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MAGELLAN ROADMATE
MY MAGELLAN ROADMATE IS THE BEST THIS IS MY SECOND ONE I WILL ALWAYS USE MY MAGELLAN ROADMATE. DEONGood value for the money
We've had this GPS for over a year now, and it has worked quite well. We used it on our move from New York to Texas and it held a signal the whole trip which was what we hoped for. I've been using it in our new city and its predominantly been a champ. This area has a number of new constructions so the maps seem outdated (mainly missing developments) and it appears you can't update them. It seems to spontaneously reset when I hit one particular spot downtown- its annoying, but at least I know exactly when its going to happen so I can look at my next few turns before that happens. Overall, this is a great little unit if you're new in town and want a GPS to help you get where you need to go until you know how to get there on your own.Good GPS with some flaws
I got this GPS as a present about a year and a half ago. It is not the best GPS you will find, but if you want a small, inexpensive unit, this is a good product to look at for the price. Here are some pros and cons: Pros: 1. Reliability The unit will get you from point A to point B. I have seen it re-route after a wrong turn and it will usually (eventually) find an alternate route that is suitable. 2. Ease of use The unit is very easy to use, and the interface is pretty good. I just bought a Garmin and the huge disadvantage to that unit is that I cannot search locations by zip code. With this unit, you can search by zip or by city name. I also like the "Home" button right on the main menu. Touch the button it will route to your home without having to go through multiple menus. Also, it has many POIs and they are easy to use. 3. Routing options Another nice feature is the routing options you are presented with every time you enter an address. Before it plans the route you can pick "Shortest Time", "Shortest Distance", "Most use of freeways", or "Least use of freeways". This is especially nice when driving home in rush hour traffic when you want to avoid the highways, or making long trips where you want to use all freeways. Also, you can click "Avoid toll roads" for any of these options, which is great is you don't have an EZ Pass-type device. Cons: 1. Routing & maps The unit has always gotten me to where I need to go, but sometimes it doesn't calculate the fastest route. Also, Magellan doesn't update maps very often so sometimes you might run into a situation where a road has changed and the map is not updated. Another con to this is that the unit does not save your favorite route to stored locations. 2. Not many extra features The unit is basically for GPS only. It doesn't have any of the fancy features the GPS units have now, such as Bluetooth, MP3 players, etc. It is meant to be used as a GPS only. It also does not have text-to-speech capabilities, meaning it will not announce road names, but instead say "turn left in 1 mile." All in all, this is a good little GPS unit for someone who just need to get where they are going. There are no flashy features in it, but it gets you to where you need to go. I especially like being able to touch the one button during a route and look at all the turns for the route from start to finish. The routing is pretty good and the time estimates are almost always dead on. It's not bad for a first GPS.very poor performance
I've owned this GPS for almost a year, My unit takes about 7 minutes to connect to the satalite and get a location fix, after its initially turned on. The Points of Interest database is useless. It barely has anything in it compared to most other gps units (2 million vs. 6 million). 2 million may sound like alot, but its not, its really only like 20% of stores/gas stations/ resteraunts/ etc. Magellan just sent me an email about a map, software, and points of interest update, that they just released. They charge $79.99 for the update. Great way to retain customers Magellan, charge them for updates! The battery on the Roadmate is trash. The unit does not have an off mode, only hibernate, which consistantly drains the battery dead, if left "off" for more than a few days. So basically the unit must remain plugged in constantly like it has no battery at all. The user interface is poorly thought out. If for instance I want to store a new location then navigate to it. I must store the location and name it, then navigate all the way back to the home screen (by pushing "X" five times. Then all the back to the save points list, then I have to locate my new point I just saved on a long list that only shows about 8 points per screen, so you have to scroll down and find it. It should be just be you punch in an address and click navigate, but its not. Oh and another minor anoyance with the roadmate, is that you cannot see the map and your speed at the same time, on the same display. You have to click the top bar to see your speed. Then hit "X" to get back to you map. Also zooming in and out is excruciatingly slow.Works great...while it's alive
I've had this product since Dec. 2006 (paid $225 for it at the time). It has worked great: got me where I needed to go, provided me with the nearest Taco Bells, suggested alternate routes when it detects that I'm stuck in traffic, and etc. However, it only comes with a one year warranty. Low and behold, after 14 months of service (not much since I don't drive everyday and only use it for the occasional trip), it decided to die on me this month. I can send it back to Magellan for repair but that'll cost more than a new GPS. I don't think I'll go Magellan again.Keyword : magellan
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