Magellan RoadMate 1420 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

by Magellan

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 4.8 x 3.2 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0031CN3QC
• Item model number: RoadMate 1420
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #6,136 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 22, 2009

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Navigate in style with the new, ultra-thin Magellan RoadMate 1420 GPS device with a large 4.3-inch color touch screen. Premium features include: OneTouch favorites menu, built-in AAA TourBook and Member Roadside Assistance, QuickSpell with SmartCity search, highway exit POI, spoken street name guidance, plus so many more!

With the features you need and the unique ability to make it your own, the Magellan RoadMate 1420 navigator delivers the powerful navigation experience that you've been wanting.

Features

	Exclusive OneTouch Favorites Menu Easily bookmark favorite destinations and searches with personalized bookmarks so you can find them anywhere you travel. Find your favorite café or restaurant in any city with a single touch. Simple navigation with "Your favorites at your fingertips."
	Exclusive AAA TourBook Guide No membership required... Invaluable to anyone who travels, the AAA TourBook guide information with all 50 states and Canada is built right into your Magellan product. Get ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.
	4.3-inch Touch Screen The large, ultra-slim 4.3-inch color touch screen shows your position on the unit including map route, destination, ETA, Points of Interest (POI), OneTouch favorites, street names, and more--all at a glance.
	6 Million Points of Interest (POI) Easily find whatever service you need. Gas stations, restaurants, hotels, ATMs, and hundreds of other businesses are intuitively categorized and searchable from the built-in POI database.
	Highway Exit POI Search Search for gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more near upcoming highway exits.
	QuickSpell with SmartCity Search Enter destinations with only a few touches. QuickSpell with SmartCity search helps you quickly enter addresses and narrow location searches, making destination entry easy.
	Multi-Destination Routing Plan a trip with multiple stops in the order you want or have the device optimize it for the most efficient route. Easily reorganize, add, or remove destinations.
	Spoken Street Name Guidance Hear street names and directions for a clear understanding of when to make the next turn while you keep your eyes on the road.
	Premium Maps Travel the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico with all the maps you need, pre-loaded on your device.

What's in the Box

Magellan RoadMate 1420 GPS navigator; pre-loaded maps of the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico; windshield mount; adhesive disc for dash mounting; vehicle power adapter; user handbook

Product Description

Magellan RoadMate 1420
The Magellan RoadMate 1420 includes many premium features, starting with the exclusive Magellan OneTouch favorites menu, QuickSpell with SmartCity search, and built-in AAA TourBook, to name a few.

Intuitive and robust navigation
The RoadMate 1420 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 Smart City 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 optimize a 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 and turn direction.
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 Assistance1 phone number and your location displayed on the RoadMate 1420 screen.

Turn it on and go!
The Magellan RoadMate 1420 is loaded with the premium features you'll need to get you where you want to go. (To view a complete list of helpful RoadMate 1420 features, click on the features tab).

Features:

• OneTouch favorites menu offers 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.
  
  
• 4.3-inch color touch screen provides powerful navigation that's easy to view and use.
  
  
• AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It will get you were you want to go, just without a lot of bells and whistles., July 4, 2010

By	D. Couse "darkman1969" (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 1420 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

Let me first say that I picked this up as a Deal of the Day for $79 and overall, I'm pleased. For what I paid, I think I received a comparable product. Once received I downloaded the content manager from Magellan, installed in on my PC and once it fired up, it told me I had a new software version and maps to install all for free! Very nice.

This thing is super thin, fast to pick-up satellites, and comes with everything you need right out of the box. The battery can last 2 hours on a full charge (which takes 4 to 6 hours). The large screen is very, very nice and the colors are vibrant. It's also very easy to read the street names as you drive by them. I was pleasantly surprised to see the names of lakes and parks on this unit as I drove by them.

Now for the not so good. The voice prompts can get kind of "warbled" at times. Hard to describe, but my family made fun of the voice on several occasions on a trip of about 140 miles recently. The maps while, vibrant, don't look very professional. The streets for turns have jagged lines, a circular turn is by no means circular according the the Magellan maps...more like a diagonal, then another diagonal etc. It looks odd, and not a huge deal, but it could be cleaner. No speed limits on interstates or freeways or highways. I didn't know this going in, even the Magellan product for my iPhone has speed limits and that only cost $49. So I assumed this would as well and once you have it, you really miss it. Also, this unit never picked up the correct time zone for me out of the box. I waited and waited and it never moved, so I had to manually go in and set the correct one. The manual says it gets it from the satellites, but it didn't get the right one :)

Perhaps the biggest let down on this unit is how far behind it lags in real time. I can be 2 even 3 seconds past a street and the unit will show me just crossing it. I understand it can't be exact real time, but 3 seconds seems to be a little much. I've made turns and it reports, take next right...that is annoying. I can be stopped at an intersection and this thing shows me fairly far back from it...even when I'm the the first one at the light. Are all GPS units like this, or does this seem to be just a Magellan thing?

All in all, for $79 I probably won't return it. It will get us where we want to go and while I'm no perfectionist, it could be a little more accurate. Only 3 stars since their iPhone version is actually better than this one and costs nearly $60 less than the retail listed here.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magellan RoadMate 1420 4.3 in GPS Navigator, March 26, 2010

By	Louis Sauer Jr. (Manchester, PA / USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 1420 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

This is the second Magellan RoadMate 1420 4.3 in GPS Navigator I have purchased, my wife and I both have one. The 1420 GPS is very light and only 1/2 inch thick. It has an easy to use and read touch screen. I bought a bean bag mount and can easily remove from car to prevent thieft.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mapquest Be Damned!, July 5, 2010

By	Stacy Cantrell "Amazon Junkie" (Painesville, OH, US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 1420 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

A GPS unit is something that I have contemplated purchasing for a while. The only reason that I have held off is because I know where I am going (most of the time). Now, my husband would tell you that I am going insane, which is highly likely, but when Amazon had this unit on sale for $70, I jumped at the chance to own it.

Thus far, I am very satisfied with the device. I want to be clear: I have no experience with other GPS models, so my review is based solely upon this product.

Durability and Design

The Magellan RoadMate is a lightweight GPS device that is easy to install in your vehicle. The product comes with a mounting brace, a spare suction cup, a cigarette charger, and of course, the device itself. All are designed of a sturdy plastic, and feel durable.

In terms of the installation, the suction device also has a pressure lock to ensure that the holder does not fall off of your windshield. If you are not able to mount the device on your windshield (there are some states which have ordinances which prohibit objects being mounted on your windshield), the unit also gives the option of mounting to your dash. Unfortunately, my vehicle has a textured dash, so I was unable to place the holder anywhere except my windshield. However, the device is small enough that the mounting location I selected (to the left of my rearview mirror) does not result in a large blind spot.

Overall, the product is sturdy and well-made. I do not trust that dropping the GPS unit itself would be a good idea, but if it were to spontaneously throw itself off of my windshield, I do feel that it would survive the fall to my seat/dash/floorboard.

Function

The beautiful part of this GPS unit has to be the functionality. Obviously, the unit has maps. They are colorful and easy to follow. The top of the screen lists the name of the street/road that you are currently travelling; the bottom shows the direction (alternately, the time, distance, or your velocity), the ability to zoom in or out, and the menu button.

The menu button is where the power of this device comes in. In addition to being able to provide directions from point A to point B (eat your heart out, Google maps!), the device is pre-loaded with local restaurants, stores, and variety of parks/tourist attractions. You can even input your AAA membership to call for assistance! And, to top it all off, operation of the Magellan RoadMate is easy and intuitive. The touchscreen is responsive, bright, and easy to navigate (see the pun that I made? Navigate a GPS unit? I kill myself!). During the day, the maps are green with clearly labelled roads in brown/black/red. At night, the screen goes black and the roads dim a bit. I find this part especially useful; the unit will not blind either the driver or anyone behind me!

Programming frequently-visited locations is also very simple. You start out by typing the name of the city, and then the street, and finally the street address. The great part about this is it is virtually impossible to enter erroneous information. The GPS database locks out letters that cannot be used. For instance, we live in Painesville, Ohio. When entering the address for our local Taco Bell, I type out P-A-, and the keyboard locks out letters that are not possible, such as Z or Q (there are no cities in northeast Ohio spelled PAZ- or PAQ). Going further, once the city has been inputted, you cannot enter street names that do not exist within the named city. This may not seem like a "huge" thing, but for someone who is new to a location, this would undoubtedly prevent the user from obtaining incorrect address information. For this, I give the Magellan RoadMate high marks.

Finally, the Magellan RoadMate focuses on user safety. Whenever the unit starts up, a warning appears reminding the user to not use the unit while operating a motor vehicle. The device will not, however, lock the screen when the vehicle is moving (the device can detect velocity; it will display your corresponding rate of movement if requested). While I do not necessarily think that the unit should lock out when moving (the unit could be used by a passenger and not necessarily the driver), it is relatively easy to be distracted by the screen.

While I may sound like a broken record, I cannot stress the importance of paying attention to the road when driving a vehicle and using the GPS unit. If you are using the Magellan RoadMate to find a business, program the device BEFORE you pull out of your driveway/parking spot. If you need to access one of the menus on your GPS device, please do so when your vehicle is not moving; if necessary, pull off of the road. Finally, adjust the volume on the unit to ensure that the recorded voice is not overly distracting. Straight from the box, the voice for the unit is a bit loud and grating; I had to turn it down a bit to prevent it from giving me a headache. I do not recommend turning the voice off completely, though. This recorded voice will give turn-by-turn instructions to coincide with your requested directions, decreasing your need to look at the GPS unit. This, of course, helps a driver to focus on traffic and operate their vehicle safely.

Final Word

To be perfectly forthcoming, I highly recommend this GPS unit. It is easy to use, durable, and is chock-full of features. The ease of use and the AAA Roadside Assistance (and reviews of tourist destinations) really sealed the deal for me. If you want a device that does more than get you from point A to point B and ready to go out of the box, this is for you.

As a final bit of advice, make sure that you are familiar with your local laws regarding the mounting of a GPS device. I mentioned this earlier in my review, but some states/cities prohibit vehicle operators from mounting devices (GPS units/radar detectors) to their windshields. While this unit can be mounted on your dash, I find it a bit easier to read from the windshield.