Magellan Meridian Color

Good – The Magellan is one of the most robust GPS units you can buy. Its rubber cushion around the perimeter protects against shock. And if you want accuracy then, depending on how and where you mount it will perform very well. I routinely get 4-5 m accuracy on the ground and with altitude about 2m accuracy. This is the unit you would take bush and not get lost. Bearings, estimated time of arrival, time en route and deviations from your intended track all appear in real time. I use my Meridian in the car mostly and find it invaluable in remote areas where road signage is unreliable. I pre-load way points such as small town caravan parks that I have booked so that I can drive directly to them and not have to ask directions. I would recommend this GPS to people who want more than the cosmetics offered by most car mounted GPS units and to those who want detail in out of the way places. This GPS has been around for quite a while and is a favourite with geocachers - people who have made a sport out of finding things in remote locations using their GPS. It is at the serious end of the GPS market and so has many important and useful features. The moving map is very effective and can be scaled right down to just a few metres or up to hundreds of kilometres. The unit has a baseline map of Australia loaded (main cities and highways) but if you want more detail you download regions from the Magellan DiscoverAus CD that you must buy separately. Regions are downloaded onto an SD card. The map detail is very good indeed, especially in the remotest parts of Australia. On a recent trip through Queensland and around the Gulf of Carpentaria even the faintest station tracks appeared on the screen. In some places walking tracks appear. Even the smallest town can be downloaded. Way point entry is easy and you can automatically log your route as you go then save the route and download it onto your laptop computer. You can save scores of way points in the memory. You cannot load anything other than Magellan DiscoverAus maps into this GPS. And this you must buy separately at around $250. This means you download the region you plan to travel from your computer into the SD card that fits into the GPS. Some might find this a bit technical and fiddly and it is time-consuming. Perhaps the biggest complaint users have with this unit is its appetite for batteries. The well lit screen is partly to blame here. You can use rechargeable batteries which I use when cycling or walking. In the car it's plugged into the 12v outlet. The complexity of the Meridian means that you'll be frequently diving into the manual, but it is a serious GPS that does NOT talk to you like car mounted models.

Good – It's a pretty good little portable GPS I use for fishing and at work. It's good cos you can go do a trip then download all the trip information onto your computer at home to see where you've been. Clever! It's a neat little package that is splashproof and obviouslyvery portable. I've used it heaps of times and it seems really accurate (within 5 metres or so). It gives you heaps of options and functions such as MOB etc. You have to manually input everything. It doesn't save your waypoint without you inputting the details. Makes for slowgoing when you are fishing or boating.

bad screen – Ive heard that the resolution is crap, ppl that bought this swapped them for the meridian Plat. its a meridian screen resolution is not good enough