Magellan eXplorist 500LE Color Handheld GPS

Other products by Thales

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9 x 3 x 6 inches ; 1.2 pounds
• 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: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,683 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 1, 2004

Product Description

Product Description

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. High-speed USB port and unlimited SD card data storage make it easy to add detailed maps, for topo, marine or street navigation. Save track logs and more to 8 MB free memory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 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

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?

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Seattle Consumer "I buy a lot" (Bellevue, WA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

16 of 17 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

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.