Thinking About Getting Magelan Color

[+J. Galt]

Thinking about getting a Magellan color hand held. Any thought for owners? I currently have a Garmin Legend, does anyone know how they would compare?

 

Thanks

[+Night Stalker]

I am a Magellan SporTrak Pro user, so hopefully I won't be accused of prejudice. I have looked at both the SporTrak Color and the Garmin 60CS. The screen on the Garmin looks sharper and brighter then on the Magellan. I have not had either out in the sunlight to see if the screens washout in direct sunlight, but a fellow cacher said his Magellan was hard to read in direct sunlight. The compass on the Magellan is better than on than on the Garmin. Point to point is better on the Garmin, though both units have some issues with the new software. After looking at both I think I will save my money for the 60CS. Just my opinion.

 

[Bowfin]

I've had no problems reading my STColor in direct sunlight.

 

Bowfin

[+Z_Statman]

I have one 1 GPSr and that is the M Color; I also am new to this sport. That said, the Color's battery life is about 8-10 hours of continuous use, so it seems, and the screen really 'blacks out' in heavy sun light and without the back light.

 

Accuracy seems really good, easily w/n 2-4 meters but verifying this is hard because we must rely on the cache owner to be 'accurate.'

[4x4cache]

...  The screen on the Garmin looks sharper and brighter then on the Magellan.  I have not had either out in the sunlight to see if the screens washout in direct sunlight, but a fellow cacher said his Magellan was hard to read in direct sunlight.  The compass on the Magellan is better than on than on the Garmin.  Point to point is better on the Garmin, though both units have some issues with the new software.  After looking at both I think I will save my money for the 60CS.  Just my opinion.

 

I am definate happy the the 60cs. The screen actually improves in brightness and clarity and readablity in the sun. The colors don't wash out either, you see everything just as if you had the back light on full in the dark. I don't know how they do it but it is excelent.

[+Quoddy]

I switched from a MeriColor to a Garmin 60cs last week. I was interesting doing a few caches with one in each hand. The Maggie shows a steady arrow due to the long averaging it does, the Garmin was showing every movement of my hand with it's intantaneous readings. I quickly learned to keep that hand steady! The Garmin shows ground zero long before the Maggie, which is part of the reason I switched. I was being beaten to litterally every cache waiting for my Maggie to get past it's backlash stage when caching with partners.

 

As far as the color goes...using a full backlight is almost a necessity when using the Maggie. The 60cs color is fantastic, and as was just mentioned, actually improves in bright sunlight.

 

I loved the Mericolor, and with the DirectRoute it made a great GPSr. I am still in a learning stage with the Garmin, but it looks like it is going to be a winner!

[+GOT GPS?]

...  The screen on the Garmin looks sharper and brighter then on the Magellan.  I have not had either out in the sunlight to see if the screens washout in direct sunlight, but a fellow cacher said his Magellan was hard to read in direct sunlight.  The compass on the Magellan is better than on than on the Garmin.  Point to point is better on the Garmin, though both units have some issues with the new software.  After looking at both I think I will save my money for the 60CS.  Just my opinion.

 

I am definate happy the the 60cs. The screen actually improves in brightness and clarity and readablity in the sun. The colors don't wash out either, you see everything just as if you had the back light on full in the dark. I don't know how they do it but it is excelent.

The screen on the 60C/CS is a Transflective display. It has a reflective material on the back side of the Liquid Crystal Display, so that the Display shows up very well in direct sunlight, but not well when using in the car, when glare is reflecting off the plastic screen, but when pluged in to external power the display lights up anyway.

 

The MeriColor would have been excellent if it had a larger version of the same Display module of the 60C/CS

Edited April 22, 2004 by GOT GPS?