Nokta The Legend Review: Two Coils in the Box and a Successor on the Shelf

Because the second coil is the upgrade nearly every detectorist eventually buys, and Nokta puts it in the box. The 11 inch Double-D is the general-purpose size and the 6 inch is the one that finds targets on ground that has been hunted out, because a large coil sweeping a coin and a nail a few inches apart returns one blended signal that usually reads as iron.

Bought separately for this machine, the Nokta LG15 Coil (6 inch) runs $127.99 and the Nokta LG28 Coil (11 inch) runs $144.99, so the pack is genuinely cheaper than assembling the same setup. Compare that with an Minelab Equinox 700 at $749.00, which ships one coil and needs a $225.00 coil to match this configuration. Nokta also sells the Nokta LG24 Coil (9.5 by 6 inch) as a middle elliptical and the Nokta LG35 Coil (13.5 by 12.5 inch) for open ground, so the coil range for the platform is complete.

The table shows what each maker publishes. Note how little appears in the Nokta Pro Pack listing, which is the recurring theme of this review.

This matters more than usual here, because several figures buyers assume are simply not in this listing.

Nokta now sells the Nokta The Legend 2 at $999.00, and that changes what you are buying. A superseded machine means firmware attention moves on, resale softens, and the accessory range stops growing. None of that makes the Legend worse than it was, but you should buy it knowing you are buying the previous generation at a discount rather than the current machine at a bargain.

The second weakness is how little the Pro Pack listing publishes. There is no weight, no waterproof depth rating and no target ID count in it. Nokta publishes 2.6 lb for the Legend 2 and IP68 to 16 feet on other models in its range, and it would be easy and wrong to copy those figures across. This site will not, which means that on the specifications a buyer most wants to compare, this machine is being bought on reputation rather than on published numbers. Check the current manual for your exact model before you take it into water.

Third, the ecosystem. Minelab has the largest owner community in the hobby, and that shows up as coils, covers, settings threads and answers years after a model is discontinued. Nokta is smaller. The coil range for this platform is good, but if you value being able to ask a question and get ten answers, that is a real argument for an Equinox 700 at a higher price.

The dominant theme is value, expressed as surprise. Published owner reviews repeatedly describe the machine as performing alongside detectors costing considerably more, and the two-coil pack is cited as the reason people chose it over an Equinox. The second theme is the audio and the speed in iron: owners working old trashy sites report good separation, which is what the 6 inch coil and a fast recovery speed are for.

The recurring criticism is the menu. Nokta gives you a great deal of adjustment and owners consistently report a longer learning period than on a preset-driven machine, with several noting that firmware updates changed how targets read and meant re-learning their numbers. That is normal across the industry and it is exactly why the target ID chart tells you to bury your own known targets and record what your own machine says, rather than trusting any printed table. A submersible wired set such as Thresher Submersible Headphones for Nokta is the usual companion purchase for anyone putting the machine under.

Buy it if:

• You want the widest published frequency spread and two coils for the lowest money.
• You hunt trashy, iron-heavy ground where the small coil earns its place immediately.
• You are happy to learn a deeper menu rather than run presets.
• You are assembling a kit on a budget. The intermediate kit shows what else you need.

Skip it if:

• You want the current generation, which is now the Legend 2.
• You need published weight and waterproof figures before you buy.
• You want the largest accessory ecosystem and owner community, which is Minelab.
• You want to switch on and hunt without reading a manual.