well but is more involved.

 

The Magellan looks uber easy so it has been tempting.

 

What do you like better about the PN-30? I do see it can do aerial images. That is a nice touch as that can sometimes really help. I have gone back to my laptop after a failed cache to look at the aerials. Can you do paperless caching with it? I don't see that mentioned in what I was just reading. How easy is it to load? Can it do PQs? Can a mac load it?

 

I know 1 downside of the Magellan is that Vantage Point isn't mac friendly so will only run on my netbook.

 

now to go look at Amazon and see what prices are running... I know AAA offers Magellan discounts/warranties as well as a Target discount for those looking.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[+leatherman]

I know 1 downside of the Magellan is that Vantage Point isn't mac friendly so will only run on my netbook.

 

Vantage Point is completely unnecessary. I switched to GPX 1.1 and loaded my GPX via Vantage Point and there was no benefit. It loaded so few photos, I just couldn't find a cache that it benefited. There is just no reason you couldn't drag and drop GPX files from your MAC and get 99.9% of all functionality.

Vantage Point is pretty useless when it comes to the drag and drop of the GC.

[+breaultm]

Whether it's to drop GPX files (individual or PQ) onto the eXplorist GC or even to upload Field Notes, Vantage Point is not needed