The Magellan Triton 2000 is the top of the new Triton line of handheld GPS units from a proven leader in GPS technology; with a 2 mega pixel camera, color touch screen and multimedia player capability you can’t go wrong with this full featured GPS unit.
Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25, Look & Feel: 24/25,
Features 25/25, How much I enjoy 25/25
Total: 98/100
The Blue Ribbon for Excellence goes to the Magellan Triton 2000 for its complete set of features and user friendly interface along with the easy to use software program Vantage Point. The Magellan Triton 2000 is the leader of the pack in the new Triton line of handheld GPS units and performs very well in all the things I could throw at it.
The Triton 2000 is the all in one multimedia and handheld GPS system that really does have a lot of features. I am currently listening to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen on the Triton 2000 and it sounds great. The only problem I have with listening to songs on the unit is the volume control is a part of the menu and settings system so adjusting this may take a few pages of thumbing through the settings.
Using the menus and pages of the system has been made significantly better from previous GPS units by Magellan with the easy rocker directional button and middle push button. The Triton 2000 along with the 1500 comes really complete with a touch screen for really simple navigation but also for extremely easy input of information using an onscreen keyboard.
The Triton 2000 also comes complete with the handy camera, voice recorder and camcorder features for use anywhere with a few simple clicks on the unit. Turning on these separate devices means going through a few pages on the menu system but this is not bad for one device that does so much.
The 2 mega pixel camera and camcorder does a really good job considering it is a part of the entire GPS unit. The voice recorder is a simple voice recording device for taking notes on your stored waypoints and sounds pretty good, even in high winds. The microphone for the voice recorder is a small hole below the menu button while the camera lens is on the back of the unit above the PC connection.
The side of the unit has the SD card slot and a few other connections like the external antenna and earphone connections. You can listen to your music with earphones and this sounds just as good as my regular computer media player. The songs are crisp and clear using earphones but the small speaker on the back of the Triton 2000 is more for just listening to voice messages or notes. The speaker is not all that great but perfectly suitable for voice and will do in a pinch for a quick music fix if you forgot your earphones.
The Triton 2000 does a great job with all these other features but the real beauty of the system is the Vantage Point software and how easy this is to use. Comparing the previous Map Send and Map Manager software from previous Magellan GPS units is like comparing a duck to a swan. They have really done a great job of updating and making things very simple and I have to wonder what all the complaints are about on several user reviews of the new unit.
I have read several reviews but I do believe these are from when the units first came out and there were software and firmware glitches and problems. These I can assure you have all been dealt with as I have had no problems working with both the Triton 400 and the Triton 2000 for the past month.
I have had both units and taken them with on several forays around town and a few geocaching hunts without any problems. The Triton 2000 is waterproof to a European waterproof standard of full immersion to a meter for 30 minutes without getting water inside it. The unit is definitely ready for long hiking treks or just that simple boating or fishing expedition but can be used for the simple geocaching.
Using the software is easy and does a really good job of keeping things simple enough that you will not get lost but just a tad more explanation or included help files would have been nice with the Vantage Point. There are a few wording oddities like Synchronize for uploading and downloading that may sound a bit odd but it all ends up being fine. Once you read through the manual and find the information about the Vantage Point from the manual available on the CD or from Magellan you can quickly and easily use your Magellan Triton for geocaching, traveling or other outdoor adventures.
The Magellan Triton comes complete with the unit itself, a USB cable for PC connectivity, several touch screen styli (little plastic pointers), two AA batteries and the Vantage Point software as well as other drivers and the manual on a CD. The GPS unit is ready to go within about ten minutes by loading the drivers onto your computer as well as the Vantage Point software.
You will need an additional purchase with the Triton GPS unit in a Secure Digital card and may also want to purchase some other software in the form of more detailed base maps like those available from Magellan or even National Geographic. There are free ones available that work very well and can be found on the internet with a little searching. I found a very good street level map used by snowmobilers that have frequented trails across the United States that works very well for a base map. You can find many state maps at GPS Sled Maps to use for base maps or look at sites like Geocaching.com for other downloadable maps.
Geocaching is one fun thing to do with a GPS unit where people have hidden small or large containers with logs that others go and find using the GPS coordinates. This worldwide treasure hunt is fun and a major activity with GPS units so many of the functions and features of handheld GPS units are based on it. A few of the functions of the Triton 2000 are not exactly perfect with geocaching but work out well enough.
As I mentioned in my Triton 400 review the LOC files that you use to transfer the coordinates of each geocache are used as waypoints through the Vantage Point software instead of the GPX files. The GPX files contain all the coordinates and other information that the geocaching site has for each geocache such as notes about the location and hints. The Magellan Triton series does not offer to download this type of file and I am not really sure why, possibly they will add this with future firmware updates.
The use of the voice recorder, camera and even camcorder in conjunction with the tracking and waypoint system means you can add a waypoint or point of interest to your system and attach files to that point. You can stop where you’re at if you see something interesting, hit the add a waypoint and record a note, snap a picture or create a quick movie of the spot. The information loads to a file of that waypoint so you have all the information about a specific spot in one easy to find location on your GPS unit.
Just find the Vantage Point folder on your computer and in the Attach file is the folders with each audio, video and photo file. You can simply open them using the various programs to view them on your computer as well as use them on your Triton 2000.
The Triton 2000 works very well in the field and does a great job of finding your way and measuring distance with the compass and GPS receiver. The addition of a very accurate elevation and the inclusion of a barometer adds to the features and can help with weather related information. A barometer can help tell the weather and find out more about the environment as well as the data from the GPS receiver.
The Magellan Triton is a really fully featured GPS receiver and is in my opinion very much worth the cost of $500 for an extremely full featured GPS receiver, it even has a flashlight. If you are looking for a fully featured handheld GPS unit the Magellan Triton 2000 is a great one and I highly recommend it for all its variety of features.
