If you’re looking for a good basic GPS handheld receiver that you can use for navigation and related fun stuff like geocaching, the Magellan Triton 500 is an excellent choice. It’s not without its faults and not perfect for everyone, but for its price point, it has a wealth of features and can be upgraded with maps and software — and best of all, it maintains a satellite lock even in the woods and performs like a champ overall, more often than not.

So why review the Magellan Triton 500 now? It’s been on the market for more than a year, after all. Well, I’ll tell you: first off, Magellan is a relatively old name in the GPS consumer market, and unfortunately it’s been bounced around in recent years by various owners who — and I’m only voicing my own personal opinion here — didn’t know what do with its consumer business. Now that the company has been bought by Mitac, a company that specializes in consumer electronics (it makes GPS units under the name Mio, as well as the Navman consumer brand), I hope Magellan will persevere. I’ve always heard more good things than bad about Magellan units; ask anyone that’s been using handhelds for the past decade. When it comes to the several units I’ve used, I can also say the good aspects far outweigh the bad.

Second, as someone who has made his living the past few years writing about GPS stuff, either for GPS World or GPS Maniac, I get asked variations of the following question on a regular basis: “I don’t know anything about GPS technology other than I know I want a GPS gizmo to play in the woods/get around town; what should I buy?” If you like playing in the woods, and you’re looking for your first GPS handheld, or maybe your old unit has finally given up the ghost, and you’re looking for a good, cost-effective basic unit, the Magellan Triton 500 is a good choice, perhaps even an excellent one depending on your wants and needs.

So what’s good about it? Well, for starters, it has a SiRFstarIII receiver and is WAAS/EGNOS enabled. Don’t know what all that means? Well, basically this means it has one of the more advanced GPS receiver chips on the market, which means faster and better reception of satellite signals, and it also uses an auxiliary satellite system — that’s the WAAS part – -to help make it more accurate. Magellan, as does receiver maker SiRF, claims three-meter accuracy with this hardware, and I generally find that to be true; in fact I’d say often in the neighborhood of two meters or less. You can probably bank on 3- to 5-meter accuracy if you’re using it in place where it can see WAAS or EGNOS satellites as well as GPS satellites.

As for signal acquisition times, Magellan claims 2 minutes to get a lock on an initial start (like, say, you’ve had it turned off for the past week and just took it out before venturing past the trailhead); 1 minute for a cold start (you’ve been on the trail for an hour and you turned it back on to check your bearing and distance); and 20 seconds for a hot start (say, you ducked inside the ranger station cabin for a few minutes, leaving the unit on, and then walked back outside). I generally found those times to be spot on; sometimes I can even get a lock on a cold/hot start even quicker.

Out in the open, of course, the Triton 500 has no problems maintaining a satellite lock; in the woods I’ve found it rarely has a problem seeing enough satellites to maintain accurate positioning. On the rare occasions it does happen, like down in a ravine or creek bottom, it is usually only momentary. Same for running around urban areas. Can’t go wrong with SiRFstarIII and WAAS/EGNOS.

It’s also a rugged little gizmo; the whole Triton line meets IPX7 standards. That means that it can, in theory, withstand accidental immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Don’t know that I’d want to put that to the test, but it’s nice to know that if you’re navigating in the rain, you don’t have to worry too much about your gadget getting wet. I can say first hand that the Triton 500 is built to take spills; I’ve dropped this one several times now, as well as let it bounce around unprotected in a pack (not recommending that you do this with your electronics, of course), and it’s none the worse for wear. And I have to give points for the bright orange color; it may not be fashionable, but it’s easy to spot when it’s crammed in a pack with a bunch of other stuff.

The 2.2-inch color screen is visible in direct sunlight (like any device with an LCD, you’ll want to hold it an angle so there’s no glare), and the backlight button is right by your thumb (if you’re holding it in your left hand) or your index finger (if you’re holding in in your right). The backlight actually helps not just when it’s dark, but also in direct sunlight, by the way. This may seem like no big deal, but as someone who has futzed with electronics outdoors for some years now, the improvement in displays always makes me happy (as does the improvement in receiver accuracy).

The interface on the Triton 500, while it took me a little bit of time to get used to, is actually pretty cool, once you figure it out. You can easily do everything with one hand — a nice characteristic for a device that’s designed to be used outdoors. The zoom out and in buttons are self explanatory, as is the big scroll pad/button in the middle and the menu and escape keys. These are all pretty intuitive. I didn’t find the page button intuitive, however, but maybe that’s just me. It took all of five minutes to figure it out when I first got the unit, though, so no real worries here.

The trick here is to learn where the menu button can take you, and where the page button can take you. At first I kept looking for stuff on the menu, scrolling around and not finding what I wanted, not realizing that each menu has several pages that you use the page button to scroll through (at this point the lightbulb came on above my head). To get to the very basic stuff on the Triton — this is what confused me — you don’t even need to go to the menu button, just use the page button from the initial map startup page to scroll through your current location (which also displays your destination if you’ve programmed one, as well as an odometer, date, bearing, and time); current speed (along with your latitude, longitude, and bearing once again, all in large figures), speedometer with current speed, max speed, total distance, and current trip distance; electronic compass; altimeter/barometer; and finally, the page that shows you the satellites the device currently sees, along with signal strength for each.

If it doesn’t seem intuitive to you right out of the box, read the rather scant manual and play with it; it won’t take you long to figure your way around.

What’s Not to Love?

Before I get into the few things I don’t like about the Triton 500, I just want to point out that the 500 comes with a base map. In researching the 500 prior to writing this, I saw a lot of various message board/forum/blog comments about this. It seems a lot of people that are familiar with portable navigation devices, which usually come with road maps preinstalled — are crying about the base maps that come on the basic handheld they just bought, be it Magellan, Garmin, or what have you. “There’s nothing on the map? OMG! WTF! This sucks!” are many a typical comment from the QQ’ers.

So let me just take a paragraph and point out that a base map is just that: a BASic map. It will have major roads, geographical boundaries, and bodies of water and that is about it. See, in ye olden days of consumer GPS yore, way back in the 1990s and early in this decade, a base map was all you had, if that. You used your handheld for navigation by setting your starting point and your destination if you knew it, and navigated with a paper map, using a position reading from the handheld to check your position against the map, or just checking your bearing with a compass and/or the handheld. And dadgum it, we thought that was pretty darn fancy and new-fangled, back in the day.

Nowadays, with the fancy and even not so fancy handhelds, like the Magellan 500, you can download topo maps or roadmaps — you can even download software for vehicle navigation. Wouldn’t recommend using the Triton or any handheld for vehicle nav unless it has a really big screen, but if you’ve got a passenger along who doesn’t have to watch the road, why not? Give them the handheld and off you go.

Now map files are rather expensive, but this is why you can get a handheld like the Magellan Triton — a fairly sophisticated piece of consumer hardware, actually — for as cheap as you do. Companies are making more money on selling maps than hardware. I personally don’t have a problem with this business model, because 90 percent of the time, I just use waypoints/geocaches when I’m playing outside. And if I do want or need a map for my handheld, I buy one specifically for that region or state that I want. With the Magellan Triton, you can download or purchase a flash memory card with maps from AccuTerra (you can grab these at Magellan’s site), or you can also get National Geographic’s topo maps, among others.

No, Really

Okay, now onto what I don’t like about the Triton 500, which is actually a rather short list. First and foremost: no way to clip it to anything. Argh! It does have a little slot for a wrist strap, which is better than nothing, but I think it should have a gear loop built into it like its big siblings, the Triton 1500 and 2000 models. But then I think just about everything should have a means of being connected to my person via a carabiner. But really, Magellan, would it have added to the cost of the lower-end Tritons to include that gear loop?

Next on the list is the sound, which is virtually nonexistent. At its loudest it is barely audible outdoors, unless you are deep in the brush and all is still and quiet. I’d say about 95 percent of the time, this is no big deal for me, but it would be nice to be able to hear the beep when I’m closing in on the location of a ‘cache.

The USB port is also on my nitpick list. It is proprietary, but is designed in such a way as to maintain ruggedness; you won’t have to worry about messing up the contacts if you drop it along the trail. The contacts sit flat against the back of the unit, and you attach the cable by screwing it on. That’s good, speaking as someone who has busted the little plastic tongue in a USB port more than once. But if you lose the cable, you’re SOL until you get another one. A compromise I would like to see would be to have a standard USB port protected inside the battery case.

Speaking of batteries, while Magellan lists the battery time as 10 hours, the times I’ve left it on constantly, I’ve rarely gotten 10 hours out of two AA batteries. More often like six to eight. Of course, this will vary depending on how you use it; if you’re just using it on a hike to occasionally check your bearing/position and turning it off when not doing that, you could probably go a week or two on a pair of batteries, maybe even longer.

The fact that the Triton runs on two AA batteries is a mixed blessing — you can easily carry more, and don’t have to worry about recharging. On the other hand, you do have to/should carry more batteries with you, and it creates waste. A good solution if you’re just using it on the weekends for short hikes or geocaching is rechargeables. In an ideal world a handheld would have a lithium ion rechargeable battery and also be able to run off of disposable batteries in a pinch, but I don’t think you’d have room for both in a unit like the Triton 500; it’s pretty compact as it is. This would add to cost, too.

Last and least, the VantagePoint software that comes with the Triton is overwhelmingly … okay. Not great, not awful, but adequate. It has improved with the last few updates, I have to say, as some of its earlier kinks have been ironed out. I’ve been running the latest version under both Windows XP and 64-bit Vista, and not had problems on either machine with the VantagePoint software. But it’s still not always the most intuitive piece of software, at least by my reckoning; be sure to read the manual (again, it’s pretty scant; it will take you all of 5 minutes).

One specific Triton quirk I will point out — not a problem, this is just good to know — just turning on the Triton and plugging it into the USB port on your computer while the VantagePoint software is running doesn’t mean the two are talking to each other automatically. The handheld will throw up a menu on its screen when it detects a USB connection, and you have to tell it whether or not you want to connect to VantagePoint, or just power the handheld via the USB connection. This is actually a nice feature, but potentially confusing if you’re not in the know.

This reminds me of one more nitpicky thing: the Tritons don’t play nice with a lot of the third party GPS software out there, namely because it’s a relatively new product line, I suppose, and no one has tinkered with it yet. But if you’re geeky like me, there are ways around this. I’ve used GSAK to convert old LOC files to GPSX files, then imported them into VantagePoint and uploaded them onto the Triton, for example. Of course, with GPSX becoming a defacto standard, interoperability will probably be a moot point eventually — probably already is, for many users.

In any event, you can still import and export your tracks and routes to/from the Triton 500 via GPSX files , and then play with the mapping software of your choice. If you need to use other file formats for some reason, I can heartily recommend GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) software. Of course if you’re really geeky, you can just use GPSBabel directly (GSAK is a front end for GPSBabel). Hooray for open-source!

Jeez, Just Get to the Point!

Okay, in short, the Triton 500 is a great little GPS handheld; it’s pretty ideal for playing outside, whether you’re trekking in the outback or ‘caching at the local state park. With its speedometer and odometer functions, you could even use this for running and biking (although if you’re serious about either of those sports, you should check out the sport-specific models from the likes of Garmin, among others). The few minor drawbacks are just that, minor.

The MSRP for the 500 is $249.99; I’ve seen it online for under $200 though. In fact (WARNING! shameless self-promotion inbound), you could even look here on GPS Maniac to see where it’s currently cheapest. Need something still cheaper? There is the Magellan Triton 200 and 300, but they don’t have the map upgrade possibilities, and lack some of the features of the 500, such as the electronic compass and altimeter/barometer. Need something more swank? The aforementioned 1500 and 2000 are other options. You can see a comparison chart of all the Triton models at Magellan’s website, along with more info on the 500.

Personally, if you’re starting out with your first GPS handheld and looking at a Magellan, I’d recommend the 500 among all of the Triton models. With the 200 and 300, while they will help you navigate with no problems, you may find yourself wishing you had that map upgrade capability, as well as the altimeter/barometer, if you find yourself getting into playing outside. If you’re already into that, I can tell you upfront, you’ll wish you had it, eventually, just for the nerd factor, if nothing else.

Don’t want to take my word on the Magellan 500? Need more convincing? Over at Geocaching.com, the average of 107 user reviews give the 500 3.5 out 5 stars.

Key Manufacturer’s Specifications:

• rubber armored impact-resistant plastic; water-resistant seal; IPX-7 rated
• built-in basemap of contiguous U.S., Alaska, Canada and worldwide geographic boundaries
• unit dimensions: 4.65″ x 2.16″ x 1.22″
• weight: 6.6 oz (187.1 g) w/ battery
• screen: 2.2″ (5.59cm) diagonal; 240 x 320 pixel resolution; LED backlit
• Secure Digital (SD) flash memory card slot for map storage
• built-in multidirectional GPS patch antenna
• nine direct-access keys
• operating temperature range is 14 to 140 degrees F (-10 to 60 degrees C)

• 20-channel SiRFstarIII reciever; WAAS/EGNOS
• acquisition time hot: 20 seconds; cold: 60 seconds; initial: 2 minutes
• update rate is once per second
• GPS accuracy is 3 to 5 meters (10 to 16 feet) with WAAS/EGNOS; < 7 meters (15 feet) with GPS only
• operating languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Portuguese.
• Coordinate Systems: Latitude/Longitude, UTM, OSGB, Irish, Swiss, Swedish, Finnish, German, French, USNG, MGRS, Indian, Dutch.

• powered by two AA batteries (not included)
• battery life: 10 hours

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