Customer Reviews

Magellan Triton 300 Waterproof Hiking GPS

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

After approximately 20 hours of using the Triton 300 in the field, these are my impressions.

The good:
Quick to power up and initialize.
Rugged construction and feel of case.
Clear bright screen.
Navigation fairly easy and intuitive.
Good battery life.
Compatible with National Geographic 1:24000 maps

The bad:
User manual is incomplete leaving out a lot of necessary information. Some of the information is just plain incorrect and unit will not function if directions are followed.
Unit locks up (every time) after connecting to TOPO! and Vantage Point (Magellan's software) requiring a battery to be pulled out to reset the unit.
Approximately 15-25 times in the twenty hours, upon pressing a key the unit would lock up. A continuous sound would emit as if the key was being held down. The only alternative was to pull the batteries out to restart.
Magellan tech support (India) claimed they would have one of their Senior members call be back within the hour to help with some issues. 20 days later....still no call.
Much difficulty connecting for map and waypoint transfers.

Overall Impression:
A ton of aggravation I could have done without!It is very obvious Magellan rushed product rollout despite tons of bugs in the software and inadequate documentation(Manual).

Recommendation: Unless you love frustration, wait for them to work out the bugs.

Nothing but frustration. Works fine for a few hours and then constantly locks up (pressing any button has no effect). I wait for more than 10 minutes and it still does not do anything. Ended up having to reboot by removing the batteries... except removing the batteries causes you to loose the current trail data. This would happen daily. Work fine in the morning and then a mess by the afternoon.

Very poor instruction manual (basically no info and website was useless as well) I'm an engineering but I still like to have some reference manual explaining functions that I don't understand.

VantagePoint software was not very good either.

Battery life is horrible. I don't have any other to compare with but leaving it on to record a trail I don't get more than 10hrs of time with a set of alkaline AAs (with back light off of course).

Will be returning this until a few more versions of firmware go by or more likely I will buy a Garmin instead. National Geographic TOPO maps sounded cool but if you can't get the stupid thing to work what is the point?

Purchased 12/2007 tried to update firmware and software but already had current versions.

Firmware, Date - 1, 24, 0,

This is my first GPS, and I have no idea how to use it. It has already locked up when reviewing the features with the instruction manuel. This product maybe better for somebody with more experience, but I will be purchasing something more use friendly.

Rather than go into the hairy details of the two days that I spent trying to get this piece of junk to work, I will just outline some of the many flaws it has.

- The included base map is useless, providing no topographic information and showing only the largest highways and roads in the United States. This means that you should plan on spending at least another $75 - $150 for usable maps from Magellan or National Geographic.

- Magellan does not make software that is fully compatible with the Triton GPSs, so you will have to download and install Vantage Point from Magellan as well as three different third party software programs in order to convert the maps from their Mapsend software to a format that the Triton will recognize.

- Magellans Mapsend software is not compatible with Vista, though in truth is was not much easier to get the software to work with the Triton with XP.

- I have heard online that some people have been able to get the National Geographic maps to work, though these are purely topographical and do not have any searchable information on roads, cities, or points of interest unless you manually add it in the TOPO software that you must use in conjunction with the National Geographic software.

- It is possible that there is actually a way to get detailed maps into this GPS, but Magellan is being totally silent on the subject. Their website provides very little information on anything but the National Geographic maps, their instruction manual (which Magellan touts that you may never need since the GPS is so easy to use) does not contain ANY instructions on using ANY mapping software, and assumes that you have already transferred detailed maps to the GPS before ever opening (downloading) the instruction manual. I even tried for two days to get somebody at Magellan to give me telephone or E-mail support, but their customer service is some of the worst I have encountered.

Maybe in 9 to 12 months Magellan will have figured out a way to make these GPSs more than a headache, but until then I have returned my GPS and software and will be buying a Garmin.

The unit looks great from a feature list, but ... too many gaps to really be useful (yet?).

The ads all tout the ability to have great detailed maps downloaded, but in fact there are no current maps available, and Magellan support says "no information" on possible availability dates. The base map in the unit is very sparse, and really the unit is of little use until they get their software maps out. No doubt from previous product experience with them the DVD will cost at least another $100. Also none of their previous maps that you may have are compatible; to me this is rally a bad move by a vendor, to orphan all investment in their previous products- they should provide at least a conversion program.

The other big advantage advertised is the ability to use National Geographic Topo maps, which is neat, but very expensive! NG sells them only by regions, and they sell 9 maps at $99 each, and that only covers 21 states in total.

The software from their web site and CD in the package has 2 of 3 programs (Maplink versions) that only support serial link connections to GPS, but the Unit is USB, so neither work. Their tech. support person was completely not-interested in any of this information.

I'll be returning it, and going for a Garmin 60csx. Too bad, I believed the ads, and waited on this one! I've already contacted some other sales sites and they will update their ads!

This GPS is great if you are using it all the time. However if you don't touch the screen every few minutes it shuts off. With no power adapter you cant use it for long with out touching it.

Also it has a hard time calculating distance. I drove away from a point and as the distance went up, it suddenly went to down. (went from 2500 feet to 1000 ft as i was driving away from the point). it was like it could not figure out what the straight line disance was to the point.

First off, I would recommend any hiking GPS system as a backup to a simply map and compass. That said, I want to clarify something about this particular model. This is a basic beginner's device to learn about Navigation, Waypoints, Trails, GeoCache and all the additional methods that go along with these. It also has a good "Best Fishing & Hunting Times for Current Location" menu as well as "Viewing Sunrise, Sunset Times" and "Lunar Information". The Triton has all these features and a USA map already included. I would highly suggest a class in GPS along with this.

The biggest problem with Magellan Triton products is they have had some problems with their software in the recent past. After contacting SUPPORT, they assured me that anything not up to date would be processed accordingly. Uh-huh. But, the biggest faux paus was to read, "compatibility with National Geographic TOPO!® maps", stamped on the box cover and stated on-line, only to find out that it is not. Nor is the Triton 200 model. You are unable to download base map information to this device. I was able to download a trail (.gpx), but nothing else. The Triton Models 400 and above have an SD Card for this and they can upload map information.

The overseas support for Magellan is pure crap. I wasted over an hour with someone who knew nothing about the product. To make matters worse, not only did I pay for shipping, but when I returned the item, I had to pay for that as well. Not good business practices. I would try Garmin.

Also note that this version of Magellan does NOT download National Geographic Explorer 3D Series, even though they state they do.

First of all, I'm an experienced GPS user who has owned 5 other GPS systems including two others from Magellan. The Triton 300 was hands-down the worst to use. The user interface is poorly thought out and unintuitive which is really a problems since the user manual and on line documentation is nearly worthless.

First off the unit (which I got for Christmas) had software that was buggy and some important features did not work. After searching online I figured out this was not a unique experience and downloaded new firmware and a new version of Magellan's computer interface. Unfortunately the problems didn't stop there.

I'm a Geocacher so about 50% of my use if for finding caches. It took me three days to figure out how to enter waypoints manually and select a "Go To" location. The unit is really that hard to figure out - and I've had several other Magellans. The guys really blew it on the new interface.

Here's two examples -

1) In enterring a way point the Triton will enter a form with your current location. When you edit to replace the pre-set location with your selected coordinates (say to find a Geocache) the unit produces an unintelligible error and won't accept the Go To. Turns out you need to enter a space between the waypoint and the North/South designator or it won't accept the format. THERE IS NO HINT THAT THIS IS THE PROBLEM AND YOU MODIFIED MAGELLAN'S FORMAT!!! Try figuring that one out in the field. And by the way, navigating through the manual entry system is time consuming and tedious (takes 3 times as long as the old Magellan interface).

2) When using a map to look at Geocaches you can move the cursor over a Geocache Webpoint until the name pops up. When you then select Go To you might think you've now selected the Geocache but no - the GPS just created a waypoint that was near (but not exactly at) the Geocache. Again, no hint that this is what you've done. I figured this out after wondering why my GPS was pointing 100 ft away from the actual cache location.

3) The mapping softwared is poorly integrated and, of course, difficult to figure out.

The unit is useable once you figure out it's interface but there are so many better choices out there. After 6 months of use I still find this unit a pain and wish I'd returned it.

Heed the warnings and look elsewhere. It's a shame really because Magellan has long been seen as a leader in the field - and used to be the go-to recommendation from Geocachers suggesting a unit to Noobies. Now I'd recommend anything else. When folks hear I have a Triton they offer unsolicited condolences. What happened to these guys? How could they have squandered such a strong headstart?

First off, I do not own this model. At the time I ordered it, the 300 was backordered, so they sent me a more expensive 400 for no charge. No matter how much a person hates a company's customer support, you have to admit that's beyond fair. I'm writing this review for the 300 for a reason...BUY THE 400, NOT THIS ONE!!

There isn't that much difference in the two. The 400 won't give you more accuracy, better base-maps, or anything like that. However, the few differences are VERY significant....mainly being that the 400 can use SD Cards....VERY important for replacement high-quality maps. (The other reviewers have told the truth that the included base-map isn't very good at all.)

Accuracy is right up there with the best of the Garmins. I geocache, a sport in which 1 foot can make a BIG difference. Of course no GPS is accurate to 1 foot, but you can see why I gave that example. And yes, I own Garmins also.

The user interface is pretty decent. It tickles me that some claim to be computer engineers & it took them 3 days to learn how to perform 1 action with this GPS. Well, I'm NOT a computer engineer, nor a rocket scientist, & I had the ENTIRE thing figured out in under 1 day. So maybe it's just not made for engineers....dunno.

Battery life is decent...not good, not bad. As already stated, the display is hard to see when UNLIGHTED, which tends to happen after a minute or so. With the light ON, it's about as good as any out there.

I'm not sure why people have had trouble loading maps, connecting to VantagePoint, etc. These things were figured out by me within hours & haven't failed yet. I even figured out how to take my OWN maps, run them through a 3rd-party program, & import them into the unit....PRESTO, free map upgrades, and decent ones also. But this was very time-consuming when it got down to the really close-up scale maps. So I just searched around, found the best price on the AccuTerra set, & bought them for around $40-$50. Haven't regretted it yet.

The unit isn't all sherry & giggles however. This unit will NOT sync up wth most of the 3rd-party software which works with Garmins. Magellan hasn't released their proprietary commo-code yet, which is going to cost them customers soon. Basically, you'll HAVE to use the free VantagePoint to do any type of adding files, maps, etc. to this unit....other than adding points manually. (Which actually isn't very hard either, again contrary to what some have said) VantagePoint works well enough, but it does need a serious overhaul. Last I checked, if you have a 64-bit Vista or Win7 OS...you're pretty much out of luck. 64-bit WinXP & 32-bit Vista is fine however. I think that there are some workarounds for that Vista problem however. That whole issue SHOULD be a NON-event however. Magellan should stay on top of all current OS's immediately, or release the required code so that 3rd-party programs can do it for them. That's the biggest boo-boo about this whole Triton line, & it's a significant one. You also have to remember to have the .Net Framework installed on Windows or VP won't work at all.

Bottom-line, if you want a GPS which is a skill level zero to operate....the Tritons aren't for you. If you don't mind experimenting a bit (which has turned out to be kinda fun for myself), then you'll get a very decent GPS, which can run ircles around any other one IN THE SAME PRICE-RANGE!! You simply will not find another GPS that offers the same advanced features that these units do, for as cheap of a price.

But that price comes at the cost of a bit of convienience & simplicity of use. So if that's what you are looking for, then just cough up an extra 75 bucks or so for a comparable Garmin, because in that case, you'll not be happy with a Triton.

User interface is simple to move through, but I feel like I need to take a course on how to do simple things. Unfortunately the online user guide does little to answer my questions. For instance, I went on a 5 mile hike but by the end the triton said I had walked 11 miles?? Were these 11kms, no it said miles... Other annoying qualities: the buttons are stiff; the battery cover takes practice to reseal; the screen darkens into standby mode after seconds of idleness; it sucks battery power in no time; it only displays interstates and main highways, but few other major roads.