Garmin? Magellan? Which one for an all-in-one?

[bpwatts]

I've tried sorting through the huge amounts of data on here, trying to select a GPS unit, but I'm just running around in circles. I see the two major competitors are Garmin and Magellan. Within those two companies, they offer a WIDE array of products. Let me tell you what I need...and you tell me how off I am for what I think I can get

 

I'll need something for geocaching (obviously)...but I do a lot of traveling as well so I'd like to be able to navigate in cities, find addresses, and get the turn by turn instructions. I live in the Texas Hill Country, so weather conditions are a must.

 

I found that the Garmin GPS V did basically what I wanted, but didn't have a memory card of some sort? So it looks like I would only be limited to 19MB of storage. Is this necessarily a bad thing? The Vista looked to be my second option, but it seems with all Garmin products, you can only use the maps provided by Garmin and it looks like it can't do address to address mapping. So I dunno. I also liked the weather options available, temp, barometer, so on and so forth. Is the lack of a memory card going to hurt down the road if I go traveling?

 

As far as Magellan goes, they seem to have the same limitation as far as mapping goes. I'm curious what the downside is to this (having maps only from the manufactures), if any? I noticed something about not being able to save a tracklog...just wondering how bad that will be.

 

Now that I'm done writing..I'm wondering if anyone will know what the heck I was asking about

 

Ask as many questions to clear this up as you want. I wanna get started caching as soon as possible

[Jeremy]

For what you're saying, the Garmin V rocks the casbah. The 19 meg restriction on the V isn't too bad if you load all the maps onto a laptop you bring with you on trips (which isn't a real option for everyone), and on the west coast you can get quite a bit of territory on 19 megs. The only complaint I have is the map transfer is slow since it downloads to the unit with a 9600 baud serial connection. It usually takes me 45 minutes to put new maps into it.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[bpwatts]

i did a BUNCH more reading this morning and found a couple more options.

 

it looks like garmin also makes a GPSMAP 76s that includes the barometer/altimeter. it also has a bigger display, a bit more memory, but a shorter battery life. if they only made the dang garmin V with the built in toys ! oh well.

 

the magellean platinum looks like a solid choice as well, but it doesn't support zoom, has a MUCH smaller screen and doesn't seem to have as much of the bells and whistles (no reverisble routes, can't save routes).

 

i think i'll start pricing the GPSMAP 76s and the Garmin V....I suppose I can buy a little portable barometer and altimeter if I get a V

 

feel free to comment

[Best_Buddies]

The Meridian series does have routes, and you can reverse them.

 

The meridian can also save its track to a SD card, and load them back later. This feature is supported in the 3.12 version of the firmware (not widely available YET).

 

-----

Any similarity between my opinions and reality is entirely coincidental.

--Harrkev

[bpwatts]

oh well...the GPS V can be had for 359 from amazon with free shipping. the GPSMAP 76s is in the same neighboorhood. i'm wondering if it's really worth it to throw down all that money for something that i'm fairly new at.

 

i've read a bunch in the forums regarding the etrek line and it's inability to keep signals for long. and i'm just afraid to touch the magellan's after reading their frequent bashings.

 

is there truly a good newbie unit that isn't going to break the bank and isn't going to be a problem child when i'm out hiking around?

[+phantom4099]

The display on the meridian is larger than the etrex, and approx the same size as the 76. The meridian does support zoom (100 ft to 1700 miles). It also allows reversing routes, and version 3.12 allows to save many more tracks (and waypoints/routes) than the garmin allows. You can even create files (12 character names for tracks and waypoints) for diffrent waypoints (like geocaching, personal, fishing, etc...).

 

Wyatt W.

 

The probability of someone watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions.

[nv0u]

Last October I bought my first GPS receiver - the Magellan 315. At the store there were umpteen different units to buy. But I started cheap for a number of reasons.

 

First, I was not sure what all the different things on a GPS did. Yeah, I know what mapping did, but not some of the other things. Even though the 315 is one of the simplest things in the world to use, it still took me a month or so to finally get well aquainted with it. I found that most of the stuff that was being shown to me I was just not using.

 

I normally only have a few of the screens turned on for use - the compass, map, sat status, and maybe one of the To: screens.

 

Next is price: A few weeks ago I bought a Street Pilot III for use as a cool geek toy in the car. It cost 4 times as much as my 315 and provides 1/8th the information that the 315 spits out. But, it is meant to do street routing - and it does it pretty well. It is nowhere near exact when it comes to "fastest route" or "shortest route", but it does work.

 

Last weekend I bought a Magellan Meridian - the base model. It has all the features of the 315, plus has that nifty card slot. Yes, it only has a 2 MB base map, but I will get to that in a moment. It also has a few more bells and whistles than the 315, but what more I can't really be sure of right now. I do like the thing a lot, but I am still learning it and finding what is useful and what is not. The useless functions will be turned off soon.

 

Now - as for the base map... I honestly don't care about that. I can slap a 128 meg card in there and take care of any mapping that I need done. All I have right now is a 16 meg card and I am only using 7 meg for that, and that covers almost 1/3 of the state, and a much larger area than I am ever going to be able to cover in geocaching over a month long period.

 

So, I guess my point is this - get something good that is going to get you started. Don't think that you need to have all the latest bells and whistles. Yeah, they are cool in that geek factor way, but when it comes down to it you will probably find that most of the stuff is just nice frills - for instance the temperature gauge. I saw a comedian back about 10 years ago who was complaining about the weather people on tv. His comment was something along the lines of "I can't tell the difference between 61 and 63. Just tell me if I need a coat!" (Jerry Seinfeld maybe?) The same is kind of true, to me, of the base map. If you are going to be in an area, you are probably going to have the detail map loaded up. In that case, the size of the base map matters not one bit.

 

Anyway, hope this helps some.

[jfitzpat]

quote:

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Originally posted by phantom4099:

The display on the meridian is larger than the etrex, and approx the same size as the 76. The meridian does support zoom (100 ft to 1700 miles). It also allows reversing routes, and version 3.12 allows to save many more tracks (and waypoints/routes) than the garmin allows. You can even create files (12 character names for tracks and waypoints) for diffrent waypoints (like geocaching, personal, fishing, etc...).

 

Wyatt W.

 

The probability of someone watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions.

---

 

The physical size is almost the same, but the resolution isn't even close. If a user is going to do a lot of auto GPSing, the Garmin V and 76 are pretty nice (big, sharp, display). Really, for primarily auto use, I think an external ant. connection is really worth considering.

 

For inbetween, I will say that the Meridian is much more vehicle friendly than the eTrex line. Physically larger screen is nice, and one finger, front panel operation, is too.

 

-jjf

[+megatech]

Go with the GPS-V! You will not be disappointed.

 

"The more original a discovery,the more obvious it seems afterwards"

[bpwatts]

Well, I finally decided on an eTrex Legend. It's cheap enough (219 from offroute and geocaching.com gets a kickback I believe), has enough base memory (I live in Central Texas, I think I'll need it), and enough features to keep me happy.

 

As far as using it in a vehicle, I have no problem getting an ext antenna to resolve any reception problems. Would the fact I have a sun roof help reception any?

[Atilla the Pun]

The sun roof will only help if you have it open.

 

No external antenna connection on the eTrex line.

 

Don't know who's bashing Magellans, I have a Map 330 and love it.

 

AtP

[Bagbug]

I had a Legend for 5 weeks, terrible GPS, like all the eTrex series.

 

Worst antenna available on the market.

Very slow to lock.

Very slow to scroll out of the map.

You will almost always be 100 feet off of where u r on the map.

 

Any Magellan Meridian/Sportrak or Garmin map76 , 76s, Rino is better than the Legend.

 

DONT GET AN ETREX !!!

 

And btw , where will you get an ext. antenna for the Legend ? Where does it plug in the unit ?

 

Bag

[bpwatts]

I'm getting the feeling that the battle between Garmin and Magellan is like Ford and Chevy. You're going to find lots of oldtimers who swear by Ford and think Chevy is Satan Incarnate. And vice versa.

 

Alright, so there's no external antenna for an Etrex. My mistake on that one, sorry. Here's a question for you Magellan folks. Regarding the Map330 line....is the lower resolution screen really that bad? I've heard that the unit doesn't zoom as well when you hit waypoints?

[+GOT GPS?]

All-In-One GPS, how about the Coffee Maker GPS??

 

Of all the gps units i have had, the GPS V is the best all around unit to have. We have come a long way with the technology. This best GPS will be a combination of the GPS V and the Meridian Gold, and hopefully we will see that gps in a year or so.

 

My home page about GPS units and information

[Aladin Sane]

I have been using a Map 330 x for about a month now. I got it for $200 at Sam's Club and got the $50 rebate. I have no complaints about the unit at all. I don't understand your question about problems zooming into waypoints. I can zoom down to 100 feet. I use the unit for caching and as an electronic map when travelling in a car. I love it. I just load up a detailed map of where ever I am flying to for work and then use it to drive to my final destination. I can't believe the detail of the maps. I would highly recomend this unit to anyone. Get one before they are gone.

[bpwatts]

...buying a magellan meridian gold. got it for 212 off Ebay. i'll give it the runthough this weekend when i start caching