Friday, April 1, 2011

Magellan Triton 500 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)


This review is from: Magellan Triton 500 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)


This is my first time purchasing a hand held GPS system. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a unit, and frankly I wasn't looking for a lot of bells and whistles. In retrospect, I am happy with my purchase, however I would not spend more money for the pricier Tritons.



When I first booted it up, I was a little disappointed with the base map which only included major highways. For my first test run, we took it for a drive in my friend's car. It tracked us very well, and the speed seemed spot on (judging by the speedometer). This morning, I took it out for a bike ride down to the beach. The unit fit easily in my bike jersey pocket and was able to get a signal for the 8 mile ride. When I got home, I exported the data to Google Earth, and the GPS path matched my actual path. I also checked the vertical profile for my trip which seemed accurate based on USGS maps for the area.



I have a few complaints about the unit. The compass is not 100% accurate. If I needed an accurate heading, I would use my old-fashioned compass. I also think the interface could have used some work to make it flow better. The included Vantage Point software could've been a little more robust, but it gets the job done. If I was expecting a top of the line GPS unit, I could have purchased a much more expensive unit. But for the simple things I was looking for, the Triton 500 works just fine.
Magellan Triton 500 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics) at amazon.com
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