Customer Reviews

Magellan Portable GPS Navigation and Battery ToughCase for iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod Touch

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I decided to purchase the Magellan Tough Case for my 3rd generation ipod touch after much research and debate. The debate was because of the hefty price, which was made a little better on Amazon as I did save about $20.00. I almost bought DualShocks gps cradle, but when you factor in the fact that the Tough Case provides protection from almost anything you can throw at it, battery charging, and GPS capability, the decision was an easy one to make. I have had it for one week now, and it has already impressed me. I travel a lot by bike, and love trying to get to new and unexplored locations on my bike. This case has turned my ipod touch in to the ultimate travel companion. Now I have music, route mapping (with proper apps from itunes store), gps, wifi, video to watch when I want and extended battery life. Wonderful. The only set backs I see are two.

1) The Tough Case is rather big, but not so much so that it becomes cumbersome. I have a Camelbak which I use on my bike rides which comes with a pocket for ipods. The Tough Case with my ipod in it fits perfectly in that little pocket. Besides, the size adds to the protective quality of the case.

2) The first time I used it, it was charged almost fully, and then I took it out for a 35 mile bike run. I had it running almost the entire time playing music, running two apps, and acting as a battery charger. With all this, the Tough Case lasted about 4 hours, which to me seemed a bit short. There is a way to choose between having the gps on or off, which may help lengthen the battery life of the case, but the main reason I bought it was for the gps, so I won't be doing that.

I highly recommend this product if you own an ipod, like to travel, and want accurate, easy navigation. I also highly recommend downloading the Navigon app from the itunes store. It's a bit expensive, but part of the reason the ipod now works so well as a navigation system. Basically, it gave me voice navigation while on my bike. Just plan your route, start the navigation, and you are off.

Sweet!

After using this product for over a week I have noticed that it has a serious flaw with respect to the secondary battery in the Toughcase. After almost 36 continuous hours of charging with an Apple 1000mAh charger, the Toughcase indicator reports only a single bar (out of four possible). After experimenting with combinations to include disabling wi-fi and bluetooth and GPS, ensuring that the Toughcase GPS is switched off, and even switching the iPhone off, the best I have gotten so far is two bars after over 24 hours of continuous charging; this is when the iPhone already has a 100% full charge mind you. The ONLY way I have been able to get the Toughcase battery to charge fully is to remove the iPhone from the case and charge the case separately. Although the two do separate rather easily, it kind of defeats the point if you have to do this to charge every time.

The case has a good solid feel to it, and does take away from the portability of the iPhone, but I assumed that going into this and it is not a problem.

As others have mentioned, the retention clip does leave something to be desired.

One other loss of functionality that seemed a little buried was that the external headphone jack is only three conductor vice the four conductor needed to use external microphones and in-line remotes, I was disappointed but knew beforehand as well, but I do not see why it would be all that difficult to port that functionality from the dock connector interface to the external port.

I did not really experience the O-Ring trouble that so many others have but I do see how that could occur easily. A simple application of common sense keeps everything in check on that issue.

I had absolutely no problems when speaking on the phone and respectively, none of the people I spoke to said that any audible change was notable.

In conclusion I can tell you that the case has a good solid feel to it. I would trust it in a downpour but I would never submerge it; it might be up to the challenge but I am not willing to bet my phone on it. The battery is certainly not the selling point of this case, with my iPhone at 15% charge, I turned on the internal battery (no GPS, no wi-fi, no bluetooth) and was able to charge the phone up to 94%, for all the hassle of charging and the size I want 100% plus charge. The external GPS added a modicum of accuracy to GPS navigation. I think this product needs a little reworking before it merits the $180-$200 price tag. If all goes well, perhaps a second gen will be just the ticket, until then I am returning this and sticking with my otterbox defender.

This product is supposed to be the answer to outdoor enthusiests problems with their iPod touch's and iPhones. Well I hate to break it to you but it simply is not that. Yes it makes your iPod and/or iPhone waterproof but only for a limited amount of time, which I was fine with. It also protects the product from harsh conditions. A nice feature for it is the extra battery life which you would expect to use with the GPS. For this I give two stars.

Here is the downfall of the product, the GPS. This product should transform your product into a handheld device that can be used while hiking, kayaking, or geocaching. This is NOT true! It does give your device GPS functionality but the user's current position is only updated when the user is moving over 10km/hr OR if the user turns the GPS on/off. Magellan advertised this product with a coupon for geocachers, and this product simply is not made for these people.

Bottom line if you are looking for a really expensive case here it is. If you are looking for a new handheld device this is NOT your solution.

UPDATE: Not Disappointed?

The review above was accurate for the Toughcase prior to the firmware update March 2011. It took countless hours to receive the Toughcase, but now that I have it I am glad to say that I enjoy it.

The Toughcase now lives up to what it was built for:

Rugged/Waterproof - This device is built well... might be a little bit large
Extended Battery Time - I wouldn't say double, but it doesn't hurt
GPS - This device gives PRETTY GOOD reception to an iPod Touch!!!
Interactive - Can get buggy but I mean its a brick.
Compatible with GPS apps - This is awesome. My iPod Touch is now a TomTom/Geocaching/Awesome device
Mounting - haven't tried it

Bottom Line: I love it. Yes its a brick but it is a brick in style. Pricey but you will get over it once you have it in your hands. Pretty good price for a touchscreen GPS.

Video: [...]

We ordered this case and tested it in a large outdoor garden in an effort to improve GPS reception with a fleet of iPhones. The GPS chip included with the iphone is rather weak and we were hoping this would bring accuracy down to less than 15m. We tested it using the iPhone 3GS running iOS 3.1 and again running 4.1

After testing we noticed several things:

Pros:
The case feels durable and the additional battery is definitely a plus. I would suggest the case for someone who wanted a rugged outdoor case to use in all weather and who needs extended battery life.

Cons:
The GPS reception was not noticeably improved. We tested it alongside another iphone that was not in the magellan case and the positioning was identical. The one difference was that it seemed to sample GPS position more frequently however the stated position was usually the same as the bare iPhone and frequently not better than 20m accuracy.

Buttons near the sides of the screen are difficult to press because the inside edge where the case and screen protector meet is thick and not beveled enough.

I bought this knowing full well about the charging issues (and can accept having to take my phone out to charge the case), the low audio (this is becuase they are not using the headphone output, instead they are using the line output from the dock connector and running it though a really crap amplifier that is part of the toughcase electronics and powered from the toughcase battery). As a result, the headphone jack goes dead if the toughcase is not Powered on (charge or GPS mode). I can live with all this bad design, there is one dealbreaker for me though. If you play a song through the ipod application, it comes through the toughcase headphone jack. If you try to make a phone call, it will NOT route it though the toughcase headphone jack under ANY circumstances. I know there is no 4pin microphone connector, but I should be able to use the phones built in mic and route audio for a phone call through the headphones, HAS ANYONE BEEN ABLE TO DO THIS SUCCESSFULLY? I think its the same as docking the phone to like a bose sounddock and trying to make a call, only certain applications pass audio to dock connector and phone does not seem to be one of them. Unless I just got a bad or old rev toughcase can anyone confirm this?

I bought the Toughcase to use in conjunction with my iPod Touch to provide extended battery and GPS capabilities. After opening the packageing I installed the Touch as per directions and began testing it. On the plus side the Toughcase seems very sturdy, durable and accomodated my Touch without any major problem. I did find one minor problem fitting my Touch into the connector and, unless you are diligent to make sure the connector is fully inserted, the Toughcases' battery does not recharge the Touch's battery. That said, even a partial insertion seems to enable the Touch's battery to be recharged via AC power. On my first try I ran the battery on the Touch to nearly empty before realizing the battery backup wasn't working; consequently I found that the Toughcase's battery, with GPS mode turned on, extended the lifetime of my Touch by about 4-5 hours.

The main problems I experienced with the Toughcase were (1) the GPS and (2) charging the battery. No matter what I tried I could not get the GPS interface to work, even using Magellan's Roadmate software for the iPhone/iPod Touch (North America, v1.3.1). The problem with the battery was that unless I disconnected the Touch from the connector inside the Toughcase (which involved opening the case and removing the Touch). No matter what settings I used for the power switch (GPS on/off, using battery only and/or battery + GPS power modes) the Toughcase battery would not charge...even after leaving it plugged in for 16+ hours. I haven't completed running a test to see how long the Toughcase battery requires to recharge with the Touch removed, but these two design faults are enough to convince me that the Toughcase does not meet my needs. When v2.0 comes out I'll consider giving it another try, though as in all other respects I think it'd be a handy case to have :-).

To the folks at Magellan, a comment about the Roadmate software. Nice product and interface, but could you add 2 features: (1) ability to import a .GPX file and (2) import custom POIs?

I purchased this item from the manufacturer a while back. I was using it with an ipod touch. While I found that the case was definatley durable although slightly bulky, the function of the unit was not up to par. When using in the car while driving, the gps worked great. However, when using while walking - I found that the gps function kept freezing up and I kept having to power down and power back up to get it working again only to have it freeze again. I promptly returned it just a few short days later and eventually got my money back. Very dissapointed. Coming from someone who does not have an iphone and only an ipod touch, based on the company's reviews - I expected so much more. I still would buy from the company again - just not this particular unit.

The tough case is great for the owner of a iPhone or iPod that spends a lot of time in the outdoors. I have some App's that have maps and record my hiking or biking adventures. Looking forward to track my skiing adventure, and not have to worry about cracking my iPod.
The tough case is very tough, but it is a bit bulky. This is not a negative comment, it is just stating the fact.
The negative comment is the audio output. For some reason, the tough case reduces the volume, so even at the max volume setting on the iPod, the sound is very quiet.

There have been many complaints about the Magellan ToughCase. Someone asked if anyone had had success using the ToughCase with a 2G/3G IPod Touch or 3G/3GS iPhone. I'm here to testify positively to its utility with my 3G iPod/Touch. I'll use the term iTouch in this account, but you can also apply what I write to the 3G/3GS iPhone.

In Jan. 2012 I bought the ToughCase for $79.99 plus shipping/tax directly from Magellan. This is a much reduced price from the original price of $200 back in 2010. Amazon's price is about the same as it is with no sales tax and free shipping.

The operations manual is sparse. You ought to read it and then try all options. For example, I found that the ToughCase charges best if you do not put the iTouch inside and if you attach it to a USB cable connected to your computer. I tried to use a USB cable plugged directly into a power strip, it didn't seem to charge. I also tried to charge the ToughCase with the iTouch in side, but it did not charge the case.

The key to understanding the ToughCase is understanding the difference in its behavior with one or two white indicator lights showing. Whenever you open the case, insert the iTouch, and close it, the ToughCase defaults to a one light state. In that (battery only) state it simply acts as a backup battery to your iTouch/iPhone. Actually, what happens is that the ToughCase transfers its battery charge to the iTouch as the iTouch uses its charge. With continued use the ToughCase will transfer all its stored charge to the iTouch/iPhone. That's actually a nice thing if you are flying and your 750 mAh battery in your iTouch runs low on power. Pop it in the ToughCase and you will have another 1840 mAh of power to use on your iTouch!

But that's not why I bought this ToughCase. Yes, the case is water resistant to 1 meter depth for 30 minutes. That's good for use in a rainstorm but not much else. I also didn't buy if for ability to output audio from the iTouch while in the ToughCase. The output jack on the ToughCase only works when the GPS is turned on (two white indicator lights).

I bought the ToughCase because I wanted use GPS capable apps on my ITouch. After inserting the iTouch in the ToughCase, you must put it in the two white light (GPS+battery) state. In this two light state, the audio output jack works and I can play music to external speakers or plug it into my car audio system to listen to music or GPS navigation driving instructions.

I have successfully used three GPS dependent apps. The Geocaching app works just like it does in a GPS containing iPhone. The GPS Tracks application allows you to track your hike/bike/car ride and plot it on Google Earth. The $40 Magellan USA Road Mate GPS navigation app for the iPhone works with ToughCase/ITouch combination.
While using the ToughCase with iTouch combination you have more than triple the iTouch charge for GPS ennobled applications. This is more than you have with the iPhone 4 or 4S!

I could not be happier with the GPS utility of this Magellan TouchCase.

This product would be great for someone who wasn't me. I had intensions of using this external GPS unit on my itouch to suppliment my cars lack of it. It would have worked out perfectly except there is no Apple proprietary female piece on the case, therefore I can't use the video out on the itouch while using the case. if you aren't trying to ghetto rig your car and actually have a use for this, awesome, then this would work for you. Also this case is HUGE. I knew it was suppose to be big, but when I got it the case was much bigger than I expected. Overall good product, but not for me.