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Magellan Triton 500 Handheld Navigation System
 
Manufacturer: Magellan
Customer Rating:
 
List Price: $299.99
Sale Price: $160.05
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Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description Magellan Triton reinvents handheld GPS. Amazingly easy to use, Triton 500 is perfect for the first-time GPS user. And the full-color display, SD-card compatibility, enhanced features, fast signal acquisition, reliable signal lock and precision positioning make Triton 500 an excellent choice for the advanced navigator.

The next-generation handheld GPS for precision outdoor navigation. Click to enlarge.

Simple menus, instant access buttons, intuitive scroll pad and crystal clear graphics let you navigate with ease. Click to enlarge.

See your direction of travel, distance and position of destination, heading, bearing, speed and more on the beautiful graphic compass screen. Click to enlarge.

Ready to guide you on any adventure. Click to enlarge.

The smartly designed interface with simple menus and intuitive button and scroll pad control make navigation fun and effortless. The full-color crystal clear display shows all your maps and navigation information in brilliant, easy-to-view graphics. Instantly see all your maps, locations and saved tracks and waypoints with just a click or two. Unlike other complicated devices that require you to scroll through page after page, Triton 500 gets you to the information you want with a few keystrokes.

SD-card compatibility maximizes your navigation capability. Add an unlimited amount of marine cartography and topographic maps navigate all your outdoor, boating. Plus, Triton is the first handheld GPS to offer compatibility with National Geographic TOPO! State series and Weekend Explorer 3D maps. These highly detailed nation-wide topographic maps based on USGS 1:24.000 series quads, offer seamless scalability, multi-layer overlays and much more.

Exclusive VantagePoint software enables easy management of maps, user generated content, updates and upgrades on your PC. View saved routes and tracks. Customize them for future trips or create new ones.

Triton is designed for precision navigation, offering the fastest GPS positioning acquisition in the industry with the SiRFstarIII chipset. An integrated high-sensitivity antenna provides reliable signal reception even in heavy cloud cover, canyons or deep woods. Built-in signal augmentation reception (WAAS/EGNOS) provides 3-meter accuracy.

Rugged and waterproof, your Triton 500 is built to withstand intense use, accidental impact and immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes (IPX-7). It's ready to guide you on any adventure.

The advanced features are also easy to use. View the elevation profile for the trail ahead (or any route) or even the track you just traveled. See the precise time of sunrise/sunset any day of the year. Get a calculation of the best hunting and fishing time. And much more.

Triton is built on the experience of hundreds of thousands of GPS users and nearly 20 years of precision positioning technology from Magellan: the first name in navigation.

Magellan Triton 500 Features

Amazing ease-of-use
Reinventing handheld GPS, simple menus, instant access buttons, intuitive scroll pad and crystal clear graphics let you navigate without the need for a Ph.D.

3-axis electronic compass
Clearly see your direction no matter how you hold your GPS, even when standing still

See your direction of travel, distance and position of destination, heading, bearing, speed and more on the beautiful graphic compass screen.

Barometer
Sensitive barometric pressure readings offer advance notice of changing weather and assists in providing accurate elevation

Full-color 2.2" display
The large display shows maps, simple menus, navigation screens and other data in brilliant color.

SD-card compatibility
An invaluable feature enables you to use an unlimited amount of map data for topographic and marine navigation.

Add detailed maps
Upload optional marine cartography, topographic maps, and more, including the highly-detailed and feature-packed National Geographic TOPO! State series and Weekend Explorer 3D maps to your own SD cards.

Built-in maps
Basemap of the 48 contiguous United States, Alaska, and Canada (major highways, city centers, bodies of water and more) plus worldwide geographic boundaries.

Access exclusive VantagePoint software
Lets you easily manage user generated content, updates and upgrades on your PC. View saved routes and tracks. Customize them for future trips or create new ones.

3-meter accuracy
SiRFstarIII chipset and integrated multidirectional antennae offer superior GPS accuracy using the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).

What's in the Box
Triton 500 GPS receiver, Quick reference guide, manual on CD-ROM

Product Details
  • Accurate Bearings: A simple-to-use, 3-axis electronic compass delivers stationary heading and bearing at any altitude
  • Weather Predictions: An embedded barometer allows customers to track pressure and altitude changes
  • Memory Boost: Storing data, including additional maps, terrain, and geocache data is easy with the Triton 500¿s SD card slot
  • Detailed Maps: Pre-loaded base maps and compatible third-party maps identify major rivers, lakes, cities, and other geographical boundaries
  • Crystal Clear Graphics: 2.2" (5.59 cm) full-color display delivers vivid imagery in the field.

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Customer Reviews
I like it!
 
Review Date: July 14, 2009
Reviewer: Kathi D, Central Coast of California
This is identical to the Triton 400 except that it contains a barometer for weather prediction. It is SO identical that I marked it and my Triton 400 with markers so that I know which is which.

I see all the bad reviews of this product and wonder what's wrong with me because I was able to get it up and running without pain. I'm a neophyte when it comes to handheld GPS units; I use the one in my car a lot, and I am pretty good with a computer. I had the software installed, updated, and the firmware updated with no problems, and quickly. After that, the little GPS works great for my needs. It reads the satellites quickly and is very accurate, even inside. I can trace my steps around the inside of my house with it. The map that comes with it is limited, but you can buy others, and in fact there was a special included with this one that allowed me to download my choice of one free map. I use this on short hikes, mostly, to record my distance, and also on the bicycle. It is the perfect size and shape to fit my hand, very comfortable to hold, and it seems sturdy. It's a bright color so it's easy to find in a backpack or purse. I plan to also use it walking around unfamiliar cities--even if every street isn't mapped, I know I will always be able to set my starting point (hotel, for example) and get back there without fail.

I really like this little GPS!
use neptune drivers for vista win
 
Review Date: January 27, 2008
Reviewer: Randall Haight, Oregon USA
Works great after drivers worked. National geo topo mapping program worked to upload maps.
I put a 2gig sd card in it and a 1.5 gig 7.5 usgs map of Oregon ,detailed the whole state.This is the first magellan I could get to work right.
5 stars for the only detailed usgs map gps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You get what you pay for
 
Review Date: January 10, 2008
Reviewer: John Bencina,
This is my first time purchasing a hand held GPS system. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a unit, and frankly I wasn't looking for a lot of bells and whistles. In retrospect, I am happy with my purchase, however I would not spend more money for the pricier Tritons.

When I first booted it up, I was a little disappointed with the base map which only included major highways. For my first test run, we took it for a drive in my friend's car. It tracked us very well, and the speed seemed spot on (judging by the speedometer). This morning, I took it out for a bike ride down to the beach. The unit fit easily in my bike jersey pocket and was able to get a signal for the 8 mile ride. When I got home, I exported the data to Google Earth, and the GPS path matched my actual path. I also checked the vertical profile for my trip which seemed accurate based on USGS maps for the area.

I have a few complaints about the unit. The compass is not 100% accurate. If I needed an accurate heading, I would use my old-fashioned compass. I also think the interface could have used some work to make it flow better. The included Vantage Point software could've been a little more robust, but it gets the job done. If I was expecting a top of the line GPS unit, I could have purchased a much more expensive unit. But for the simple things I was looking for, the Triton 500 works just fine.
Way better than people are giving it credit for.
 
Review Date: July 15, 2009
Reviewer: Gavin Scott, Sunnyvale, CA United States
I got a review unit of the Triton 500 to play with under the Amazon Vine program, and have been using it for the last three weeks, including a trip to Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July.

I have to say this is the first Magellan GPS that I've used in some years, but I've owned a couple, starting with a NAV-1000, the first ever handheld GPS (which cost me $2000-$3000 at the time I believe).

The Triton 500 is a relatively inexpensive "trail GPS" designed for outdoor use rather than for automotive trip routing etc.

It contains a SIRFStarIII receiver as most current GPS models from most manufacturers do these days (since they all gave up on making their own) and it has comparable (which is to say excellent) performance in the basic GPS functions.

I like the quality and construction of the Triton. The battery door screws securely to the unit and is made of the same plastic as the rest of the unit so I don't understand the complaints I saw about it. I dropped the GPS onto concrete from about three feet once, and it survived with just a small scratch to the plastic which I sanded flat.

The current version comes with an offer of a free download of Topo USA map software. I installed a 2GB SD card and was able to put the entire Topo USA map set onto it. It's broken up into eight-ish regions and you manually select which one you want at any particular time. These are vector based maps with more detailed roads than the (rather simplistic) basemap and they include altitude data which is nice as you can use it to determine your true elevation more accurately than GPS usually provides.

The Triton will also do something that (AFAIK) no Garmin unit will (and I've owned about a dozen of them) which is to also support downloadable *raster* maps. I have a very old copy of the Topo California set of scanned USGS Topo maps on CD-ROM. I was able to buy a $13 software update from National Geographic to get the newest software which lets you extract a region out of a map and download it to the Triton and then select it as the active map. If you like the USGS Topo maps this is pretty cool, since it puts an actual image of the map on the display. You can't just download a whole state this way (the scanned maps are just too large) but it's useful for planned offroad activities etc. You can have the vector Topo USA and some raster Topo sheet maps all on the GPS at the same time and switch between them as needed.

I tested out the software under Windows Vista 64 and had no problems uploading and downloading maps, tracks, etc.

Performance overall was very good. Battery life was reasonable, even having to turn the backlight on a lot (the transreflective display is not as visible in bright outdoor light as some of the Garmins).

Overall I thought it was a perfectly acceptable GPS for someone who wants to use it for Geocaching or other outdoor activities like hiking.

It's tiny speaker (beeps on key presses and various events) is barely audible in a quiet room and definitely difficult to hear outdoors.

The digital compass and barometer seemed to work ok. As far as I can tell the barometer is not used in the GPS altitude computation (this is actually a feature in my opinion when compared to some Garmins that don't let you disable the barometric altitude compensation).

Several of the various display screens are customizable with a pretty large set of data values that can be displayed.

There's a neat track profile display that shows the elevation profile for a recorded track log which you can pan and zoom on so you can answer questions like what time did I reach that peak or that valley.

So for someone looking for an outdoors, offroad type of handheld GPS, you ought to be quite happy with what the Magellan Triton 500 is capable of, and you should be able to have a lot of fun with it.

G.
Triton 500 Performs as Claimed
 
Review Date: September 10, 2008
Reviewer: RickyDoo, Longmont, CO
Bought this at Costco (included carry case) for [...] and worked a couple of evenings getting it to work with my NG Topo! (couldn't see my 2 GB SD Card). I had to call customer support, who were very helpful. I was all ready to give up and take it back the morning of my overnighter to Little Rock Lake in RMNP when, after reloading the Topo! and rebooting my PC, I was able to get the maps to transfer. It came in real handy as we bushwacked through deep fallen timber. The Topo's are just like on the PC with the route and all. It tracks your trail as you go (while it drains the batteries; seems like the 10h claim is correct). The unit orients the map to the compass reading; pretty handy. My buddy had an older model with the compass on screen. However, his 5 year old magellan had low resolution maps that lacked the detail and color of the NG Topo! I've ported over the whole RMNP. Next I'm gong to see if I can get the whole state of CO onto my 2GB SD. For the money (costco sells it with the nice carry case for a very competitive Costco like price), I feel it is a good companion to the NG Topo! software. It's small and light enough and easy enough to use; not overly complicated.