Two faceplates come with the MC600, Metallic silver and Flat black

 
MC 600Ci: Cobra Electronics recently released two new GPS navigation units specifically for the marine industry. The MC 600Ci is an attractive unit with a large six inch TFT display. This GPS actually comes with two faceplates, one flat black the other metallic silver. The MC 600Ci also comes with essential accessories such as a tilt and swivel mount and DC power plug, and a full manual and quick start guide to get you on the road or water as quickly as possible. This Cobra navigation model has a built-in antenna employing Cobra’s exclusive iASAP GPS technology. What’s really exciting about both of these units is the ability to view the maps in two different modes, 3-D or top down view. The GPS comes with a detailed base C-MAP with major waterways and roads, but we recommend anglers and boaters get the advanced mapping software called C-MAP MAX which has valuable information such as aerial views of harbors entrances and more. If you’re coming from another unit that uses the C-MAP’s you will be able to use both old and new cards with the MC 600 GPS chartplotters. There’s more, the MC 600Ci can interface with Cobra’s MF 2500 black box fish finder will transform this unit into a feature rich chartplotter and depth finder.

The new marine chartplotter has an easy to access key pad

The MC600Cx uses an external antenna. Also notice the metallic silver faceplate that allows boaters to customize to match their dash

MC 600Cx: The new MC 600Cx is Cobra’s second portable marine GPS. This unit has the exact advanced features of the MC 600Ci except it makes use of an external antenna that is included in the package along with 30 feet of cable. In addition the Cx model allows one to flush mount it whereas the MC 600 Ci GPS with the internal antenna cannot.

From left to right: Cobra's welcome screen; One of many data page that's customizable; Each page will have its own specific menu

From left to right: When triggered, tabs appear for easy usage; NightWatch mode allows easy viewing at night; Now you can have a 3D map view when navigating on the water

From left to right: Split modes can be chart-chart, chart-highway; If the black box is installed the split view can be chart-fishfinder; Users can pick their favorite color scheme

The Cobra GPS comes with a detailed basic C-MAP, but if you purchase the C-MAP MAX you will get much more useful mapping features such as aerial photos of harbor entrances

Conclusion: Cobra Electronics is making a serious play by introducing the MC 600 series. These units come with an enormous amount of features which we only touched upon in this preview. Along with the basics that all GPS have, we like to highlight the most exciting features such as the large 6 inch TFT display, two interchangeable faceplates, and the ability to view in two different modes (3D or the traditional top down flat view.) The new Cobra Electronics MC 600 series will be available in the early part of 2006 and will retail for an aggressive price of $649.99 and $699.99. Stay tuned for our in-depth review on these advanced and affordable GPS units.