Customer Reviews

Magellan SporTrak Water Resistant Hiking GPS

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

 

 

This is my first GPS but I did some research before spending the money. The SportTrak is compact and lightweight,has a long battery life and is surprisingly accurate. We take it traveling to see distance,path we took,speed we are driving, where the next city is... and Geocaching! A great family hiking, hunting activity where the GPS comes in handy for the cache. The screen is easy to read and understand. It has a back light for nighttime use. We have had ours for two weeks and are truly glad we picked this SportTrak unit.

I bought this unit to use for Geocaching and I recommend it highly. My minimum requirements were that it have WAAS (allows better accuracy under certain circumstances, often as good a 3 meters) and 12 channel operation (gives more consistent operation when the view of the sky is partially obscured, or changing, as when in the woods). This unit seems to be the best value given these requirements.

Overall I am very pleased with the unit. I like the fact that it allows some customization. For intance, one can choose which screens are shown (for example some views are not usefull for geochaching).

My biggest complaint is that the SporTrak, like many electronic devices, has a user interface that appears to have been designed by engineers without any "human factors" experts on the team. Its not a really big deal, but if the user interface were logically thought out I'd have given it a 5 rather than a 4.

Particularly since I only use it ocassionally, I find myself frustrated sometimes by the not-very-intuitive steps need to program in new waypoints and selecting a destination.

Very good unit and a very good value.

I have only had my Magellan SporTrak for a few days and it has already amazed me with both it's versatility and precision. It only took about 5 minutes to get it up and running the first time. It has so many features and can hold a lot of waypoints/routes. The receiver can track up to 12 satellites simultaneously, and even though there are normally only 4-8 sats. in the sky above you at one time, it allows accuracy to the foot (my experience). This GPS is a must have if you are into hiking/hunting/fishing or even just for vehicle navigation. It has a strong, rugged design but is still very attractive. It is so easy to use and there is no way you can beat this price.

I lost my trusty 315 and was hoping to not reinvest in cables, etc. Thankfully all of the cables attach and work fine. Even my old case fits it well. The screens are identical to the 315, though this one already feels snappier and more quickly establishes position. I have heard this antenna design is very good, but one needs to hold it upright (vertical) rather than looking at the screen like the Garmin units.

Highly recommend this little unit for basic GPS functions.

Several times waypoints have mysteriously disappeared. Sometimes it's the last waypoint I've added and sometimes it's one that I've used for months.

The Sportrak Basic won't charge from the external power source and the internal batteries only last me a few days--maybe three. This is a big drawback. I don't care for the serial cable otherwise. I wish they would have stuck with a USB cable but this model of the line probably came out before USB became popular.

I've used it with some Linux programs (gpsman) to upload and download data. That works reasonably well but the functionality isn't there. I've also connected it to my Palm V and used the combo together with marginal success. I think I would be happy if the Sportrak had two simple functions: 1) a page that shows me waypoints as I'm approaching (there is a way to view waypoints sorted by distance but it's not dynamic), and 2) I wish the receiver had a mode where it switched from one display to the next every few seconds so I can mount the receiver and not have to push any buttons while I'm driving.

Oh yeah, 3) I wish Sportrak would GPL their code. It would be easy to add these features.

I suggest passing on this model until you can get it really cheap or unless you only want to use it as a GPS-to-serial converter.