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The Explorist XL was my first GPS. It was purchased used (almost new) so the ebay seller advertised. It will require additional expenses if you want TOPO maps and nice accessories. My unit worked great for nearly two years, until I downloaded and installed the most current updates Magellan offered free from their website. The installation file read that the downloads were successful. Well, beware of Magellan updates for an Explorist XL. My GPS unit never worked after that download/install experience. The Magellan Support team was useless in fixing the problem. I was told that the Explorist XL WAS A DISCONTINUED UNIT AFTER MID-2008 AND THERE WAS NO REPAIR OR SUPPORT FOR THE PRODUCT. They did however, offer to send me a refurbished Triton 500 GPS replacement, which I took them up on. The Triton 500, in my opinion is far inferior to the Explorist XL. Very disappointed Magellan user.Read full review
This is a great GPS unit - we use it for GeoCaching. The best advice I have for anyone that is going to use this unit is to just start playing! It took us about 8 hours and 4 or 5 sessions of playing with the unit to discover the proper way to use it! We would get it out play for a little bit and get frustrated put it away and later get it back out. We even took our old GPS unit with us for the first few months. Now we don't even have it in our vehicle. We love this unit! We purchased the TOPO map program. At first the installation did not work. Magellan support staff was not helpful. After several hours on the phone and getting no where I demanded a disk of the program so I could install it. After we got the disk it worked great!
Bought brand new, actually a gift from my children for Christmas! It is old school in today's world today. But for Baby-boomers it couldn't be better! We have the latest and greatest in GPS technology in our cars and they are perfect for road trips. But for me they have TMI- Too Much Information-for Geo Caching. This unit has a super sized screen and superb color for what it's made for. Rubberized case is excellent! The buttons are just right for big hands and fingers. The only drawback is the power required which is supplied by 4-AA Batteries. Easy to fix though by a simple a upgrade to 4-AA RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES with a FAST CHARGER. In today's world of battery technology, it's an easy fix for such a great GPS. With the rubberized case you should add a simple thick plastic screen protector to protect your GPS from the elements. It's been a positive winner for me! ThanksRead full review
Verified purchase: No
Largest hand-held GPS screen, uses AA batteries, SD card memory easy to get to, large antenna gives highly sensitive performance which is critical for areas near buildings or under trees. GPS screen: Makes viewing easy and even works with the backlight turned off in bright daylight (which increases battery life). Great image. AA batteries: a big step up over the Explorist 400 to 600 because the built-in Li Ion battery that these units use is difficult to replace and can be damaged in the field. (If you tighten down the case back to achieve a watertight seal then you almost need a plastic knife to pop the battery out. You can damage the plastic battery housing by repeating this process. And the SD card is under the Li Ion battery so every time you want to take out the SD card you have to remove the battery.) So having a spare Li Ion battery (a certain type of Motorola cell phone battery will work) isn't really that helpful because of the hassles of swapping batteries. You can now get 2900 Ma Hour NiMH rechargeable batteries. These will last quite a long time--more than enough for a day trip. For a weekend trip take a second set of four charged batteries. In a pinch, you can use alkaline AA batteries you can buy almost anywhere.) Another XL advantage over the Explorist 400 to 600 is that the SD card is plugged into the side of the XL and shrouded with a rubber cover which makes it very easy to change SD cards. SD card: I use a 2 GB Sandisk Ultra II which works just fine. A 2 GB card will easily hold a MapSend Topo version 1.5 image file of the entire US. (I split mine into Eastern US and Western US--that's about 1.55 GB which leaves a huge 450 Mb left over.) Don't use a cheapie SD card--use a Sandisk or Lexar or maybe Kingston. Also, put a separate copy of the base map in the SD card background map folder in case the base map gets corrupted. For those people that whine about the base map not being detailed enough, buy one of the supplemental mapping programs and load the detailed maps into the SD card. MapSend Topo 3D has a very good street map that you can use it for all purposes except driving directions and water navigation. For those of you wanting to know how to put large detailed maps on an SD card, see: http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=160306 (I highly recommend joining this forum—this allow direct searches with keywords.) Follow the Magellan instructions to make your detailed map of choice the active map. The detailed maps kick in at a screen width of 0.2 miles (about 1,000 feet) and can be zoomed to 100 feet. The zooming function is easy with “in” and “out” buttons. Once you’ve created the detailed maps, make a backup of the folder on a DVD so if the maps loaded on the SD card ever get corrupted you can re-install them to the SD card in a couple of minutes. Unit performance is very good. I’ve routinely gotten 6 or more satellites locked carrying the unit in my shirt pocket under small trees. This increases to 10 or more when held horizontally, parallel to the datum. Of course your performance will vary with open field of view, tree height, building shadows, etc. I’ve been able to get as many as 7 satellites locked when placing the unit on the car passenger seat while driving. (Looking at the unit while driving can lead to an accident—don’t do it!) Overall, this unit is a solid 5 of 5 rating (and no minuses whatsoever) when using the supplemental maps.Read full review
After a lot of research I am really glad that I bought the explorist XL. It has the largest bright color screen of any portable gps unit. The 14 channel waas accuracy is amazing. It was definitely worth the upgrade for me from my sportrak map....So much easier to use and read. It has unlimited memory upgrades by using sd memory cards. I got the latest mapsend directroute v3, (version 3 is a must for compatibility this new unit). Directroute v3 works fantastic with the XL, giving audible alerts and turn-by-turn directions with arrows. You can use one of the many generic mounting, (clamping type) brackets for your car since Magellan doesn't have any XL brackets as of March 2006. It is a little on the large size but definitely worth it for the screen size. I think it's the perfect all-around gps unit for all purposes.Read full review
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