Who's Winning? Garmin Or Magellan?

[+Insp Gadget]

I wonder who is winning the GPS sales race? Garmin or Magellan? From what I see in local stores and read in the NG's, I feel that Garmin is leading by a good lead. I personally find the Garmins much more user friendly than the Magellans.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[umc]

I was recently comparing the Garmin Street Pilot 2610 to the Magellan Road Mate 700 and have decided that the 2610 wins hands down. The main reasons are because the RoadMate doesn't allow any updates to the map although it does have all of the US at street level. You also can't DL waypoints to the RoadMate. Because of those two things and the thought of the 10GB HDD going bad before the GPS side of things would have made me take sides with the 2610.

 

I currently own a Lowrance Global Map 100, Garmin GPS V and a Magellan Meridian Platinum. So I'm not biased one way or another, it comes down to which is the best for what I want to do.

[+planetrobert]

magellan in my book, but that is my corner of the world

[eaglenj1]

I own a Garmin and a Magellan unit (Vista and Meridian). From a hardware standpoint, I find both units to be equally acceptable. That's where the equality ends.

The software from Garmin (Mapsource) is a lot more user friendly. Turn-by turn directions can be downloaded to your unit. Magellan (Mapsend) doesn't allow TBT directions. They use line of sight (straight line from point to point), which is useless if you are trying to go somewhere.

Garmin allows you to print TBT directions which gives a hard copy to look at while driving.

And lastly, the road and points of interest database in the Garmin software seems to be more up to date.

For basic caching, where road maps and directions are not needed, either unit will do. If you want to find out how to get near the cache area (directions), Garmin is absolutely the way to go.

These views are only given from my usage with both companies and should be taken with a grain of salt. Some people swear by Magellan and this is OK, but my next unit (color screen) is going to be a Garmin.

Hope this helped.

EagleNJ1

Edited November 22, 2003 by eaglenj1

[+Insp Gadget]

magellan in my book, but that is my corner of the world

And why do you sway towards the Magellan? Have you tried both?

[umc]

Magellan (Mapsend) doesn't allow TBT directions.

Mapsend may not but they do offer software now for your sport tracks and meridians that does turn by turn. Also their RoadMate model (mentioned above in my post) is for pure road driving with turn by turn voice prompts.

[umc]

I think they are fords to Chevy's Apples to Oranges btw.

Edited November 22, 2003 by umc

[+Insp Gadget]

You also can't DL waypoints to the RoadMate.

I'm amazed that you can't do this!!! Why would Magellan leave out this important feature???

[umc]

Geeez, I wish I knew. I first found the 2610 (drool drool) then I came accross the roadmate 700 (major drool drool). When I read that it had a 10GB hard drive I couldn't believe it. That just blew me away and I wanted to know more. I didn't see anything on their site about waypoints or uploading/downloading maps so I called Magellan.

 

I talked to someone in their tech support department and he explained to me that all the maps are on there so no need for that and went on to say that its for address to address/intersection, store whatever. No waypoints though. I thought that was dumb too. I asked about software updates and what to do with those and he told me that you had to send the whole unit in for the updates. I was sooooo turned off by that and went on my way.

 

Thats what one guy from Magellan said, I wouldn't mind talking to another just to confirm it but again, thats what I was told.

 

I guess it didn't really surprise me since it never seems that anyone wants to make a gps that will end the need for all other gps's. Like the GPS V, its a great unit that can go from home to car to cache and back and auto route you the whole way but whats the point of having a auto-routing gps if you are limited in the amount of maps you can have? They should have made that take a memory card and it would be an awesome unit.

 

With the 24MB of memory that it has I could drive from one end of it to the other in about 2 and a half hours. Again, whats the point. I works great for getting me around the Metro Detroit area and I love it for that but a vacation gps its not.

 

From a pure driving stand point both the 2610 and roadmate would be great. If you are looking for a all in one then the Garmin 60cs comes close but still its only 56MB of memory which is better but you would still be able to drive out of it in less than a day depending on how you have the maps configured. Magellan is doing something right with their new auto routing software that can be added to the Sport tracks or Meridians, not to mention that the Meridians take SD cards, so thats a plus.

 

Its really hard to say who is winning, I would say they are neck and neck.

[+nincehelser]

The December 2003 issue of Business 2.0 magazine has an article about Garmin starting on page 64.

 

According the to sidebar:

 

Market Share

Garmin: 50%

Magellean: less than 40%

Lowrance: less than 10%

Cobra: less than 2%

 

Revenue:

Garmin: $465 Million

Magellan: $200 Million

Lowrance: $79.5 Million

Cobra: $1.7 Million

 

George

[+Damenace]

Well I am partial to the Meridian only because that is what I use. Would I say that the magellan is better that the garmin? I can't say that because I have never tried any other make or model. It is easy to rate the ease of a GPS when that is the only one you have ever used so I would be biased to make that judgment. HOWEVER, the cacher that I usually go with uses a Garmin Etrex and I have to admit that what you get for the price you pay the Garmin Etrex ranks up there. There are features on the Etrex that I like that the Meridian doesn't have and there is a $250.00 price differance. In my opinion comparing Garmin against Magellan is like trying to compare apples and oranges, they both have there pro's and con's.

 

Damenace

[+Solar Max]

I use both a Magellan Meridian Platinum and an eTrex Legend, with mapSource 5 and Mapsend, as well as Magellan's new Directroute TBT software. The Magellan now does TBT, but the Garmin doesn't. The Garmin does some things better, the Magellan others. Example, the Magellan averages coords much more quickly , and gives a better, faster reading. The Garmin always gets the same coords, but takes longer. The Garmin has better menus, though. So far, I lean towards the Meridian, but just barely.

[+shunra]

I am deliberating between a Magellan Sportrak Pro on the one hand and a Garmin Vista or a MAP76 on the other hand. From listening on these forums, and from private conversations and impressionistic web research, I understand (and correct me if I'm wrong) that:

 

- they're all in the same mid-range price category, feature comparable amounts of memory, and allow the uploading of waypoints and mapping software;

- the Sportrak has a large screen, the Vista has a high resolution, and the Map76 has both. they all have gray-scale screens;

- the Vista has tide information, the others don't;

- the Sportrak does not have an electronic compass, whereas the two Garmins do;

- the Sportrak is more rugged;

- the Sportrak gets better and faster signals;

- Garmins are more user-friendly;

- Garmin's customer support is generally more fortcoming and responsive than Magellan's;

 

Is there anything else important I should consider when comparing these three, and is there another unit in the same price category (I can't afford to go higher this year) that I should consider as well? Is the Geocaching Offroute online store the best place to buy, or are there better places? Is buying a used one a good idea, if this is going to be this cachoholic's main, though not only, unit (I'll keep my Magellan Blazer 12 as a backup)?

 

TIA to all ye helpful cachers!

[+webscouter.]

After playing with the new Garmin 60 I think you might want to try to spend the extra to pick it up. At the very minimum it is worth waiting for its' introduction as the current units will most likely be discounted.

[+sodajerk]

- the Sportrak does not have an electronic compass, whereas the two Garmins do;

 

My Spor Trac Pro DOES have an electronic compass.

 

I got it because of a good buy at Flying J when I read about it on this forum. I really did not do very much comparison shopping, but I am not unhappy with the SportTrac

 

Hooked to my laptop, sitting on top of the doghouse, I can get lost and found several times in one trip. however I do not have turn by turn talking directions, but my wife tells me where to go.

 

Just my $.02.

[+GOT GPS?]

The Garmins have better tracklogging, Trip Computer Info, and you can do a screen capture of a Garmin, with G7ToWIN.

 

I have had several Magellans, and with my Platinum that I had, I had to keep track of the elasped time using my wrist watch, because the silly platinum cant do that. On my trips the tracklogging set to it's highest resolution on the Platinum, still did not even come close to the tracklog quality of the GPS V. When you turn the Garmin GPS recievers on and off, that creates tracklog segments in the unit. You end up with one unbroken tracklog on a Magellan, no matter how you do it.

 

GPSMAP 60CS:

With it's USB connection, you can update it's maps in an instant using a small computer, while on the road. 56 megabytes is enough for a long narrow strip of mapping, say from Detroit to New York State.

 

GPS V = 19megabytes.

19 + 19 + 18 = 56 megabytes = GPSMAP 60CS

 

With two GPS V units, I was able to drive from Detroit to the western end of New York State, but I messed up on not having western New York on either GPS V.

[+GOT GPS?]

With the small GPS memories, I can't have AutoRouting on the units, because I would Just have south-east Michigan on a GPS with the Routing data, when doing a trip.

[umc]

the Sportrak gets better and faster signals;

 

I don't know that to be true but that is one of the most important things when it comes to buying a GPS IMHO.

 

Out of the three GPSs I own (GM100 V, Plat) I've used the Plat all of 5 minutes even though we've had it for 8 months so I can't really comment on that. The Lowrance Global Map 100 gets a lock and holds it better than any other GPS I've evver seen, and a heck of a lot better than the V. I've lost lock under thick canopy with my V and frustrated because I couldn't get to the cache I would break out the gm100. Not only would it get lock in the same place the V lost it but it would hold lock until I turned it off again. This unit is now 5 years old and was my first GPS but it still kicks butt.

 

If lowrances iFinder is anything like the Global Map 100 then I would suggest you take a look at it. Its in your price range and has a lot of great features. I've often told myself that I was going to buy one just because but haven't yet.

 

Again, a big part of GPS is getting lock and keeping it then the features should come after.

[+robert]

FWIW, there are 4-6 of us MGS members who go out caching. At any given time, the split is 50/50 Garmin and Magellan.

 

At the end of a long day, the cache finds are split evenly at 50/50. Sometimes a little up or down, but almost always it's a good 50/50.

 

Either will do the job.

[+PDOP's]

- the Vista has tide information, the others don't;

The Map76 has tide information too as do all of the 76 series and the 72.

[+sbukosky]

Judging by sales, the answer is Garmin. I think a good portion of that is due to avionics sales. I wonder if their sales can be broken down to handheld GPS only? While not on topic, everyone is commenting on theirs, so I'll ad my 2 cents. I've got a V and am anxiously waiting for a version with much more memory and POI updates. I hate being directed to a gas station only to find it has been closed for a year or more or directed to a non-existant Hardee's.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

The December 2003 issue of Business 2.0 magazine has an article about Garmin starting on page 64.

 

According the to sidebar:

 

Market Share

Garmin: 50%

Magellean: less than 40%

Lowrance: less than 10%

Cobra: less than 2%

 

Revenue:

Garmin: $465 Million

Magellan: $200 Million

Lowrance: $79.5 Million

Cobra: $1.7 Million

 

George

50%-40% is pretty close, but I would agree that Garmin is leading for now. Competition is a good thing as far as us consumers are concerned. I'm just wondering when the prices will be going down.

[team_tar]

Consider also the situation outside the USA: I live between Italy and Chile, and in both countries is FAR easier to find Garmin products. In both cases, while in big malls and sport/outdoor/electronics shops you may rather easily fing Garmins, Magellans seem to be sold only by the importer (Marangoni in Italy) online and in their own shop in Milan.

As a result, I never saw a Magellan with my own eyes . Apparently, Garmin has a better international diffusion. I wonder how this has to be in France where Thales is based...

[+shunra]

- the Sportrak does not have an electronic compass, whereas the two Garmins do;

 

My Spor Trac Pro DOES have an electronic compass.

Not according to http://www.offroute.com/gps-compare.html

[+shunra]

- the Vista has tide information, the others don't;

The Map76 has tide information too as do all of the 76 series and the 72.

Sorry, I misquoted my source. I should have said that the Map76 has it, whereas the Vista has not. Here's a correction:

 

- they're all in the same mid-range price category, feature comparable amounts of memory, and allow the uploading of waypoints and mapping software;

- the Sportrak has a large screen, the Vista has a high resolution, and the Map76 has both. they all have gray-scale screens;

- the Map76 has tide information, the others don't;

- the Sportrak does not have an electronic compass, whereas the two Garmins do;

- the Sportrak is more rugged;

- the Sportrak gets better and faster signals;

- Garmins are more user-friendly;

- Garmin's customer support is generally more fortcoming and responsive than Magellan's;

[+shunra]

the Sportrak gets better and faster signals;

 

I don't know that to be true but that is one of the most important things when it comes to buying a GPS IMHO.

 

Out of the three GPSs I own (GM100 V, Plat) I've used the Plat all of 5 minutes even though we've had it for 8 months so I can't really comment on that. The Lowrance Global Map 100 gets a lock and holds it better than any other GPS I've evver seen, and a heck of a lot better than the V. I've lost lock under thick canopy with my V and frustrated because I couldn't get to the cache I would break out the gm100. Not only would it get lock in the same place the V lost it but it would hold lock until I turned it off again. This unit is now 5 years old and was my first GPS but it still kicks butt.

 

If lowrances iFinder is anything like the Global Map 100 then I would suggest you take a look at it. Its in your price range and has a lot of great features. I've often told myself that I was going to buy one just because but haven't yet.

 

Again, a big part of GPS is getting lock and keeping it then the features should come after.

As far as good reception goes, I might as well stick with my antique Magellan Blazer 12. I want to improve on features without loosing signal quality.

 

Lowrance may have excellent technology, bit a look at their site does not give me much of the information I want. There is little information of interest to back-country cachers like us, and no information at all about Topo maps. It is probably no coincidence that most of us choose for Garmin and Magellan. Do you have any experience-based relevant user information about them that their own site doesn't provide?

[+onthewave]

all of these responses are good, accurate, and give a good break down of the pros and cons. however, as someone who just a few weeks ago finished a HUGE process of picking a gps to buy, i'll give my two cents on a few things that haven't been mentioned. i compared an etrex legend and a sportrak map. while many signs point toward the etrex (better basemap, better battery usage, better resolution, etc.) i picked the sportrak map for a few important reasons:

 

1) the etrex is dinky. i have big hands, and trying to use that dumb little joystick with my massive thumb while operating the side buttons with my meat hook fingers not only blocked out the entire screen but made me feel like i was trying to operate a kids toy. the sportrak on the other hand has not only a slightly bigger frame, but also has bigger buttons on the bottom, out of the way of the screen. sometimes bigger IS better.

 

2) i'm in alberta, canada. when you live in an area where cold is a way of life, you geocache when others might not. the sportrak screen stayed WAY more responsive in cold weather, and picked up a signal better under cloudy skies than the etrex (maybe because of the bigger antenna). plus, back to the size issue, the sportrak was WAY easier to handle and use with gloves on.

 

3) it was easier to transfer to the car. i like to keep my gpsr in the car so that when i drive close to a cache on my way somewhere i can stop by. the sportrak can beep for me to let me know i'm in the neighborhood. the etrex? not. plus, when you are cheap like me, and you have a $15 cell phone holder that fits the sportrak and not the etrex, that helps too.

 

anyway, that's my two... uh... i guess more like 84 cents... anyway, hope it helps.

[team_tar]

- the Sportrak gets better and faster signals;

- Garmins are more user-friendly;

- Garmin's customer support is generally more fortcoming and responsive than Magellan's;

Some add-ons to your list: the better reception of the Sportrack is tipically referred to comparisons with patch antenna garmin unit, i.e. the eTrexes in your list. The 76 has the quad helix.

Second: etrexes are small and light. This may be a plus or a minus (see the post above). But if you are going to hike with it...

Third: as posted above, etrexes are unsuitable for in-car use. You may or may not be interested in this.

 

This said, I own a Legend and are absolutely happy with it. But I have the sensation that if I had a sportrack I would be happy too... It seems to me that both devices have a good number of satisfied owners (and some unsatisfied). Go to the shop, look which one gives you the better "sensation" and buy it.

[+Jeeters]

- the Sportrak does not have an electronic compass, whereas the two Garmins do;

 

My Spor Trac Pro DOES have an electronic compass.

Not according to http://www.offroute.com/gps-compare.html

And as we all know, everything we read on the internet is true.

 

Seriously, though, the Sportrak has a compass but it's the kind that determines what direction you're moving by watching your GPS movement. i.e, as long as you're moving, it can tell you what direction your going. (i forget what these kind of gpsr compasses are called). It does not have a compass that is able to detect magnetic north, though, like some GPSRs can.

[dave and jaime]

keep in mind that it only takes about 1 year to conceptualize, design, build, and populate a subdivision. for a comparsion why not check out the data that the maps are based on that your local lands government branch has released (at least 5 years old i suspect).

 

in another vien, think about the cenus info, how current is that?

Edited November 22, 2003 by dave and jaime

[+Rubberhead]

The December 2003 issue of Business 2.0 magazine has an article about Garmin starting on page 64.

 

According the to sidebar:

 

Market Share

    Garmin: 50%

    Magellean: less than 40%

    Lowrance: less than 10%

    Cobra: less than 2%

 

Revenue:

    Garmin: $465 Million

    Magellan: $200 Million

    Lowrance: $79.5 Million

    Cobra: $1.7 Million

 

George

50%-40% is pretty close, but I would agree that Garmin is leading for now. Competition is a good thing as far as us consumers are concerned. I'm just wondering when the prices will be going down.

Look at the revenue numbers $465 million for Garmin and $200 million for Magellan.

 

I'm don't know where the difference comes from but either Garmin's avaiation equipment line is making a lot of money or Magellan is buying market share.

[eaglenj1]

I just checked out Garmin's site and I think Santa is going to bring me their GPSMAP 60CS next year for Christmas 2004.

Color display

Electronic compass

Altimeter

GPS caching friendly

Everything I always wanted @ twice the price I want to pay. lol

Adding it to my wishlist now.

[+htimsda]

I talked to someone in their tech support department and he explained to me that all the maps are on there so no need for that and went on to say that its for address to address/intersection, store whatever. No waypoints though. I thought that was dumb too. I asked about software updates and what to do with those and he told me that you had to send the whole unit in for the updates. I was sooooo turned off by that and went on my way.

You definitely do not need to send the unit in to update the firmware. You can update the firmware using a Compact Flash card or USB.

 

And yes, the Magellan Roadmate is designed for vehicle navigation only. It is not meant to be used outside the car. It runs off 12V, and has no batteries.

 

You can store 100 destinations per user, but currently can not transfer them from the PC.

 

If you have any other Magellan Roadmate questions, let me know.

 

Aaron

[+Ish-n-Isha]

I think the Garmin 60CS is reasonably priced at TigerGPS. $418.68

http://www.tigergps.com/gagp60hahegp1.html

 

I paid nearly that amount for my Garmin V (with a few acc. including City Select CD w/ codes for everything).

 

The 60CS will use the same maps and is like getting a Vista thrown in for free.

 

I love my vista for backpacking

The V is great in the car

 

The 60CS is the ultimate for caching with the program it has and now it has memory for 1000 waypoints.

 

The Vista and the V werea bit of a hassle for me since I have the newer tech notebook and they dont give you a serial port. The 60CS has usb.

 

Its really a fit for me so I'll be accepting donations... just contact me and I can tell you where to send the money.....or if its easier for you just send me the unit

[+Solar Max]

I have now decided between the Legend, and the Meridian Platinum. The Garmin is great for Moving map apps in the car, with it's small screen made up for with the big laptop screen. It also fits nicely in my pocket. HOWEVER....

 

The Platinum with it's magnetic compass, audible alerts, and 256 MB on an SD card, and now the brand new DirectRoute autorouting software, is just a great machine. I'm sorry, Legend, you'll always have a place hooked to the laptop.

[+Insp Gadget]

Well I have to ad my 2 cents worth here. In the spring of 2001 I bought a Garmin E-map which I had until June of 2003 when I bought a Magellan Meridian Gold. I only had the MG a few months before buying a Garmin V.

 

As soon as I got the MG, I had this funny feeling about it, that it just wasn't what I was looking for. I immediately found that it was very user unfriendly. It has (if memory serves) 8 different navigation screens where my e-map had 2 or 3. They both gave me pretty much the same info, but the e-map just seemed to do it more logically and I found it MUCH easier to find the info I was looking for on the e-map. What do you need 8 separate screens for??????

 

Secondly, I felt navigating to another city was so much easier with the Garmin unit. My MG came with the detailed street level detail maps for Canada, which I loved, but it was much harder to get from one place to another. As an example, if I wanted to travel from Bathurst to Fredericton, I just chose Fredericton from the E-map's menu and said goto. The MG was different in that it would not allow me to just go to Fredericton, I HAD to enter an address that I was going to in Fredericton. When your going to a strange city, you may not know the address and just want to have information on how to get to the city itself. I felt this to be a major drawback in the MG. I can only assume the new auto routing feature of the Meridian series will do the same, allowing you to go to a certain place and not just a city or town. With my new Garmin V, I can either input a city or an address, if I happen to know it.

 

Third was the tracking feature of the MG. The e-map would leave a trail wherever I went and did so in an excellent manner, giving me more points when I got on a twisty road and not so many on a straight road. I could easily save the track and return to my starting point, each and every time. Now don't ask me, but the MG was terrible in this regard. The tracks were showing up nowhere near where I had traveled, seemingly to shift on their own. I tried a different MG and got the exact same results. I wrote to Magellan about this and did not receive a reply, which may say something about the customer service they offer.

 

Fourth was the way the menus were laid out on the MG. If I wanted to find a Geocache, I could press Find>Waypoints> Nearest (I'm sure this is not right, but just giving an idea here as my MG has been sold now) and select the GC I wanted and hit goto. If I wanted to delete this waypoint, you had to go into a completely different area to find an delete this waypoint, where the Garmin you could do it all from the one screen, making it so much more intuitive to operate.

 

Now please keep in mind that these are my own PERSONAL opinions about the MG unit. I was very dissatisfied with it and was glad to get rid of it ASAP and go back to Garmin. (My sincerest apologies to Garmin for straying, it wont happen again) After having this MG for several months, I still had to concentrate to operate some of the functions whereas the Garmin was just natural to operate.

[+Halden]

As a Newbie, It definitely looks like Garmin has the edge. Most store I went into while looking for my GPSr carried mostly Garmin with one or two MG models (if Any)

 

From a purely visual point of view the MG look much cruder. They just don't look as refined even though I am sure the technology is equivalent.

[+Solar Max]

What do you need 8 separate screens for??????

 

Third was the tracking feature of the MG. The e-map would leave a trail wherever I went and did so in an excellent manner, giving me more points when I got on a twisty road and not so many on a straight road.

 

Fourth was the way the menus were laid out on the MG. If I wanted to find a Geocache, I could press Find>Waypoints> Nearest (I'm sure this is not right, but just giving an idea here as my MG has been sold now) and select the GC I wanted and hit goto. If I wanted to delete this waypoint, you had to go into a completely different area to find an delete this waypoint, where the Garmin you could do it all from the one screen, making it so much more intuitive to operate.

I agree about the 8 screens. I have the Platinum down to 4, as you can choose to include or exclude them. The GoTos are a little more involved ( I just hit Goto, then User Waypoints, then Position, so 3 clicks, where the Legend has just 2 for Waypoints, then Nearest) The tracklog is indeed superior on the Garmin. I just wish there was a way to upgrade memory on the Garmin units.

 

To navigate to New Brunswick, I can empathize. I have MapSend Canada installed on my Platinum, and it has every map in the country on the unit now. It CAN navigate to just a city, or an address.

 

I don't believe that Magellan endorses these big (128MB) and above SD cards, (because they don't make them, and don't make money from them) but they work just fine in my unit, and others, as my research indicated before I bought the 256 MB card.

 

Don't get me wrong, we have 4 Garmins in the house. They are excellent units. I DO like the new toy, however.

[+Insp Gadget]

To navigate to New Brunswick, I can empathize. I have MapSend Canada installed on my Platinum, and it has every map in the country on the unit now. It CAN navigate to just a city, or an address.

 

You ARE able to naviate to just any city in Canada? I knew it has some major cities, but it seemed you could not navigate to a city that was instaled on the extra maps. Can you go to ANY city or Town?

[+Solar Max]

You ARE able to naviate to just any city in Canada? I knew it has some major cities, but it seemed you could not navigate to a city that was instaled on the extra maps. Can you go to ANY city or Town?

The GoTo got me to Low, Quebec, while I was playing with it today. I think 6 people live there now. ( My dad's home town.) I didn't have the address, because I don't think it exists anymore.

 

Now we need Garmin to redo the GPS V with expandable memory. Or maybe we should all go get the 60 CS....mmmm nice toy.

[+Insp Gadget]

You ARE able to naviate to just any city in Canada? I knew it has some major cities, but it seemed you could not navigate to a city that was instaled on the extra maps. Can you go to ANY city or Town?

The GoTo got me to Low, Quebec, while I was playing with it today. I think 6 people live there now. ( My dad's home town.) I didn't have the address, because I don't think it exists anymore.

 

Now we need Garmin to redo the GPS V with expandable memory. Or maybe we should all go get the 60 CS....mmmm nice toy.

Well I'm big enough to admit when I made a mista.... Hmmm, how do you spell that word again? LOL

[+Solar Max]

Well I'm big enough to admit when I made a mista.... Hmmm, how do you spell that word again? LOL

LOL, I don't think you made a mistake at all, Inspector Gadget. Above all, these things are a matter of personal preference. Very few of us ever completely explore everything that an electronic device as complicated as a GPS receiver can do. I, for one, go for personal gratification. As my better half constantly reminds me, the first thing I ever did with my first Garmin was to run around taking waypoints at City Hall, Fire Stations, Police stations (sound familiar to any of you?) because I wanted to be able to DO something with the thing. Then I went and found some geocaches with it. Only then did I start to realize what some of the other features were for.

 

Garmin and Magellan, as well as Lowrance, Cobra, Eagle, and others make great products. Some of us prefer one over the other, some just want to use the things. I admit one thing, though: I'm a sucker for bells and whistles. The Platinum has plenty of those. Do I need to know the barometric pressure? No. Do I want to look at it? Yup. Do I need the Magnetic Compass? Of course not, I carry a real compass every time I go hiking or caching. Do I like it? You bet! Does the display look less professional than a Garmin's? Yes it does. Do I care? Well, maybe a little.

 

I just want a new toy every now and then. There's blatant honesty for you.

[Vlad]

the biggest difference between the magellan and garmin autorouting software (direct route vs city select/city navigator):

 

magellan only autoroutes on the maps included with the direct route software. because direct route is based on navtech maps (as are city select and city navigator) i know that the coverage for canada is extremely limited (vancouver, victoria, kelowna, whistler, calgary, edmonton, banff, toronto, montreal, ottawa, windsor, london, stratford and i think i'm missing a couple here). there are a few thousand more towns and cities not included in this list in canada...

 

the garmins on the other hand are capable of autorouting across map products. by this i mean that not only do they autoroute on city select and city navigator, but also on metroguide and the built-in unit basemaps. in this way you get complete autorouting functionality for all towns and cities in canada.

 

with magellan, again, only on the areas covered by the direct route software.

[+Insp Gadget]

Well I'm big enough to admit when I made a mista.... Hmmm, how do you spell that word again? LOL

LOL, I don't think you made a mistake at all, Inspector Gadget. Above all, these things are a matter of personal preference. Very few of us ever completely explore everything that an electronic device as complicated as a GPS receiver can do. I, for one, go for personal gratification. As my better half constantly reminds me, the first thing I ever did with my first Garmin was to run around taking waypoints at City Hall, Fire Stations, Police stations (sound familiar to any of you?) because I wanted to be able to DO something with the thing. Then I went and found some geocaches with it. Only then did I start to realize what some of the other features were for.

 

Garmin and Magellan, as well as Lowrance, Cobra, Eagle, and others make great products. Some of us prefer one over the other, some just want to use the things. I admit one thing, though: I'm a sucker for bells and whistles. The Platinum has plenty of those. Do I need to know the barometric pressure? No. Do I want to look at it? Yup. Do I need the Magnetic Compass? Of course not, I carry a real compass every time I go hiking or caching. Do I like it? You bet! Does the display look less professional than a Garmin's? Yes it does. Do I care? Well, maybe a little.

 

I just want a new toy every now and then. There's blatant honesty for you.

To be honest, I am a real nerd when it comes to technicial stuff. Believe it or not, I read the manual from cover to cover several times.

 

I called the guy who bought my MG and asked him to do a search for the cities you can navigate to in Northern NB. There were only 3 listed, Campbellton, Bathurst and Tracadie. There are hundreds more in this area and Garmin gives me 27 cities, towns and villages in a 50km radius. No comparison..... Now if we wanted to go to Caraquet with the MG, I can't just go to the town, but if I know the address in the town, it will take me there,. as weird as that is....

 

Am I doing something wrong here?

[+GOT GPS?]

I bought a GPS 315 after having a GPS V for awhile. It is interesting trying to drive and hike to a cache without knowing an area, also I learned to mark each trail intersection with a single digit waypoint, and tried Navigating on the GPS 315 in Course UP mode. Interesting GPS, but the Garmins are much better trackloggers, especially one that is very sensitive. Ive heard people with problems receiving good signal on their GPS V's for instance, but both of my GPS V's are very good with Signal Sensitivity, Trip Information, and excellent trackloggers. My two FIVES are better than any of my other Garmins or Magellans ive had on these issues, and why I praise them so much. UMC has had problems with his GPS V with reception problems, but there are bad apples in every basket of GPS make and model. What amazes me is all the abuse the old GPS V of mine has received and still works great, but ive had to wind a little tape around my rechargeables so the old GPS V wont suffer the Shut-OFFS that happened constantly.

[Cachengrab]

Replying to Who's Winning? Garmin Or Magellan?

 

The consumer is the ultimate winner, after all if there is a marketshare someone somewhere will keep trying to improve on the system.

 

I am a newbie to this sport and find the advancements in GPS's over the years or even the monthly advancements to be incredible.

[martmann]

- the Sportrak does not have an electronic compass, whereas the two Garmins do;

 

My Spor Trac Pro DOES have an electronic compass.

Not according to http://www.offroute.com/gps-compare.html

And as we all know, everything we read on the internet is true.

 

Seriously, though, the Sportrak has a compass but it's the kind that determines what direction you're moving by watching your GPS movement. i.e, as long as you're moving, it can tell you what direction your going. (i forget what these kind of gpsr compasses are called). It does not have a compass that is able to detect magnetic north, though, like some GPSRs can.

When you say a GPS has a built in compass, it means one that detects magnetic heading. what you are describing is in every GPS unit. So no, the Sport Trak Pro does not have a built in compass.

[+Prime Suspect]

Third: as posted above, etrexes are unsuitable for in-car use.

That's ridiculous. I use my Vista for car trips on an almost weekly basis. I plan the route using Street Atlas, and upload the route to the GPS. Works great. The trick, of course, is that you should be using the Navigation screen, not the map screen, to navigate by. Since Garmin added the "bending arrow" function that tells you which direction to turn before you get to the intersection, it's pretty much all you need.

[+phantom4099]

Well I have to ad my 2 cents worth here. In the spring of 2001 I bought a Garmin E-map which I had until June of 2003 when I bought a Magellan Meridian Gold. I only had the MG a few months before buying a Garmin V.

 

As soon as I got the MG, I had this funny feeling about it, that it just wasn't what I was looking for. I immediately found that it was very user unfriendly. It has (if memory serves) 8 different navigation screens where my e-map had 2 or 3. They both gave me pretty much the same info, but the e-map just seemed to do it more logically and I found it MUCH easier to find the info I was looking for on the e-map. What do you need 8 separate screens for??????

 

Secondly, I felt navigating to another city was so much easier with the Garmin unit. My MG came with the detailed street level detail maps for Canada, which I loved, but it was much harder to get from one place to another. As an example, if I wanted to travel from Bathurst to Fredericton, I just chose Fredericton from the E-map's menu and said goto. The MG was different in that it would not allow me to just go to Fredericton, I HAD to enter an address that I was going to in Fredericton. When your going to a strange city, you may not know the address and just want to have information on how to get to the city itself. I felt this to be a major drawback in the MG. I can only assume the new auto routing feature of the Meridian series will do the same, allowing you to go to a certain place and not just a city or town. With my new Garmin V, I can either input a city or an address, if I happen to know it.

 

Third was the tracking feature of the MG. The e-map would leave a trail wherever I went and did so in an excellent manner, giving me more points when I got on a twisty road and not so many on a straight road. I could easily save the track and return to my starting point, each and every time. Now don't ask me, but the MG was terrible in this regard. The tracks were showing up nowhere near where I had traveled, seemingly to shift on their own. I tried a different MG and got the exact same results. I wrote to Magellan about this and did not receive a reply, which may say something about the customer service they offer.

 

Fourth was the way the menus were laid out on the MG. If I wanted to find a Geocache, I could press Find>Waypoints> Nearest (I'm sure this is not right, but just giving an idea here as my MG has been sold now) and select the GC I wanted and hit goto. If I wanted to delete this waypoint, you had to go into a completely different area to find an delete this waypoint, where the Garmin you could do it all from the one screen, making it so much more intuitive to operate.

 

Now please keep in mind that these are my own PERSONAL opinions about the MG unit. I was very dissatisfied with it and was glad to get rid of it ASAP and go back to Garmin. (My sincerest apologies to Garmin for straying, it wont happen again) After having this MG for several months, I still had to concentrate to operate some of the functions whereas the Garmin was just natural to operate.

 

The additional screens on the meridian are to make it work in more than one area (e.g. highway screen when navigating on water/air, compass screen is good for geocaching, 4 large data screen is excellent if your hard of seeing or the unit is further away, also there is a screen so you can fit more data on one screen which is handy if you need it, map screen for car use). You can shut off most of these screens if you don't want them, but they are there if you do (what about your emap?). Since your use to Garmin I can see how this could be difficult, just like some one use to a Magellan may find the Garmin difficult.

 

In the USA you can hit goto-cities (multiply ways to search for them), once you find the city hit enter (I checked Fredericton Canada is in the database, but I am not sure if the data base is as complete as the USA).

 

I agree the track setting on my V is alot better than the setting on my meridian. You can also adjust the Meridian track setting, this should at least give you a decent depection of your travel (auto detail will do a decent job). The full 2000 point of the meridian track log can be saved to the SD card; the garmins are limited to 10 tracks with 250-750 points each (depending on unit).

 

I will agree that Magellan is pretty bad about emails, but there phone support is great.

 

Once you get use to the menus you can find what you’re looking for fairly easily.

There is an easier way to activate a goto, press the GOTO button, select user waypoint (choose method of search), find waypoint and hit enter.

 

To delete a waypoint hit menu-database-user waypoint (select search method) find waypoint you want deleted and hit menu-delete waypoint.

 

I also noticed some one mention you can auto route across Garmins set of maps, this is untrue. You can only auto route on City Select/Navigator, Metroguide 4.01, and the basemap. You can’t auto route on their Topo, Roads and Rec, or any other version of Metroguide (other than 4.01).

 

Wyatt W.

Correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

[team_tar]

That's ridiculous. I use my Vista for car trips on an almost weekly basis. I plan the route using Street Atlas, and upload the route to the GPS. Works great. The trick, of course, is that you should be using the Navigation screen, not the map screen, to navigate by. Since Garmin added the "bending arrow" function that tells you which direction to turn before you get to the intersection, it's pretty much all you need.

Well, I admit "unsuitable" is a bit too strong. What I meant was that due to screen size, antenna type (that works better if the unit is held horizontal) and button position the eTrex is far from being the ideal in-car GPS. In fact, it was ergonomically conceived to b held in hand while walking, what it does perfectly.

 

I'm the happy owner of a Legend, but I don't use the GPS while driving. Simply I think that if one plans to use a GPS heavily for driving, a V or a Sportrack or a Meridian for example may be a better choice...