- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 50 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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16 out of 16 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Magellan 2200T vs TomTom One"
Pros: Compact size, simple user interface, clear text, text-to-speech, comprehensive directions, long battery life, easy to view in sunlight, mp3 & image capability, pre-installed maps, flexible re-routing.
Cons: No home AC adaptor, no voice selection, no blue-tooth capability.
Summary: I had one of the last pre-Christmas available Tom Tom 910's on-hold when I unexpectedly came across a Magellan 2200T. At CDN $499 the 2200T was $200 less than the 910 and seemed to have all the features I needed - so I bought it and then went to also purchase the 910 and compare them. When I went to pick up the 910, the sales staff recommended I purchase the Tom Tom One, assuring me it had the same functionality as the 910, except having a smaller screen, smaller hard drive (this turned out to be false - there is no hard drive), no european maps, plus SD capability. So I bought the Tom Tom One and decided to do a comparison with the Magellan 2200T.
The Magellan 2200T took less than a minute to set up out of the box, and within a second minute it had picked up six satellites and was ready to go. We quickly entered the city, street, and address of our destination and it immediately began to instruct us where to turn. The keypad entry was made extra easy as the system anticipated which keys were likely to be pressed next (contect sensitive) and within three to four letters correctly "guessed" the city and then address we were entering. The route selected wasn't what we had expected, but giving the 2200T the benefit of the doubt we were pleasantly impressed - getting to our distant destination in the predicted amount of time. The text-to-speech worked near flawlessly, with only a few odd computer generated pronounciation glitches. The system reminded us of upcoming turns, announced cross streets as we approached the turn, and announced the turn itself with a chime (the sound announcing a turn is user selectable). We purposefully took a series of wrong turns and each time the system took less than 10 seconds to calculate a new route and it smoothly continued. A wrong turn along a long road without cross streets resulted in a warning that we were heading in the wrong direction and an advisory to make a safe sharp u-turn at our earliest convenience.
The Tom Tom One setup was also straight forward out of the box. However, we quickly realized that there were no maps installed in the unit, and we had to insert the provided SD disk containing the maps. The sales person had told us the maps were installed on a 10 Gig harddrive. The need to insert the SD also revealed another sales information error - as the unit did not have mp3 capabilities like the Magellan 2200T. Similar to the 2200T, the Tom Tom One was simple to use, but did not have the assisted keypad entry system, requiring the address to be completely typed in. On the road, we discouvered another functionality error on the part of the salesman, the Tom Tom One does not have text-to-speech capability. In direct comparison with the 2200T and it's reassuring guidance announcing cross streets, a "count-down" proximity to the next turn, and what street or highway exit you are about to take - the Tom Tom One was relatively silent, annoucing only when a turn was required, and when a destination was reached. Only the text on the screen let us know what street we had turned on. The ability to select a system voice and bluetooth capabilities of the Tom Tom One quickly paled in comparison to the utility and reassurance provided by the text-to-speech capability of the Magellan 2200T.
Final considerations in favour of the 2200T is the ability to add terrain mapping through the purchase of an optional SD containing maps (enabling the unit to be used off-road), it's thinner and smaller size compared to the Tom Tom One, and it's current ability to integrate with Google Earth (presumably the Tom Tom One will also have this ability at some point).
I gave the Magellan 2200T a rating of a high 9, in comparison (following the same rating guidelines) I gave the Tom Tom One a rating of 7. Three additional features I would have liked to have seen in the Magellan 2200T, in order of importance, are: 1) an AC adapter for in-home charging; 2) some voice selection; and 3) bluetooth compatability.
Both units were simple and intuitive to use without the need to reference the manuals.
Where to buy
Magellan RoadMate 2200T:
$149.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$149.99 | Yes |
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