Magellan eXplorist 500LE Water Resistant Hiking GPS

by Thales

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9 x 3 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000G62HUO
• Item model number: 980771-112
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Product Description

The built-in color map of North America makes it easy to view roads, rivers, waterways, greenways, city centers, airports and other major points of interest. Save 5 track logs, 20 routes and 500 points of interest to the 8 MB available internal memory. Store an unlimited amount of data on your own SD cards.The Magellan Geocache Manager enables you to download coordinates from the Internet directly to your eXplorist 500 and the PC-style file system makes it easy to manage all your data.Easily add detailed MapSend maps for topographic or marine navigation and turn-by-turn street guidance.Intelligently designed for comfortable right or left handed use, the clearly marked keypad provides one-touch access to all your most important features. Joystick controller makes scrolling the simple menus fun and easy. The large color display is easy-to-read day or night. Customizable navigation screens show your location, speed, direction, and distance to destination and more, just the way you want it.Slip your compact (2.2 in x 4.7 in) eXplorist into your pocket and let it guide you on every outdoor adventure. Magellan TrueFixTM technology provides superior accuracy and reliability, giving you the freedom to explore without concern of getting lost.Your eXplorist 500 is lightweight and pocket-sized so you can take it with you everywhere.The eXplorist 500LE does not include a Li-ion battery or AC adapter but offers all the great GPS features and functions of the eXplorist 500 for a lower price.Features

• Color screen - 16-color screen makes it easy to read maps and information in all lighting conditions
• Built-in maps - North American or European basemap shows major roads, parks, waterways and many points of interest
• SD-card expandability - Add unlimited MapSend topographic maps or turn-by-turn street routing
• Simple file system - Save, organi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag of good and bad news, April 26, 2007

By 

Mick (Laingsburg, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magellan eXplorist 500LE Water Resistant Hiking GPS (Electronics)

Unit has a great display, is accurate, and easy to navigate, fast response time recognizing movements, but. . .

The optional maps are very inadequate for my fishing interests. Too few lakes, don't even have floating nav aids along northern Lake Huron, no water depths there either.

I am pretty computer savvy, but it's taken me over a month to get the file system and POI's/geocaches organized and working right. I'm not sure what is going on with the "computer style" filing system, but while it is a good idea, it appears unreliable, with files mysteriously disappearing, only sometimes reappearing. There may be something about the setup or use of the device I havne't figured out yet, and the support web site is useless.

Here is an example of the problems: I couldn't get my computer to recognize the unit (USB connection). I tried and tried everything I knew, and finally tried their phone support. I kept getting put on hold for long periods, then finally called their sales number for a RA to return it. I said I either needed to return it or get a computer expert to help me. They got me a computer expert who spent over 45 minutes with me to no avail. I finally inadvertently disconnected the phone line, waited 15 minutes for her to call me, she didn't, so I called again. I asked for the same person, but the person on the line said she would connect me but wanted to ask a question first: "In what direction is the USB cord going out of the connection to the GPS, across the unit or out away from the unit?" I said away from the unit. She said reverse it. I did and the computer recognized it in an instant, and has every time since. Why should a cord be installable in two directions, work only in 1?

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unreliable; customer "service" a joke, April 17, 2007

By 

Flat Six (Left Coast, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magellan eXplorist 500LE Water Resistant Hiking GPS (Electronics)

Unreliable pile of 'you-know-what'. Worked fine for about 2 months then refused to power up. Fresh batteries, no go. Called customer "service". Outsourced call center to India; rep followed generic script telling me to: 1) use lithium-ion batteries, and 2) press "power + NAV" simultaneously. As suspected, bogus advice. Fresh batteries metered out to 1.62 volts each / 4.84 volts total. Yes, I tried lithium-ion batteries anyway. Still no-go. Am still waiting for Magellan/Thales to respond. Am still owner of unreliable GPS. Still have about $400 invested in unit plus software and maps. Still kicking myself for buying a Magellan product. Don't do it. Really -- don't do it.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor Customer Service, May 4, 2007

By 

mike "gator" (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magellan eXplorist 500LE Water Resistant Hiking GPS (Electronics)

I bought this and needed some help understanding the software. Confusing websites. When you call, you can't understand the service people who speak English very poorly. It's a real headache to figure out what they are saying. Magellan is not a customer-friendly company, and they don't seem to say much more than scripted comments. I just didn't like dealing with Magellan.

The unit worked well until the SD cover broke off. Battery compartment is hard to remove to get to the SD card. I returned the GPS to the store for a refund and am trying to figure out what to buy next. Maybe I should wait for a company that will make their GPS Mac compatible. The GPS industry overall seems ten years behind the times on dealing with the public.