Reviews
Magellan
Meridian Color
A flexible handheld GPS receiver that can be used outdoors
or as an in-car system
The
Magellan Meridian Color is a handheld GPS unit with a color screen
and a CD Card slot so you can load a variety of different maps.
It's designed to do everything anyone involved in outdoor recreational
activities (sailing, hiking, fishing, hunting) could ask for,
but it can also display one's location on detailed city maps,
thus making the Meridian Color something between a traditional
outdoors GPS receiver and a mapping system.
The
rugged-looking device is 6-1/4 inches long, 2-3/4 inches wide,
just over an inch thick, and weighs 8.6 ounces including batteries.
The overall design is that of a long oval with one side a bit
more tapered than the other. It looks and feels more like a remote
control than a PDA. It's larger and heavier, though, and not something
that casually fits into any pocket. However, it fits nicely into
your hand. The design and materials used also immediately show
that this is a device meant to be used outdoors. There's a protective
black rubber casing that provides excellent grip. The whole thing
is entirely waterproof and it even floats (we didn't try that!).
It also has a wider temperature range than your standard electronic
gizmo. You can use it from 14 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
As for power, it runs on two AA batteries which last up to 14
hours with the backlight off and about six hours with the light
on. You can also use rechargeables.
The
Meridian Color obviously gets its name from its color display.
Anyone used to a standard late-model Palm or Pocket PC display
(let alone the new VGA displays on some of the new Pocket PCs)
won't be overly impressed, to say the least. We're talking a smallish
2.6-inch diagonal affair with just 120 x 160 pixels÷less than
even the very first Palm, and several times less than what even
a cheap digital camera has. As you'd expect, it's an indoor/outdoor
viewable design. It also has contrast adjustment, a good backlight,
and is amply protected by a thick layer of acrylic glass.
The
Meridian Color's controls are very well laid out. You can hold
the device in your hand and reach each and every one of them with
your thumb. There is a big 4-way navigation disc (which can be
used 8-ways for panning), two buttons to zoom in and out, Enter
and Escape, power, and three application buttons (Menu, Nav, and
GoTo).
In
terms of GPS performance, the unit has a by now nearly ubiquitous
12 parallel-channel receiver that tracks up to 12 satellites.
There's an internal quadrifilar antenna with an external connector.
Initial cold acquisition takes about a minute, warm acquisition
about 15 seconds, and data is updated once a second. The system
is accurate to within about ten feet with WAAS enabled and about
23 feet without.
As
far as maps go, the Meridian Color has a 16MB built-in map (including
marine data) of considerable detail. The unit can also use map
data from any of Megallan's MapSend software products. Such data
is loaded onto a SD card that is installed into the unit's SD
slot located in the sealed battery compartment. One weak part
is that the batteries have to be removed in order to get to the
SD card slot.
The
Meridian has no less than nine navigation screens:
• The Map screen displays whatever map is loaded, and shows
either the current location or whatever part of the map you want
to display. You can quickly and smoothly pan around maps with
the navigation pad. The only distraction is that the map often
winks out and redraws when you pan quickly. The map can also show
a track history so you can see where you have traveled so far.
You determine the degree of detail you want to see from one of
four levels. More detail means slower screen redraw. The built-in
map is detailed enough to get the big picture, but you can't see
all the local roads even if you zoom in all the way.
•
A customizable Compass screen shows the traditional round compass
with a lot of extra info.
•
A Large Data screen shows bearing, heading, speed, and distance.
Two Position screens show present position, satellite and navigation
info.
•
A Road screen with four customizable data fields shows your route
as a road with turns. However, this is not a road as you'd see
it on a true mapping system. Here, the ãroadä simply shows you
what direction you should go to reach your destination.
•
The others screens are a Speedometer screen, a Satellite Status
screen and a Data screen. The Nav and Esc buttons are used to
rotate through the various screens.
You
can store up to 500 waypoints (positions stored into memory) and
up to 200 of those can have a message stored with them. Each can
have an icon and a name. Routes have a starting and an ending
point, and you can have up to 20 of them stored.
Magellan
MapSend software
Magellan's
aptly named line of MapSend software lets you select mapping and
other data and then send it to Magellan Meridian or SporTrak GPS
devices via a direct cable to the PC or on a SD card. Consider
MapSend a way to download into your receiver just the type and
kind of data you want and need. Also consider it the extra-cost
software that really makes the Meridian series shine and provide
it with its amazing flexibility for many applications.
There
are various MapSend packages. One example is DirectRoute which
lets you download detailed street maps so that the GPS system
can calculate street routes and guide you to your destination.
Another is Topo 3D that provides very detailed topographic maps
for outdoor trips. Topo 3D also contains outdoor recreation points,
natural landmarks, services and anything else one might need to
successfully navigate on a nature trail.
MapSend
DirectRoute
DirectRoute
(US$149.99) turns your Meridian Color into a complete mapping
system. It comes on two CDs, one installation and one with the
data. You get two installation options. ãTypicalä takes 500MB
of space and ãfullä 1.2GB. The dialog warns that either way you'll
have to use the CD each time you run MapSend. Start the software
and you see a world map (though our pack only contained the United
States and Canada). Here you can select regions and perform street
route calculations and various other fairly advanced track and
waypoint projects. There is far more to DirectRoute than the basic
zoom-in or enter-an-address functions of common mapping software.
Most of the features represent a two-way street between the PC
software and the GPS device. You can upload and download waypoints
and tracks, analyze track history; examine, enter, and edit points
of interest, and numerous other serious navigation tasks. This
is not for the Sunday driver.
To
download a region you first name it. Then you can either download
it directly to a device connected via a serial port, store it
on the hard disk, or load it onto a SD card. If you choose the
latter you need to either have the Magellan GPS unit connected
via the serial port or enter the device's serial number. A map
of the larger Sacramento, California, area took 6MB. You then
insert the SD card into the Magellan Meridian and the map becomes
available.
The
Meridian is now a mapping device in addition to its many other
functions. In order to go to a stored address, any address, or
a point of interest, you press the GoTo button and select the
appropriate destination. The Meridian then calculates the route
and from then on acts just like a regular mapping system. You
can also load routes and waypoints from your GPS unit into the
PC for editing of safekeeping, and you can then load an updated
route and waypoint database back into the GPS device. However,
DirectRoute does not convert a handheld Meridian GPS device into
an easy-to-use automotive mapping system. That is not its purpose.
What it does is add professional-strength specialized mapping
data and data manipulation tools to be used on Magellan's multi-purpose
handheld GPS receivers.
MapSend
Topo 3D USA
In grade school I used to trace each contour line on a topographic
map onto a separate piece of cardboard, then cut the cardboard
pieces along the lines, glued the part of the map that went with
that elevation onto the cardboard, then stacked and glued the
cardboard layers on top of one another to get a 3D relief. Today
you can do the same much more quickly and much more easily with
MapSend Topo 3D (US$149.99).
Like
DirectRoute, Topo 3D is value-added software for Magellan's Meridian
and SporTrak GPS receivers. However, instead of calculating street
routes and such, Topo 3D, which comes on three CDs, provides very
detailed topographic maps of the entire United States. Topo 3D
contains the full NAVTEQ dataset and you can find addresses on
very detailed streets map, but the emphasis here is on topography
and anything relating to outdoor recreation. Topo 3D also has
over 30,000 outdoor recreation points of interest for people interested
in mountain biking, hiking, fishing, skiing, kayaking and other
outdoor endeavors. The elevation maps are based on the US Geological
Survey's most detailed elevation set.
One
of the coolest features of Topo 3D is its interactive 3D modeling
feature of topographic maps. Once you have selected an area you
can switch to a 3D view of it. You can even rotate, tilt and customize
the views in order to get a good understanding of the terrain
in places where you've never been.
Another
great feature is elevation profiles. Once you plot a route along
a road or with waypoints, you can open a window that shows the
elevation changes along the route. If, for example, there are
parts that are too steep you can try and find another way until
the route is right.
The
user interface of Topo 3D uses the same conventions as other MapSend
products, so if you're familiar with one, you know them all. Which
is a good thing because learning these powerful software tools
requires a not insignificant investment in time. And the need
to have the CD in the PC whenever you crank up the application
is obnoxious.
To
sum up:
The Magellan Meridian Color and its brethren (Meridian Platinum,
Gold, and Marine) are rugged, flexible handheld GPS receivers
primarily meant to be used for outdoors and sports navigation.
MapSend software allows data customization for various purposes.
Like many multi-purpose devices, the Meridian Color is a jack-of-all-trades
and not a specialist in any one discipline. The only thing we
didn't like about it is the very low resolution screen that basically
negates the benefit of high resolution maps. If you can live with
the display, the Meridian Color is as powerful and flexible as
it gets.
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