Magellan announces eXplorist 510, 610, and 710 handheld GPS units

Jul 15
2010

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GPS maker Magellan might be getting into the iPhone accessory business, but they haven’t forgotten the handheld GPS market. The company just announced three new additions to their eXplorist line of products, the 510, 610, and 710. Ranging from $350 to $550 they offer an upper range of products above the company’s $200 geocaching focused eXplorist GC.

The big news with these models is that each has a 3.0-inch touch-sensitive screen and a 3.2MP camera that geo-tags photos and videos when they are taken. All three also have “expandable memory, paperless geocaching, GPX compatibility, 16 hours of battery life, high sensitivity GPS enabling 3-5 meters of accuracy, vertical profiling, a digital almanac, track summary statistics and area calculation.”

Basically they are full-fledge handheld devices with increased functionality compared to the GC. They seem to be designed to compete with Garmin’s touchscreen-equipped Oregon series.

Magellan has prepared the devices with social networking (and content sharing) in mind as well. Director of Outdoor Product Marketing, Justin Doucette, was quoted saying:

There are many sites that allow for geographic and multimedia data to be posted and shared with others. The eXplorist series allows users to bring their adventures home with them, catalog for future reference, and share online with family and friends.

As for the differences between the three new models, GPStracklog has a good breakdown:

eXplorist 510 – The base model includes expandable memory, paperless geocaching, and a rated 16 hour battery life; MSRP $349.99
eXplorist 610 – Adds a tri-axial compass and barometric altimeter; MSRP $449.99
eXplorist 710 – Adds a “highly detailed” topographic map and turn-by-turn directions; MSRP $549.99

This wasn’t mentioned in the release, but this probably means the Triton series is coming to an end. The two share a number of features and the eXplorist has surpasses the Tritons in almost all respects.

Magellan via GPStracklog

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