Magellan eXplorist 400
The Magellan eXplorist 400 is in the middle of Magellan’s eXplorist line of handheld GPS receivers. The eXplorist 400 features the ability to store unlimited waypoints, routes, and trackpoints on SD cards. You can add nearly whatever type of maps you would like to the eXplorist 400 such as topo maps, lake maps, or street maps. Maps can be downloaded via USB.
There is 8 Mb of built in maps available on the Magellan eXplorist 400 leaving 8 Mb of internal storage. This remaining memory can store 5 tracklogs, 20 routes and 500 POIs. The eXplorist 400 also comes with a Geocache Manager allowing you to download geocache details directly to the eXplorist 400.
You can expect to get about 17 hours of battery life from the Li-Ion battery. The device is water resistant so if it starts to rain while geocaching you shouldn’t have any troubles. The Magellan eXplorist 400 comes with a grayscale display which should be fine for many people. If you would like a color display, go for the Magellan eXplorist 500. If you don’t need the additional memory storage options via SD cards you can save a little money by opting for the Magellan eXplorist 300.
This was the best GPSR I ever owned. Unfortunately I lost it and my wife bought me a Bushnell Onix 200CR. Look for that review on here.
I never had a problem with this unit as far a it getting wet, but I worried about the way the back cover did not seem to seal all the way. There seemed to be a little gap. It got wet plenty of times and never gave me a problem.
This is a great unit!!
The Magellan Explorist 400 is perfect for avid hikers or geocachers. The unit is accurate and very easy use.
I had this Magellan Explorist 400 and needed tech advice. Ended up on the phone waiting for 50+ minutes before I recieved a mediocre response. I went for a Delorme and the Magellan sits in the drawer…The product is only as good as the support provided, especially for a new user.
I had an Explorist 400 for 22 months and loved it. It had an occasional problem with file maintenance (e.g., at times I couldn’t delete some files using the PC to GPS interface), but nothing serious until last week when I was in the process of storing a group of waypoint files to the unit.
It looks like a firmware error to me, but the result was that I ended up with a corrupted directory structure on the device and lost the protected memory basemap to boot. Since the unit is no longer in production, the only help Magellan could offer was sympathy and a small discount on a new or refurbished Triton. I haven’t decided to take their offer yet or not….
Ive had my Explorist 400 for a few years now. I also purchased the Mapsend Topo Manager as well. I used to use it often while off roading. Though the last year or two it sat unused. Now for some reason the zoom in, zoom out, nav, menu, mark, and go to buttons no longer work when you press them. I also cannot connect it to my computer to attempt to transfer data or update the software avaliable on Magellans website. I was reading their service and repair section on their website and it seems that if your gps device is no longer under warranty they will not work on it, but only offer you a discounted price on a rebuilt unit. WTF??? They can rebuild used units and sell them, but wont even attempt to fix already owned units?? This has really killed my oponion of Magellan and their products. If a company wants to establish a good reputation they should stand behind their products and attempt to help their customers in anyway possible. Im going to call Magellan tech support tomarrow and in the event they refuse to attempt to fix my device, im dropping all trust in the company and finding a better company who cares about their customers.
All GPS companies have the same policy as far as I know (Garmin, TomTom, etc). It is almost always cheaper to replace than to repair.
I also have the same problem (buttons no longer function) with my explorist 400. Knowing the company will do nothing for me puts me ill at ease about buying one their more expensive units. I guess I’ll be the guy who says “Yes, I loved my explorist, but had to buy the competitor’s brand in hopes of getting a longer lasting unit.” Thanks for the memories but I guess it wasn’t meant to last.