Magellan eXplorist 710 Waterproof Hiking GPS
Magellan eXplorist 710 Waterproof Hiking GPS
- Rugged, waterproof outdoor GPS with three-inch touchscreen and button controls
- 3.2 megapixel camera, microphone, and speaker to record geo-referenced images and voice notes
- World Edition preloaded map, Summit series USA topographic mapping, and City Series USA for city streets
- Barometric altimeter and three-axis electronic compass for accurate altitude, weather, and directional info; has 500MB space on the internal memory for user storage
- Powered by two AA batteries for up to 16 hours of use; The memory on the device is solid state flash memory; have microSD card slots
eXplorist 710The eXplorist Series introduces a revolutionary new user interface to outdoor navigation. Simply tap on the menu screen to reveal 4-Corners menu items. Roll over one of the four menu items to reveal more information. Experience. Capture. Share. Use the integrated camera, microphone and speaker to record geo-referenced images, videos and voice memos. Relive your outdoor adventures in the field, on your computer, or share with others. Superior Mapping The eXplorist Series packs the most accurate maps into the palm of your hand. eXplorist 710 Features: City Series (Turn-by-Turn Routable maps) Summit Series (Detailed Topo Maps) 3-Axis Electronic Compass Barometric Altimeter Online Experience Sharing GPX Compatible World Edition Pre
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eyecore
April 8, 2012Best GPS I’ve used (or seen!),
This GPS does so many things its difficult to know where to start. So, I’ll start with the negatives…First, the unit comes with Energizer Lithium Ion batteries; unfortunately, the ones I received were dead from the get-go. (Unit wouldn’t turn on. Tried some rechargeable batteries, and everything lit up wonderfully.) And on that note, the unit can even optimize itself for alkaline, lithium, or rechargeable batteries, so you’re well covered there!
Other slight negatives: it takes several seconds for this to “boot up.” It’s not horrible, but it’s not ideal, either. Also, when the screen gets wet, it’s a little difficult to “scroll” through menus (it’s touch-screen.) Again, it’s not bad enough to worry about – and given touch-screen technology today, it probably cannot be bettered by any competitor.
Now, the actual device: I’ve never owned a Magellan, always going with Garmin for both handheld/hiking GPS’s and car navigation as well. This Magellan is great; the screen is bright and crisp, the menus (for the most part) are simple to navigate and understand without having to go through any manuals. Not just a hiking GPS, it can also give you street directions while driving (though it doesn’t have the text-to-speech stuff so it says to “turn right” and not “turn right on Main Street.”) The amount of POIs (points of interests) is somewhat staggering: not only main attractions and stores and such that most car navigation GPS’s can do, but also water and various “outdoor” attractions. It is seemingly built for handle both hiking and metro areas equally well.
The 3MP camera is nice to have; it produces images clear that look good on-screen, but you won’t be printing any glossy landscape scenes with it. (The camera has digital zoom but no flash.) A great add-on to the GPS that isn’t obtrusive in any way, so if you want to use your digital SLR instead, you don’t even notice the one attached here.
The signal remained very strong on a path about 8 feet wide with tall trees all around; while I haven’t tried it in a urban city area (tall buildings, where car GPS’s often fail), for outdoor areas, I feel it did quite well. There is somewhat of a heft to the device; you’re not going to strap this onto a ball-cap like you can with some of the smaller hand-held GPS’s (Geko’s, for instance.) But, put into a pocket (mine kept signal inside a jacket pocket) or clamped to a backpack or belt, and you’ll appreciate the quality and heft and not really think much about how heavy it really is. (Only a pound or so, but it feels quite solid to just hold it in your hand.)
As far as batter life: I have some 4-year-old rechargeable batteries that I’ve been using (they’re on their way out…don’t hold a full charge anymore), and I’ve got about 4-5 hours of battery life (so far, they’re not entirely dead yet.) You can configure the screen to dim itself quickly or wait in bright mode if battery life is paramount and you don’t have others (or go into “sleep” mode, where the screen goes off completely, but the unit continues to track your movement.) I’ve actually made the screen stay bright for some time while I show it off and played with all its features, and, given the batteries I’ve been using, it’s performed quite well.
While I haven’t dunked it in water (and don’t plan to, on purpose at least), it’s held up to quite a bit of rain on a couple mild-to-moderate hikes and hasn’t been bothered at all. I wish I could speak more to its many geo-caching features, but I personally don’t do that; if you do, I have no doubt that this eXplorist would do the job, and do it well.
Would definitely recommend, perhaps for both a hiking and car navigation GPS, though for car navigation, some kind of dash-holder would be nice so the passenger doesn’t have to hold it. A great GPS unit that doesn’t seem to have much in the way of competition at all: for consumers, this looks like the best-of-the-best.
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