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All in all, it fits the bill for the serious traveler. I consider it indespensible for traveling. It is upgradable with new maps which you won't find on some others.
I have discovered marvelous places with my Magellan -- places only the locals know. Works great in the car, and then you can take it with you on foot, train or bus. I have used my Magellan Meridian Color GPS for three years, and I can't imagine how it can be improved upon.
This is the best hand-held GPS. I like to make choices, and I have experienced more direct routes and discovered many roads and foot routes less traveled all over the US and Europe with the assistance of this wonderful device. If you apply yourself to learning how to use this device it will increase your satisfaction in traveling and knowledge of your surroundings.
The color screen is easy to read, bright and dims easily to save power. This powerful tool actually asists you in navigating your own route, far prefereable for my liking than others which tell you which way to go.
The instructions that came with the GPS are helpful and well organized. The GPS Magellan Meridian Color Handheld GPS was shipped promptly, and works as advertized. Its color screens are crisp, easy to read and the GPS is very user-friendly.
Basically, our investment is now obsolete with no hopes of mapping updates, Magellan obviously cannot be trusted, and we won't purchase another Magellan product again. Regularly during the course of two years, we emailed the manufacturer of the Magellan products to inquire about the updates. Our replies continually indicated that the mapping updates were 'on the way.' They never were produced. We purchased this item two years ago when the item was truly hot on the market. With so many companies, including Dell, entering the GPS market, there's no need to invest in Magellan again. On the contrary, NOT ONE update has been produced, and now we see where the Meridian product line is being discontinued. At that time, the Magellan website indicated that regular mapping updates would be available for all the Meridian products. We would not have purchased a Magellen had we known that mapping updates were not going to be produced as promised.
The unit refused all my software (specifically uploading REGIONS off the Topo, Nav, and World Basemap discs) until I upgraded the firmware to anything above v.5. One said I'd get a callback the next day at 7:30 PM New York time. It came with antique version 4.02 firmware, marked from 2002. The obviously outsourced "tech experts" (trained British accents, probably in Pakistan) then repeatedly walked me thru the same steps to fix the problem as though they were encountering them for the first time. After losing an older Meridian Marine, I decided to make use of my software and buy this unit since I LOVED the previous model for a few years.
Even the "worldwide basemap", which I bought the unit for, only gave me an OUTLINE of Panama.no roads, no nothing. No matter how great the unit might be, I will never do business again with a sleazy excuse for a professional Company named Magellan (Thales Communications). I even got the same guy twice. Guess what.It never happened (again). I then called tech support (NOT open 24/7.just California time 6am-5:30pm, weekdays). After even she gave up, she said she had to look up something and would call me back within 30 minutes. 5.40 which I downloaded, it kept freezing and wouldn't accept the firmware. After giving up, one of them transferred me to a "senior-technician" who did no better.
When I received this model it seemed to be working fine when I initialized it. It never happened. In all my 58 years, with all my toys (boats/radar/stereos,medical electronics, cameras, etc,etc, etc), this is the single WORST response I've ever had to asking for HELP, especially on a BRAND-NEW product. When I tried to install v5.34 from the CD or v. I spent a total of 3 hours on hold during my 4 phonecalls.
Turning on the unit, the first thing I noticed was the VIBRANT color display, which was the main reason I bought the unit. The software is easy to use, the hard part is getting past the limitations. Another thing is when it is first powered up, you have to watch the screen for a disclaimer about using at your own risk, then have to hit enter to procede, if you don't hit enter within maybe 20 seconds it powers off. This is the 2nd Magellan GPS I own, I also have a 315 series GPS. Well, I have used it alot, and I love it, the only thing better would be a Roadmate, but you get about the same thing at 1/3 the cost. I bought the software containing elevation, and when maps are downloaded it shows the contour interval, I want to buy the turn-by-turn software, but it is kinda pricey. I would highly recommend this unit to a beginner or advanced user alike.
I think there are 7 screen on this unit. You can put all your way points in the way the maps are put in, but I have not delved into that to much. Some of the things i don't much like are the fact you have to take the battery cover off and take the batteries out to get to the card, I use a 512mb card, and it is way more than enough space for whatever I need to put on. Satellite position, the map screen, compass, large data display, speed, position and the road screen. Really there is so much this does it is hard to remember everything.
I had prior experience with GPS's, (my 315 and military GPS's) so it was really easy for me to get comfortable with this unit. I used a SD card reader to put the images directly into the card, but I also hook it to the computer with a USB to Serial adapter, as you can download your track history onto your computer and replay your entire trip back in varying levels of speed. This unit does just about anything dealing with navigation, map datum, unit of measure, time format, mils versus degrees, it does projection based on time, contour elevation, everything. I bought a Sport Trac, but really wanted the color screen. Each screen has data fields that are totally customizable, with no less than 12 different data displays.
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