for the hearing impaired(there are a few of us around) or those who can't immediately figure out what the numerical value or what the cursor on the screen is possibly telling them about a target. It's good, for a first time user maybe or one that just isn't capable of understand a detector eg: the Etrac...... but the color screen of any other detector is going to make it a better detector. You'd have to be really keen on figuring out how to use ANY detector in the first place so as to get any real benefits,especially from what it purports or suggests it can do if having a color screen will help in the first place and would give some advantage over a mono screen. Ultimately the find results would always speak for themselves and if you can muster the full potential of a detectors ability ....that's even better.
I would say yes to a detector with color id as part of it's ability, IF it was guaranteed to give a very close to 100% calculation of what it was detecting at any depth and especially at it's deepest detecting ability with out being affected when seeking good targets in trashy or adverse ground conditions.
So far, from what I have read and been told , the idea that color screens used in some metal detectors are bit of a gimmick that gives no REAL advantage to the detector's user over even single frequency detectors that have mono screens .

(Some of the guys I know who have MXT's and know how to use them will give anyone a run for their money on what they can or cannot id without the need for color screen, even on some really deep targets. I think that, so far , the Etrac has given me some fairly accurate description on shallow and deep targets. What would a color screen done for me then? Not much unless it was going to be telling me that the color green on the screen is a gold target and the color red is an aluminium target and that it's in between and underneath those many ferrous objects...............at 14 inches
Now if it were possible.... that would be great!
An Etrac with any
improvement would be welcomed. At the moment, for me and many others, it's fine as it is. Water proofing or the option for seperating the control box would have been a brilliant idea to.
From the information available around the www, it seems that it would be difficult to get a close to 100% id just by relying on single or multiple vlf,pi or whatever band of transmissions currently used in ALL mainstream detectors.
Thats why, I guess, Ground Piercing Radar(GPR) like the really SERIOUS stuff that is talked about in the following:
http://www.minelab.com/countermine/evaluations/f3
is possibly the only way it will go.....Then how much will it co$t for one of these?
I also don't think that the developers of mobile phones and other electronic devices, when looking for "improvements" where ever impeded by(other than not ever having the technology available) in moving into using color screens because they ever thought there would ever be a problem with weight or a reduced supply of battery power. The progress that has occurred, not the regress, speaks for itself.
david di