Magellan RoadMate 3000T
CNET Editors' Review
CNET Editors' Rating
- Reviewed by: Bonnie Cha
- Reviewed on:
The good: The Magellan RoadMate 3000T comes preloaded with maps of the North America, has an accurate receiver, and includes multimedia capabilities. It also features two useful utilities--SmartDetour and QuickSpell--to aid with congested roadways and address entry.
The bad: The Magellan RoadMate 3000T's external controls could be more clearly identified, and route recalculation is sometimes slow. The unit lacks text-to-speech functionality and integrated Bluetooth.
The bottom line: Though the Magellan RoadMate 3000T lacks some of the advanced features of its competitors, it's a good value and offers some nice navigation features and an accurate receiver.
The center of attention is the RoadMate 3000T's 3.5-inch, QVGA touch screen. It has a resolution of 320x240 pixels and is responsive to touch commands. Even better, the display is readable in sunlight, though it does have a tendency to hold fingerprints and smudges. Surrounding the display are eight buttons--power on/off, mute, enter, escape, a navigation toggle, Main menu, Destination menu, and Locate. There are also two large buttons on top of the device for zooming in and out of maps, and a volume dial. We certainly appreciate the last set of controls as well as the mute button, but we almost wish everything else was handled through the touch screen. Having all these external controls was overwhelming, and since they're located all over the perimeter of the RoadMate, we found ourselves accidentally hitting buttons and launching various menus when all we wanted to do was adjust the angle of the device. Also, they're not all clearly identified--for example, the Main menu button is only marked by two rectangles--so a quick read of the user guide might be worthwhile.
On the left spine is an SD/MMC expansion slot, while a 3.5mm headphone jack, a mini USB port, a reset hole, and a power connector are all located on the right side. The GPS receiver is integrated into the RoadMate 3000T, so you don't have to deal with any flip-up antennas, and the speaker is located on the device's backside.
Magellan packages the RoadMate 3000T with a windshield mount, a USB cable, a cigarette lighter power adapter, and reference material. We wish the company had included an AC adapter so that we didn't have to rely solely on the cigarette lighter to charge the device.Among today's portable nav systems, the Magellan RoadMate 3000T sits in the middle of the road, offering a fairly solid feature set but lacking some of the advanced features found in the high-end models, such as integrated Bluetooth and text-to-speech functionality. The device uses a 20-channel, SiRF Star III receiver and comes preloaded with maps of North America and a 6 million-plus points-of-interest (POI) database on its 4GB hard drive.
To start getting directions, you can enter a specific street address, choose a destination from your Address Book or Favorites list, or enter an intersection. The RoadMate 3000T also has a handy little feature called QuickSpell to help speed up the process of text entry. As you start entering the letters of your destination on the virtual keyboard, QuickSpell kicks in and dims out any characters that don't match any of the city or streets located in the system's database. It worked well, and we found it quite useful.
Hide Review Bonnie Cha is chief correspondent for Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
User Reviews
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Most Helpful User Review
stars 9 of 11 users found this review helpful
"Thank You - Semi New Magellan Roadmate Review FINALLY!!!!" By carydc2
Pros New Product from Magellan - But not the Top of the Line....
Cons Review Missed all the Features that are new to this unit.
Summary Obviously there seems to be a bias internally at CNET against Magellan Devices of ANY Kind.
This Editor seems to stay clear unless one of the Other Editors give a good review.
I have tried to find a direct method of communicating with the editors but there is NONE on ... Expand full review
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Specifications
See full specsQuick Specs
- Destination: Automotive
- Audible assistance: Navigation instructions
- Features: Touch screen
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