Customer Reviews

Magellan RoadMate 1340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

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!

Introduction
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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
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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
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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
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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:
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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.

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.

1. You cannot set the current location as a destination. But SAM suggested a simple work-around, thanks. Tap a location just adjacent to your current location arrow on the map and make that your destination.
2. Doesn't show the distance scale, e.g., 200 feet or 1/4 mile, on the screen. A work-around in this case is to tap a location at the edge of the screen, "go" to it, and the distance to that point will show up.
3. The screen is dim if you try to use it outside, not in a shaded location. I think the night mode is easier to see, even in daylight.
4. I agree with the other reviews, overall a good unit for the price. I would change my rating to 4 stars, but Amazon won't let me.

Q: How long does it take to start up?
A: 32 seconds, timed with a stopwatch.

Q: How long does it take to find the satellite?
A: The first time I started it up, it took a while, but every time since then it was nearly instantaneous. In my office (3rd floor of a large 3-story college building) it takes about 8-10 seconds to find the satellite signal.

I also want to highlight the AAA tourbook and the user interface. I find the user interface more elegant and more intuitive than those of the more popular brands. The AAA tourbook is fantastic if you are a tourist, because it contains reviews and descriptions (not just location info).

The other reviewer is right about the street name TTS function. To my ear it does not sound fuzzy, but rather it sounds QUIETER than the rest of the speech. So I have to turn the volume up to the point where the speech is quite loud for the street names to be comprehensible. I view this as a minor annoyance, not a deal-breaker.

This is my third car GPS unit. I had one Garmin and one Magellan previously. My other two were 4.3 inch screens, which I thought was the minimum screen size to be useful. I was wrong. The 1340 has a high quality screen and information is displayed perfectly, each type of information seems to take the exactly correct amount of screen space so the display never looks overly cluttered. Magellan has done an excellent job, very thoughtful, in making this unit an excellent travel companion. It has some neat improvements over the older models I had, both my previous Magellan and previous Garmin.

The best features: The 1340 has some very helpful features when driving on freeways. When your exit is coming up it clearly shows the lane you should be in and greys out the other lanes. If you are coming to a freeway interchange, it clearly marks the lane(s) you should be in. It also has an exit point of interest (POI) feature on freeways. Both on and off freeways the 1340 always gives ample warning of upcoming turns including a 2-mile warning and then a closer one, much better than my Garmin in this regard. You also have the next turn direction and road name listed clearly along the top of the screen.

The POI features in general are done really well on Magellans. First it has an extensive database. Second it has an extremely useful feature that as far as I know is unique to Magellans. It has an AAA tour book feature that use to only be found on the Maestro line. It is now on the new Roadmates as well. The AAA tour book not only lists restaurants nearby but gives you a brief yet helpful description of each one on the list. Now the list is not as comprehensive as the overall database POI, but in previous trips using my Maestro my wife and I found some excellent memorable restaurants we would not have tried otherwise without reading the description. Very helpful in choosing restaurants in an unfamiliar area.

The best improvements: My previous Magellan did not allow you to add a destination to your current destination. You had to cancel route and then do a new route to. The 1340 now allows you to add as many destinations as you want without cancelling the current one. And you can place them anywhere, before your current destination, after your current destination or between any two if you have more than 2 destinations.

There is also a very helpful one-touch screen, which is new. Really like this feature. It is a small button in the upper-right corner. You can click it from any screen. It then takes you directly to a screen with customizable short-cut buttons. They come pre-set to things like Home (push it and it calculates your route home), previous destinations, emergency, bank/ATM etc. I used the user-assignable button (only one comes unassigned) to take me to the AAA guide book restaurant listings. But you can also re-assign any of the other buttons. Say you do not use the bank/ATM button a lot you can re-assign it to say an often used search, maybe work. Then when you want to calculate the route to work instead of going to previous destinations or entering an address, just hit the one-touch button then the button you assigned to work.

Also the quickspell feature has been improved. Magellan always had a very smart quickspell in that you start entering a street name and it starts narrowing down your choices very accurately. Well now it really allows you to find a city even more efficently. Based on your current location as soon as you type the first letter of a city it brings up the closest likely candidate. In the Austin area when I type R it brings up Round Rock. When I type C it brings up Cedar Park. In both cases it was correct. You of course have the option to keep typing but I did find it neat and useful.

Lastly they have improved, the mounting feature. My older GPS units needed to be clicked in on the top and bottom. This one has a small cut out on the middle-back bottom that you slide into the mounting unit. Holds it steady and very easy to connect.

Room for improvement: I guess this is par for the course from a lot of makers but I was annoyed that no carrying case was provided. The unit is very easy to carry, it will easily fit in a pants pocket or purse. But who wants to scuff up the screen? You need a case, and they could have easily provided a functional no-frills case in the box, they did not. You need to purchase one. The 1340's one operating flaw was it does take some time to start up from a power-off position. Definitely longer than my older model Magellan and Garmin took. We are talking about maybe 10-15 seconds longer so no big deal, not enough to downgrade its rating. There is no traffic option available in the box, You need to buy a separate receiver/power cord that has gotten mixed reviews on Amazon. I do not have it so can not speak to its usefulness or not. Frankly I do not buy car GPS units for this feature but if you do want it be aware you need to buy something else. On the plus side the traffic receiver listed on Amazon says it comes with `life-time' traffic no subscription needed.

Bottom line, I highly recommend this unit. The combination of great features for highway driving, the AAA tour book, quickspell features, quick and accurate route calculation/re-calculation, large POI database, customizable map (you can choose what features to show on your map, food, gas, etc. or nothing), and one-touch screen clearly shows Magellan put a lot of thought into how to make a very useful navigation unit/ travel helper.

I'm coming from a history of Garmin products for myself and the wife.
I wore out an older Garmin unit, while the wife has fairly new NUVI model. As a musician I rely on GPS for local and out of state gigs. My last Garmin GPS was getting dodgy, and was a chore to input data. I wanted to get into something a little nicer that's not too big. A compact size is better suited packing for travel, especially when flying to other destinations; to be used for rental car use upon arrival. The 1340 is easy to take on and off the mount. Bluetooth would be nice, but I think an mp3 player and photo viewer on a GPS is waste of time and money and complicates things. I needed something powerful without features I'd never use. I have to confess, I got this unit while on sale at a membership club store.


The interface is very simple to navigate. The color touch screen is accurate and comfortable. (again coming from my ancient scroll wheel Garmin this is a joy) A few things are a little counter intuitive, such as the manner of selection from the address book, but part of that might be me switching from the Garmin system. It's very quick to input an address, which is a big plus.. However editing stored addresses requires reading the help book, and not as easy as it should be.

The Garmin style of navigation will announce a turn (usually right when you are on it) and clearly state "turn right" . Though always in the nick of time, it could often cause dangerous multiple lane changes at the last minute, or as another reviewer stated taking the turn too early. Magellan will give ample warning that the turn is ahead then simply issue a sound (user selectable) when it's time to make the actual turn. This is better but could still be improved. My aging memory isn't quite as short term bad as "Memento" status just yet, but I'd like a spoken reminder again - as it's easy to get distracted and forget which way the turn is, since the unit long makes the sole announcement prior to the actual turn. At least there is always an arrow in the upper LH corner screen you can check. The "lane assist" feature is a wonderful plus, too many times in the past with the Garmin units I've been screwed when faced with an exit that has both east and west only lanes.

If you do miss a turn, the 1340 seems to always want you to U-turn, but that can be defeated in preferences. The Garmin units are totally annoying by stating "recalculating" constantly which gets irritating if you are in a detour situation or get off the route for food or gas. If you ignore the Magellan's plea to Uturn, it simply goes on to another route without any fuss. However, I'd like to split the difference as Magellan is a little too non communicative whether it's actually calculating a new route- it will flash a visual indicator, but not always. So far it hasn't failed. That seems to be my main complaint in general with the 1340 vs Garmin: is that I'd like just a wee bit more hand holding, just not as intrusive as the Garmin. I guess if I have only one choice, I prefer Magellan's method.

Regarding the "fuzzy" quality, I would bet money it's either one of two things: 1. a sampling issue: the generic spoken commands (menu, volume, etc. ) seem to be recorded at a higher sample rate and are hi quality. But the content to that makes up and " speaks" the street names seems to have been recorded at a lower sample rate. Much like the difference between an MP3 recorded at a higher rate ( eg.380 bits) versus one at a lower rate. (e.g. 128 bits) or one of those greeting cards that has a lo-fi music chip. The theory is you'd have to have a large amount of memory to create the content that forms the words; and they squashed it at a lower sample rate to fit. If that's truly the case, a firmware update will likely not fix that. ...... or: 2. It could also be for anything that isn't a generic phrase; voice synthesizing actually happens in real time, and it's output is of low quality favoring speed of recognition. If so, that's probably a program thing and fixable. As much as I'm usually tuned into all things audio, it actually doesn't bother me so much. I'm pretty impressed how accurate it's pronunciation is; my wife's Garmin often mispronounces "dr" (drive) as doctor, along with a few other bizarre interpretations.

More on the voice: Unlike some other GPS units, the 1340 has one voice and one voice only, so no British accents, or manly man instructions. The included female voice is pleasant, if slightly robotic. She's definitely all business. For some reason she reminds me of the female computer voice used in the old star trek. Maybe in the near distant future we'll have option of using custom voices. I'll take Nigella Lawson or Tom Waits please :)

Regarding the visibility, I haven't had any problems seeing it, and my unit seems to be in nighttime mode most often. Imputing an address is pretty simple. The unit seems to use some intelligent predicative text technology, and is able to find most street names quickly.
Due to our great state of Georgia's confusing penchant for having multiple names for the same main street or highway, it sometimes take a few tries to find the correct input when searching for main highways. This seems to be problem with all GPS units, but for some reason not with the online services such as Google or Mapquest???

One definite (and unforgivable) negative, is the included and online software is PC only, so MAC users are forced to use virtual PC software or beg borrow a PC if you want to upgrade firmware. I haven't gotten around to doing this yet, and will make an addendum.

The ability to change ETA, distance to destination, and time left on the fly is great. I love that I can choose custom menu points/icons: Being able to create a one button search for Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts is worth the price alone for this java addict :) it even has the corporate logos!!

My bottom line may be more forgiving than yours. I'm reasonably happy with the 1340. Any upgrade coming from my tiny primitive older monochrome unit is substantial. My old unit required batteries, which it devoured like a fiend. The 1340 it has a built in rechargeable battery and it holds a decent charge. It does indeed take 30 seconds or so to boot up- But once turned on, it finds satellite amazingly fast compared to our older and newer Garmin units- and that's important for me personally.

Regarding the unit taking longer or strange routes, I occasionally had the same issues. Within preferences is a selection to have the unit use mostly freeway- that seems to help. I've found when selecting "shorter distance" versus shorter time, That I experience less strange routing as well.

Unfortunately in the disposable electronic world we live in these days, you don't buy items to use for a lifetime anymore. So I'm happy to use this "gadget-tool" for it's probable lifespan of perhaps 2+ years. I don't absolutely love it with "iphone love"- but it's an appliance that does what's it's supposed to do and so far doesn't get in my way. It's priced competitively. I'm honestly not sure if I'd buy one again, I'll let you know after a year. If you take these things seriously, you might want to buy this and a similar priced garmin and see what works best for you.

My wife purchased the Magellan 1340 for me (I purchased a Tom Tom One for her last year). The Magellan has good maps and more useful POIs than our TomTom, so it's easier to find specific gas stations and restaurants during trips. One of the features that caused me to pick a Magellan over another TomTom was the image on the box that shows the multiple lane feature of the Magellan that depicts several lanes and highlights the one your supposed to be in at major interchanges. I was looking forward to testing this as I drove through Atlanta yesterday, but alas, it was a bright day and the screen on the Magellan is almost useless in bright conditions if you happen to wear polarized sunglasses. The TomTom has a much more useful screen in daylight than the Magellan. If it weren't for this one major fault I would rate the Magellan higher than the TomTom but it appears i may have to return the Magellan or give up wearing sunglasses when I drive.
Update: 09/29/2010.
After living with this unit for awhile, I've found one other major dislike; it takes a long time to initialize when turned on. My TomTom is almost instantaneous and can be tasked to map a route within a few seconds, but the Magellan takes several blocks of driving before it even shows a screen where you can ask it to map a route. Not a big problem if you already know where you're going, but if you come from a stop that you're not familiar with and want to know which route is the best then you can count on sitting still for a few minutes.

The Magellan Roadmate 1340 is a good deal for the price that Amazon at this point is selling it. It is a basic unit that will serve well for directions and has some features which are an improvement over the more expensive Garmin nuvi 350 that I have used.

I compared both units on two recent trips, using both at the same time. The Magellan has superior turn directions; using "approaching slight left turn" instead of the Garmin's left turn which leads you to expect a 90 degree turn and can be confusing. Of course the notification of left lane exits is a boon on the Magellan, and a safety factor when driving on unfamiliar high speed highways. The `ding-dong' sound as the turn should be made is good. The unit also posts the latitude and longitude which can be useful.
The Magellan's map list shows an arrow for the next direction turn, which is good and on the map list you can press an avoid maneuver if there is a highway you do not want to travel on. However, it will go back to the original if you don't like the 2nd choice.

Starting both units at the same time - the Magellan did not acquire my position until 3 miles further down the road than the Garmin. The Magellan's car charger light is impossible to see, but really, I had no trouble seeing the screen in even bright sunlight. You will have to separately purchase a charger for inside your house, the Garmin includes one. The Magellan does not receive the satellite signal as well as my Garmin. If I had it on my lap or on the console it would blink out at times, the Garmin has never done that. I also would appreciate a battery charge level indicator for the Magellan.
The `bean bag' unit that can be purchased separately for the Magellan is extremely heavy and big as compared to the one made for the Garmin (in case you do not want or cannot use the adhesive stick on for the windshields).

The Garmin roadmap designs are better, clearer and contain better detail; plus my Garmin unit will stay at my preferred magnification level instead of having to adjust the Magellan each time. I much prefer my British male voice, which is among the several choices on the Garmin, to the computer female voice of the Magellan; and personally I like the Garmin's voice saying "recalculating" when I miss a turn or go a different way so that I know that I've made a mistake or the route is being changed.

The Magellan Roadmate 1340 at the time of this review is about $150 cheaper than the Garmin. the Garmin nuvi 350 is $299.99. I have been using it for a year and a half, however when I purchased it, it was $100.00 cheaper. I would pay the extra $50 to buy the Garmin, but do not think it is worth an extra hundred. There are advantages to each of the units, I prefer the Garmin, but like the Magellan as a good basic unit.

Magellan does not support Apple computers, so if you are one of the growing number of people using a Mac, look elsewhere. Otherwise you'll have a GPS you can never update.

I have always used Garmin GPS', so Magellan is a bit new for me and it's impossible not to make comparisons. Both Garmin and Magellan work much the same way, but have some interesting differences.

They talk at different times. Magellan speaks menu selections, and when you spell something, Megellan will speak the letters as you type them. Once you're underway, Garmin becomes the talkative one. Both units will announce upcoming turns, but often the Garmin makes more announcements than Magellan. When you're at the turn, Magellan sounds a gong while Garmin speaks. If you miss a turn, Garmin will announce that it's "recalculating." Garmin gives you a button that will make it repeat the last instruction it gave. If you are lost in a strange city battling heavy traffic, Garmin's repetition is welcome. You're less likely to miss anything. If you're not so stressed, Garmin can feel like it's nagging you. Which is better? It depends on what you prefer.

Personal preference will also determine whether or not you like Magellan's menus. Garmin users will find them off-putting. The battery gauge and satellite signal strength meter are on the "Favorites" page for some reason. You can find addresses and points-of-interest in the "Go To" menu. (Just like Garmin's "Where To" menu.) But confusingly, there is also a "Local Options" menu that does much the same thing, but works less well. For example, search for restaurants in the "Go To" menu and you'll find results broken down by category (Mexican, Italian, etc.) much like Garmin. Look for restaurants in the "Local Options" menu and you'll get every local place that sells food. Taco Bell, Steak and Ale and the local grocery store all thrown together in one big, useless pile. Once you learn the Magellan menus, they become less frustrating. But you'll likely spend the first week muttering under your breath, "I know it saw it somewhere...." Magellan's learning curve is steeper than Garmin's.

The little Magellan does have a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve. One of these is "POI visibility" Magellan assigns icons to points-of-interest, so if you turn on visibility for restaurants, for instance, you can watch as little knives and forks float past your position on the map while you drive. It's entertaining, and you can tap on the icons to see what they are and start navigating to them. You can even scroll the screen with your finger--something Garmin won't let you do. So if you need to know what lies beyond the street at the edge the screen, you can have a look and tap on any icons you find there. It doesn't work very smoothly, but it does work.

A more useful trick is the ability to save searches. If you have a fondness for Starbucks, for example, you can save a search for "Starbucks, near me" and assign that search to one of the buttons on the "Favorites" screen. So now you have a Starbucks button that will always take you to the nearest Starbucks, wherever you are. Quite handy. There are only three buttons you can assign, however. Two of them come preprogrammed for finding the nearest bank and gas station.

Magellan also has information from AAA about some of its points-of-interest. Restaurants, auto repair shops, campgrounds and much more that have been rated by AAA are listed along with short reviews and other info. It's all buried in the "Local Options" menu.

There are a couple of annoyances too. For every point-of-interest search you do, you have to specify if you want to search near your position, or in another city or near another address. If you're sitting in Dallas and trying to find a Burger King in Albuquerque, it's handy. But the most of the time, you want to find something nearby. Garmin can find far-away points-of-interest too, but they rightly make it a separate option rather than create an extra step for every search you do.

About those searches: Magellan's searches are less forgiving than Garman's. Looking for a Wal-Mart? Better not forget the hyphen, because if you search for "Walmart", Magellan will try to convince you there isn't one for thousands of miles.

The screen is too dim for sunny days, and the computer voice is less natural sounding than Garmin's.

Overall, I'll keep my Garmin, but the Magellan is quite a neat little unit too. If you think you would like the AAA information or the ability to make your own favorites button, you won't go wrong with the Magellan. Unless you have a Macintosh.