Test Garmin/Magellan

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I had the opportunity to play with a Meridian Platinum, a Garmin Etrex Legend and a Garmin GPSMAP76S over the course of a couple weeks and ended up keeping the GPSMAP76S. In sense the smallness of the Legend is quite enticing; one can drop it into just about any pocket and not notice it. The design is well thought out and clever. Garmin should make a mint with the Etrex line. The resolution of the small screen is excellent. The sensitivity of the receiver is probably adequate for most people. It works fine in my house and in my car, but does drop out frequently under heavy tree cover. This will not effect many users and many others would be able to easily work around this concern since for practical purposes it is not usually necessary to have continuous uninterrupted signal reception. What ultimately decided me against the Legend was the smallness of the screen in relation to the capability of my 65+ eyes, the suspected fragility of the click stick over a couple of years of use, and the only 8MB of memory to download maps. The Platinum has a more sensitive receiver (considerably more sensitive than the Legend and more sensitive than the GPSMAP76S). However, I found the resolution of the Platinum screen resolution to be a real downer when compared to the other two units. The Platinum< compass seems to work well, but IMHO the electronic compasses in GPS receivers are not worth the bother. I keep the compass in my GPSMAP76S turned off almost all of the time, I found the barometer function in the Platinum to be poorly done when compared to the GPSMAP76S. The Platinum< Trip Computer information is quite primative when compared to that of the other two units. IMHO Magellan seems to have the best RF design, but Garmin is far ahead in ergometric design. Also the Platinum Users Guide and especially the supplement describing how to use the compass is on the pathetic side. I found the Platinum to be a bit on the homely side with its tear drop shape and no place to attach a lanyard. Also, it is easy to accidentally turn off when carrying it in ones pocket since the off button needs to be only momentarily depressed. A lot of this stuff could probably be improved with firmware updates, but then the questions arise: will they and when will they ? The chemistry between me and the Platinum just wasn't good no matter how much I wanted it to be, so it went back. The GPSMAP76S has a decent size screen with good resolution. I can read the maps well. Although the Platinum has almost unlimited map memory, the 24MB of the 76S should be fine for me. The sensitivity of the receiver while not as good as the Platinum isn't too shabby. The 76S altimeter function is usefull. The Trip Computer function is sophisticated. I like the look and feel of the unit. I believe I have found my GPS solution.

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