Magellan RoadMate 1340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

by Magellan

Product Details

User's Guide [4.51mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 3.7 x 3.1 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0021L9C00
• Item model number: RoadMate 1340
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,697 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Magellan RoadMate 1340 device boasts the acclaimed OneTouch menu, a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, and an ultra-thin design. Preloaded maps and points of interest for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico make the RoadMate 1340 ideal for both business trips and vacations. Easy-to-use premium features give you confidence on the road and deliver a powerful navigation experience.

Turn it on and go! Click to enlarge.

OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches anywhere you travel. Click to enlarge.

AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA-approved places to stay, play, dine, and save. Click to enlarge.

Highway lane assist signs show highway signs to point you in the right direction when approaching interchanges and exits. Click to enlarge.

Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want. Or, you can have the device optimize your trip for the most efficient route, helping you save time and money. Click to enlarge.

QuickSpell with SmartCity search narrows your address and city searches, making destination entry easy. Click to enlarge.

The Magellan RoadMate 1340 includes many premier features, starting with Magellan's exclusive OneTouch favorites menu, QuickSpell with SmartCity search, and highway exit point of interest (POI) search, to name a few. Magellan's attention to detail delivers a superior user experience.

Intuitive and Robust Navigation
The RoadMate 1340 lets you bookmark your favorite destinations and searches with the OneTouch favorites menu so you can access them anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite cafe or restaurant when you're traveling within any city.

QuickSpell with SmartCity search help you quickly enter addresses and narrow your address and city searches, making destination entry easy. Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want. Or, have the device optimize your trip for the most efficient route, helping you save time and money.

Safety First on the Road
You can keep your eyes on the road as you drive, because spoken street name guidance announces the street name along with audible turning cues. Highway lane assist offers visual aids to point you in the right direction and ensure that you'll choose the correct lane well before your next turn.

Should your vehicle unfortunately break down as you travel, the AAA locate screen provides your location so help will know where to find you. Get support fast with the AAA Member Roadside Assistance phone number and your location displayed on the RoadMate 1340 screen.

Ready to Roll
You're ready to travel with pre-loaded maps and points of interest for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that make the Magellan RoadMate 1340 ideal for both business trips and vacations. (Mexico map activation available for purchase on www.MagellanGPS.com.)

With millions of points of interest at your command, you can easily locate gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more. If you need more information or you want to save money, select the AAA search menu after your search entry. AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA-approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.

When you're traveling down the interstate and need to find gas, food, or lodging in a hurry, touch the highway exit POI icon to see which upcoming highway exits have the services you need.

Do you often find yourself tied up in traffic? The RoadMate 1340 is Traffic Link-compatible, offering live onscreen traffic-incident reports. (The Traffic Link accessory is sold separately.)

Turn It on and Go!
The Magellan RoadMate 1340 is loaded with premier features you'll need to get you where you want to go.

Magellan RoadMate 1340 Features

• OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite cafe or restaurant when you're traveling within any city.
• 3.5-inch color touchscreen provides powerful navigation that's easy to view and use.
• AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA-approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.
• AAA Member Roadside Assistance gets you help fast with a toll-free member services number to assist you in finding an AAA-approved tow truck or repair shop. The menu also shows your exact GPS location so you can provide precise information about your location.
• Highway lane assist signs show highway signs to point you in the right direction when approaching interchanges and exits, and ensure that you'll choose the correct lane well before your next turn.
• Spoken street names and directions so you can hear and see where you need to turn next.
• QuickSpell with SmartCity search narrows your address and city searches, making destination entry easy.
• Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want. Or, you can have the device optimize your trip for the most efficient route, saving you time and money.
• Pre-loaded maps give you information and directions as you travel the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. (Mexico map activation available for purchase on www.MagellanGPS.com.)
• Millions of points of interest (POIs) help you easily find gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more.
• Highway exit POI search shows you gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more near upcoming highway exits.
• Branded POIs display your favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and more by their respective logos.
• Traffic Link provides live onscreen traffic notification updates. (This accessory is sold separately.)
• Customizable route method lets you select the shortest distance, fastest time, most use of freeways, or least use of freeways to customize your route.
• Address book enables you to create and store contact information.
• Auto night view adjusts your screen's color and contrast for easy night viewing.
• Automatic re-route lets you quickly get back on track in case you missed a turn.
• Plan route on map by simply touching a destination on the map screen and then directly routing to it.
• Rechargeable battery gives you the freedom to drive wirelessly or plan your trip when your vehicle's engine is turned off.

What's in the Box
RoadMate 1340 GPS receiver; pre-loaded maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico; windshield mount; adhesive disc for dash mounting; vehicle power adapter; user handbook; USB cable; and user's manual on CD-ROM.

Product Description

Magellan RoadMate 1340 Automobile Navigator RM1340SGXUC Portable / Handheld Navigators

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Magellan Roadmate 1340 - Not as good as I originally thought...., May 14, 2009

By 

Jerry D. Stevens "jdsppl" (Mason, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 1340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

SEE 8-29-09 UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF REVIEW:

I recently purchased a Magellan Roadmate 1340. This is one of the first new releases by Magellan since they were acquired by MiTAC (parent company of MIO)

I am using the Magellan 1212 as a basis for comparison, since I have been using that for the past 3 months and been very pleased with it, other than some occasional routing quirks.

The 1340 is very similar, but does add some significant extra features and improvements, for relatively little price difference:

1) "One Touch" Favorites menu offers quick access to many of the most used features and shortcuts.

2) Customizable route method lets you instantly view and compare and select the shortest distance, fastest time, most use of freeways, or least use of freeways to customize your route.

3) The AAA TourBook is a nice addition that provides ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.

4) Several other features such as Highway Points of Interest have more conveniently positioned shortcut buttons.

5)A new "Highway Lane Assist Signs" feature show highway signs to point you in the right direction when approaching interchanges and exits, and ensure that you'll choose the correct lane well before your next turn.

That being said, the 1340 has 2 "glitches" that need to be corrected by Magellan:

First, in any kind of sunlight, the screen is very difficult to see! The 1212 is very visible in all kinds of light, but the 1340 almost seems as if there is some kind of coating on the screen that makes viewing very challenging in sunlight. I contacted Magellan support, and they indicated they were aware of this issue and would hopefully have a fix available at some point.

Second, of less importance but still a step down from the 1212 is the voice clarity on text to speech. When the voice announces the street names, the names are slightly "fuzzy" or "garbled". This is not a "deal breaker", but definitely does not have the excellent clarity of the 1212.

I tried 2 different units, and they both have the same problems in these 2 areas. In summary, I think the added features make the 1340 a better unit than the 1212, and an excellent value for the money. However, if these shortcomings could be corrected, it would be a GREAT unit!

UPDATE (5-19-09)

I contacted Magellan support about these issues a couple of times and they said they were aware of the issues and that hopefully a "fix" would be issued. Yesterday, a firmware update (to version 1.10) appeared on the Magellan website and I downloaded and installed it, thinking it was to correct the brightness and sound issues. However, I did not notice any difference in either problem, so I emailed Magellan support. They said that the update was to correct another issue, and did not address the brightness and sound problems. They acknowledged that "you are correct that there is a significant difference between" the 1340 and 1212, but could not tell me for sure when or if another update will be issued to correct these known problems!

UPDATE (8-28-09)

After it became apparent that Magellan was not going to do anything to correct the visibility and sound problems (which have also been stated by many others here and on other review sites), I decided to return the 1340 and go back to the Magellan 1212. True, the 1212 does not have some of the new features that the 1340 has, but to me, the screen brightness and very clear text to speech makes up for it! (There are also several features that I like better on the 1212 than on the 1340.) I got a recertified 1212 on another site for $65 (Dell just had it for $80) Then, there was a firmware update on Magellan's site.....and you can order the spring 2009 map update for just $10 shipping. So, for $75 total, I have a great GPS that is totally updated, and although lacking a few features, more than makes up for it in quality of performance!

I noticed that a couple of people indicated that they did not noticed the sunlight visibility problem. I cannot understand that, but when I got the 1212, I compared the 2 units side by side and the difference is VERY evident. Even in the shade, when I previously thought the 1340 was "OK", it had a much more faded, dull look than the 1212!

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comparison with Tomtom One 130-S, June 21, 2009

By 

David Arnstein (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 1340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

(What's this?)

Introduction
------------

I am going to compare the Magellan Roadmate 1340 with the Tomtom One 130-S. These two navigators are similar in size, cost, and features. If you are thinking about buying the 1340, you should also look at Tomtom's navigators. In the Tomtom line, the 130-S has been replaced by the 140-S, but these two navigators are very similar.

I will refer to the Magellan Roadmate 1340 as "the Magellan." "The Tomtom" is what I will call the Tomtom One 130-S.

First impressions
-----------------

The Magellan and the Tomtom are the same size, except that the Magellan is a few millimeters thinner. Thin is good. You're going to be carrying or hiding your navigator every time you use it, to avoid theft. Both navigators have a front side entirely occupied by the display screen. Both navigators have a speaker on the back.

The mounting system of the Magellan is excellent. It stays attached to both your windshield and your navigator. The mount is easy to position, and easy to take down. The Tomtom mounting system is also excellent, but different. The Tomtom mount folds flat. You can buy a small carrying case that swallows up the mount along with the navigator. Once again, small is good (see previous paragraph). The trade off is that the Tomtom mount is more difficult to position, and will pop off from the navigator quite easily.

Start up time is a problem with the Magellan. It will be fully 30 seconds after power-on before the Magellan will respond to you in any fashion. It can be minutes before the navigator acquires satellite signals. By contrast, the Tomtom becomes responsive within one second of power-on. If you haven't traveled far since power-off, the Tomtom will re-acquire satellite signals within seconds. Start up time is a problem for the Magellan. When I get into my car, I don't like waiting around for my navigator to become responsive.

Both navigators have simple user interfaces. However, the Tomtom is more simple. The difference between the Magellan and the Tomtom is not night-and-day, but it is evident.

Basic Navigation
----------------

The Magellan maps are excellent. I was surprised to find that the Magellan knows about the roadways inside the parking lots of hotels and shopping centers. The Tomtom does not. In other respects, both navigators seem to have maps of similar quality. That is, accurate and complete.

The Magellan display screen is difficult to see in bright sunlight. This is by far the most serious problem with this navigator. For some folks, this will be a show-stopper. I suggest that you CLEAR the menu item Settings/System settings/Brightness/Dim on Battery Power, which is SET by default. This helps, but only a little. By comparison, the Tomtom does not have much of a problem with sunlight.

Some reviewers have complained about fuzzy sound from the Magellan. I do not find this to be the case. The voice coming out of the Magellan is loud and clear to my ears. Pronounciation of street names and cities is excellent, much better than the Tomtom. In particular, the way that the Tomtom pronounces Spanish names is hilarious.

A navigator should give you a lot of preparation for road intersections, freeway interchanges, and so forth. Both navigators are excellent in this respect. You get verbal announcements long before you reach each intersection. The Magellan has an advantage over the Tomtom in this department: a distinctive bell sound occurs at the moment when you the driver must begin your turn. I really like this feature. Although a good navigator must give repeated announcements of upcoming intersections, I sometimes make the mistake of turning too early, ending up on the wrong street or freeway exit. The bell sound of the Magellan solved this problem for me.

Entering Destination Information
--------------------------------

Both navigators provide a means to store destinations for repeated use. The Magellan's implementation is more feature rich. With the Magellan, you get an address book. Each address book entry can have a name, company name, two addresses, and three phone numbers (these are all optional). With the Tomtom, you get a list of Favorites. An entry in this list is a name and a location. That's all.

If you have expended some effort entering data into your navigator, you might give some thought to backing up this information. Both the Tomtom and the Magellan offer this capability. The Tomtom can back up and restore its state using your computer as the backing store. The Magellan can also back up and restore, but it uses a removable MicroSD flash card as backing store. You have to buy your own MicroSD card to use this feature.

Points Of Interest
------------------

Both navigators provide points of interest, such as hotels, parking lots, and restaurants. The Magellan is notable in that it provides the AAA Tourbook. Well, sort of. The Magellan does indeed provide information from the printed AAA Tourbook, including locations, phone numbers, descriptions, and ratings. This is useful, and it is something that the Tomtom does not offer. However, the descriptive information in the AAA Tourbook cuts off after a few words, often in the middle of a sentence. Even the titles get cut off after a few words, making the AAA Tourbook difficult to use.

The Tomtom provides useful points of interest, but nothing descriptive like the AAA Tourbook in the Magellan. The Tomtom also has collections of points of interest contributed by users, which can be browsed and downloaded from a computer. The lists compiled by users are of varying quality, mostly bad.

Extra Features
--------------

The Tomtom navigator provides a rich set of features involving a USB connection to a computer, and ultimately to the internet. The Magellan offers nothing in this department.

Most of these Tomtom extra features are gimmicks. But if you enjoy playing with gadgets, you will favor the Tomtom.

I have already mentioned some of these features above. Here are some of the tricks you can play with the Tomtom that you will not enjoy with the Magellan:
- operate your navigator from your computer
- download locations of traffic (ticket) cameras provided by users
- download points of interest provided by users
- download map corrections provided by users

Conclusion:
----------

This review has compared the Magellan Roadmate 1340 and Tomtom One 130-S navigators. These are among the smallest navigators commonly available for sale. In my opinion, this type of navigator is the most useful. Larger navigators are easier to see, but not enough to be justified by the bulk and weight. YOU WILL remove your navigator from your car or truck, or a stranger will do it for you. The second option will be accompanied by expensive damage to your ride. You don't want it. You do want a navigator that is easy to carry around with you. Spend a little extra and buy a close-fitting carrying case for your navigator.

The best aspect of the Magellan is its excellent map. The worst aspect is its visibility in bright sunlight. This is why I only assigned four stars to this navigator.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I like this GPS..., July 14, 2009

By 

Lynn - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 1340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

(What's this?)

Being a first time GPS user, I was intimidated by the Magellan Roadmate 1340. My hubby read the directions & explained them to me. I decided we needed to use the GPS instead of trying to memorize all the directions. That was a good choice. We found the Magellan Roadmate 1340 very user friendly. (Of course, I suggest reading the User Handbook before using the unit).

We used this GPS in our town, & North Central Ohio when we went to "Amish Country," as we call it in this neck of Ohio. :) My hubby had trouble viewing the Roadmate when it sat on the dash; it was too far away from him and he couldn't get his bifocals at the right angle to read it quickly. I found the unit very easy to read. We haven't experienced the washed out screen that others have mentioned, but usually sit it in the console beside us. However, I have a 'washed out screen plan.' If we experience that problem, I am going to use heavy paper & devise a type of cover similar to the ones over traffic lights. It'll be a simple solution and I'll make sure that it can be removed quickly. It found the Amish Door Restaurant for us, the Sol store (I think that's the name), and we added two more stops to our original destination w/o any problems. At one point, when we were nearing a fork in the road, the Roadmate instructed us to stay or veer to the right.

Setting a route is simple using QuickSpell & Smart City Search; as far as routing goes, you can pick fastest, shortest, or most use of freeways. After you select a destination & it's calculated, the Roadmate 1340 can show the ETA (estimated time of arrival), your speed, compass direction, the distance to your destination, & time remaining. All of this info is in the lower left part of the screen & is selected by tapping the screen. I enjoy the ETA and always check it for accuracy...and by golly, it's been very accurate. It was fun calling my daughter and saying we'll be home at 7:40; we're 14 miles away. We pulled in our driveway at exactly 7:40. Elevation is also shown in this area.

A maneuver list can be seen when a route has been programmed by tapping the maneuver icon at the top left corner of the map screen. It's similar to an online map print out, ie. [...]. If you want to avoid traveling one of streets listed, there are instructions on how to exclude that street. Also, you have the option of not using Toll Roads.

The lane assist feature is FANTASTIC. It highlights the lane you will need to be in to turn. I'm betting this is going to help us a lot the next time we visit Atlanta. That city has lots of traffic lane changes that seem to appear out of nowhere. It's hard to navigate, at least, that's been our experience.

The Magellan Roadmate announces when you are two miles away from a turn, or lane change, etc. When you are close to your turn, it gives a 'ding dong' sound (there are 4 turn sound options). We set the Magellan's sound at its loudest & have no trouble hearing it. Once in a while, I think a street name sounds a bit garbled, but not often. We have experienced a few problems when returning to our route after stopping. For example, after picking up a pizza, the Magellan had our street names confused for a few seconds. Another time, in 'Amish Country,' when leaving the Amish Door Restaurant, the Magellan was confused. There were several tiny turns onto a rural city's streets, the route was obvious to us, but not to the Magellan.

We purposely missed a few turns to test the routing capabilities. The Magellan doesn't say, 'missed turn.' It quietly recalculates your route. I wouldn't mind hearing it say one time that 'you missed the turn.' Twice we were instructed to "Please make a U-turn as soon as legally possible." We thought that was funny and since realized that we can turn off the U-turn option.

When you're on major highways, a gasoline icon shows when you're near a gas station. The Roadmate 1340 comes programmed with AAA's TourBook feature and is loaded with information, Points of interest & nearest wrecker service. If you are a AAA member, and register your Roadmate within 60 days of purchase, you will receive an additional year's warranty. Be sure to keep your original receipt. There are other benefits made available to AAA members and also to those that purchase the optional traffic link accessory.

The Roadmate has a MicroSD card slot for backing up or restoring your unit, the card is not provided.

The unit is small enough that we can put it in our cup holder along with the power cable and hide it out of sight.

I recommend that you don't store your home address in the GPS. If your car gets stolen, and the thief finds your GPS, it'd be very simple for him to find your home, open the garage door & rob you.

A USB cord is included.

The optional traffic link accessory connects to major USA cities and Toronto, Canada. There is no subscription fee for the service.

I suggest you take the time to view the CD that is included with the Magellan Roadmate 1340. It has additional information on how to use the unit.

All in all, this nifty unit is packed full of useful, easy to use features.