I look at it this way. Garrett had too many lower-end models (Treasure Ace 100, Treasure Ace 300 and GTAx 400 all under $400) and all three were not really competitive in the industry. They dropped the GTAx400, and basically replaced the two Treasure Ace models with the new Ace 150 and Ace 250. Last year alone, I bought two Ace 250's, two GTP-1350's and two GTAx 1250's, all brand new. I have to tell you I was least impressed with the profiling GTP-1350, and the GTAx-1250 worked just the same w/o the annoying profiling On/Off switching, and therefore I liked the GTAx-1250 better. But here in NW Oregon our ground mineralization is really bad and those two models gave me a lot of problems due to a too negative GB in the Pinpoint mode as well as some poor operation in the Discriminate mode. The Ace 250's however, were the real surprise! While I think the upper rod length could be increased an inch or two between the foam handgrip and the armcup, that's about the more negative thing (other than coils that don't snug up well, which is a typical thing with Garrett's design). On a positive note they use 4-AA batteries, which I prefer to 9V's. They are lightweight and have a very useful stock coil size. They have a memory, unlike the Prizm series, and have use a notch discrimination system with 12 segments with full-range acceptance or rejection. Best of all, for their very affordable price, they worked! Matter of fact, they gave me equal or better performance, side-by-side, in most places than I got with the GTP-1350 or GTAx-1250!
Let's not forget that not only were they a new and different physical design for Garrett, but they were a different color. Personally, I like the yellow compared to some of the blah shades of green I have seen over the years. In short, they gave us something new and different and somewhat exciting.
