Magellan Meridian Color Or Explorist 500/600

[Manoroth]

Magellan Meridian Color or Explorist 500/600? I was ready to buy the Meridian Color model but in reading up on the new Explorist series it seems to have more options. The Explorist saya it is better in sunlight. Any one have any thoughts?

[+Mudfrog]

I have a friend who has the Meridian color. The screen looks great at night but during the day it is dim. We tried to adjust the contrast and so on but it didnt help much. She has to keep the backlight on most of the time to read it. Her husband didnt like it at all so he bought a new 60CS to use. Also, her Son had the same model and ended up having some other problems with it. Not sure what came out of that but he ended up buying an Etrex Legend. I dont know anything about the Explorist series. Oh, and im not trying to sway you into buying a Garmin,,,

[+Marcie/Eric]

Have you checked out this?

 

Some pretty good pics.

 

Not a comparison to the comparable Garmin. But the Exp500 just looks killer.

Edited March 31, 2005 by Marcie/Eric

[+Nurse Dave]

I would think twice before getting a GPS that you can't swap out the batteries on or doesn't have the quad antenna.

[+Marcie/Eric]

Whoa whoa.

 

The new Explorists don't have a quad helix?

[+IVxIV]

Whoa whoa.

 

The new Explorists don't have a quad helix?

No they don't. But I was unaware that was a problem..

[+Marcie/Eric]

Do they have a patch?

 

or something better than both <- I hope

[+embra]

They don't list the specs on the Magellan site, but I believe the report is patch antenna. The people with the 1/2/300's have reported very good reception with no complaints--although I think the purchasers of those units have tended to be noobies, and so I have to take their reports with slightly less credibility that I would give to someone who had more experience from which to judge.

 

It's not really a matter of patch vs. quad, its quality of reception under the conditions you use it. We'll have to wait a little more to see how the explori measure up, but so far so good.

[+briansnat]

Whoa whoa.

 

The new Explorists don't have a quad helix?

No they don't. But I was unaware that was a problem..

Its not. The batteries could be tho.

Edited March 31, 2005 by briansnat

[+IVxIV]

...although I think the purchasers of those units have tended to be noobies..

Well let's see JohnnyVegas's report then.

 

Lowrance iFinders use patch antennas too,, and get phenominal satellite tracking capablity. I'm always surprised when,, my desk is about 12 feet away from the picture window in my livingroom. Whenever I turn on my iFinder at my desk to check something out, in less than a minute will pop up a "location acquired" message! The darn thing locks onto satellites while in the middle of my livingroom!

Edited March 31, 2005 by IVxIV

[+JohnnyVegas]

My explorist arrived four days ago. The screen is very bright and easy to read in daylight.

 

As far as battery life, Magellan rates the Explorist 500 at up to 17 hours, I am sure that if you run the screen at the brightest level you are not going to get 17 hours. For my use the battery life is not an issue, Most my geocaching days are about 8 hours max and while travelling I will continue to use my Meridian running direct route to get from cache area to cache area and then use Explorist to find the cache. I think the longest hike I have spent while looking for a cache has be around 6 hours. Magellan will be selling extra batteries and also a 12 volt charging cable for a 12 volt outlet in a car.

 

The method for storing way points on the SD card has been expanded over the system in the Meridians, Now the waypoint folders can have sub folders, much like a the folders on a computer, you could have a folder labled California and when you bring up that folder you could have a series of cache folder based on what city they are in, and those folders could have there own sub folders such as cache type difficulty or whatever you want to create.

 

While I have not tried it my guess is you could do the same thing with map files, say have a map folder for a state and in the folder have a serieas of maps for the state the would cover selected regions.

 

While you can load a very large map onto the card, a large map will tend to slow down the loading time when you start any GPS.

 

There is a learning curve with the Explorist 400, 500 and 600. The loading of maps is not done in the same fashion as other magellen products, the map have to first be saved to the computers hard drive and then you use Magellans conversion software to load the maps onto the SD card. Once yu have load a few maps or waypoint files it is fairly easy. You do have an option to load map and waypoint files with a card reader I have not tried this because my card reader is not working. Besides, you are loading to the GPS with a USB conection so the down loading is very fast, I load about a third of Ca in a little less the 15 minutes.

 

Using the Exlorist side by sife with my Meridian gold while palcing a new cacheApril foolies

I did not see any differance in signal strength. This was not what I would call a real scientific test but the Explorist did work just as well my Meridian Gold.

 

I did not consider the 600, I already have a suunto watch watch with and Altimeter and Barometer and Digital compass, In the past while using my other magellans with the Suunto watch the altitude readings were within just a few feet of one another and I own plenty of reg compasses anyway.

Edited April 1, 2005 by JohnnyVegas

[+Team Cotati]

"The Explorist saya it is better in sunlight." Since these units were never properly field tested, this statement is highly suspect. I'd advise waiting about 6 months before investing in one of these new units. By that time real users in the field will have thoroughly shaken out the bugs. Then and only then should the units be trusted. And of course there is that pesky "battery thing".

 

But hoooo Boy!! Once they are fully field certified, this: "The Magellan geocaching manager software, a one-of-a-kind solution that simplifies geocaching, one of the fastest growing GPS applications so customers no longer need to print information from a website and manually entering GPS coordinates in a GPS receiver, but can load information to an eXplorist instead so its accessible where it’s needed most - to guide them to cache treasures."-- capability will be loads of fun, eh?

Edited April 1, 2005 by Team cotati697

[+IVxIV]

The wonderous "Geocache Manager" that the Explorists bring into the world... it isn't suggested that will replace the use of a PDA alongside the GPS for paperless caching, is it? It's just an additional bonus tool(?)

 

I mean, the GPS isn't storing the cache descriptions, hints, and past logs as found on the website, right? Also I doubt you can add your comments into the GPS while at the cache site, to be used later when logging your finds.

 

About battery life,, could you lucky new Explorist owners fire up your fully charged unit on evening and leave it running? See if it's still running in the morning?