Magellan RoadMate 3000T review

Once you've entered your desired location, you can instruct the RoadMate 3000T to calculate routes by the shortest time, shortest distance, least use of freeways, or most use of freeways. The system also supports multidestination routes (up to 20 locations), so if you want to make several stops along the way, just use the Trip Planner feature. For impromptu stops, the system provides 37 categories of POI--from the basics, such as gas stations, ATMs, and restaurants broken down by cuisine type, to more specialized interests, such as bowling alleys.

To supplement to text- and voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, the RoadMate 3000T offers you a number of ways to view maps: 3D, 2D track up (direction of travel is at top of screen), 2D north up (north is always at top of screen), and night mode. If you're just driving around without a predetermined destination, the RoadMate provides you with a simple view of your location and some nearby POI. However, you can get more details with the TrueView function, which offers a split-screen view of upcoming turns in 3D and 2D, or if you so desire, you can have RoadMate just list the upcoming turns. You also have access to a Trip Computer that records your average speed, total distance traveled, and drive time.

Though the RoadMate 3000T doesn't come with integrated traffic services, it does have a feature called SmartDetour. If your speed drops below 15mph, the unit assumes you're stuck in traffic and the detour icon will appear, which you can then tap to receive an alternate route. Magellan also offers an optional TrafficKit if you want real-time traffic data.

Finally, like the latest crop of GPS devices, the RoadMate 3000T has some multimedia capabilities. More specifically, it can play back MP3 and WMA music files and display JPEG and BMP images. We tested the Magellan RoadMate 3000T in San Francisco, and performance was generally good. From a cold start, it took the unit about three minutes to acquire a satellite fix, but subsequent starts were much faster. If the RoadMate has problems getting reception, a pop-up menu will first ask you if you're in a garage or indoors, and if your answer is no, it will try to troubleshoot the problem. This is a nice touch, since it shows you how many satellites it has located and you're not just left in the dark as to what's going on.

The RoadMate 3000T accurately tracked our location as drove around the city running errands. We also plugged in specific addresses, and overall, the driving directions were accurate and voice prompts were loud and clear. However, we noticed that route recalculations were a bit slow. For example, the RoadMate would alert us to take the next right or left almost as we were passing the street.