Garmin Vs. Magellan. Which One Is Better?

May 12, 2005

Hello, I am considering buying a GPS, but I'm not too sure which one I should choose. First off, I've used both a Magellan and a Garmin, and I found the Magellan much better. We were using both GPS's to find a point. I was using the Garmin at first, but I found it was all over the place. First it would tell us to go straight, then right, then go back. It would also say we were 50 metres away, then all of a sudden, it would jump to 100. We were running all over the woods and could not narrow down the location. We finally got fed up and started using the Magellan. The Magellan led us right to the exact tree the point was on. So from that I have thought Magellan to be the better GPS. However, from what I've found out, Garmins sell 5 times more than the Magellan. Is there something wrond with the Magellan that I'm missing?

Also if I do decide to choose the Magellen, I am considering buying the Sportrak Pro. But recently someone told me that the Explorest 300 or 200 would be a better choice cause its a newer GPS with better accuracy than the Pro. Does anyone know what would be a better choice?

The GPS that I really want to buy is the Pro. So what I am wondering is has anyone had any problems with the Pro? Or would anyone agree that its a good GPS to get as opposed to the Explorest or a Garmin?

May 12, 2005

Meridian Gold.

My first GPS (didn't I ust say this?)

Works great, all that jazz...

Easy to use, expandable via SD, PC connectivity, mapping, easy to see in sunlight, not too pricey.

It is my first GPS, and was about 175$ shipped.

Most people here swear by Garmin. I wouldn't know, I haven't used one. The Merigold just looked more rugged. It is about 50% larger than the comparable garmin unit though..

Edited May 12, 2005 by Marcie/Eric

May 12, 2005

Garmin makes a much better quality reciever, there is a reason you don't see many magellan units in aircraft and boats. Alot of the magellans high accuracy claims for working better in heavily wooded areas have been proven to just be the gps not telling you it stopped getting a signal where the Garmin shows you right off if it is messing up. I have owned both and used them quite a bit, although not much for caching as that is not the priamary use of the GPS units I have owned, and from now on mt $$ strictly go to Garmin. The screens are better, the cases are more rugged and they literally are the standard by what most are judged. The only Garmins I am not too fond of are the Etrex line for the screen ribbon issues that require dissassembly to fix, but in the grand scheme of things I would prefer an Etrex over just about anything offered by another brand still.

Edited May 12, 2005 by wickedsprint

2.6k · May 12, 2005

hoo boy here we go again. :laughing:

3.8k · May 12, 2005

Does anyone know what would be a better choice?

Ford vs. Chevy

Lexus vs. Infinity

Whirlpool vs. Kitchenaide

Winchester vs. Remington

Kramer vs. Kramer

Hawkins vs. McGee

The answer is, "Yes." Everyone knows, but our answers are all different.

May 12, 2005

Garmin Vs. Magellan. Which One Is Better?

Simple. Lowrance is better than both

lol Just kidding,, or am I? :laughing:

May 12, 2005

Ford vs. Chevy
Lexus vs. Infinity

Whirlpool vs. Kitchenaide

Winchester vs. Remington

Kramer vs. Kramer

Hawkins vs. McGee

The answer is, "Yes." Everyone knows, but our answers are all different.

While it may be that reasonable minds can disagree about this issue (just like those examples), that doesn't mean it's not worth discussing, at least from my perspective. Like the original poster, I'm plowing through data about the various makes and models in order to select my first GPSr. There do seem to be some brand-wide trends or differences, which newbies like me are interested to know.

Here's one question I've had, which might be a brand-wide issue: Does one company include built-in basemaps that are substantially better than the other? As a Mac user, it looks like I'll be stuck with the built-in map unless and until and coerce a PC user into letting me use his or her computer for map downloading.

(On that note, if any manufacturer decided to support Mac OS fully (i.e., by permitting the downloading of maps), my decision would be really, really easy.)

2.3k · May 12, 2005

Garmin makes a much better quality reciever, there is a reason you don't see many magellan units in aircraft and boats. Alot of the magellans high accuracy claims for working better in heavily wooded areas have been proven to just be the gps not telling you it stopped getting a signal where the Garmin shows you right off if it is messing up.

This has not been my experience, owning Garmins since 1997, and owning a Magellan Meridian for 2.5 years. My Meridan works much better that my Garmin Legend in difficult locations. And the Meridian always lets you know if you lose a signal. The newer Garmins (C and 60 series) have much better reception than the older Garmins. The Garmins have had better screens up until the recently released eXplorist 500, 600.

Although no experience with the Lowrances, they are the best value of the three. Their base maps are better, the screen resolution is very good, I understand reception is excellent. Their high end models use SD card for maps and waypoints, which along with magellan Meridians and eXplorists, the SD card offers a very useful utility that Garmins do not have.

May 12, 2005

Thelarger garmins have expansion slots.

24.7k · May 12, 2005

My opinion on this issue.

Interface. Garmin wins. It's easier to use out of the box.

Electronic Compass. Magellan. the 3 Axis compas means you can hold your GPS at any angle. Very nice.

Base Memory. Garmin. Nobody gives you more memory and waypoints out of the box.

Total Memory. Magellan. You have to load and unload maps etc. but with their SD Card support you can pack a lot of maps and waypoints on the GPS.

Screen: Garmin. Their color is better and the screens are larger than even Magellans new color GPSs. They also traditionaly have higher resolution on the BW screens.

Ruggednes. Sixes. Both can take a beating.

Customer Support Sixes. Both have some of the best support of any company.

Topo Software: Magellan. They give street names on top of the topo info.

City Streets Sofware. Garmin. The Garmin's autorouting software is more polished than Magellans Direct Route.

Operation unter tree cover. Magellan. Their averaging function has you bounce around less.

Reception. Sixes I've seen reports of better Magellan reception but then I've had Magellans lose lock and not tell me leading me to go the wrong way because it was wrong. Once that was accounted for they seemed comperable.

Finding the Cache. Garmin. You will walk up to the cache. The same averaging function that helps in the woods with a Magellan can have you "boomerang" and pass the cache only to come back. You can allow for this but the Garmin will still get you to ground zero quicker.

Edited May 12, 2005 by Renegade Knight

May 12, 2005

I bought a Magellan Merigold and am totally pleased with it.

I love my MeriGold.... :laughing:

May 12, 2005

Hey nobody has mentioned Corba <ducking> I have used a merigold for quite sometime and have liked it. I switched to the 600 and things are getting better. The unit still has a few issues but I do like the color screen

38.2k · May 13, 2005

I prefer Garmin. I have a Meri Gold at the moment and I find the Garmin interface to be a lot more intuative. I figured out 90 percent of the features on my 60CS after playing around with it for a couple of hours and not looking at the manual.

It took me a lot longer with the Meridian. There are things that I still haven't figured out like how to pick a specific waypoint. With the Garmin I just key in the name and it comes up. I guess I have to read the manual to find out how to do it with the Meridian, because all I see is that I can sort by name, or aphabetical order, but nowhere can I find out how to pull up a single wayoint without paging through all the ones on the unit.

Meridian owners any tips, or am I going to finally have to read the manual?

1.1k · May 13, 2005

First off the problems you cite are the user not the GPSr. You were blindly following the pointer arrow which only works if you are moving. I have NO problem pinpointing a cache when all coditions are favorable. When I got my GPSr I looked a Megellans and was about to get one when I found they had structrual problems with cracks around the screw holes. Okay maybe no big deal but it was a pontential problem and enought folks reported it to be a big popential problem. So I went with a Garmin. I do not even know anyone who owns a Megellan so I can't do a comparision.

Cheers

1.3k · May 13, 2005

First off the problems you cite are the user not the GPSr. You were blindly following the pointer arrow which only works if you are moving.

Funny, my pointer on my GPSr works all the time. I guess that's the advantage of a live compass.

May 13, 2005

Hi Jazzerboo,

Don't know about Garmins, I'll leave that to others.

I've had a Magellan SporTrak Pro for just over a year and I love it.

It's incredibly accurate and I've never lost lock under trees. I do

not regret buying it for one minute.

You mentioned the new Explorist 200 & 300. These DO NOT connect to a

PC so you cannot up/download waypoints, routes or tracks or detailed

maps. If you want to do that you'll need a 400 or higher which are

newer and cost more. The 400 or higher Explorists have a USB

connection not an RS-232 serial port, so if you go that route make sure

your PC is compatible. Some people have had teething problems with

this connection.

You mentioned the case cracking problem. Mine has a couple of tiny

surface cracks near the screws. These have not deteriorated in the

year and I've read enough in several forums to believe that they're

just cosmetic. Magellan will replace yours if you complain, but I've

not bothered.

All the best, Eddy [uK]

May 13, 2005

My experience with Magellan:

I bought the SporTrak Topo model. It came with the Topo 2d software but I was aware that the 3d software was just released so I contacted Magellan to find out about upgrading the software. Magellan informed me that the 3d software would not work in the SporTrak Topo model but it would work in the Meridian models and some of the other SporTrak models. That seemed odd, that a topo model would not work with the latest topo software. Magellan offered to trade my topo model for the MeriGold and "allow" me to purchase the 3d software for the $99 upgrade price. A quick (but somewhat complete) search showed that the street price of the Merigold model was $70 less than the topo model. When I brought that to their attention, they would not budge on their offer so I declined.

I have also read that the SporTrak model have had a significant number of problems with the housings developing cracks around the screws on the back side.

I've not had any issues with the unit but I was not at all satisfied with the customer service of Magellan. I would probably get a Garmin next time.

May 13, 2005

Thanks guys,

You gave me a lot of stuff to check out before I buy. It seems like everybody is almost split down the middle between Garmins and Magellans. This biggest thing I am looking for with the GPS is the reception and accuracy. I dont really want all the bells and whistles, I just want it to have a map and point me in the direction I need to go(and show me when I get there). I also need a pc hookup. I know most of the guys where I work swear by the Magellan, so I'm still unsure which one I'm going to get. Basically what I seem to have learned is that Garmin is much more user friendly and has more options with a better screen display, while Magellan seems to have better reception, and somewhat better accuracy. If this is true(let me know if im wrong :unsure: ) then I'll probably end up getting a Magellan because the biggest thing I want is reception and accuracy. I know somebody wasnt happy with the service with the Magellan company. Anybody have that same problem? What about for Garmin? Hows the service with them?

May 13, 2005

Cobra

2.9k · May 13, 2005

Where I draw the line on this:

I base this entirely on quality tracklogging, with the ability to do segmenting the Active Tracklog, and also very accurate Trip Odometer info. For this you would need a newer Garmin GPS.

If you would like a Magellan, the Trip odometers tend to come up slightly short do to the unit's Auto-averaging, but with the new Explorist GPS units you can save multiple Tracklogs to the SD memory card for later downloading to your PC, whereas you cannot do this with a Garmin. On all my Magellan units the Trip Odometers averaged about 85 percent the true distance walked, so this kinda messes me up a bit, since I like to keep track of my Hikes and stuff. The Autoaveraging of a Magellan may distort the tracklogging, when your trying to get very accurate tracklogs, like when I do my City block Hikes like the picture below.

I tried this with a SporTrak Color, and the autoavering messed it up, but this picture here was done using a GPSmap60C GPS.

11.3k · May 13, 2005

Thanks guys,

You gave me a lot of stuff to check out before I buy. It seems like everybody is almost split down the middle between Garmins and Magellans. This biggest thing I am looking for with the GPS is the reception and accuracy. I dont really want all the bells and whistles, I just want it to have a map and point me in the direction I need to go(and show me when I get there). I also need a pc hookup. I know most of the guys where I work swear by the Magellan, so I'm still unsure which one I'm going to get. Basically what I seem to have learned is that Garmin is much more user friendly and has more options with a better screen display, while Magellan seems to have better reception, and somewhat better accuracy. If this is true(let me know if im wrong ) then I'll probably end up getting a Magellan because the biggest thing I want is reception and accuracy. I know somebody wasnt happy with the service with the Magellan company. Anybody have that same problem? What about for Garmin? Hows the service with them?

I had a problem with my Garmin and got someone one the phone very quickly. He was courteous and gave me an RMA number to return the unit.

Fortunately, one of the things I was told to do before sending the unit back was remove the batteries. As long as I had the back off, I decided to put a different brand of freshly-charged batteries in the Vista.

Surprise, it worked perfectly. :blink:

So, I didn't needed to return it afterall. It turned out to be a problem with off-brand batteries. Now I always use name-brand batteries like 15-minute Energizers.

May 13, 2005

Simple. Lowrance is better than both

lol Just kidding,, or am I?

No you arent kidding. :blink:

Lowrance is god.

2.9k · May 13, 2005

If you where to get 2 GPS units, you could try for a Geko 201, and a Meridian Gold GPS with at least a 256 meg memory card, this would be a good combination of GPS units.

Edited May 13, 2005 by GOT GPS?

2.6k · May 13, 2005

Simple. Lowrance is better than both

lol Just kidding,, or am I?

No you arent kidding.

Lowrance is god.

SICK!

11.3k · May 13, 2005

Since any GPSr will get you within approximately 30 feet of the reading of the cache hider's GPSr coordinates, the more important factor for finding the cache is refining your "Geosense" and experience.

I recently had six DNFs on new caches placed by the same people. I was in the area of the cache, but had never seen those types of containers hidden before, and no hints were included in the cache description. :unsure:

Yesterday I found some of those containers (thanks to a tip from another cacher) and now that I know how those cache containers are hidden, I should be able to find them.

I prefer my Garmin eTrex Vista to other GPSrs I've seen because it is small and fits nicely in my hand. It also fit my price range.

5.3k · May 13, 2005

It took me a lot longer with the Meridian. There are things that I still haven't figured out like how to pick a specific waypoint. With the Garmin I just key in the name and it comes up. I guess I have to read the manual to find out how to do it with the Meridian, because all I see is that I can sort by name, or aphabetical order, but nowhere can I find out how to pull up a single wayoint without paging through all the ones on the unit.

Meridian owners any tips, or am I going to finally have to read the manual?

You can stay away from the manual a while longer. There is no quick or easy way to bring up a particular waypoint if you sort alphabetically. You can scroll from the start of the list, or scroll in reverse to start at the end...but you are stuck with the entire list. Point to Garmin.

There are two ways I avoid that situation. One is to try and keep most of my waypoint lists on the shorter side. For longer lists like caches or benchmark collections, I usually navigate to the general vicinity with the cursor and then sort by nearest to cursor or nearest to position. In practice that has worked well enough for me that I rarely have had to scroll through 400+ waypoints to find a particular one.

24.7k · May 13, 2005

Topofusion liked the eTrex over the Sport tracks for having your track log show where you had actually been. It's that Magellan averaging thing agian. (Got GPS already said this so this just backs them up).

http://www.topofusion.com/gpscompare.php

Edited May 13, 2005 by Renegade Knight

38.2k · May 13, 2005

While Magellan seems to have better reception, and somewhat better accuracy. If this is true(let me know if im wrong

No its not really true. I have a Magellan Meridian Gold and a Garmin 60CS and Vista. Yesterday, side by side the Vista had the best reception of the three. It had more sats and a stronger signal than the other two. But there are times when the Meridian will have the best reception and times when the 60CS will. In the end the difference is so slight that it really isn't an issue.

Same for accuracy. If your Magellan is consistently accurate to 20 ft and your Garmin is consistently accurate to 18 feet are those 2 feett really that important? You are not surveying with the thing (and if you were you wouldn't be using either).

The Garmin eTrex line has gotten undeserved criticism for its reception under trees. Because it has a patch antenna it must be held flat, face up to the sky for good reception. As long as you do this your reception is fine. The critics usually don't know this and clip the unit to their belt or hang it from the laynard around their necks, or just hold it in their hand dangling at their side. Handle it like that and you WILL get lousy reception.

That being said, the Garmin 60 and 76 line do not have those issues and get excellent reception no matter how you hold them. I also understand that the new color eTrexs also have much improved reception.

In the end, the differences between the units as far as reception and accuracy are so minimal that they are of no significance. Far more important to consider is the features you're looking for and the user interface.

For example I just saw Embra's response to my question about how to look up specific waypoints in a Meridian. Apparently I can't, so I have to deal with paging through 500 waypoints to find a certain one on my Meridian. With my Garmin units I can just key in the waypoint name and BINGO, there it is. Those are the kinds of things that are important to me.

Edited May 13, 2005 by briansnat

May 14, 2005

Topofusion liked the eTrex over the Sport tracks for having your track log show where you had actually been. It's that Magellan averaging thing agian. (Got GPS already said this so this just backs them up).

http://www.topofusion.com/gpscompare.php

As someone who has used TopoFusion since it first came out, it's easy to see why. They have this multi track playback capability, which I used a lot when I was doing my side by side comparisons. First thing you have to sort out doing that is getting the Magellan clock to be right. Surprisingly, it's prone to error. Once everything is set up, and you do your trip then play back the tracks, you really see things like the position lag on the Magellan units. It's quite an eye opener playing back the tracks side by side overlayed on the aerial photos.

As for which is better, my vote goes for the one in my hand when I'm trying to navigate. That said, I've given away my sportraks, and now only have an assortment of Garmin units and a compact flash setup for my Pocket PC. On balance I much prefer then garmin units for handheld use. If I didn't spend so much time in mountainous and canyon type terrain though, my preferences might be different.

2.9k · May 14, 2005

One GPS, I wished I never sold was the Meridian Platinum. I had it set with WAAS turned OFF using a secret code screen "03", also I had the Regions loaded on the 128 meg memory card under 16 megs each, and also the mapping set to medium or low detailed, and the Tracklogging set to AUTO DETAILED, or to 0.01 miles per trackpoint. The Platinum was an excellent Geocache finding tool, and had no problems with the clock, or the autoaveraging was not much of a problem with zeroing in on caches.

I am one who likes to have both a Magellan and a Garmin.

May 14, 2005

Is there something wrond with the Magellan that I'm missing?

Your post indicated you did the homework and like the way the Magellan out performed the Garmin, so, go get it and get out there caching.

Oh yea, the only thing you are missing, that I didn't see posted, is Magellan is owned by a french Company. That was enough reason for me not to buy one, and, that's why my three GPS'rs (GPS III, ETrex and 60cs) have all been Garmins.

38.2k · May 16, 2005

I also need a pc hookup.

\

Something to consider. The Magellan Meridian and Sportrak have serial connections. The newer Garmins (60 series, 76C(S), Vista C and Legend C) have USB connections, as do the Magellan eXplorists (400 and higher). Downloading maps takes a minute or two rather than an hour or so (it took me close to two hours to load maps into my Meri Gold). Dowloading waypoints takes seconds instead of minutes.

Edited May 16, 2005 by briansnat

May 16, 2005

Oh yea, the only thing you are missing, that I didn't see posted, is Magellan is owned by a french Company. That was enough reason for me not to buy one, and, that's why my three GPS'rs (GPS III, ETrex and 60cs) have all been Garmins.

Do you still not buy Japanese because your grandfather told you not too after WWII?

I have a Garmin Legend. It has performed well in all the situations I have been in. It gets suprisingly good reception (even gets a lock through my roof) and is quite compact. I think for the price, it is one of the better "starter" units out there. I can't imagine growing out of it very soon.

June 8, 2005

Garmin E-Trex (yellow) is what I use

1.1k · June 8, 2005

I used a MeriColor loaded with routing and topo for my first 300+ caches. I was fairly pleased with it. I then began caching with others, and began to get annoyed that Garmin owners could walk straight to the cache while I waited patiently for the averaging to stop. I took the plunge and switched to a 60cs with the similar Garmin software, and have NEVER, under any circumstance, regretted the change. The screen, software, and routing are all superior. Using them both together for awhile, I found that reception is almost identical.

June 9, 2005

I forget his name, but there is one geocacher I saw on the forums who used a compass and a map not a gps. He probably came to this forum first.

Edited June 9, 2005 by RicknRoy

6.5k · June 9, 2005

Garmin Vs. Magellan. Which One Is Better?

If we could all come to an agreement about that, one of those companies wouldn't be making gps anymore!

Each make/model has its own pros and cons. If it was totally to everyone they wouldn't keep making it...

Garmin Vs. Magellan. Which One Is Better?

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