Meridian Gold/platinum Or Gpsmap 60/76

[+nfa]

Hi,

 

My wife has offered to buy me a fancy GPSr, and I'm going to take her up on it...is it love, or does she want me out of the house for some reason?

 

Anyway...I'm thinking about the Magellan Meridian Gold or Platinum versus the Garmin GPSMAP 60 or 76 series. What are people's thoughts as regards these 2, and why would you buy/avoid one or the other?

 

Thanks,

 

nfa-jamie

Edited August 28, 2004 by NFA

[+Puttz]

 

NFA,

 

I owned a magellan meridian gold. It is a nice GPSr. However, I bought the Garmin 76CS. I did this for the color display my eyes are not as good as they used to be. I like the extra built in memory. I do wish the 76CS had the SD card slot like the Gold.

 

I like the longer battery life of the 76CS. My gold ate batteries at almost twice the rate of the 76CS.

 

I think you would be happy with either unit, but if she is buying, go with the 76CS.

 

JMHO.

 

Puttz

[+IV_Warrior]

Now that I bought a Meridian Gold, I'm kinda wishing I had gone with the Meridian Color, instead.......I bought the Meridian for the SD card ability, but now that I'm thinking TOPO maps, it'd be nice to have the color, so you could tell the difference between a small road and a small stream at a glance (stream would be blue, I'm thinking) on a black and white display, both show up as a small black line......and in PA, the roads aren't any straighter than the streams...........

 

I've never used a 60 or 76 series, so I can't comment on them

[+embra]

As a Meridian user, I would say that the Gold is an excellent value...but if economy is not your primary concern, I would say the Garmin offerings you are considering are the more desirable. Great color displays, and the [additional] autorouting software seems to be better designed.

 

I'm getting fed up enough with what passes for Magellan's customer relations that I am starting to feel that Garmin has this whole aspect of running a company much more together, too.

[MSSP]

I started off with a Meridian Gold that I had purchased for $199 from Walmart. I think it's a great GPS Value. But I don't find it too visually appealing and I too felt color was more important than the ability to load 10 states worth of maps. I ended up with a 60C and am extremely pleased!! The 56megs of memory will serve me well as I rarely (if ever) leave my state. I was able to load the entire state of Washington and a good section of the bordering Canada/Idaho/Oregon using CitySelect V6.0. The autorouting is fantastic. If money isn't a concern the Garmin offerings are excellent. Magellan just hasn't stepped up with anything to compete. Their explorists were a poor attempt at the eTrex market share that I feel will be doomed by their lack of connectivity. Hopefully they will offer something comparable to the 60/76 series for the Magellan fans.

[moopgroop]

I went with the 60cs over the 76 because of size. I went with Garmin instead of Magellan because of the display, autorouting, what I consider to be the ease of use, a friend who has used GPSr's for a long time said "Magellan pretty much started the product line, but Garmin has taken and run with it" and finally because they are a local company.

[bmk1]

I started with an etrex legend which I really liked. Then I got a Meridian Platinum because of the sd card - "tons of map storage" That was about the only thing I liked better about it. The unit did not seem to be built as solid as the garmin and like some one else already posted, it ate batteries like candy. I now have a garmin 60c. The battery life is great the color screen is very nice. I really like the auto routing too. I was also surprised how much maping will fit in the 56 megs of storage. So far I am very pleased with the 60c.

[+Fenix6372]

76CS!!!!!!!! Can't beat that color screen, 115mb of memory is plenty (I have seen most maggies only using a single 128 stick in their GPSr, so what's 13mb in the grand scheme of things?) and it floats!!! (can you tell I'm a proud 76CS owner? ) Seriously though, go 76CS, auto nav kit, and external antenna, you won't regret it!

[+GOT GPS?]

Hardware wise, of all the Garmins and Magellans ive had, it would be the Meridian Platinum. Firmware, and functionality wise, it would have to be the 60C. I really liked the 3-axis compass of the platinum and the memory card, but the 60C beats it by far.

[+nfa]

Hardware wise, of all the Garmins and Magellans ive had, it would be the Meridian Platinum. Firmware, and functionality wise, it would have to be the 60C. I really liked the 3-axis compass of the platinum and the memory card, but the 60C beats it by far.

Hi,

 

Can you explain your response to me a little...I feel a little dense, but done't entirely undertsnad the distinctions you make between the 2...

 

thanks,

 

nfa

[+Fenix6372]

I think what GOT GPS? means is that the hardware (how the case is constructed, the feel of the buttons, button placement, screen size, screen placement, screen resolution) of the meridian platinum is what he likes best, but the firmware (what the GPS is actually running, you might call it software, like what shows up on the screen, how user friendly it is, etc...) of the 60C beats any other that he has seen. He also touches on the fact that the meridian has a 3-axis compass, which means it doesn't matter if you hold it vertical, flat, or on its side, the meridian will still give you a correct magnetic reading on the compass. The 60C has to be held flat both to calibrate and read the magnetic compass. Finally, the meridian has the ability to swap out memory cards via a small slot in the case, where as the 60C has a static 56mb of memory, can't change anything to make it bigger unless you have a LOT of time on your hands and can figure out how to soldier in a bigger memory chip Hope that clears things up!

[+trippy1976]

You can't put the 60/76 on the same scale as the Meridians IMHO

 

They are hands down the better units. Better color, autorouting, etc.

 

The only 'benefit' of the Meridians is the memory card. But I can put the entire state of Michigan on my 60CS. The 76 has 2x the memory...

 

I can get from Detroit Michigan to San Francisco, CA at street level (almost... I have to neglect 1 section) on my 60CS. The 76 has 2x the memory...

 

I don't see the value in the removable card when you can get so much mapping on the 60/76 series anyway. Plus they have USB so loading maps is lickity split.

 

If you have the choice of ANY unit on the market, IMHO, you need to be looking 60CS and 76. Hand down.

 

*Okay so this wasn't entirely humble or unbiased. But I believe it.

[+Jamie Z]

You can't put the 60/76 on the same scale as the Meridians IMHO

 

They are hands down the better units. Better color, autorouting, etc.

 

The only 'benefit' of the Meridians is the memory card. But I can put the entire state of Michigan on my 60CS. The 76 has 2x the memory...

 

I don't see the value in the removable card when you can get so much mapping on the 60/76 series anyway. Plus they have USB so loading maps is lickity split.

I haven't used the Garmins, although I played with one at an event, but I want to dispel a myth that I've seen in this thread.

 

The main reason I bought the Meridian was the memory cards, too. But not simply because of shear volume--sure, I can put a 512 meg card in if I want--but because of flexibility.

 

This past summer, I took a trip across major portions of the US and then to China. I had loaded on my 128-meg card all the maps necessary for my travels, including detailed topo maps for the US, and not-so-detailed maps of China. Depending on my location, I only had to make a few key presses to change the map, something that isn't possible on the Garmins.

 

When I was in China, I saved my tracklog for each day's travel, totalling about 50 days worth of tracks. A fellow traveller had a 20 tracklog limit on his Garmin. The Meridian has no such limit.

 

I had loaded geocaches for the different places I would be visiting. The Garmins hold 1000 waypoints, which is far more than the Meridians 200 waypoint limit (with comments). But the point is that I can have nearly limitless waypoint files. So rather than cramming my GPS with hundreds of waypoints, I had small waypoint files for different areas.

 

The fact that the Meridian memory is basically a drive, rather than RAM, makes it far more useful than even the generous 115 megs on the 76cs.

 

No doubt the 60cs/76cs are good units--I'm considering buying one myself--but don't be tempted to compare memory capacity to the Meridians SD slot. They aren't the same.

 

By the way, we Meridian users have been loading maps via USB for about two years now.

 

Jamie

[Stockley_true]

As a Meridian user, I would say that the Gold is an excellent value...but if economy is not your primary concern, I would say the Garmin offerings you are considering are the more desirable.  Great color displays, and the [additional] autorouting software seems to be better designed.

 

I'm getting fed up enough with what passes for Magellan's customer relations that I am starting to feel that Garmin has this whole aspect of running a company much more together, too.

I've only owned Garmin (Emap & GPSMAP 76S). Customer relations with Garmin is not that great. Automated replies, no indication of where the software is going, requests for changes in the software are replied to with, "There are no plans for that at this time." They don't seem to want customer feedback. My next GPS will probably be a '76CS but don't expect much in the CR department. My son experienced even less satisfactory CR than I have when he was shipped a 'wonkie' '76CS. He did receive a replacement units but other issues were not addressed or satisfactorily resolved. The grass seems rather brown on both sides of the fence.

[+Sparkcha5er]

I oly chose the 76C due to the fact that I wanted a unit that can do Street mapping and marine mapping; without haveing to get a unit that does Air Marine and Land ie Garmin 295, 296.

 

I chose Garmin over Meridian due to me being a Garmin dealer.