Buy Car GPS Navigation System

Review by Comdet:

I’ve been a Magellan user for several years – have owned four of their GPS systems, and always appreciate how they have improved their products. This unit is my 5th, and replaces a Magellan 4040. After using it for a while I’ve confident in saying this is the best one yet!

The most visible change is the actual size of the unit. The screen size has been increased, but the unit is thinner and lighter. Very sleek appearance, and the screen is a real joy — sharp, clear graphics even in the sun, and bigger on-screen buttons for easy use. The mounting system has also been streamlined, and looks and works well. It mounts very easily on a NavMat holder (basically a bean-bag system that I got on Amazon. I’m a huge Navmat fan – makes it a snap to hide the GPS with narry a trace. Best accessory by far for any GPS).

The power connector was not well thought out, however. You have to connect it to the GPS unit AFTER you mount it in the holder. They should have moved the connector it a wee bit to the side to avoid that.

The only button is a slide-type power button on the top. Boot-up time is OK — not speedy, but not a huge delay either. It does not have a “sleep” mode, so you have to do a cold boot every time. Not a problem in real world use – by the time you get situated in your car, the unit is ready to go.

Voice is clear and easy to understand. Not as natural sounding as a TomTom, but understandable.

Pretty much any recent GPS unit will get you where you want to go. I’ve found the routing on the Magellans to be very similar to Garmins – could be because they both use the same mapping set (Navteq). The Magellan shines, however, in features that I find helpful. The direction of the next turn is always visible regardless of how far away the next turn will be. Up until recently, Garmin did not offer this (they do now on some of their units). Sounds like a small issue, but I find it very helpful. The Magellan also allows you to very easily exclude a route (or portion). That’s a fairly standard feature nowadays, but Magellan allows you to do it in a snap.

In terms of routing, Magellan offers four options (fastest, shortest, most use of freeways and least use). You can see all four options on the map (as a summary) at the same time so you can pick the best one for your needs. Perfect!!

Love the AAA Guidebook, which is a unique Magellan feature. Lets you get details about restaurants and other points of interest just like the paper version from AAA. I used it a lot in my 4040, especially when traveling out of town.

Other unique Magellan features I appreciate is the “ding dong” sound right before a turn (incredibly accurate!) and the fact that the software reminds you to “stay on the current road” when you encounter major exits. Some find that to be nagging, but it has saved me from inadvertently exiting on more than one occasion.

A new feature for Magellan is the lane guidance. Very nicely done. I’ve used this feature on Navigon units, and found it rather unhelpful. Magellan’s implementation is far more useful, with better, clearer graphics. However, lane guidance is not available for every road.

The software is also nicely done – very logical to use. If you’re a past Magellan user you can pick this up and use it in a second. If not, there’s a short printed user’s guide in the box (plus a CD-ROM with more in-depth info) that gets you up to speed quickly. The box also includes the mount, power connector for the car, and a USB cable. It does not include an AC adapter.

OK, now for the bad news. When it comes to customer service, Magellan has been horrid. We’re talking so bad it’s almost funny. I’m hoping this situation will change – the company was bought by Mitac late last year, and perhaps this will signal a change for the better in terms of customer support. Lord knows, they couldn’t get any worse.

The leader, in my opinion, for customer support is Garmin. They are nice to deal with on the phone, answer emails promptly, and offer regular firmware updates. Whenever I buy a GPS as a gift I always buy Garmin since I don’t want to saddle the recipient with the miserable service that Magellan offers. It’s a shame, since Magellan offers some real benefits over Garmin, and more value for the money. Tom Tom is also decent when it comes to support, but they use TeleAtlas maps which are less complete than NavTeq (sp?).

Bottom line — if you’re looking for a straightforward GPS at a good price, this should be on your short list. It lacks features such as Bluetooth and an MP3 player, but for me, I want a GPS to offer guidance and not entertainment. This has a very robust feature set, great screen, and well-designed software. It also has traffic capabilities — did not test that feature out, so I can’t comment on it.

The “safe” bet continues to be Garmin. You’ll pay a bit more, and get less features, but you can be assured of solid support. Whether Magellan’s new owners will put them back on the right track (if you’ll excuse the horrid, but unavoidable pun) in terms of customer service is not yet clear. I hope so — they make a great product!

UPDATE: 5/21/09 There’s a firmware update on the Magellan site. No new functionality (in terms of new features) but, according to the release notes it improves overall performance. Easy to install – just follow the included step-by-step instructions. It seems like it makes the unit a bit faster, but that could just be my imagination.

Review by Mary Jo Sminkey:

I’ve used a number of GPS navigators, typically Garmin and TomTom units. I am currently using a Garmin Nuvi 265WT and I generally find Garmin to give me the best set of features and performance for the price, although I’ve not found their systems to be particularly reliable, my first needed to be sent for repairs twice and the one I am using currently often reboots itself randomly, particularly right when I start it up, and often the sound fades out for no reason. So I’m always on the hunt for something that will work even better. This is my first experience with a Magellan RoadMate model, and I was interested to see how it compared. I’ve only been using it for a few weeks, so I cannot report on long-term reliability, but will post follow-up comments if I run into any problems in the future.

PLUSES

Beautiful, bright screen. Easily one of the best GPS screens I’ve seen. Very sharp and bright and still visible even in bright light. Typical reverse screen for nighttime viewing.

Good maps, accurate directions. Haven’t run into any problems yet where it took me a goofy route….although I’ve yet to use a GPS that doesn’t do it once in awhile! I also like that you can use a zip code when entering addresses. My Garmin unit makes you enter both the city and state and thus makes setting destinations a bit more tedious than need be.

The sound and text-to-speech on this I found very good. I often have volume problems with my Garmin (sometimes it just seems to completely fade out), no problems at all with this. I didn’t even need to turn it up all the way to hear it easily. The voice I found pleasant enough and not too computer-generated sounding. It also has nice tones for signaling the turns (which you could select from) and the timing for these was spot-on.

Quick launch screen which allows you to set a bunch of favorite locations, or even better, favorite searches. So if you typically are looking for the local coffee shop when you travel, rather than going through the screens to set up the search each time you can save it as a favorite. Very useful and has a number of these already set up for you like closest gas station.

The number of POIs was quite impressive, I found a lot more local stores in my area than with the Garmin. Still not everything though….my church was one that was not included, even though its one of the largest in my town.

Included AAA information. Very cool search for local events, attractions, etc. with detailed information. Not sure how much I’d use this (typically I’d research such information before leaving!) but it was a nice touch.

Multi-destination routing. Allows you to set up a complete trip with several stops. This was very easy to use, to reorder your stops, etc.

Includes maps for Canada. Not all GPS units in this price range include Canada. Not that I travel there, but nice to know I have the maps if I do!

It’s also nice that it uses a standard UBS cable. This seems to becoming more standard with GPS units and makes life much easier than having a proprietary cable. I’m careful to label it however, just so I don’t accidentally mix it up with all my other similar cables.

MINUSES

Slow startup! I’ve really gotten spoiled by my Garmin Nuvi that started up in seconds and was ready to navigate just as quickly. This thing takes considerably longer to start, leaving me waiting for it before I can set my destination and drive off.

Also, the location of the plug for the USB/power cord is just dumb! It completely blocks the mount, so that you cannot have the unit plugged in until you slide it on. This also means you then can’t see where you are plugging it in, versus being able to just hold the unit, stick in the plug, and then mount it. I could deal with this if there seemed to be some reason for doing it….but simply moving the plug from the left side to the right side of the mount would have completely solved this problem. It just seems like it was put in the one spot that would annoy people!

No bluetooth or voice command, no music or audiobook support. Basically very barebones on extras. This was a big step down from the Garmin Nuvi which cost almost the same, with just a slightly smaller screen. At the very least, I really would have liked to have seen BT at this price point. The touch screen also doesn’t always respond and needs a second or even third tap sometimes. This seemed particularly prevalent on the Back button. Also, why do they not include a quick jump back to the main menu or map? My Garmin has this issue as well, and it’s really annoying when you are searching for something that you can’t just “cancel” and go back to the main screen, but have to keep backing page by page to return. Garmin also now has all kind of features you can customize that really add to the value of their devices. I love the ability to find an address on Google Maps and send it to the GPS over USB. You can download a custom car which is a cute touch (okay, so I no longer own a big SUV, but at least I can see myself drive one virtually!) There are all kinds of custom routes you can download, if you are the type that likes to play around with your gadgets. The Magellan doesn’t appear that have support for any of this kind of additional stuff, and is definitely falling behind Garmin and TomTom in this area.

Some things are not very intuitive and the manual is very bare bones, so not much help. For instance, there was an option in the settings for the display, but on changing it, I found that I was stuck with just 2D display options. It took me awhile to figure out how to get it back to 3D (clicking on the main map screen). Not including the 3D setting in the same place is quite confusing.

One thing that really bugged me was that it wouldn’t save a location based on solely the GPS location. I’ve never had a GPS unit that wouldn’t do this….you just save the location and rename it to something meaningful. On the Magellan though, while it would let me “save” I still had to actually enter an address! Seems kind of silly to require this when you are using a GPS which should be able to just save the location automatically, address or no. If there *is* a way to do this, it certainly isn’t very obvious! I also found it needed to really get right to the location that you were navigating to in order to consider the trip completed. Very frequently when I turn it on it wants to resume the same trip, even though that’s where I am! It should be less picky about this.

The headsup display was not one of my favorites. With the Garmin, I was able to see my upcoming turn, estimated arrival time, current speed, and even would display the local speed limit (when available). The Magellan was much more bare bones. I could get the next turn, and the time of arrival, but it uses the same space to show my current MPH so I have to toggle back and forth (while driving) if I want to see this. I really like using my GPS as a digital speedometer so this was a big negative for me. This is definitely personal preference though. Some people may prefer the more minimal information on this screen and more surrounding map visibility.

I also didn’t care for how it displays the phone number separately from the address when viewing POIs. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t display the phone number on the same screen as the address, this just seems unnecessarily complicated to have them in different places. I really like the Garmin info display which includes everything on one page, and also includes call buttons (since that device supports bluetooth phone calling).

I did not receive the TrafficLink with this unit, so am not able to review how well that works. If you are not able to find a deal on this that includes the TrafficLink for free, that really does hurt the value a bit. My Garmin unit included free traffic on the device (albeit with some ads) so if I lived in an area where I wanted the traffic support, that extra cost would definitely play a part in my decision as to what device to go with (comparisons of how good each traffic service are notwithstanding).

Overall, you’ll want to evaluate it against other devices at the same price. If you can find a good deal on it, it might be worth considering for the excellent display and strong database of POIs. But for me, it’s just not in the best-of-class category.

Review by MW:

I have this and used side by side with a Garmin 200 W for several weeks before returning the Garmin. Overall this is a good product but a few annoying bugs keep it from being great…here are the pros and cons

Pros

It finds the satellites quickly and keeps the signal. The garmin took 2-3 minutes almost every time from a power up start (this was the deal killer)

The user interface is nicer and has a lot more options than the garmin.

The POI database (such as the POI categories it actually has – it is missing several major US retail chains – see below) is more up to date than the Garmin I bought at same time.

Allows you to set the keyboard to QWERTY mode which the Garmin did not.

cons

The graphics are a bit grainy compared to the garmin

The bluetooth is useless, works only for data transmission/reception and that too with very limited number of phones. No, you cannot use it as a handsfree.

If you take a wrong turn or pass by your destination or do anything to pass by your destination on a 2 lane road, it will not tell you to turn around – it will navigate you through the next set of intersections. In rural areas this can mean a 20 mile trip instead of going back 200 yards.

The text to speech works very unpredictably – it pronounces some name very nicely but mangles others horribly such that you can’t recogonize it.

Also it announces street names about a quarter mile before and then simply says turn left or right when you are actually at an intersection and want the street name to turn into. This is annoying. Very annoying.

There is an SD card slot. However the unit works either exclusively with the SD card slot or with the internal memory. Which means that you have to reload everything in internal memory onto the SD card which takes about an hour because of the incredibly s-l-o-w data transfer rates.

Also the internal memory is pretty much full so forget about any upgrades unless you spring for at least a 2 GB or more SD card

Strangely, TomTom doesn’t know about major US retail chains like Toys R Us, Payless Shoes etc. This even after I updated the unit with the US Retail POI database file

The color schemes available on the unit and online are completely weird. Seems to have been done by people with zero taste and sensiblity.

The internal battery is useless in cold weather (i.e. if you leave the unit in the car in winter). This after a few weeks. It either dies in a few minutes or doesn’t fire up at all. Will have to see how it performs in the summer.

The brightness and contrast are so-so in daylight compared to the garmin 200 w

Review by Anton Tobias:

At long last TomTom has released a GPS model that incorporates a text-to-speech feature at an affordable price. This has been what most TomTom customers have been waiting for. The original TomTom One was first introduced to consumers roughly two years ago and was in direct competition with the Garmin Nuvi 350 model. One of customers major gripes was that the TomTom One lacked the popular text-to-speech feature that the Garmin Nuvi 350 had. It seems that in a two short year span the TomTom One has come a long way with adding features and (with GPS becoming more popular) lowering prices.

The TomTom One XL-S is, in a way, the first of its kind. It is the first TomTom GPS device to offer text-to-speech (verbal pronunciation of street names) at a price tag of under 0.00. This is good news for consumers not looking to invest too much cash into a GPS but wanting this convenient feature. For those who are unfamiliar with past TomTom One devices this text-to-speech comes in handy when not wanting to take your eyes off the road. For example: lets say you are driving on an unacquainted, busy freeway. Traffic is moving at 70mph in four lanes all around you, your exit is close but given the circumstances you have to keep watching traffic and don’t get an opportunity to glance down at your trusty TomTom. Ordinarily you would simply hear you TomTom One say “Exit Right” as you approached your off-ramp. But with the new TomTom One XL-S the street names will be heard as well as illuminated on the screen. So instead of hearing “Exit Right” you will hear “Exit Right On War Memorial Drive”. A very convenient way to keep your eye on the road and know exactly where you are at all times.

Aside from the text-to-speech feature this particular TomTom One comes with a widescreen for easy viewing. I personally have never had any trouble reading the 3.5 inch screen of the original TomTom One but I’m sure a lot of consumers will love the new 4.3 inch widescreen display.

All the new features of the TomTom One 3rd Edition are included here as well. You get the “Help Me” button which when pressed opens features such as “Phone For Help” which displays emergency numbers for the current location (such as and typically 911) “Drive To Help” which show you the quickest way to the nearest police station or hospital and a “First Aid Guide” which is provided by the British Red Cross.

Also included in the safety features is an option to sound a custom alarm if any of the following occur:

1. When approaching a school or church

2. When driving faster than a set speed

3. When driving faster than allowed

A nice addition to the TomTom One XL-S is the ability to make your own map corrections. For example the city I live in recently shut down an existing department store and rebuilt a Super Center about a mile down the road about 3 months ago. Because of this recent change the Points Of Interest database had to be updated. I simply used the “Map Correction” feature to edit and move the existing Point Of Interest to its correct location on the map. Very convenient. The “Map Correction” feature also allows users to (Un)block A Street, Reverse Traffic Direction, Edit Street Names, Add Missing POI, and Report Other Errors

Compared to the many GPS devices I’ve used (including Garmin products) I’ve personally found that TomTom has the edge as far as map accuracy and route planning. This new TomTom One XL-S is another break through in TomTom technology that would be perfect for anyone looking to either upgrade from a previous GPS or for first-time GPS buyers looking to save themselves the headaches of getting lost in unfamiliar neighborhoods.

Included in the box is:

– The TomTom One XL-S

- (1) Car Charger

- Documentation Pack (Quick Start Guide, Installation Poster, Accessories Catalog, and Warranty/License Agreement)

- (1) Windshield Mount

- (1) USB Cable

- (1) Adhesive Disk For Windshield Mount (for mounting the TomTom to your dash)

Review by Sam G:

It has some pretty decent features for Motorola’s entry into the GPS realm dominated by others, Motorola was a little slow dipping it’s feet into the GPS market, but the unit somewhat surprised me. Personally, I prefer the smaller 3.5″ screens (BUT, only if it has decent ‘text to speech’ which this unit does have) as I mount it on my windshield and the less windshield real estate used, the better, if this unit or any GPS unit didn’t have Text to speech, then obviously the larger 4.3″ and larger units are a better choice.

Picked it up on sale @ then put it to the idiot test to see what it could do.

Opened the box, plugged it in and put the manual aside, after all, one cannot do an idiot test if you read the manual. Pressed the on button, setup was very intuitive and simple, then entering in the destination and it got me there no problem, acquiring the satellite was quicker than I was told it would be by the salesman.(But then again, some Radioshack reps may not be the brightest light bulbs out there) The text to speech was pleasant and not annoying on the initial testing. I tried to throw it a curve-ball with a tricky destination, but it got me there 1-2-3

The auto day/night was decent as well. After the idiot test I read the instructions to read about all the features that weren’t obvious. The only negative in my humble opinion is that the GPS’s plastic bezel, which could be smaller, and the battery life could be better when not using a power cord connected to your auto’s 12-volt lighter plug in, but then again Motorola is new to the GPS game, and I’m sure down the road they will make some design changes to improve their products, but for 99 clams, I’d recommend this to a friend.

Review by Civ:

Aside from having bluetooth capability, real-time traffic (delayed) and larger screen this unit has more features than a Garmin unit I purchased on Amazon in 2008 for 0! The smaller screen size doesn’t impact the usefulness as most safe GPS users listen to the spoken directions rather than watching the LCD screen!

Amazon’s posted dimensions are in error; these were copied from an official Motorola PDF datasheet: 3.7 x 3.2 x 0.7 inches for those interested in purchasing a carrying case.

This unit also comes with pedestrian mode. Since it’s not water-resistant it might be wise to carry a Ziploc bag along in case it rains!

Review by Z. GUO:

Bought this GPS for . The good thing is that it can be easily unlocked into a general purpose WINCE machine. The RW400 comes with a multimedia menu out of the box, where you can read txt, watch a few kinds of videos and view pics in a ugly browser. But that’s far from what it can actually do. Search “towince” and download the exe into any folder on the SD card that comes with your machine. Change the GPS path to where it is and run. Voila! The WINCE desktop appears! You can view every on-device directory, edit the registry, and launch various applications—it’s even pre-loaded with pdf/doc/ppt softwares. Funny why they installed all those stuff if they are not willing to show them to the users.

The copilot software is OK. Smooth interface and quite accurate directions, but 3D display seems a little lagging when there’re lots of objects on the map. Not so many POIs—can not find the local bloom store and a newly opened cinema. But you can load your own POI file. Anyway, nearly everything on this device is customizable, including changing GPS software.

Power drains VERY quickly though. Need a recharge every 2 hours if used heavily.

In short, this is a great GPS for geeks who have love of such gadgets. Price is unbeatable.

Review by D. J. Dahl:

I just bought this GPS and received it a couple days ago. It seems to work alright for the price. It finds my relative location (it is off a bit at times) but that is expected around buildings and bad weather, not to mention the battery power is low (explained below)

The first reviewer who rated it bad is confused and did not read the directions.

Although most of my review will focus on the negative points, I would like to let you know that so far, over-all, I do like this unit and would have bought it again had I the chance to do it over again. This is my first GPS so I am no pro, I just have a few complaints to share in case the company is reading, perhaps they may remedy the issues.

It has many points of interest and I was even able to get directions for a 2300 mile distance in under a minute.

It has had trouble locating me in the house or outside the house a few times and when it does locate me it says I am half a block away. I guess that won’t bother me too much.

a few things did bother me about this unit, one, is that it does not come with a house-hold wall charger, it only comes with a car cigarette lighter adapter. This unit is portable for on foot or in car travel so I do not understand why it did not come with a house hold adapter. I do not own a motor vehicle so I have no way to recharge it at this time.

It does have a setting for walking or driving distance, I set mine to walking distance.

second, the rechargeable battery is non-accessible. If it goes bad how am I supposed to replace the battery? I do see some tiny screws, but I was told by the company that tampering with those voids my warrantee. A battery bay would be great.

Third, the map dragging responds a bit slow. When I drag the map I get slight lag, or it ends up over-calculating my drag speed and sending the map way off course. This is likely something that just takes a little personal feel to get used to, it may also be that I have not been able to charge it yet due to no proper power adapter being supplied.

Fourth, it does not come with a USB adapter cord, it has the ability to connect to USB but for what reason I do not know, they did not include the cord.

These things can be purchased separately but it would have been great if they had included it just out of courtesy.

Fifth, it was unable to locate a street address which I once worked at. If I navigate to that address on the map I can find it, but there is no way that I could see to program in the address my self if it does not exist in it’s data base.

and last, while I am trying to navigate the map to locate an address – the map resets and puts my position into center focus if my signal moves. This made it difficult to find an address on the go.

But over all, this little unit works effectively for my needs so far and I would recommend it to you if it is your first or if you don’t have a lot of money to spend.

Review by G. Perez:

I am very happy with the Magellan RoadMate 1440, it’s just such a good GPS Navigator with all the bells and whistles!

The 1440 is very accurate at saving you time during trips, you can set it up to give you the fastest route or the shortest distance to your destination, which in many cases, is not the same route.

The highway lane assist is one of those features that you might not think you need until you start dealing with lower end GPS units that don’t offer such features. Take it from a guy who used to own a tomtom One 3rd edition! This feature helps you make sure that you are choosing the correct lane to exit during a freeway interchange. You’ll be glad you have this feature, trust me!

Just in case you were wondering, this unit is also compatible with the “Magellan Traffic Link” (sold Separately) which gives you FREE real time traffic alerts in exchange for small banner ads such as “AM/PM too much good stuff!” displayed on the top of your screen. a small price to pay for such a great service! In case of a traffic jam, a small timer will appear right next to the traffic warning sign, which tells you how many minutes it estimates you will be stuck in there. Click on the warning sign and it will give you a second route to follow. It will compare both routes for you and give you an estimated arrival time for each one. At this point you can opt to avoid traffic or deal with it. This is one of the best features of this unit and a must have for people who have to deal with hours of traffic on a daily basis! (yes, I live in California and traffic jams are a part of my life)

I purposely “got lost” many times to test how accurate the unit was. I would assign a “point of interest” and make the wrong turns just to see how long it would take it to catch up to me, let me tell you it’s fast! in most cases it will have a new route to follow before I even hit the next intersection.

It comes with TTS (text to speech) which means it actually tells you to “turn right on Magnolia” as opposed to “turn right in 30 feet”, this is a nice feature to have, but it was a must have feature for me, since my previous unit didn’t have it.

One odd thing about the 1440 is that when you save a new address to your address book, it automatically assigns it to “Home” in many cases I was trying to add a place of business and it didn’t give me the option to do so, it has the “Business” space but you need to add a home address before it lets you add the business address, so everytime I click on “work” it shows me a little picture of a house as opposed to a picture of a building. Nothing big really, I’m sure they can fix that with a firmware update.

1440 vs 1470

I also tested this unit against it’s bigger brother, the Magellan RoadMate 1470 displaying a 4.7″ screen. If you are like me and are looking at this item, you probably have been switching screens between this one and the 1470!

Looks: The 1440 seems to be a little thicker than the 1470, not a big difference, really. The 1470 feels smoother and it has rounded edges as opposed to the square look on the 1440. The back on the 1470 is silver, the back on the 1440 is black.

Display: The 1470 screen has richer colors than the 1440, at their higher settings, the 1470 is just a little brighter than the 1440, still the 1440 screen is just as bright as you need a GPS screen to be.

Response time: I tested them in situations such turning them on/off, missing my turns to see how fast it would relocate, assigning destinations and looking up Points of Interests, The 1440 responded from 1-3 seconds faster than the 1470 model. Might not seem like much of a difference, but when you’re on the road, just a few seconds might make you miss your exit!

Features: they both have the exact same features, nothing different here.

Sound: The 1440 has a slight louder speaker than the 1470.

Both units are great, differences were very minimal. This choice is mostly determined on how big you want the screen and how much you are willing to pay for the difference.

I hope that this review helps you make a better buying choice!

Review by Narut Ujnat:

The Magellan 1440 is a 4.3 inch GPS unit equipped with maps of North America. I have a previous Magellan GPS unit and found this to be an improvement in several key ways as detailed below:

Pros:

1. The 4.3 inch screen does not sound like a significant upgrade from a 3.5 inch, but it is like going from a standard definition TV to a HD television system. It is a noticeable difference. Graphics are nice, and you get pop-ups showing the correct freeway ramps to take, plus the unit zooms in on tricky freeway intersections and the like. Nice feature.

2. Set-up: I found this to be quite easy and straightforward. In fact, all I did was power up the unit and let it find a satellite location. This does take a few minutes, so don’t expect directions in moments. However, after the first satellite location, it only takes mere seconds for subsequent location finding. Power is scant, so you will need to power up the unit with either the included power cord for the car, or the USB cord.

3. The unit itself is about the width of your thumbnail, which is pretty small. A speaker is located in the back, with the USB cord on the bottom.

4. The holder which is included is far better constructed than my previous model. It feels more secure and stable, and the hook-up to the unit is a slide-in slot on the back rather than the previous holder which was like hands. (let me note I didn’t have problems with that holder, but this feels more secure).

5. One touch is a feature that takes you to the things you would probably want beyond directions such as your route home, points of interest, gas and battery power and satellite strength. It is very easy to locate and works well when driving.

6. Points of interest include AAA listings and are fairly good. Some locations will be out of date, but overall you can find the things you need most. It has helped me locate things like a gas station when low on gas!

7. Ease of use: it is straightforward and easy to use. Easy to punch in a location and have the GPS locate you a route.

8. Brightness seems fine in broad daylight. A driver may want to go to system features and turn off the battery saving feature which seems to make things dimmer at all times.

9. Traffic feature: for a pretty low price, you can buy a power adapter which allows you to receive traffic updates for your unit. This is (considering the price) a great feature.

Neutral:

1. Location of USB port: my previous model had the USB port located on the left side which was terrible because I then a cord running invariably underneath and behind the unit to the power plug. This model makes an improvement by locating the port underneath. I do wish the unit had been oriented other way so that you don’t have to scrunch the cord to run it the other direction (is this for a British car because no American model has power located on the left side of the driver, and most drivers will place the item near the center.

2. Spoken languages: Not much choice here, just English, French and Spanish.

3. No capacity I am aware of to add voices or sounds off the internet.

4. There is a micro-SD slot, I have no idea what to use it for since it is not explained anywhere. Map updates of some sort? Nothing is noted anywhere that would tell the user what the purpose of having this is.

Cons:

1. Quite honestly, I have not encountered any real problems or issues.

2. If you must have features such as Bluetooth, or voice dialing, this does not have those features.

3. On/Off button: My previous unit had a button you had to press and hold down for a few moments before start-up. This unit has a sliding on/off button. Frankly, after some use, the button is an annoyance. Not a major issue, but I don’t like this button!

4. Can’t tell my location: actually no, that isn’t true! – I can tell my present location, but compared to my previous Magellan here is the difference – I had a digital compass with an altimeter. Neat stuff when driving across the Mojave desert or Imperial Valley below sea level. I can’t find this feature anymore on this unit and greatly wish it was there because it was cool. Definitely not pleased with this. Knowing your position relative to a compass was a nice feature. Knowing your altitude was a bonus. Why was this taken out?

Overall, I find this unit to be a simple and reliable source of driving information. It has many features relative to the price. It is easy to use, and uncomplicated. Having only used Magellan GPS units, I cannot comment on other models such as Tom-Tom or Garmin (they have some cool commercials though), but I believe a buyer cannot go wrong with this unit if you’re looking for an easy and basic GPS unit. Overall, I am quite pleased. I do not believe a user will be disappointed in the slightest with this unit.

May I also recommend this friction mount:

HDFMB-2: i.Trek V2 Open Front Heavy Duty Friction Mount Base for Garmin, TomTom, Magellan GPS Devices

Review by “Leo”:

I’ve had my Garmin 1450 now for about a week, and I got a great deal on it (9). I was drawn to this GPS when I saw how easy it was to use for someone like me who has never had a GPS before purchasing this one. I played around with it on the store’s display. The large screen can be easily viewed while driving without struggling to view it.

I love the touch screen feature, and the easy on/off button. It does effectively inform me of which lane I should be in; however, I do not see any road signs pictured on my GPS like the one pictured here. I see small arrows on the top left that display the correct lane to get in. I love that it also displays the time at which I should arrive at my destination.

It does not have bluetooth capability, and it does not come with live traffic updates (you will have to purchase it separately). I do wish there was a feature that would allow me to return to the main screen without continuously having to press the back button to get back to the home screen.

I haven’t gotten lost using this GPS, and I was told today when I showed up for an appointment that they were impressed that I found their business location, since even people from their city tend to get lost and can not find the address- I am impressed. In my current city, the GPS will map it’s way in a totally different location than is the most sensible option. Mapquest, and Google maps would not even use some of the routes. Perhaps it is because, I have it set on the fastest route. The GPS will easily re-route the trip if you miss a turn, or decide to go another direction. I am able to save 10 addresses to my favorites, which is helpful, but I want to save more than 10.

The points of Interest tab is great. I can find locations quickly for food, gas, coffee, medical attention, shopping, etc.

Review by KyOTGal:

Over the past 10 months I had spent WAY too many hours reading reviews on GPS systems. Something would look like the best thing since sliced bread, then there would be reviews that the tech support was a nightmare, maps were outdated, etc. I liked the bigger size and the way this looked (the Interchange graphics especially)and was going out of state in February, so I had to make a decision. At the time, there were only a few reviews. On the day I prepared to order this Garmin 1450 there was negative review. I thought “Oh, great…”, but ordered it anyway, totally overwhelmed & frustrated with the whole endeavor. It has truly been a delight. My husband has had a low-tech Garmin for years & I never liked it. My son has a Tom-Tom, friends have Magellans, etc. We found restaurants, every location we needed, all effortlessly. I was afraid to do the review immediately, for fear it would die in the future, so I have waited 3 months. All is good! The only negative thing I might include is we did need to “reboot” twice on hot days when it was on the dash – I assume because it got hot. The reboot takes only a few seconds & it never happened when I left it sitting on its Friction Mount on the gearshift mound (out of the sun). I am truly quite pleased & grateful that I haven’t had problems. I hope whatever you select turns out to be such a successful experience!

Review by Dodongo Dislikes Smoke:

This Nuvi does several things very well, and I’ve yet to discover any serious shortcomings. My thoughts:

Navigation: Excellent, as is typical with Garmin units. On a couple of occasions the voice (right now I’m using Australian Karen) told me my destination was on the wrong side of the street.

Map: The map is clear, the refresh rate is fast, and all of the right information is provided on-screen, including details for upcoming turns and junctions, speed limit, and traffic alerts. It’s annoying that I can’t choose to switch the display of my current speed to some other piece of info. I already have a speedometer. The 3D buildings feature seems pretty gimmicky, and is implemented sporadically, even in downtown Boston. When there is coverage, most buildings are monochromatic blocks, and not the photo-realistic buildings seen in screenshots.

Lane Assist: This feature has been spot-on so far. It’s nice driving in a new area and not getting flustered about being in the wrong lane. I have yet to see the full-screen 3D Lane Assist Junction View shown in the many 765t screenshots — however, I’ve done very little highway driving, and I believe this screen requires that the user press the top-left (upcoming turn icon).

>>>>>UPDATE: After some highway driving, it turns out that the full-screen 3D Lane Assist Junction View shows up automatically before potentially tricky highway junctions. Very nice.

Traffic: As far as I know, I have not been re-routed because of traffic. However, it’s very easy to bring up a list of major roads and their current traffic conditions, and to avoid them at will. The pop-up advertising associated with the “free” traffic is pretty subtle, and never distracting.

Bluetooth: I’m impressed with this feature so far. It mated with my phone (old Motorola RAZR V3) easily, importing all of my contacts in the process. The ability to instantly dial any point of interest (e.g., to check on store hours) is brilliant. The volume from the speaker is reasonably loud. I also tried sending the audio to my car stereo using an audio cable, and the output seemed a bit low (I had to turn my car stereo way up). I have not yet tried sending the audio to my car stereo using the FM transmitter. I called my voicemail, and the built-in microphone picks up my voice reasonably well with the engine running. I’m not sure how well it would work with highway speeds. I’m told that the cheap Garmin microphone (which plugs into the cradle, not the unit) improves voice quality.

>>>>>UPDATE: This is true — the microphone is an improvement, though it adds yet another long cord to your long cord collection. Also, I’ve tried the FM transmitter. It works, albeit with a certain amount of static. I imagine this feature would intolerable if you are driving a long way.

Other features: I haven’t used the SD card slot for anything. I haven’t tried the photo viewer or the mp3 player, and I probably won’t.

Build Quality: Seems solid. The unit has a certain heft to it, and it’s covered in a soft, rubbery coating. I’ve also dropped it already (because I’m an idiot) — still working beautifully.

Suggested improvements: Garmin doesn’t make it easy to look up the actual coordinates (latitude and longitude) for favorites or points of interest. This information should be available at the press of a button.

Needless to say, I’m pleased with my purchase. The 756t is not cheap right now, and if you can live without the new features, you might be better off with an older unit. That said, if you’re looking for a gps device with all of the latest features and compatibility, this seems to be a solid pick.

Review by Terry Stanard:

I’ll try to make this a unique review by comparing the pros and cons of FOUR different Garmin units I’ve tried: c330, 265t, 765t, and the 885t. There are few reviews that offer face-off comparisons between models which can assist in making a purchasing choice. I’ll share some highlights for each model, beginning with the one I’ve owned for over three years. Bottom line: If you want to go cheap, the c330 still works fine with new maps loaded – I literally drove all over the country and rarely had any problems. If you are looking for a new model, get the 265t and you won’t be disappointed. Don’t buy the 765t. Consider the 885t but be ready to return if the volume output is too low.

Note – with all models I had the latest firmware updates and maps at time of writing the review.

>> Streetpilot C330. Owned it over 3 years. It is an older model, and not flat like all new models today. Instead of flat, it has something of a triangular shape, and the mount has takes up more space. It is harder to pack in bag or suitcase because of this, and is the primary reason I decided to upgrade. To its credit, it is built more sturdily than any of the new models. I’m sure it could survive multiple falls. The screen is smaller, but plenty bright and easy enough to read when the sunlight falls on it. The touchscreen is sensitive and I never had much complaint with it. It is has an important feature missing from all new models – a wheel volume control on the side. All new models make you hit an icon on the screen to adjust the volume, and then you must touch again to change the volume in increments, and touch one more time to return to the map. The volume is plenty loud on the c330, which is not always the case with newer models. The icons on the map are simpler. For instance, the vehicle is a blue triangle rather than a car. The maps are not as detailed, but sufficiently so. There are no spoken street names, but the prompts are good enough to get you where you want. You can still purchase map updates that will load on the unit, although the onboard memory can only support a region of the US at a time. The GPS receiver is fine most of the time, but failed me in Chicago with all the tall buildings, and I sometimes had to wait for service when leaving a rental car garage. Overall, it is a very good unit and Garmin would do well with future models to bring back the side volume control, and the tank-like build quality.

>> 265t. Owned it about two weeks so far. This is the most recent model I’ve purchased, and I am impressed. I will lead with a weakness, however. I bought a refurbished model on Amazon. It saved me about over a new model, but I had to contact Garmin multiple times to get the free map update. It had been previously registered and the free map update was not available. Garmin had to reset the registration. I wrote them and sent a copy of my purchase receipt, and they reset the registration. Other than this, I would not have realized it is refurbished just by looking at it. The operation is also fine.

I want to emphasize something – you really don’t need a widescreen model (e.g, 265wt). Trust me on this. The only thing afforded by widescreen is the QUERTY-style keyboard. A few people might miss it, but I don’t even though I’m a daily user of keyboards. The widescreen gives you more visible map coverage on the left and right, but it is not needed for navigating. Everything you need to see is in plain view on the squarish screen of the 265t. To best of my knowledge, all of the other functions are the same. The 265t is also smaller and easier to stow away. Save yourself the extra dough and get the 265t over the 265wt.

The 265 shares the most important features as the more expensive 700 and 800 series. In fact, I only miss a couple of things from these other models. For instance, the 800 series can be controlled by speaking commands – very nice. The 700 series can display time remaining to destination, or distance to destination. Handy! I understand there are more flexible routing options with the 700 and 800, but I never use those so can’t comment. Gpsmagazine.com claims the 700 and 800 have stronger GPS receivers, but I noticed I can get a signal from inside of my home with the 265, so I am hoping that it works just as well as the 700/800 in cities with big building all around. The 265 lacks 3D buildings, lane assist, and junction view. Lane assist is helpful, but the other two only show up once in a while depending on your location. It lacks a built-in MP3 player, but I don’t think I miss that either (more on my experience with this below). The 265 has smooth scrolling of the map like the 765, which the 885 lacks. It also has free traffic service, but so far I haven’t benefitted from this (more below). One thing better about the 265 is the volume. It is just as loud as the c330, louder than the 765t, and MUCH louder than the 885. Using the bluetooth, I can make a phone call and hear and be heard without any problems. Overall, I think the 265 would be a far better bargain for most people – saving 0-0 over the high end models but sill including great features.

>> 765t. Used it for a couple of months then returned. I won’t repeat what I said above. Actually, I was really disappointed with this model for a couple of reasons. The traffic feature did not work at all for me. I drove over 500 miles to DC, and then back, and it never helped me once. I hit construction. No warning. I hit accident backups. No warnings. I got stuck in horrible downtown DC traffic, and was told I would be delayed 3 minutes, which stretched into 2 hours! Here is what I found unforgiveable, though. It sometimes told me to turn in one direction, then correct itself after I made the turn to get me going the other way. At first I thought it was me, but no, the darn thing actually got the turn direction wrong about 5% of the time! This is totally inexcusable, especially when you are entering or leaving a highway. If you are told to go onto an onramp, and then it changes its mind, you could spend another 5-10 minutes getting turned around again. I don’t know why this unit had this problem. It was the one reason I had to return it. I recommend purchases from Sam’s Club or Costco, which allow you to return items months later (hold onto that receipt!).

The bluetooth worked for my phone, and the volume was good enough to make calls, although callers told me I was hard to hear sometimes. I did not try the MP3 player to see whether the volume was sufficient. The FM transmitter is a joke – the signal is super weak and unuseable. Some reviews say to get an external FM transmitter to compensate, but that means spending more money and seems silly.

On the plus side, I used the 3D building view to help me find the Lincoln Memorial on foot in DC, but that was only the one time it helped me. The junction assist (photo realism for highway interchanges) is nice, but you will only see it in some cities.

>> 885t. Used it for 3 weeks then returned. I’ll lead with the one problem I had with my unit that caused me to return it. The volume was too low. I could hear the turn prompts well enough. But it was not nearly loud enough when driving at highway speeds for phone calls or the MP3 playback. When making calls, I could not hear the caller very well, and could not be heard clearly. When using the MP3 player, I really strained to hear an audiobook, and using earbuds did not help any. It could have been a problem with my particular unit. I can’t say. I may purchase another unit to see if the volume is better. Like the 765, the FM transmitter is unuseable.

However, I really liked controlling the unit through speech commands. It works very well, and is safer to do than taking your hands off the wheel to use the touch screen. You may to strap a button onto your steering wheel that is used to engage the speach recognition. It takes getting used to having it there when turning the wheel and feeling it under your grip sometimes. Even so, if they put this feature on all of their other units it would be AWESOME. Please, Garmin, keep this feature for the future! I also liked the MSN Direct service. The traffic service actually worked for me, much better than on the 765t. You can see weather forcasts and even look at a local weather radar. This can be helpful if you are driving a long ways and concerned about heading into a storm. You also can monitor stock prices, get fuel prices for nearby gas stations, and movie times. I found however movie times were not displayed for second run (discount) theaters in our area.

Lane assist and junction view worked as well as the 765t. I did not have problems with the unit telling me to go the wrong way, like I did with the 765t. As I said above, I might buy another 885t to see if the volume issue was specific to the first unit and not the model.

Review by A. Fu:

I’ve been using the F500BT for a few weeks after using a Nuvi 760 for years. I already upgraded to Firmware 2.0. Here is how the F500BT compares to the Nuvi

Cons:

- Routing engine not as good as the Nuvi. Very prone to give U-Turns when I miss a turn even though I disabled them. Worse is that it doesn’t know if the U-turn is illegal or not. Besides the U turn issue, most routes offered are not that bad in “Economical”

- Touchscreen not very responsive. Not as good as the Nuvi.

- Not as easy to use as the Nuvi in general.

- MSN does not work unless you use a big ugly harness. You also need to connect a ebrake signal for to avoid the menus getting locked out.

- Battery life of 30mins

- Does not auto dim the screen when switching to night maps.

- Does not tell you the side of your destination. The Nuvi does.

- Only 1 TTS voice in English. Not great, but not horrible either.

- Voice recognition doesn’t work very well

Pros:

- Nice glossy look with a big screen. Looks way more expensive than 9

- Map and menu hard buttons are very convenient to have

- GPS reception seems to be as good as the Nuvi. I get reception indoors

- A lot more information is displayed on the map compared to the Nuvi

- Plays AVI movies

- Lane Assist on freeway junctions. A MUST HAVE.

- Maps are very smooth map animation when routing. Much better than the 760, which was always 2 seconds behind and when making turns it would lag for 3-4 seconds

- Voice does not stutter unlike the Nuvi 760

- Very easy to hack and goes from good to almost great after hacking. I also have TomTom Navigator and Garmin XT loaded (more on this later)

- 3D buildings are pretty cool.

- Pairs with my Palm Centro with no problems. My phonebook does not dissapear. BT performance way better than that of the Nuvi

You can head to avic411.com forums and learn how to modify the Pioneer software aka IGO8 (its very easy). You can also add new maps schemes, and enable speed camera warnings, add extra 3D buildings, load international maps, etc. You can even hack the unit so it runs Tomtom and Garmin XT. However, these 2 don’t have the same software as the PND counterparts, so I use the Pioneer software anyways. With the hacks I now get the current house number at my position, so I can easily know which side of the road my destination is on. I also increased the font size of the data displayed on the map. Overall, its a very good deal at 9.

Review by Ming Chan:

Pros:

- Large LCD screen.

- Decent maps and navigation.

- Plays video and music files from SD and flash drives.

- Relatively cheap.

Cons:

- Touch screen response is erratic.

- Text to speech (TTS) voice quality is poor.

- Voice recognition does not work particularly well.

- No photo viewer.

To start off, I am already running the new 2.0 FW. If you are not, make sure you update.

The biggest complaint that I have is overall sluggishness. Often times one touches a button, and nothing happens at all for a while. This is in stark contrast to the Garmin and TomTom units that I have, and reminds me of Windows. But my oh my this IS Windows! The unit actually runs on Windows CE… which brings us to the start up time. The unit takes a long time to start up (a “cold” boot). Since this should happen rarely, it shouldn’t have been a problem. In fact once the unit is running, pressing the power button to turn off/on the unit is almost instantaneous. However, for some mysterious reasons, the unit does decide to cold boot from time to time (see below on “cabling”).

As a GPS, the unit functions reasonably. It is not particularly fast in acquiring satellites but tolerable. The 2D maps are pretty detailed and good looking, but the orientation is fixed at pointing North as in a real map. There is no option to orient the map according to your current driving direction, as in the 3D map mode.

Despite the large screen size, some vital information (like time to destination and nearby street names etc) are rendered in font sizes far too small to my liking. My Garmin has a smaller 4.3 inch screen but the texts are a lot more readable.

For voice navigation, there are two different selections for English. One is a male voice of good quality but does not support text-to-speech, meaning that street names won’t be announced. The female version does support text-to-speech, but the quality is pretty poor. By the way none of this is in the manual…

Connecting the unit to a Blue-tooth enabled phone is a snap. I paired it up with a Razor and transferring the phone book is smooth. The unit is touted to have advanced voice recognition. Supposedly one can use natural utterances to command the unit to dial your wife. In reality the performance is poor, even using straight syntax like “call John”, as compared to the native voice recognition on my 3 year old Razor. I wish there’s an option to bypass the unit’s voice recognition and have it function just like a normal BT speaker phone. That way I can rely on the more reliable voice commands of the phone itself.

As a media player, I’m surprised that the unit does not play JPEG, which I thought would have been the simplest thing to do. As for playing video and music files from SD cards and USB thumb drives, the user interface is functional but mediocre in this day and age of iPods and iPhones. I have not tried iPod control – I just can’t justify paying another 40 bucks for a cable, without knowing how well it works. I tried connecting the iPod using a normal iPod USB cable, hoping that at least I can get power that way and then use the “AV in” jack to get the music into the unit. Unfortunately this is not allowed: the unit simply refuses an iPod connected this way. Also the “AV in” part won’t work without another special cable from Pioneer.

Finally we come to cabling. The unit comes with a big fat cable which plugs into the side of the mount instead of the unit itself. I find that useful because

1) The unit will then turn on/off automatically when power is applied/removed;

2) Since no cables is attached to the unit itself, it can be removed easily. BTW despite the size of the unit, attaching and detaching the unit to/from the mount is very easy.

In reality, however, there are a couple of problems.

First of all the unit must be rather finicky to power surge. When you turn the ignition key to the position whence power is provided to your car stereo and cigarette lighter etc, things are good and the unit will turn on automatically. But then when you actually start the engine, the power will usually go out momentarily and then come back on. This seems to totally confuse the unit, and often times it will turn off and won’t turn on again. When you manually turn it on by pressing the power button, often times it will do a cold boot.

Secondly when the unit is powered via the big fat cable, some of the menu items (like “settings”) are disabled. If this is for safety reason I find it draconian. Not allowing me to watch video? Maybe. But not allowing me to change some navigation settings? That’s unreasonable.

Overall, the unit has potential. It is a small computer running Windows with a high resolution screen after all, with all the right hardware. It has many functions, but sadly in its current form it does not excel in any of them. I ended up using it mostly just as a GPS device, and for that one can get a much nicer GPS like Garmin or TomTom for $[...].

Let’s hope Pioneer will continue to improve the firmware and come up with new updates.

Review by Tom Music:

So far I had owned 3 GPS devices: the Tomtom One 3rd edition, the Garmin nuvi 350 and this latest Tomtom 330s model. Before owning, I have used the Garmin Streetpilots given by many car rentals.

By far, this is the best of the three:

Pros:

- Wide screen

- Text to speech

- LOUD speaker (I’ve read some reviews of a soft speaker – I guess either it was a bad batch of devices, or you didn’t read the instructions on how to change the volume. With mine, on 80% it’s blasting over the radio AND road noise.)

- Volume adjusts to driving speed

- great GPS reception (even in NYC, although sometimes because of tall buildings can have a little trouble finding current position, but that’s the problem with ALL of the GPSs I’ve had, including the very highly reviewed nuvi 350)

- The new Easyport mount that eliminates the need to carry three things for your trip: the Device, the mount (sometimes more than one part) and the car charger. This new mount is a blessing and a small nuisance at the same time since it makes it slightly more difficult to fit snugly into a pocket or a pouch, but is definitely more of a pro than a con because of its simplicity of use and the eliminated extra plastic thing to carry. This little issue can be solved either by buying the Tomtom carrying case (the one made specifically for the models with the easy mount for an extra ~ on Amazon), or simply by detaching it from the back since it is detachable. Though detaching it, some would say, is defying its purpose…

- “Tomtom Home” software is a breeze to use and lets you add user updates to the maps when roads get blocked or other changes take effect to the preinstalled map.

- Device SOFTWARE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE: The best software of a device I’ve had the pleasure of using. Explanation follows:

The software allows much more intuitive handling of the device than any Garmin I’ve found.

It’s quick, it’s easy, and the most important, when you search for a name of a POI, it uses the more modern approach that allows you to type any letter or word no matter where it appears on the name of the POI and it’ll show you the results on the list.

There are dozens of advantages in the software over the one of the Garmins I’ve used but I can’t possibly list them all.

Some important features to note are that the actual Navigation Screen View gives you so much more clear information (which one can, of course, tweak to one’s liking) such as current time, time of arrival, total trip distance, remaining time to destination, GPS signal strength, next turn’s street name, current street name, direction of and distance to next maneuver (which nuvi 350 garmin only tells you which way to go right before the turn), and to that you can add a compass, change the car symbol and even more impressive – the color scheme of the map!

I have to say this is just a SHORT list of software features I absolutely love and think are on a much higher level of sophistication than what I’ve seen of Garmin.

Cons:

I really have to strain to think of any, but there are some minor ones (after all, nothing’s perfect)

- As I said the Easyport mount can be a little problematic when fitted into a pocket, but it CAN be removed from the back (see pros).

- The car charger takes a little practice to insert it easily.

- The “Password” feature when powering on the device seems more fluff than a hindering threat. It doesn’t really lock the device if for example you enter the wrong password three consecutive times or so, it just won’t let you use the device until the right combination is entered.

- No bluetooth capability. For some it’s a con, but for me personally it’s a pro (because I don’t really need it anyways, and if any corner should be cut to make the product less expensive, this is it!)

- The map isn’t as pretty as on the garmins. It has a little more jagged lines but, if visual beauty is important to you in a map representation of a GPS, you’re really looking in the wrong direction…

In other words, warmly recommended for the people who are interested in getting the best GPS for their hard-earned dollars.

Review by Michael Dahlin:

After reading an early favorable review of the TomTom 130s, I was confident that the XL 330s would be just what I was looking for. But after a weeks’ use, however, I am a little disappointed.

First, the plusses: it is pretty easy to use, easy to update using the TomTom software, and the new style of mount works very well. The screen looks good, and it’s pretty easy to learn the touch screen navigation. Also, it permits you to build itineraries with multiple destination points, which some of the more entry level models will not do.

The negatives: really, there is only one, but for me, it’s a dealbreaker: the speaker just isn’t very loud. Even with the volume up to 100%, it’s not loud enough to hear clearly while driving, even with the radio turned off. I thought it might be an issue with the particular voice I was using, and some did seem a bit softer than others. But even the loudest one I could find was still too soft to be helpful.

If you’re driving with a passenger who can hold it close and/or touch the screen to get the directions to repeat, it works great. But driving by yourself, it’s not terribly helpful.

I’ll probably be returning it, which is too bad, because in all other respects, it’s a nice device.

Review by mitch53:

I have this unit for 10 days now and overall I am very happy with it. For its mainstream feature, navigation, it is excellent. I had a Garmin 350 before this which I loved but it was stolen from my car. I had a Magellan after that which was crap. The price on this unit was great (7 – Amazon).

I chose it over the 1390T because I opted to not get bluetooth. It is the only difference between the units. I felt the bluetooth quality would be poor based on other reviews of bluetooth in general on GPS units. The main reason was in the way most people use bluetooth. In a typical day I am in and out of my car often. I always need my bluetooth immediately in case I get a call. I don’t always need my GPS. And since my previous unit was stolen, and theft of these units is a big problem everywhere, I keep the unit hidden or sometimes remove it from the car. So if you are like me but you get this unit for bluetooth, you will need to stop and mount your gps everytime you get in the car whether you need it or not, just to have blue tooth capability. If you forget and the cell phone rings, you have no bluetooth. So I purchased a separate bluetooth speaker phone from Jabra (very good unit# which is always attached to my visor, pretty good quality, and always there when I need it. I saved about by opting for the 1350T over the 1390T.

A few minor disappointments. The Lane Assist feature works great but is not available everywhere. I used it around NYC and it was helpful. I drove through Pennsylvania and upstate NY and it was not available. Marketing material hypes this feature but they neglect to tell you this one point. But when it is available, it is a great feature. That brings me to traffic. Same story here. I was driving through PA and hit a 1 hour traffic jam. No warnings from the traffic feature because it was not available in that area. When I got to the Scranton, PA area the traffic alerts started working. It alerted me of a major traffic jam ahead and it even rerouted my trip automatically. The reroute would have been a significant addition in miles but would be worth it to avoid the traffic, right? I decided to ignore the re-route just to test the unit to see if the alert was accurate and I was willing to endure the traffic. As I drove my original route, no traffic anywhere. So had I listened to the traffic alert, I would have driven 50 miles out of my way for nothing. Bottom line is, don’t let the traffic feature be a deal breaker for the unit you choose. But then again, I got the 1350T for about the same price as the 1350 #same unit without traffic). Updating the map was more difficult than it should have been. I consider myself a very technical person with computers and gadgets but the map update did not go smoothly and took me several tries. I could see where many people will have difficulty with this if they attempt to update the map.

Review by Charles E. Sherwood:

Let me be perfectly clear…I really like my new Garmin 1350T GPS.

The only difficulty I had after taking it out of the box and charging it for the first time was a problem in having the GPS “easily “recognize” exactly what available screen (option/letter/number, etc.) that I was “pointing” to on the touchscreen. I thought I had a defective unit so I contacted Garmin’s free Tech Support. The technician took me through an easy, yet undocumented (to me at least) calibration procedure that only took a minute or so. Since then the unit has performed as advertised.

Also…You NEED to have a cable with a standard USB connection on one end & a Mini-USB connection on the other end. Garmin DOES NOT automatically include this cable in the box along with the 1350T. Without this cable, you can’t connect this GPS to your computer in order to register it online or receive your free updated (if available) mapping or operational software.

Be advised also that not ALL USB/Mini-USB cables are alike. These cables may all LOOK the same but there really are TWO different types. One will only let electric current through in order to charge your internal GPS battery, while the other will not only charge the battery, BUT WILL ALSO carry data back and forth between your computer and the 1350T. Be sure to obtain the kind of cable that can perform BOTH functions.