Magellan eXplorist 500 Water Resistant Hiking GPS

Finding my first GPS was tough! I have never found such a wide range of +/- reviews on any other gadget. I knew I wanted 5 things. 1. It had to be small enough to pack around. 2. It had to have enough memory that it wasn't obsolete in 5 minutes. 3. It had to be well built. 4. It had to have available software to upgrade the maps. 5. It had to look decent and be easily readable. In my opinion this unit does all this very well.It scared me that so many people were having trouble with the software. This almost ran me off, but I honestly couldn't pass up the $50 rebate on this. Before it arrived I read the manual that was available at magellangps.com. It explained how to fix all the problems that people seemed to be having. The fact of the matter is that GPS units are complicated. These have tons of features and you will have to read how to work them.I was also worried that the display was too small but I was shocked how big it was when I took it out of the box. If you have poor eyesight any smallish LCD screen is going to give you problems. If you can't see very well do not go the cheap rout and get one of these.For people with good vision, and the optional DirectRoute software these work just like the 600 dash models, and it saved my skin last week driving through Seattle this week. The Topo3D software is very good too and the screen has great resolution.I am very happy with the 500. I think it is the best looking portable GPS and has the great features too, just remember to study up before you get it.

First of all this is my first GPS so everything I say is based on my expectations rather than actual experience. Secondly, there are several excellent reviews here and elsewhere (just google for them), so I won't get into great detail here. I think this is a great overall unit and there aren't many units that can offer the same features, especially at this price, but if you're looking for 1 do-it-all unit expect to make compromises.I wanted one GPS to fit all my needs: car, motorcycle, hiking. I don't need very precise position or compass info, I also don't care for a good geocache tool. I need it to tell me what street I'm on, show me the surroundings, and live on batteries for 8+ hours. I also wanted it to keep track of the trails I've hiked. Surprisingly there aren't many GPS units to fit this bill...most are made for cars (bulky and no battery), others (Garmin) don't offer the same level of expandability for extra maps and are more expensive.Happy with: - small, light, and rugged. fits perfectly in your hand. - good screen. Good size, color, and brightness. - great battery life. Although I haven't tested it myself, others' tests seem pretty accurate -- 4-17 hours depending backlight usage. - Very expandable. I got a 1gb SD card and it can fit more than enough maps on it. 60 mile radius around NYC fit on one map of 120 mb (mapsend has a limit of 128 mb per map). I was also able to fit NYC, Phili, Washington DC, and Richmond, VA and everything in between on one map.Many minor gripes: - slow scrolling and zoom. This is particularly true in urban areas. Scrolling around the NYC area is a chore...it take a good 10-15 seconds for it to redraw the screen. Address entry is also slow. - unintuitive interface. I'm a techie guy and I was puzzled for several days. Don't expect you passengers to be able to easily use it as you drive. - maps are expensive...and you can't just download them (wink, wink) since Thales (magellan) knows how to protect their products. - Map routing with MapSend North America v. 3 is pretty bad. It seems to plot a direct path with little regard for speeds. Apparently it thinks that 10 miles in heavy NYC traffic is better than 20 miles of highway driving. My friends' built-in car GPS's have no trouble with this. Always double-check its directions, there's probably a better way! - annoying beeps alert you of route changes. These are usually not needed. It sometimes beeps to tell you to NOT take an exit. - in-car reception is often weak, especially on local streets surrounded by trees/buildings. I usually get 3-5 satellites which is good enough to put you on the right street. Open highway or hiking usage gives you much better reception. - car charger requires USB cable. They're just too lazy to create a dedicated charger with the correct plug. Oh yeah, and the plug is really funky. - Address entry on Mapsend is bad. It uses townships instead of town names in NJ (maybe other states too). This is a royal pain since I can never find the right place. - data transfer from PC may be slow if you do it through the unit (vs. plugging the SD card in a reader). No big deal though since you won't be transferring large maps often.

This is my first geocaching GPS device. I bought it at the recommendation of a friend. It was in really good shape, as promised, and was even charged enough to turn and try it out.

The battery it came with was dead on arrival. The unit would not operate. The seller refunded my money, thank you seller. I did buy another battery for it and it worked briefly. The problem with this unit was that it overcharged the battery to an extremely overheated condition. I used the unit once with the new battery and that was it, it never worked again. I believe if I would buy a new battery and charge it then it would power up but I would be extremely nervous about charging the battery and forgetting and then having the possibility of a fire. The battery is a one made just for this unit and it would not be practical to replace it every time I wanted to use it.

The Magellan eXplorist 500 feels sturdy in your hand, but it is difficult to operate. It has too many menus through which to navigate.