Meridian Gold Or Sportrak Color

[+goatfarmer]

For roughly the same price, I could acquire either of these. I think that I understand the basic differences in the units being screen color, unit size, memory, compass and weather info. As this will be my first GPSr, I don't yet know what my actual requirements will entail.

 

Do you folks think the SD capability of the Gold is really worth it compared to the other features that the Sportrak color has? Once again, I'm not even sure I'll need that much space for maps.

 

I guess my fundamental question is:

 

faced with the same price for each unit and removing the memory differences from the table, which one would you choose?

 

Thanks,

Doug

[+Jamie Z]

Do you folks think the SD capability of the Gold is really worth it compared to the other features that the Sportrak color has?

To me, yes.

 

I haven't used, nor even seen the color. It's probably a pretty good unit, but if I had to live with fixed memory, I'd be much less happy about my GPS.

 

Jamie

[pepperblues]

In my newbie option, as I climb the steep, learning

curve of GPS, I am finding that the flexibility of

the MGold memory is really nice.

My final two choices were the same you are looking

at and I went for the memory card.

VERY glad I did.

YMMV

pepperblues

[reidster]

If you ever want to load large maps, then removable memory is very important. The sexy features of an electronic compass, baro altimeter, and color display are NOT essential for a GPSR.

[+JohnnyVegas]

I own the Sport Trak Color and Meridian Gold as well as a Sport track map. Of the three my number one choice is the Meridian Gold. I like the large memory that I have will the SD card, at this time I have most of Ca and Nv. loaded with Map Send direct route.

One feature I use a lot in the Meridian gold that the others ones do not offer is the ability to have different sets of waypoints loaded into the memory card. If I am in San Francisco I can load those from the card, If I am in Davis Ca. I can load those. I even have my own caches loaded as another waypoint set.

 

My sport track color has street maps loaded into it, I use it while doing urban caches and I use the Sport track map loaded with topo maps for non urban caching.

[tubemonkey]

I like the size and shape of the SporTraks over that of the Meridians. I've briefly had both an ST Pro and a Mer Gold, but had to return them because of power issues. The Pro kept shutting itself off without any help from me and the Gold beeped once and died instantly after I placed batteries in it for the first time. I had the same thing happen to an ST Map I was giving to my son as a gift. Batteries in, then instant death. I replaced that one with another ST Map and so far it's working great. I've yet to replace the Pro and Gold I had problems with.

 

The major plus for the Meridians is the unlimited memory via SD. Too bad the SporTraks don't have that capability. My major issues with the Meridians are their size and rather flimsy battery compartments. At this point, I'm prone to go with another SporTrak.

 

I'm tempted by the ST Color. Besides the color display, compass, and barometer; it has just enough memory to load topos for the entire state of Washington or all of Washington and Oregon west of the Cascades. I mostly stick to the west side of the Cascades in my travels anyway, so the ST Color would be great for me.

 

In the meantime, expect Magellan to continue to lower it's prices on their Meridians and SporTraks as they get rid of their inventory in preparation for newer models next year. Afterall, they've yet to respond to Gamin's newer color units.

 

Bottom line -- it just depends on how you'll be using it and how much memory you'll need. I'd lean towards the ST Color; but then, that's what would fit my needs best.

[+goatfarmer]

Thanks for all your responses!

 

You've helped me decide. What I didn't realize was that the only striking allure of the ST Color for me was, well, the color part of the equation (and maybe size a little bit). I have an excellent mechanical compass, watch the weather regularly enough to know what's coming my way and agree that extended memory allows for alot of flexibility. I think the "WhatToBuyOmeter" just tilted towards the Gold...

 

And hey, if I get hooked on this sport, I'm sure this won't be my final GPSr.

 

Thanks again,

Doug

[+JohnnyVegas]

i forgot to mention that costco has the best price on the SD memory cards. I think they are now stocking a 512mb card for about $53.00.

[DavidBethany]

I don't know about Garmin products but I have a GPS-315 and a Meridian Platinum. The SD card not only allows you to load large blocks of data but gives you the flexibility to use a much smaller map set and waypoint database when that is all you need, keeping larger map regions on the card to load at other times. Same with the waypoints. I have lists and sublists for: Geocaching, driving, marine, and aviation.

 

A word on the Platinum. For $20 more than Gold, I bought it. The barometer/thermometer is sort of interesting but otherwise useless. Unless you care about the temperature inside the unit. I have left the unti on in my car to get a barometric history (and see how long the batteries last) but the novelty and thrill of ownership peaked pretty quickly.

 

The compass, however, more than justifies the price, especially for Geocaching. With a true magnetic compass, you can stand in place with an arrow on the compass card pointing right to the coordinates while reading the distance in feet. Only a mag compass will allow you to do this. A GPS compass display is useless once you stop moving.

 

That being said, one caution is the compass uses battery power when in use. For ANY screen on the unit where a customized field is set to "heading" the compass will be activated to read magnetic heading. If the map screen is set to magnetic north, it will also use the compass so I keep it off for all screens except the compass screen.

 

DAvid