Magellan Triton 400 GPS Receiver

I bought the Triton after having a Explorist 210 and a Explorist 400 for the last couple of years. It was more af a impulse buy as the other GPS' still work fine but since I already owned the National Geographic Topo State series maps I liked the idea of being able to load them onto my GPS.
The tracking mode seems to be more accurate than the Explorist series, I assume because of the high sensitivity receiver being able to get a better signal when under the trees. It was not a huge difference but the Triton track exactly corresponded with the map trails while the Explorist track was more jumpy i always figured that it was from losing the signal but am not sure of that and like I say it was more a factor of my nature then an actual problem.
The color screen is nice to work with after only having B&W and the quarter VGA resolution is great.
I had used Vantage Point with the Explorists previous to this but always thought that it sucked because of the very basic base map compared to using them with NG Topo but now that I have been able to download maps from National Geographic to the Triton and from there import them to Vantage Point I seldom use the Topo program since VP is more user friendly (For Me).
As soon as I received the Triton I upgraded to the latest firmware. This went off without a hitch and I have not had any lockup problems as described by some.
The thing that I don't like about the Triton is the shorter battery life. Even though it is against the recommendation, I use NiMH rechargeable batteries. and very soon after putting in freshly charged batteries I am down to 3 out of 4 bars on the battery strength gauge. This is natural since a NiMH cell puts out 1.2 volts versus 1.5 volts for a alkaline cell. Not too long after that I'm down to 2 out of 4 bars and a low battery warning comes on but from there the unit does last for quite a while, I have never had to change batteries out in the field but I have also never done a actual time test.
Another thing that I don't like is that the volume level for the alarms, even on the highest setting, is not adequate.
The attachment point for a lanyard is quite small and it is a PITA to get one attached to it.
One other thing to look out for is information on the web. I read somewhere that the Triton could use only a 2 Gig SD card so when I ordered the GPS I also ordered a 2 Gig card and this was not adequate for the NY State maps that I wanted to put on. I tried a 8 Gig card and it worked no problem. I now have most of New York State on the unit at 1:100,000 & 1:24,000. I don't know if that was a real limitation previously or not but I am happy it isn't now.
One thing that I hope will change with a later firmware update is on the Current Location screen. One half of the screen has no data fields on it and I would really like to see that space filled up with user configurable data fields, For me the more data available on a single screen the less that I have to go searching around for the info that I want.
As some have mentioned, sometimes the menu system is less then ideal, it will take you a while to remember where everything is at but for most of the everyday features that is no problem.
All in all I am well pleased with the Triton 400 and would not hesitate to recommend it to a friend.

I have owned and used the TOPO State map set for 10 years. This seemed like the best GPS to get since it worked with the software I already had. This GPS indeed does work with the my TOPO state series but I had to buy a $12.00 upgrade to my state map set to get it to work with this GPS.
A small price for a very nice addition.
This is a very rugged and accurate GPS and goes with me more than the garman vista I own. This GPS is the most accurate GPS I have worked with but does not have some of the features like games that other GPS offer. I only use those when I have kids with me.
Two of my friends have bought one of these since I have purchased mine. A Very Good machine. There was one 64 bit windows 7 machine that had a small but stubborn glitch in the install of the drivers. Like others have stated I wish this would recharge the batteries when using the USB connection and the battery life was longer but there is no weakness other than that. I really enjoy this GPS. It does what I need and so much more.

I use my Triton 400 with National Geographic Topo maps to navigate through, and find my way back from, the many miles of trails in the National Forests surrounding my home in Northern Arizona. We mostly ride them on our ATVs. This unit is compact, very accurate and easy to use. I find that all Forest Service Rds and most trails are shown on the TOPO maps, making it very easy to select routes and the backtrack feature ensures you find your way home. One cactus or rock looks pretty much like any other Cactus or rock out here.

I read a lot of reviews about the Triton 400, both positive and negative, before I bought mine. The most common complaint in the negative reviews was that it was too hard to learn how to use it. I found this not to be true at all. Although it’s not the most intuitive electronic gadget I’ve used, it is not difficult to master. The on line manual is complete and concise and will step by step you through the options. Just play with it a bit and you’ll be fine.

If I have one or two complaints they are 1, the screen is very small (it’s a compact unit) and a bit hard on my 65 year old eyes. The other is that, although the Magellan manual is pretty good, the National Geographic Topo one is not. Many of the functions and options in the map PC application must be discovered via trial and error. They are very good maps but the progrsm is not very user friendly.

Initially while looking for a good outdoor hiking GPS, I looked a various models by Garmin, Magellan and DeLorme. After a lot of research and from previous experiences with Magellan GPSs in general I decided to purchase this one. So far I've used it on a couple of hikes and I love it. The Adventure Pack is a definite bonus since it has the 25 credits you can use to purchase additional maps such as Super Quads from the store on National Geographic. The SD memory card seems a little outdated with only 512 MB of memory, but so far it's worked okay for the maps I had. With the GPS I've been able to load up tracks that I downloaded from the internet and using VantagePoint software (comes with the GPS), upload my own trails for other users online. It has a very nice user interface and easy to navigate through, although certain thing are a little hidden (such as changing what to display, ie: altitude vs lon/lat vs distance etc...). It locks onto satellites within about a minute or two. The vertical profile display is very nice and very accurate; when I first bought it, I turned it on and jumped off the bed and a chair just to test it out and sure enough the vertical profile displayed the altitudes right on. Battery life is good as long as you don't turn up the backlighting too high. You shouldn't need the backlighting during the day to see display, but might need to turn in occasionally at night. So far the GPS is well worth the money and haven't found any faults with it. The only thing I wish it came with is a better, more detailed base map, but that's a case for all the outdoor GPS's out there. Otherwise a map of roughly 25 SqM will run you about $1 from the Nat Geo store. You can also buy detailed state and country maps on SD cards, but I haven't tried that out yet. In case anyone is wondering, there is no turn-by-turn directions with the maps that come with the GPS although this may be changed with the purchase of additional city maps.

Overall a great GPS that's well worth the money. There are some tricks and things to get used to the interface, but once you have that figured out, you should be out trail-blazing in no time.

I decided to buy this because I needed it for geocaching. I am vice president of the geocaching club here at Kansas State University. As I am a college student I do not have a lot of money. I needed maximum value for my money. This GPS is not top of the line by any means. But for the price it is a great value. It has a color sceen. And it is set up for geocaching. You cannot mark the geocaches you have found on the unit though. But since you are going to go online and do it it is a small thing. And not having the compass and distance to a point on the same screen sucks, but they are only 2 button pushes away. Small inconveniences really. For this price it is to be expected. A good value for a new geocacher.