Magellan eXplorist 500 GPS handheld hits North America
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 8th 2005 1:25PM
posted April 8th 2005 1:25PM
Magellan's latest GPS handheld, the eXplorist 500, is now available in North America. The device is a 14-parallel-channel, WAAS/EGNOS-enabled GPS receiver that's accurate up to three meters. It also has a 2.3-inch color LCD, an SD card slot for adding new maps, and is ruggedized and waterproof for your next grueling geocaching adventure (no joke, they actually preload this thing with geocaching management software).
I used to Geocache a lot. There was always "wars" between Magellan GPS's and Garmin GPS's. Just like Mac vs. PC. It was pretty funny.
I'm a Magellan guy myself, even though I think Garmin's newer units are much better than the simple crap Magellan has been releasing. This one looks okay though.
I think Garmin's are just way too overpriced.
Geocaching is fun as hell though. I've explored my whole city. There's a lot of stuff you'll find that you never new existed. Every little nook and cranny of where you live.
I don't know about Magellan, I have Garmin Emap. I ws in Fryes (Atlanta) yesterday and the salesman was pushing a Lowrance iWay 500 for my truck. When I asked him about the Garmin he said Fryes was dropping Garmin and selling Cobra, Lowrance and Maggellan only.
They also have one other one for $2300 according to their web site. This one takes a video input from a TV camera also. He had a number of older Magellan and Garmin units like the Street Pilot 3 and a bunch of old handhelds.
I looked on the web and Lowrance is
going to have a 10 inch screen in the iWay 800c which would be nice.
Garmin here. Have only had it for a few days so cannot personlly comment. However, in my research to purchase I had no pre-conceived ideas and while there did seem to be a bit of 'fan-boy'ism behind the two competitors, Garmin clearly had better reviews in general.
I'm sure the Magellan units are good as well.
Cobra, on the other hand, had poor reviews no matter where I looked :)
garmin is like mac
and magellan is soooooo pc
As a currently avid geocacher, I use Garmin's 60CS. I like the decent map memory and routing features...makes it easy to get to the cache by road, park, then find the cache. I have 9 to find tomorrow and 8 on Sunday...and a summer trip with 140 caches to find. It can become an obsession. It's also huge fun!
GPS is just amazing, I drove cross country a few times and they always lead me to my destination within a few meters from thousands of KM away. I have a Magellan Meridian that I use both for inside the car and outside for geocaching and hiking. Have been a loyal Magellan user for a long time ever since my GPS 2000XL...which still functions perfectly even after almost 7 years of abuses from me. (and now it's my backup for long hikes)
Re#4:
So...I guess I am a PC user lol
It is disappointing that Magellen did not use the better quadrifilar type antenna for a unit of this price. I would have been sold 100% if they did. The eXplorists units are such a great size.
Bit disappointing that neither of them provide software for Macs though so essentially no matter which one you have, you're a PC user as far as they are concerned.
GEO Caching
Would someone please explain the point of geocaching? what is the sport of something where they tell you where it is already?
Thanks
BRad
Is this really true, no software for mac? I am only a Mac user. I was thinking of getting the explorist 500 (I heard the 600's altimeter and barometer are crap, although would have liked).
Hi,
I'm trying to find out if the Lowrance iWay 500c has the capability of maps of Europe. I know it's available for the Magellan and the TomTom.
Thanks for your help!