Customer Reviews

Magellan MAP 330 2.2-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Map330 arrived on Nov 20th. It immediately locked on in after the power up in about 4 minutes with 6 satellites showing. I previously had a Garmin 45xl and a Garmin 12 with good success. This GPS takes those 1 step further with built in Base maps and the "free" cd offer with a mail in rebate for no extra cost. Unlike the current Garmin offers which cost an extra $100 for a map program. This is an excellent offer for the current price. The only cons that I have found with this unit is that the tracklogs will "connect" themselves to each other and that upon power up the first tracklog taken sometimes has a tendency to be far away from the actual location. This is due to a poor satellite geometry and is not a problem with the unit. These are minor shortcomings and the fact that I was able to load 1/2 of Pennsylvania with the 8 meg uploadable map storage is a nice bonus with this program. If you have any questions on this or any other GPS I highly recommend that you go to the newsgroup: sci.geo.satellite-nav . The people there are very helpful and can answer any questions you may have.. Happy GPS'ing !! l8tr... Steve m...

This is the first GPS that has user-accessed memory and a CD Rom with maps, under $300. At least during the initial offer, the CD Rom was free, so the price for 'everything' was $250 or so. Since you need the database (CD) and a cable, plus a memory module, the competing Garmin EMap is about $400.

Magellan likes the 'knob' antenna on their low cost units. It makes the unit a little clunky. The Emap is much more elegant to handle, but they are both small and light. The Magellan has a smaller screen. The Emap is better.

Magellan supplies a cheap GPS that isn't purposefully derated. Garmin does. Try to find your course on the Emap. It isn't there. The Emap is designed to work in an automobile, not on a boat or in an airplane. If you want that capability, they are trying to get you to buy something more expensive, or two units.

Overall, the Magellan 330 is a very capable and fully featured GPS. When you zoom in to street level, the maps can be confusing. Unfortunately, the streets lack context, and as you zoom out, detail disappears. On the other hand, if you know where you are going, the map is extremely handy, down to the most basic intersections.

Garmin makes nicer, more refined units. They also play games by leaving out features ANY GPS should have. The Magellan 330 is the most fully featured 'entry level' GPS that has ever been offered, and it is a clear winner in many ways.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled with my Map 330. It is fast and accurate. The built-in base map has only "main" streets (like state highways) and landmarks in my area, but it is very accurate.

A suggested software upload quickly updated the Map 330 operating system, although for some reason it did not work from my laptop ... the laptop Com port settings were a problem with the older DOS-based loading process provided with the OS update. It worked fine from an older desktop.

I did notice that in certain light ... mainly north light or twilight, the display has what I describe as some "stress marks" in the glass at the top. Normally, you don't even see them. I called Magellan to ask about them, and they said they were aware of them, and they do not indicate any sort of a mount pressure point against the LCD screen ... they are "harmless." Hope they are right!

This little device does, indeed work great. However, there are some needless frustrations. When you turn the device on, you go through an advertising screen and a disclaimer screen. If you don't push "enter," the device shuts back off. Stupid. Clearly, some lawyers were involved in that nonsense!

You turn the backlight on by holding the on/off button down for a bit. If you don't do it just right, the Map 330 goes into shutdown mode and you have just a few seconds to fumble around (in the dark) to hit the proper button to cancel the shutdown. If you fail, you get to go through start-up again! Why not pick a less important button to trigger the backlight?

These are just little frustrations you quickly learn to deal with. However, I'm not so sure about the MapSend Streets CDROM Version 1.00b that allows you to upload detail maps for the areas you choose. It installed quickly on my laptop, and it when I select map areas to load into the Map 330, all goes well. But if it had not been free, I'd have sent it back by now!

My community is over 10 years old, but this software fails terribly. The streets look like they were drawn in by a 5 year old holding a not too sharp pencil. My street is named wrong, and the GPS shows me to be at least 500 yards from where my house should be. Walking a large area of the community creates a path that has no relationship to the streets on the map. If I put in my address, a point is selected about a mile away from my house.

However, "nonhuman" landmarks (streams, lakes, etc.) are named and placed very accurately.

The end result is that I don't trust the current version of MapSend Streets, and that is not good for a GPS map system! If it can't accurately show me where I am in places that I know, how can I trust it to show me where I am when I'm lost?

I also have Microsoft Streets & Trips on my laptop, so I hooked the Map 330 up to the laptop and turned everything on. Soon, I had a little symbol sitting on my laptop screen, exactly where my house is. The correct street address of the house was even displayed! It appears that the database for Microsoft Streets & Trips is much more accurate than MapSend Streets for my suburban area, anyway.

I guess I'll just have to drag my laptop along with the Map 330, since there is no way to load the Microsoft data into the Map 330! Hopefully MapSend Streets version 1.00b will be updated quickly!

Fully lived up to my expectations. GPS HARDWARE is very sensitive. While walking, always gets enough satellites to lock in - even under heavy trees w/ wet leaves. If you buy it and it's not this good, send it back - you got a dud. In car (with Magellan bracket or on front seat) works almost as well. MAPPING FEATURES are great - built-in base map has highways and major roads throughout USA, plus smaller streets in some big cities. Some parks (though by no means all). Amazing what they can fit in 8 mbytes! MAP-SEND STREETS CD-ROM has detailed street maps, with some errors (like US 50 between DC and Annapolis being called I-595, apparently because 15 years ago someone proposed making it an interstate; some 10-year-old streets not in database). CONTROL BUTTONS seem complicated at first, but were easy once I got some practice. If you have trouble setting your VCR clock, 330 may be a challenge. PACKAGE is amazingly small, smaller than my cell phone. Seems quite rugged, makes me want to take up hiking. But I got it mainly for car navigation. (You need a passenger to operate it, or pull over and stop to use GPS.)

This is a really nice product. I bought this about 8 months ago (summer 2001) so that I could start geocaching with a friend. I didn't know anything about GPS units and didn't really research it, but I had heard of Magellan. I've used it a number of times, and the accuracy is better than the Etrex Vista that my friend uses. The menu system is easy to understand and the control buttons are logical. Basic functions are easy to reach and use with just a quick review of the handy manual included. Battery usage is more than I expected and I would like a display more like the Etrex. Map data resolution isn't really suitable for road navigation for anything less than major highways and streets, but you can buy a software application to load more detailed maps if needed.

Loved my 330, but the orignal one died after just over a year of use. Had to send it back to Magellan/Thales to have them replace it. Cost me seventy bucks ($70), which was a bit annoying. However, to Mag/Thales credit, when they returned it, they included a bunch of accessories, which was really nice. I guess they had just debuted their new line of Meridian units and had a wharehouse full of old stock to unload. Whatever...I'll take it!

The reception of the Magellan 315/330 is much better than my old Garmin eTrex.

Ive had my map330 for about 6 months and I think its a great unit. it's very user friendly .and gives quick,accurate readings.Being able to move the cursor to a destination and just hit goto really is easy The only thing i wish magellan would do is come out with a marine&recreation disc.

7

Is really cool to use on an airplane. 45,000 feet at 520mph over Milwakee, WI!! It is hard to get a fix when surrounded by Large buildings in downtown metro areas. On the open road its great. I like being able to leave the major highways to see some little apple shop or what ever not being worried about finding my way back. This device leaves a bread trail as you travel so you can just turn around and follow it back to the highway, pretty cool. I would highly recommend this unit to anyone who is uncomfortable with being lost, but wants to venture out a little bit.