Meridian Vs. Garmin

[CdaleR4000si]

I am about to buy my first GPS reciever and was wondering if anyone could tell me a few things. I am looking at a Meridian (probably color) and various Garmin models (Vista or upcoming 60c/cs), I tend to lean toward Garmin simply because I know more about the company and have used a GPS III in the past, but I like the memory expansion capabilities with the Magellan. The only real downside I can see with the Mag, is the slower aquisition rate. Has anyone found this to be an issue? I have been all over the web reading about these units, but I am kind of overloaded by all of the marketing claims, I figured that I would rather get the opinions of people in the real world who actually use them. Thanks.

[+Renegade Knight]

I use the GPS V and have seen and used the Sport Track Pro.

 

Garmin has an easier to use interface. The SD card would be nice. But per Jeremy's post on the 60C he reviewed Garmin chose not to use SD cards for reasons of ruggedness.

 

I would not hesitate to upgrade to the 60C or CS.

 

The Sport Track Pro relative to the GPS V seem to be about the same for acquistion. Some days I get to flip my cache partern crap about how slow his GPS is and some days he gets to flime me crap for the same reason.

[+SBPhishy]

I think their aquisition rate is great. Easily comprable to Garmins. I would get the Meridian Platinum if i was going to get a magellan, and i would only get the 60s/cs if i were to get a garmin. So far, the only garmin that i have been really impressed with (obviously i havent seen it in person) is the new 60c/cs. A friend has the vista, and while i like it, i would get a magellan over it. But the new 60's look pretty darn cool.

[+DustyJacket]

You really have to approach it on a model-by-model basis. Not one brand vs. another.

 

The original basic Meridian won't compare will to the Garmin map60.

A yellow etrex won't compare well to a Meridian Platinum.

 

I Have a Meridian color, and it locks on as fast or faster than my brother-in-law's Vista. And it is much faster than my wife's Merigreen. None of the 3 is any problem though.

 

Determine all the uses you'll have for your GPSr, then prioritize the features:

Screen size, screen resolution. (For driving I like a larger screen)

Buttons on front (driving or boating) vs buttons on the side.

Antenna (patch antenna on eTrex, have to hold it flat (horizontal to ground) or quad-helix antenna - have to hold verticle). If in deep canyons, at patch antenna will do better. If in woods, a quad-helix will do better.

Size of the unit (Garmins are much smaller)

And, if you are into this, the Garmin is a US company and Magellan isnt.

Lots of other things.

[+RockyRiver]

I own the Magellan Platinum and a Garmin Map76S along with many other GPS's.

They both have likes and some dislikes about them, As long as you go with a top of the line unit from either company you will be happy. The display on the 76S is much sharper and better. The detail mapping on the Garmin is also much better.

The Magellan Platinum has SD card expandability, this makes for a terrific unit when it comes to transfering detailed maps. Also the Magellans case is tougher to scratches and ding when you drop it or bump it. All in all when I go out I find myself grabbing the Magellan Platinum more. I can't wait to get the 60CS when it hits the market, although I think its just marketing making the 60CS look better than it really is to the public.

[+RockyRiver]

Oh and by the way here is an article I wrote for another fourm back in December.

The mention of pictures in this article does not pertain to this fourm.

 

Garmin 76S VS Magellan Platinum, The big dogs duke it out.

 

I had to take a trip from North Carolina (My home state) to Las Vegas, Nevada for a little business and pleasure. In this trip I thought I would do a side by side comparison of the two on this journey and while in Las Vegas. My main part of testing was in the air on an Airliner. I know these two units are handhelds and are more for Marine and Land use, but I feel A good GPS should be an all around performer and not

limited to just certain task. This alleviates the problem of buying several GPS’s, one for each task. At the time of this writing (12-09-03) the two best standard screen (not color) handheld units offered by the two top guns are the Garmin 76S and the Magellan Platinum. Details about the two units can be found on these homepages from each manufacturer:

http://www.magellangps.com/en/products/product.asp?PRODID=1

 

http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap76s/

 

Please forgive me for any typos or errors I may have in my article, it is not meant to promote or defame either unit, but to simply point out facts the way I found them.

I will edit and admit error on my behalf if anyone wishes to make reply’s about its contents. Thank you.

 

 

Magellan Platinum: (firmware ver5.12)

This unit has a tough rugged look, and looks ready for a day of hiking or driving.

While in flight this unit picked up nicely the satellites it needed in each state and stayed accurate throughout the flight. The unit does seems to have to much detail at the 80 mile zoom screen, even with the detail set in the menu to “LESS” . I would suggest to Magellan to have no highways shown after 80 to 100 mile zoom and major towns and cities only, or have in the menu selection not just land and marine use, but also aerial to correct this. I really do not care to see Highway 218 on the GPS at 36,000 feet.

Also a slight bug in the firmware was the fact that at any altitude over 20,000 feet the screen info space for the altitude would cut the first digit in half, in other words the left side of 2 in 20,000 FT would be cut off. The unit was a joy to use and if it had an external

antenna port it would be an even better unit for cabin use when you can’t hold the unit near the window all the time. The display seemed to be a little grainy in comparison to its competitor. In the air the Magellan did good overall. Once on the ground I turned the detail mapping on Via a standard optional SD memory expansion card (not included with most units) just like the ones found in certain digital cameras. All sizes of SD cards are available, but this particular unit has an optional 256 MB SD card made by Sandisk in it, so a lot of detail mapping can be placed in this unit without having the need to reprogram for another given area, eliminating the need for a laptop on travels. Also one other note that makes this unit a joy to program is the fact that you can reprogram the SD memory expansion card with a standard SD film reader (not included), just like the ones used for digital cameras. Since most digital film readers are USB this means programming the SD cards for detail mapping is quick and takes only a few minutes to do whole states. Magellan should do better on correcting its detail maps accuracy and offer to its users of Mapsend an update of new roads and info at least every 6 months to 1 year.

 

Pros – Button controls beneath the screen make it a joy to use, SD card memory expansion (the future now), easy on batteries in comparison to its competitor, tough outer case that does not show scratches easily.

 

Cons – Detail mapping not as accurate as competitors, unit needs to be able to adjust font size, needs ability for aerial use in menu along with marine and land, LCD display grainy in comparison to competitor, The pointer indicating your position on the map screen

needs to be smaller or the ability to make it user selectable in the menu, Example small, medium, large, No lanyard hole on unit, No external antenna connection port, Compass seemed not to be 100% accurate even after calibrating several times.

 

Overall: 4 star rating out of a maximum of 5 on the Magellan Platinum

(This is a rating based on just the two units reviewed in the article, and if they had their cons fixed would have rated higher).

 

Garmin 76S: (firmware ver3.60)

 

This unit has a nice clean and well built look about it and its LCD screen is excellent to say the least, and this is one of Garmin’s strong points. In the air this unit took a while to get a fix on the satellites and often lost them in flight. The unit gave me the ability to add elevation to the map screen, but not actual GPS elevation, resulting in the elevation being shown that of the cabin pressure on the plane (about 7600 feet), even though I had a lock on 4 birds. On the Satellite status screen of the GPS was the actual GPS elevation that did show the actual elevation of 36,000 feet. After reading thru the manual, I found no way to add actual GPS elevation to the map screen info. I am sure this can be corrected in a latter firmware version. The unit when set to “LESS” in the menu on its mapping info, showed just the right amount of detail such as towns and cities and major interstates when zoomed to 80 or 100 miles, making the 76S have the best looking detail for flight. The unit is limited when it comes to detail mapping to 24MB’s of info. The unit uses standard comport communication to upload detail mapping to the unit and this takes about 40 to 45 minutes to upload all 24 MB’s this way. In years past this has been the standard way of uploading maps to units, but I think that this will be a thing of the past and cheaper units on newer models to come from Garmin. Once on the ground the 76S performed flawlessly, and the detail mapping showed to be more accurate and superior to that of its competitor. The 76S seemed to be a well thought out GPS, with lots of features and options to make anyone happy using it, not needing a large area of detail mapping. Hikers and boaters will benefit more from this unit more than long range travelers.

 

Pros – Excellent detail mapping available with optional Mapsource software, LCD is crisp and the best I’ve ever seen on a GPS, Has a lanyard hole and lanyard, External antenna port, Pointer indicating your position on map screen is just the right size.

 

Cons – Rougher on batteries than competitor, needs ability to turn backlight on longer than 2 minutes (4 Minutes), Does not seem to pickup and lock on satellites as fast as competitors, Control buttons are above the screen and this puts your hands in the way of the screen when using controls, Only 24 MB’s of built in memory, Slow comport uploads

of detail maps, Once on the ground for compass to be accurate you must hold unit level, case scratches easily.

 

Overall: 3.5 stars out of a possible 5

(This is a rating based on just the two units reviewed in the article, and if they had their cons fixed would have rated higher).

 

Conclusion: Its hard to go wrong with either unit, however I think that Magellan caught Garmin off guard when they introduced the Meridian series and Garmin is going to have to catch up a little on some its features and options especially the memory storage and the out dated comport upload area. I think we as consumers are going to reap the rewards as now Magellan seems to have forced Garmin into making more sophisticated units sooner than they would like, to keep up to or surpass their competitors in the near future. I feel strongly that in electronics, the manufacturers hold back on making units that are fully loaded with all the bells and whistles that we as consumers want, this way they add a few options a year to keep us wanting more. By doing this they make us want the newer fancier model they offer every few years, thus creating more sales, and not having to compete with their true number one competitor, people selling used units.

 

RockyRiver