Magellan GPS - Which New GPS???

Author

Which New GPS???

Jay Seigfreid

2006-04-20, 2:48 am

I have a Meridian Green that has, and still, served me well. However, I am
now getting the itch for a new GPS. It must be portable so I can take it in
the car, bike, and boat or on a hike. Even with the Green's limitations, I
like how it works but see there are much better choices. So, any ideas, web
sites, and help will be greatly appreciated.
TIA, Jay

Jack Erbes

2006-04-20, 5:48 pm

Jay Seigfreid wrote:

> I have a Meridian Green that has, and still, served me well. However, I am
> now getting the itch for a new GPS. It must be portable so I can take it in
> the car, bike, and boat or on a hike. Even with the Green's limitations, I
> like how it works but see there are much better choices. So, any ideas, web
> sites, and help will be greatly appreciated.
> TIA, Jay

The eXplorist line would be the newer line of Magellan handhelds.

But Garmin seems to be emerging a clear winner in the handheld GPS war
Garmin with their new "x" series models. Those have a SiRF III chip set
and show much improved sensitivity and speed, they can use microSD cards
for unlimited memory expansion/map storage, and the autorouting and
other software features on their handhelds is leaps ahead of the
Magellan offerings.

The Gamin line will get a serious look from me before I buy again,
Magellan may have lost me on their marginal support and lack of effort
to stay competitive on hardware and software issues.

I use three optional software packages with my handheld (DirectRoute,
Topo 3D, and BlueNav) and will have to replace all of those too.
Changing brands will be financially painful.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Ray

2006-04-20, 11:48 pm

Skramblr

2006-04-21, 2:48 am

"Jack Erbes" <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:FM- dncK3Be6t79rZnZ2dnUV
Z_sadnZ2d@adelphia.com...
> Jay Seigfreid wrote:
>
>
> The eXplorist line would be the newer line of Magellan handhelds.
>
> But Garmin seems to be emerging a clear winner in the handheld GPS war
> Garmin with their new "x" series models. Those have a SiRF III chip set
> and show much improved sensitivity and speed, they can use microSD cards
> for unlimited memory expansion/map storage, and the autorouting and other
> software features on their handhelds is leaps ahead of the Magellan
> offerings.
>
> The Gamin line will get a serious look from me before I buy again,
> Magellan may have lost me on their marginal support and lack of effort to
> stay competitive on hardware and software issues.
>
> I use three optional software packages with my handheld (DirectRoute, Topo
> 3D, and BlueNav) and will have to replace all of those too. Changing
> brands will be financially painful.
>
> Jack

I hate to say it, but I think Jack is right. With the new SiRF III chip set,
the garmin units have caught up to the excellent Meridian reception. Garmin
also added the SD card support Meridians had, and the displays are pretty
great, too. Street-routing is better with the Garmin units and support & bug
fixes are much better. Magellan pretty much lost any edge they had over
Garmin.

Garmin is on the move - Magellan is watching their market disappear.... :(
At this point I'm not even considering a Magellan product (eventhough I
already have all the mapping software)....

-Skramblr
Yahoo Meridian group moderator

Jack Erbes

2006-04-21, 2:48 am

Skramblr wrote:

<snip>
> I hate to say it, but I think Jack is right. With the new SiRF III chip set,
> the garmin units have caught up to the excellent Meridian reception. Garmin
> also added the SD card support Meridians had, and the displays are pretty
> great, too. Street-routing is better with the Garmin units and support & bug
> fixes are much better. Magellan pretty much lost any edge they had over
> Garmin.
>
> Garmin is on the move - Magellan is watching their market disappear.... :(
> At this point I'm not even considering a Magellan product (eventhough I
> already have all the mapping software)....

It's hard to put an old dog down, ain't it?

And to add insult to injury, a friend who is considering a Garmin 60Cx
(on my recommendation) asked me a question about it tonight and when I
looked up the answer, it further strengthens the probability that
Magellan will be losing me.

He asked if he would need to buy MapSource City Navigator to have
autorouting on road trips. I told him I thought yes but I would check
on it, and I did. And damned if the Garmins don't do autorouting on the
basemap too! So that means that you get North American autorouting for
Interstates and principal highways included with the GPSr.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

Skramblr

2006-04-22, 11:48 pm

"Jack Erbes" <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:T_ydnSyIM9HGytX
Z4p2dnA@adelphia.com...
<<SNIP>>
> He asked if he would need to buy MapSource City Navigator to have
> autorouting on road trips. I told him I thought yes but I would check on
> it, and I did. And damned if the Garmins don't do autorouting on the
> basemap too! So that means that you get North American autorouting for
> Interstates and principal highways included with the GPSr.
>
> Jack
>
Yup. That's one of the many requests that have been ignored by Magellan
since they started doing street-routing. A routable basemap. I was
dumbfounded when they released the eXplorist and it still didn't have that
feature. Oh well...

-Skramblr

David Sternlight

2006-04-23, 2:48 am

On 2006-04-19 19:51:35 -0700, "Jay Seigfreid" <jseigfreid@hotmail.com> said:

> I have a Meridian Green that has, and still, served me well. However, I am
> now getting the itch for a new GPS. It must be portable so I can take it in
> the car, bike, and boat or on a hike. Even with the Green's limitations, I
> like how it works but see there are much better choices. So, any ideas, web
> sites, and help will be greatly appreciated.
> TIA, Jay

It depends on which segment of the market you are in. If you are
lookihng for a high-end car GPS, the Magellan Roadmates are quite good;
I recently updated mine to the latest software. It has bailed me out on
many a trip in unknown territory, such as finding the route to a
particular remote restaurant in Park City, UT in the middle of the
night down unlit country roads. Normally I use it in Los Angeles and it
does well there also. Another unexpected bonus--it recently saved me on
a half-hour drive down the mountain from Running Springs, CA to LA in
the fog. I couldn't see how long each straight segment of the road was
by eye, but the GPS map gave a feeling of confidence and security and
was quite accurate in showing upcoming turns and their pitch--much
better, in fact, than the highway signs.

Garmin has one advantage, however. At the high end you can the
real-time traffic information (extra subscription charge) from one of
the two main satellite radio sources.

I expect Magellan will catch up with this feature. I definitely think a
GPS for road trips should have the entire US/Canada street map database
built in on a hard disk, as do the high end untis. As prices come down
on hard disks I expect unit prices on newer models to drop comparably.
It is only a matter of time (say a year or two) before 20Gb flash chip
sets become affordable and then that is likely to be the next step.

2007-11-20, 7:33 am

Hey Jack, can I have your old stuff...lol
Jim exp 400 and 500LE.
"David Sternlight" <david@sternlight.com> wrote in message
news:200604222105148
0748-david@sternlightcom...
> On 2006-04-19 19:51:35 -0700, "Jay Seigfreid" <jseigfreid@hotmail.com>
> said:
>
>
> It depends on which segment of the market you are in. If you are lookihng
> for a high-end car GPS, the Magellan Roadmates are quite good; I recently
> updated mine to the latest software. It has bailed me out on many a trip
> in unknown territory, such as finding the route to a particular remote
> restaurant in Park City, UT in the middle of the night down unlit country
> roads. Normally I use it in Los Angeles and it does well there also.
> Another unexpected bonus--it recently saved me on a half-hour drive down
> the mountain from Running Springs, CA to LA in the fog. I couldn't see how
> long each straight segment of the road was by eye, but the GPS map gave a
> feeling of confidence and security and was quite accurate in showing
> upcoming turns and their pitch--much better, in fact, than the highway
> signs.
>
> Garmin has one advantage, however. At the high end you can the real-time
> traffic information (extra subscription charge) from one of the two main
> satellite radio sources.
>
> I expect Magellan will catch up with this feature. I definitely think a
> GPS for road trips should have the entire US/Canada street map database
> built in on a hard disk, as do the high end untis. As prices come down on
> hard disks I expect unit prices on newer models to drop comparably. It is
> only a matter of time (say a year or two) before 20Gb flash chip sets
> become affordable and then that is likely to be the next step.
>

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