Garrett Apex Revealed - It’s Multifrequency!

[Xergix]

Vote 10 for the style of the controlbox, I think that in ML they should hire a good stylist, as good to see Apex as not as ugly as is Vanquish.

The internal battery is a good choice, now it is unthinkable to stay with AA Nimh or alkaline batteries, even just for the physical size, litium is the future.

Perhaps some controls are missing such as reactivity and  range tone modification, and it is a pity that it no longer has the effect of the bell tone, the most beautiful thing in the ace250 series ?

Then if Apex on the field is better we will see it in a couple of months.

[palzynski]

11 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

 

They've had over two years to respond to Equinox and nothing so not sure this is going to spur them on either...not holding my breath.  Orx was nice but not innovative - just a watered down Deus to make it more affordable.  Otherwise, not sure what XP is doing, if anything other than new accessories and coils for the Deus platform.  Still just a single freaker when it comes down to it, a damn good one, but we are now 8 to 10 years on with the Deus platform and component iterations.  XP is desperately in need of a head turner release.  Well past time for them to step up.

The XPs Deus and ORx are still at the top concerning the weight , some figures below . However Garrett has done a great effort concerning the "sweeping ergonomy" with the Apex , thanks to them … 

Xp Orx                                       800g

Xp Deus                                    900g  

Garrett Apex                            1130g ( to be confirmed )

ML Vanquish 340 440 V10   1200g 

ML Vanquish 540 V12           1300g

ML Equinox 600/800 11'       1300g

Nokta Simplex+                      1400g

Teknetics T2                            1550g

ML CTX3030                            2360g

 

 

[Steve Herschbach]

20 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

And now I'm curious ,, ... to some answers about the New Garrett Apex ... from the field testers of this detector ..

What advantages will this detector offer over the competition ...?

Well for me it is the feature set under $500... nothing else like it for the money. This is what a dry land Equinox could have been if Minelab were not afraid of undercutting Equinox sales. But Vanquish does sell for less. The progression on features and price is Vanquish > Apex > Equinox. Right now you can get multifrequency at almost any decent price point from $200 on up. Anyway, looks to me like Garrett perfectly hit the gap between Vanquish and Equinox.

[coinhunterseth]

40 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Well for me it is the feature set under $500... nothing else like it for the money. This is what a dry land Equinox could have been if Minelab were not afraid of undercutting Equinox sales. But Vanquish does sell for less. The progression on features and price is Vanquish > Apex > Equinox. Right now you can get multifrequency at almost any decent price point from $200 on up. Anyway, looks to me like Garrett perfectly hit the gap between Vanquish and Equinox.

This is assuming that it performs comparatively to the minelabs though. Some actual field testing is required before that assumption can be made. I hope that it does perform at least as well as the minelabs, because then I have an excuse to get one ?

[Steve Herschbach]

2 hours ago, coinhunterseth said:

This is assuming that it performs comparatively to the minelabs though. Some actual field testing is required before that assumption can be made. I hope that it does perform at least as well as the minelabs, because then I have an excuse to get one ?

Not really, it is assuming you get what you pay for and perhaps for $500 you don't get what you get for $649 or $899. If the idea is to get Equinox 800 or even Equinox 600 performance for under $500 - good luck.

[Joe D.]

Beyond the tech, and who's detector is better at what pricepoint! It's just as important to build anticipation, introduce, and bring to market, all in an ordered and timely fashion! Screw any of these up; as we have seen from others! And the innovations don't mean a hill of beans!??

[coinhunterseth]

46 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Not really, it is assuming you get what you pay for and perhaps for $500 you don't get what you get for $649 or $899. If the idea is to get Equinox 800 or even Equinox 600 performance for under $500 - good luck.

I was referring more to the vanquish series.

[Steve Herschbach]

2 hours ago, coinhunterseth said:

I was referring more to the vanquish series.

Got it. Well, I'd buy one of these sight unseen versus a Vanquish based on the feature set alone but that's just me. There is hardly an inch of difference between all the decent VLFs on the market these days and I'm sure this machine will find stuff plenty well for somebody like me. My detectors find nothing. I do all the finding and there are a dozen detectors at the end of the day I could use and would all suit about as well. Frankly, I think I could use a Vanquish 340 and be pretty happy. Compared to what I started with 45 years ago every detector made now is a powerhouse. 

[Cal_Cobra]

Definitely wasn't expecting this, kudos to Garrett on getting on the SMF bandwagon!

Don''t really care about submersible, rainproof is good enough for me.  The 50 tone option like the EQX has would be great, I've taken a liking to it on the EQX, lot of audio intel once you get tuned into the symphony of tones.

Software up-gradable would be great, wonder if it is or isn't?

I like how they introduced this as an ACE top dog unit, because that tells me that now that they have SMF technology they will be bring out a AT series with more features.  If this is the baby ACE unit, I'm totally looking forward to seeing what their AT SMF detector will bring to the table.  Looks a bit more ergonomic than the EQX, Not crazy about the shaft setup though (seems like Garrett hasn't been stellar with shafts since the ATP came out, heck the initial ATP shafts had to be sent in to get upgraded camlocks/holes/something, I forget exactly).  Good job keeping the weight down to 2.5lbs!  I've actually grown accustom to built-in rechargeable Li-ion batteries, and like them.  Keeps the weight down, goes for a day or two easy, and less junk to manage.  That brings me to the headphones.  Although I'm a wireless headphone lover, I do not like the propitiatory types like Nokta and Garrett are doing, I think Minelab got it right with an open standard that allows us to use whatever we want.

I love my EQ800, but given the choice between this and a Vanquish, I'd go for this.  This and an EQ600 though, that would be a different story, the EQ600 would win all day long (still has 40KHz in multi just like the EQ800).

I like that they were modest in their release, just enough teasers so we knew something was up, but I think this being a SMF took everyone by surprise without having to parachute out of a plane LOL

As Steve mentioned, patience is a virtue here, when their AT SMF comes out, not only should they have the bugs worked out by then (the ATP has issues when it first came out, shaft, faulty seals, etc) but it'll simply be a better detector, likely waterproof, more features, possibly more frequencies, and probably will be priced between the EQ600-EQ800 if they want to remain competitive (unless it does something fantastic the EQX cannot).

Still looking forward to the Nokta SMF, but seriously FTP and White's....tap, tap, can you hear me, is this thing even on?  Crickets....ouch.