Review on Water-Resistant Magellan eXplorist 300 GPS for Hiking by Pete Juarez

I have had an eXplorist 300 for a long time. Up until over a year ago I had a Garmin eTrex Legend Es fell off a cliff while hiking. I'll take care of that later. Of course, this review will include a comparison of the two devices. They're in the same class and price range and the devices and company are great. First, if you want a PC interface, the eXplorist 300 doesn't have one (but the eXplorist 210, 400, 500, etc. do). . If you need detailed street maps (the eXplorist 300 only has major roads and freeways), this unit doesn't have them either. I mainly use the device for hiking, so these moments are not a problem for me. As for the Garmin eTrex Legend's strengths over the Magellan eXplorist 300, I can single out two. First, eTrex has a PC interface. If needed I would suggest the eXplorist 210, eXplorist 400 or the Garmin eTrex series itself. The other small strength of the eTrex Legend is that the eTrex showed me average speed (in addition to current speed) and stop time. Those are two decent dimensions that the eXplorist 300 doesn't have. The eXplorist 300 is much more comfortable to use than the eTrex Legend. The beautiful simplicity of the eXplorist comes in the form of some great buttons located right on the front of the device. Anything that is not directly accessible via the button on the device can be accessed in the menu with the button that is on the device, the menu button. Because of this, you're almost always 1-2 button presses and joystick clicks away from what you want to do. When it comes to reception, the eXplorist 300 excels, outperforming the eTrex Legend. Even outdoors, my eTrex Legend lost signal slightly. Any heavy clouds or treetops could disturb my eTrex reception. eXplorist is much more resilient to loss of reception and has much better reception. Finally we got to the point where my old eTrex fell off the cliff. In another comparison test between the eTrex series and the eXplorist series, a reviewer said that one of the advantages the Garmin eTrex has over the Magellan eXplorist is that it only takes a half turn to loosen the screw on the eTrex battery door , compared to about 10 rounds for the Explorer series. That person might think it's an advantage, but I don't. I had my eTrex attached to my backpack with a carabiner and it only took a half turn of the bolt to hold the battery cover to my backpack while the rest of the unit fell off a cliff several hundred feet in Glacier National Park. I like taking the extra seconds to open the eXplorist's battery cover rather than having a device that unscrews from its back. movement to get readings), weather thermometer, barometer and air pressure altimeter. The eTrex Legend has none of these features. The build quality and styling of the eXplorist series are also top-notch. I think it's already clear that I really recommend purchasing the Magellan eXplorist 300. Most importantly, whatever GPS device you have, have fun!