- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 17 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great in comparison to others. And here's why"
Pros: BUTTONS instead of nothing but touch screen. Touch screen IS available too. Excellent, soft lighting w great colors. Lighting fast re-routing. Easy to know exactly where you are. Speaker and voice.
Cons: Lacks a few on-screen extras of competition, such as speed (available, but requires one click). All of these things are over-priced for what they do. No bluetooth IF you need that. I do not.
Summary: Got it last night after TWO Magellan 800's died in 10 days and I tried a Navman 550 for a few days and RETURNED it, choosing not even to turn the thing on the last couple days before getting around to shipping out.
First, I want stinking BUTTONS. Have you seen what touch-screens look like after a long time of use? Also, a button can be FELT without looking, which facilitates use while driving (duh). Think about it, Garmin and TomTom. While driving!!! Get it?
Plus it shows me you spent some money on the product instead of one cheap 4-inch screen with all software doing the rest.
And the Magellan buttons can do almost everything. They CAN do everything for normal use.
So far, the only thing I've seen needing touch is to switch from 2D to 3D. Since I don't switch back and forth (and it arrives in 3D mode), no need to ever touch the screen for me, and thus no need to try and decide which cloth won't scrath the thing while wiping off fingerprints.
Anyway, it is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship too.
Oh, almost forgot, I can see no reason to get the Magellan 6000T at SEVEN HUNDRED dollars except for the bluetooth phone capability. Not important to me. Cool though, just not worth another $400, or even another $200. Okay, maybe another $200.
The 3000T goes for $500, which is the only one of these things venturing near value for the cash. In my case, after returning the two broken Magellan 800's to Fry's last week, and returning the mail-order Navman 550 yesterday, I wandered back into the store yesterday afternoon wishing something new might have come out.
In fact, I considered opting for another Magellan 800, as they were on sale at $299 previously. Maybe my third try would function beyond a few days. The clerk pulled out the 3000T (totally unexpected by me) while looking for the 800.
I was in shock. IT had a price of $299 on the box. I didn't want to bother with another 800 anyway. Plus the 800 lights were TOOOOOOO bright and all one color. Otherwise, they are the same product internally, except the 3000T allows you to change various on-screen colors, which is great. I immediately changed the terrain to a soft blue from white.
And I turned down the brightness about 3 levels, which tells you right away whether sufficient brightness has been designed in.
The clerk verified the $299 price. I grabbed the thing like Grinch finding a bunch of presents under the tree. At this price, I have considered buying them for my sisters.
Oh yeah, the review.
The speaker's voice is a very pleasant female thing. That might be taken for granted until hearing the boring American voice on the Navman, or then opting for the British Navman voice because the speaker doesn't put out sufficient quality on the American choice.
Back to the Navman for a second, ONLY the Navman 550. It is a beautiful piece of work and has ALL the BUTTONS, hence my choice of only Magellan or a Navman 550.
Unfortunately, the Navman has terrible audio. That said, it CAN be heard if you love the product. And I would have put up with the one flaw were it not for other flaws.
You see, I had those two broken Magellan 800's before the Navman. And their performance so far exceeded the Navman. I said performance, meaning rapid re-routing, easy screen to know where you are.
Otherwise, the Navman and others offer extras (unneeded for navigation) that are cool to own. The Navman even tells what address you are at, a number that changes as you drive down the street. Way cool.
But that one went back via UPS yesterday, a functioning unit that has the frills but misses the basics. Too long to re-route (already too late for the missed, missed turn), completely blew a complicated on-ramp. AND the screen leaves me wondering where I am because of being too busy.
The early Magellan 3000T models (the ones on display in stores and pictured here on CNET) lacked text to explain what the buttons were for. To my delight, the one inside the box has the text (Enter, Escape, Locate, Menu, etc).
There is a remarkable sofffffft blue light incorporated into the power button that tells you the unit is in sleep mode. Just another of the thoughtful additions included.
By the way, I loooooooove extra features and frills. It took me some reflection to give them up for the Magellan. In the end, and let us not forget the features the others lack (namely, buttons), the great operation, wonderful audio, easy to program and completely accurate attributes of this model, plus them dang buttons, leads me unusually satisfied at a nearly optimum level.
Oh, I forgot about grocery stores. The Navman (ask THEM why) lacked the category altogether in the POI folder. Dumb!
My main purpose for this thing: Aside from the coolest toy to come along in years, I often go to new towns for running construction jobs. Upon arrival, I need to find a Del Taco, Home Depot, Ralphs (grocery), a church, Wal Mart, nearby dentist, hospital, police, all that stuff.
Previously, I drove around looking, tried to find a phone book outlet, then discovered maps.google, which is a great feature (Del Taco near Escondido, CA), though won't take you there, won't remember what you've found,,,).
A GPS with a thoughtful POI (Points of Interest) database (and the Magellan is quite satisfactory in that department) is like having a local in the seat next to you, taking you everywhere needed, including parks, tourist sites, even nightclubs if wanted. Last night I asked the thing for the nearest ski resorts. There they were.
Last thought: don't think the unit has no convenient features. It easily shows direction of travel (N, E, W, S, NW, NE..). A pretty green and yellow arrow indicates direction of next turn. The street name is right there next to the arrow. A red arrow points to the overall direction of your destination. Two more indicators show distance to next turn and overall distance to destination. The last is an ETA countdown clock.
When programming in a destination (or choosing one saved or driven to previously), the user is allowed to choose from:
1. Shortest Time
2. Shortest Distance
3. Least Use of Freeways
4. Most Use of Freeways
Saved destinations are those in your Favorites folder or (it keeps this category automatically) "Previous Desination," and I think there are a couple others on the page.
GET one of these things, especially if Fry's has any left at $299.99. I want a whole box full of them. Witnessing the trend, I figure full-button capability may end up completely unavailable before long.
