There is a dirty little secret with all Magellan handheld GPS, and that is water resistance. The 315 like other Magellans is only rated IPX2 in standard water resistance testing - it can only withstand a 'light misting' without malfunction. The next time someone tells you 'my Magellan floats' ask them how it's going to survive use in light or heavy rain, snow or an accidental splashing in a puddle.

Fact is, Garmins do generally cost more for the same features, but in return you get IPX7 water IMMERSION rating (1 meter of water), in all their outdoor handheld models, plus Garmin will honor the warranty if it doesn't. Try getting that with a Magellan. You could use a plastic bag or case that allows use while sealed inside, except that locks in condensation - which can also put the 315 out of commission. For outdoors use, I would not recommend a Magellan until they upgrade their water resistance.

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Various Garmin, Lowrance

I have used the Magellan GPS 315 for about 2 years now, and I love it. It locks onto a signal in the car, house, woods, anywhere without trouble. The layout of the screens in a menu based format is reliable, and effective. I love my GPS 315 and highly reccomend it to everyone.

Customer Service

I dropped my GPS about 40 feet, and killed the display. It was in the last 3 days of the warranty period, but a week after sending the broken one in, I got a brand new GPS in the mail from the people at magellan. They even paid for the postage both ways... The best customer service I have ever utilized.

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None

This is a good beginner's GPS. My only complaint is that it sometimes has trouble locking on to a signal. I have had mine for 3 years and had no trouble figuring it out (no need for video) and have had no problems with it.

Customer Service

No problems with unit so I haven't needed to use customer service. YAY!

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Garmin etrex Legend

I was looking for a solid beginner GPS to give to my brother in law, and father in law for Christmas. (They are both in search and rescue)
I did tons of looking around, talking to people, browsing the sites on the net, eventually I came down to the magellan 315.
They have both had very good luck with them, so when I saw a good deal I picked one up on Ebay for myself. They lock on quickly and hold, even inside the house. The sensetivity, (as low as 1.5 mph walking, so far), speed readout (dead on), and repeatability of position, in my opinion, are outstanding, I have yet to see more than 50 feet error in repeated tracks, usually so little that I cannot discern the traces. Certainly good enough for hunting, hiking, camping....
Some of the other reviews I read complained about them not being "waterproof", I looked on the magellan site and nowhere did I see a claim that they were "waterproof", only "weather" proof, which says to me "try your best to protect it, and in most conditions it will be fine".
I would not submerge it, if I wanted a waterproof one, I would have bought one that claimed to be "waterproof".
The screen does scratch easily, I bought a case with a clear cover, (18.99 at magellan.com) and it has done just fine.
I have used the PC interface with DeLorme Topo USA 2.0, and it works perfectly, I also downloaded the FREE version of the Data Send from Magellan, It is an excellent way to save your waypoints and tracks, and to transfer them to other 315's.
The battery life is comparable to the Garmins (12, 12XL etc..) but it runs on two, not four....that's a no brainer.
If you do not need mapping capability, and you don't like to get ripped off, I highly recommend the 315 to the beginner and to the experienced user that doesn't need the map capability.
For the price, and even for a few hundred dollars more, you cannot beat the 315. My next one will be ther 330 Map, but you can bet that the 315 will always be in my gear somewhere.

Customer Service

No contact yet.

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Garmin 12, 12XL, 2plus

The 315 is best used in a vehicle where you can take out occasionally to get a position fix. It's not really a hiker GPS because it's not waterproof. This is a serious defect on a piece of equipment meant to be used outdoors.

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A confirmed map and compass user, I scoffed at GPS systems for years as heavy, expensive, and nearly useless toys. Recently I was on a car trip with a friend who was using a similar product to track our progress. I was quite impressed by the speedometer function and how well it agreed with what the car speedometer was indicating. Having replaced my car's speedometer several times, I decided the simplest solution was to buy a GPS unit. As a speedometer it works wonderfully and was much less expensive than a new gage.

Since I already have it, I've taken it along on several day hikes and am rapidly becoming a GPS believer within the limits of GPS. The accuracy is definatly not something you would want to use to build a house with, but for finding your spot on a map it is quite acceptable and usually faster than the tried and true bearings to landmarks method. Even the 3-D accuracy is OK for my purposes,I've found it to be usually within 30 feet of USGS benchmarks.

In summary, it's a good multi-function tool which I would buy again.

Customer Service

My original unit would not store any user defined points. I e-mailed the service department the symptoms it had and within two hours received the reply that the back up battery was dead and instructions on how to proceed. Good and responsive service.

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The 315 is identical to the 320, the only difference is it's loaded with different waypoint data in the beginning. (the 320 is intended for use in small airplanes) You can get the data send cable and load any data you want to either of these units.

cons: Magellan claims that it's waterproof but it is not. the rear battery cover doesn't quite seal on my unit or my friends. It also has a slightly hard learning curve. The battery life is less than what they claim, but it only uses 2 batteries instead of 4 like most other manufactures.

pros: it is a solid performer once it gets a lock, which is pretty fast. It is also very accurate and Lightweight! The screen is very high resolution compared to other manufactures. It calculates sunrise and sunset times.

The Magellan 315 competes with comparable Garmin products quite well, but I would not say that it's better. I haven't had a problem with reliability in either.

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garmin etrex, magellen 315, and of course "map and compass" the only relaible way to go.

Bought my 315 about 4 months ago, and have used it quite a bit, around town, on hikes, and while driving.

Was looking for a moderately priced (non-mapping), yet still fairly capable GPS, so I quickly homed in on the Magellan 315/320 and the Garmin 12 models. Spent lots and lots of time playing with these various models. Eventually picked the 315 over the Garmin 12 because of the lighter weight (related to only needing two batteries), better display resolution, nav displays which appealed a bit more, and a menu scheme that just felt a bit more intuitive to me. The Garmin 12 is certainly a fine unit also, but I think their display resolution could be improved a bit. It's noticeably less sharp than the 315's.

The big database of cities installed in the 315 is kind of worthless, in my opinion, and wasn't a factor at all in the selection process.

Battery life seems to be about what is claimed by Magellan, but I also got the combo power/data cable so I could keep the thing plugged in when using it in my car.

The main advice I have for someone wanting/using a GPS is to spend some time learning about how the GPS system works, and what the units can, and can not, tell you. I've encountered so many people who expect their GPS to be a magic box which does everything perfectly, and don't seem to understand their limitations. Knowing some of these things will eliminate the sense of mystery out in the field.

A great place to learn: joe.mehaffey.com

My only complaint so far is that I knocked the unit off the bumper of my car before a hike last weekend, and after falling about 20 inches onto a gravel parking lot, I got a few good-sized scratches in the clear plastic covering the display. Kind of annoying when those scratches result in shadows on the display surface. Given the slight fall, I was surprised by the degree of scratching that occurred. But the unit continues to operate flawlessly.

Customer Service

Haven't needed it yet.

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Garmin 12 (various)

I bought this unit mostly for finding and marking fishing spots while kayaking in the ocean. It's taken awhile to figure out how to use it, but last week I manually entered coordinates for several reefs and went fishing. Although Cabela's advetises it as waterproof, mine pooped out after about 10 minutes of light splashing. The water soaked through the keypad, and got under the plastic over the display area and it's still dead even after drying all week. I sent it to Magellan today, so I assume they'll be replacing it. I'll have to buy a dry bag, or use my "waterproof" GPS in a zip lock bag from now on.

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Compact and light weight, but it takes a little while to figure it out. The directions don't help a whole lot. If you buy the 315, do yourself a favor and purchase the instructional video. It really shortens the learning curve. I was dissapointed with the short battery life, but it seems any GPS drains batteries quick.

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