Explorist Size Vs Garmin C60??

[MSSP]

Start off saying I'm extremely new to the whole GPS thing. Bought my first one 10days ago after taking a road trip and having a rough time navigating.

 

Bought a Meridian Gold from Wally world for $200. Did some caches and read all I could. Although a good solid upgradeable unit, I found it somewhat oversized and funny shaped. Returned it with no hassles.

 

Someone should actually rent these things to try out so you can actually make an informed decision as to what you actually want /need. Next I purchased a Magellan Explorist 200 from my local sporting goods store for $150. Love the size/feel of it plus the amber backlight is great in the car. Box is marked 16MB memory so I thought it had the same basemap as the Meridian Gold. A quick trip to the website confirmed that it's only 8MB! Of course they had about 10 boxes marked this way. The downside of the Explorist's of course is no expandability, no connectivity, but I did like the 14 channel reciever. I'll probably return it now as I don't feel it will meet my needs either.

 

My question is that the Garmin 60C seems to have a huge following and seems to have most of the features anyone would want (and then some). How does it compare size wise to the Explorist line from Magellan. I love that size and also have considered the Legend C but for almost the same money the C60 has to be the way to go...

 

HELP A NOOB OUT!!

[+GentleWhisper]

The Magellan eXplorist 200:

 

Unit Size (H x W x D) 4.6 x 2.1 x 1.3

Unit Weight 4 oz.

 

The Garmin 60cs

 

Unit Size (H x W x D) 6.1 x 2.4 x 1.3

Unit Weight 5.4 oz. w/o batteries

Edited August 14, 2004 by GentleWhisper

[+GOT GPS?]

Best one I ever had is the 60C.

 

Best GPS I ever used for Geocaching was the Meridian Platinum without Direct Route.

 

Worst GPS was the Vista because I kept loosing lock all the time.

[MSSP]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I started out with the Magellan products because I heard they get and hold "Lock" better. But after all the reading I'm more confused than ever. I'm sure the 60C is plenty accurate... Not to mention it is aesthetically pleasing to me.

 

Mike

[+Renegade Knight]

In a side by side test inside a house the best reception was.

 

60CS followed by a GPS V

 

The Sport track pro couldn't get a lock. RobertLipe has had different results while sitting at his desk.

 

In real world testing the V and the Sport Track Pro had about the same ability to get a lock under tree cover.

 

I can't vouch for the Gold but once you got into the Quad Helix antances I haven't seen any difference in lock I've seen a lot of differnces in how the Garmin and the Magellen work with information they recieve from their antaneas.

[+DashHammer]

The Sport track pro couldn't get a lock.  RobertLipe has had different results while sitting at his desk.

I get locks sitting at my desk with my SporTrak Pro.

 

Alan

[+as77]

The 60cs is not as big as it seems from the measurements because the antenna is counted in the height. If you want a gps with good reception under tree cover, you probably won't get any smaller than this.