- Text to Speech Announces street names and directions at each turn
- Features a 4.3-Inch WQVGA color touch screen
- Highway lane assist helps you navigate the interstate
- Personalize OneTouch search icons with your favorite places
- Features AAA TourBook and Roadside Assistance menu
Product Features |
Product Information
Technical Details
| Item Weight | 15.2 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 7 x 3.7 x 3.1 inches |
| Item model number | RoadMate 1440 |
| Display Size | 4.3 inches |
| Warranty | 1 Yr |
| Battery Life | 3 hours |
Technical Specification
- User's Guide [4.58mb PDF]
Additional Information
| ASIN | B0021L9C0A |
| Best Sellers Rank | #8,824 in Electronics (See top 100) |
| Shipping Weight | 2 pounds |
| Shipping | Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. |
| Date First Available | September 14, 2004 |
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Product Description
Amazon.com
The Magellan RoadMate 1440 device boasts the acclaimed OneTouch menu, a 4.3-inch color touch screen, and an ultra-thin design. Preloaded maps and points of interest for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico make the RoadMate 1440 ideal for both business trips and vacations. Easy-to-use, premium features give you confidence on the road and deliver a powerful navigation experience.
 Easy-to-use, premium features give you confidence on the road and deliver a powerful navigation experience. 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 optimize a 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 1440 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 1440 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 and 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 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 Assistance1 phone number and your location displayed on the RoadMate 1440 screen.
Ready to roll
You're ready to travel with preloaded maps and points of interest for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that make the Magellan RoadMate 1440 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 1440 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 1440 is loaded with premier features you'll need to get you where you want to go.
Magellan RoadMate 1440 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.
- 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 to stay, play, dine, and save.
- AAA Member Roadside Assistance gets you help fast with a toll-free member service 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 to 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 optimize a trip for the most efficient route, saving you time and money.
- Preloaded 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 POIs 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 wireless or plan your trip when your vehicle's engine is turned off.
What's in the Box
RoadMate 1440 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, User manual on CD-ROM
Product Description
The newly redesigned Magellan RoadMate 1440 GPS device now boasts a 4.3-Inch color touch screen and ultrathin design, delivering powerful navigation in a compact package. This easy-to-use device gives you confidence while on the road with premium features including: AAA TourBook, highway lane assist, spoken street names, multi-destination routing, and pre-loaded maps of North America. Exclusive Magellan OneTouch personalized menu lets you easily bookmark favorite searches and destinations so you can access them anywhere you travel. Find your favorite café or restaurant in any city with a single touch. The oadMate 1440 device delivers your favorites at your fingertips.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
210 of 214 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Vine™ Review
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I am very happy with the Magellan RoadMate 1440, it's just such a good GPS Navigator with all the bells and whistles!
The 1440 is very accurate at saving you time during trips, you can set it up to give you the fastest route or the shortest distance to your destination, which in many cases, is not the same route.
The highway lane assist is one of those features that you might not think you need until you start dealing with lower end GPS units that don't offer such features. Take it from a guy who used to own a tomtom One 3rd edition! This feature helps you make sure that you are choosing the correct lane to exit during a freeway interchange. You'll be glad you have this feature, trust me!
Just in case you were wondering, this unit is also compatible with the "Magellan Traffic Link" (sold Separately) which gives you FREE real time traffic alerts in exchange for small banner ads such as "AM/PM too much good stuff!" displayed on the top of your screen. a small price to pay for such a great service! In case of a traffic jam, a small timer will appear right next to the traffic warning sign, which tells you how many minutes it estimates you will be stuck in there. Click on the warning sign and it will give you a second route to follow. It will compare both routes for you and give you an estimated arrival time for each one. At this point you can opt to avoid traffic or deal with it. This is one of the best features of this unit and a must have for people who have to deal with hours of traffic on a daily basis! (yes, I live in California and traffic jams are a part of my life)
I purposely "got lost" many times to test how accurate the unit was. I would assign a "point of interest" and make the wrong turns just to see how long it would take it to catch up to me, let me tell you it's fast! in most cases it will have a new route to follow before I even hit the next intersection.
It comes with TTS (text to speech) which means it actually tells you to "turn right on Magnolia" as opposed to "turn right in 30 feet", this is a nice feature to have, but it was a must have feature for me, since my previous unit didn't have it.
One odd thing about the 1440 is that when you save a new address to your address book, it automatically assigns it to "Home" in many cases I was trying to add a place of business and it didn't give me the option to do so, it has the "Business" space but you need to add a home address before it lets you add the business address, so everytime I click on "work" it shows me a little picture of a house as opposed to a picture of a building. Nothing big really, I'm sure they can fix that with a firmware update.
1440 vs 1470
I also tested this unit against it's bigger brother, the Magellan RoadMate 1470 displaying a 4.7" screen. If you are like me and are looking at this item, you probably have been switching screens between this one and the 1470!
Looks: The 1440 seems to be a little thicker than the 1470, not a big difference, really. The 1470 feels smoother and it has rounded edges as opposed to the square look on the 1440. The back on the 1470 is silver, the back on the 1440 is black.
Display: The 1470 screen has richer colors than the 1440, at their higher settings, the 1470 is just a little brighter than the 1440, still the 1440 screen is just as bright as you need a GPS screen to be.
Response time: I tested them in situations such turning them on/off, missing my turns to see how fast it would relocate, assigning destinations and looking up Points of Interests, The 1440 responded from 1-3 seconds faster than the 1470 model. Might not seem like much of a difference, but when you're on the road, just a few seconds might make you miss your exit!
Features: they both have the exact same features, nothing different here.
Sound: The 1440 has a slight louder speaker than the 1470.
Both units are great, differences were very minimal. This choice is mostly determined on how big you want the screen and how much you are willing to pay for the difference.
I hope that this review helps you make a better buying choice!
The 1440 is very accurate at saving you time during trips, you can set it up to give you the fastest route or the shortest distance to your destination, which in many cases, is not the same route.
The highway lane assist is one of those features that you might not think you need until you start dealing with lower end GPS units that don't offer such features. Take it from a guy who used to own a tomtom One 3rd edition! This feature helps you make sure that you are choosing the correct lane to exit during a freeway interchange. You'll be glad you have this feature, trust me!
Just in case you were wondering, this unit is also compatible with the "Magellan Traffic Link" (sold Separately) which gives you FREE real time traffic alerts in exchange for small banner ads such as "AM/PM too much good stuff!" displayed on the top of your screen. a small price to pay for such a great service! In case of a traffic jam, a small timer will appear right next to the traffic warning sign, which tells you how many minutes it estimates you will be stuck in there. Click on the warning sign and it will give you a second route to follow. It will compare both routes for you and give you an estimated arrival time for each one. At this point you can opt to avoid traffic or deal with it. This is one of the best features of this unit and a must have for people who have to deal with hours of traffic on a daily basis! (yes, I live in California and traffic jams are a part of my life)
I purposely "got lost" many times to test how accurate the unit was. I would assign a "point of interest" and make the wrong turns just to see how long it would take it to catch up to me, let me tell you it's fast! in most cases it will have a new route to follow before I even hit the next intersection.
It comes with TTS (text to speech) which means it actually tells you to "turn right on Magnolia" as opposed to "turn right in 30 feet", this is a nice feature to have, but it was a must have feature for me, since my previous unit didn't have it.
One odd thing about the 1440 is that when you save a new address to your address book, it automatically assigns it to "Home" in many cases I was trying to add a place of business and it didn't give me the option to do so, it has the "Business" space but you need to add a home address before it lets you add the business address, so everytime I click on "work" it shows me a little picture of a house as opposed to a picture of a building. Nothing big really, I'm sure they can fix that with a firmware update.
1440 vs 1470
I also tested this unit against it's bigger brother, the Magellan RoadMate 1470 displaying a 4.7" screen. If you are like me and are looking at this item, you probably have been switching screens between this one and the 1470!
Looks: The 1440 seems to be a little thicker than the 1470, not a big difference, really. The 1470 feels smoother and it has rounded edges as opposed to the square look on the 1440. The back on the 1470 is silver, the back on the 1440 is black.
Display: The 1470 screen has richer colors than the 1440, at their higher settings, the 1470 is just a little brighter than the 1440, still the 1440 screen is just as bright as you need a GPS screen to be.
Response time: I tested them in situations such turning them on/off, missing my turns to see how fast it would relocate, assigning destinations and looking up Points of Interests, The 1440 responded from 1-3 seconds faster than the 1470 model. Might not seem like much of a difference, but when you're on the road, just a few seconds might make you miss your exit!
Features: they both have the exact same features, nothing different here.
Sound: The 1440 has a slight louder speaker than the 1470.
Both units are great, differences were very minimal. This choice is mostly determined on how big you want the screen and how much you are willing to pay for the difference.
I hope that this review helps you make a better buying choice!
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good basic GPS unit. Not fancy, but gets the job done with ease.
June 27, 2009
Amazon Vine™ Review
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The Magellan 1440 is a 4.3 inch GPS unit equipped with maps of North America. I have a previous Magellan GPS unit and found this to be an improvement in several key ways as detailed below:
Pros:
1. The 4.3 inch screen does not sound like a significant upgrade from a 3.5 inch, but it is like going from a standard definition TV to a HD television system. It is a noticeable difference. Graphics are nice, and you get pop-ups showing the correct freeway ramps to take, plus the unit zooms in on tricky freeway intersections and the like. Nice feature.
2. Set-up: I found this to be quite easy and straightforward. In fact, all I did was power up the unit and let it find a satellite location. This does take a few minutes, so don't expect directions in moments. However, after the first satellite location, it only takes mere seconds for subsequent location finding. Power is scant, so you will need to power up the unit with either the included power cord for the car, or the USB cord.
3. The unit itself is about the width of your thumbnail, which is pretty small. A speaker is located in the back, with the USB cord on the bottom.
4. The holder which is included is far better constructed than my previous model. It feels more secure and stable, and the hook-up to the unit is a slide-in slot on the back rather than the previous holder which was like hands. (let me note I didn't have problems with that holder, but this feels more secure).
5. One touch is a feature that takes you to the things you would probably want beyond directions such as your route home, points of interest, gas and battery power and satellite strength. It is very easy to locate and works well when driving.
6. Points of interest include AAA listings and are fairly good. Some locations will be out of date, but overall you can find the things you need most. It has helped me locate things like a gas station when low on gas!
7. Ease of use: it is straightforward and easy to use. Easy to punch in a location and have the GPS locate you a route.
8. Brightness seems fine in broad daylight. A driver may want to go to system features and turn off the battery saving feature which seems to make things dimmer at all times.
9. Traffic feature: for a pretty low price, you can buy a power adapter which allows you to receive traffic updates for your unit. This is (considering the price) a great feature.
Neutral:
1. Location of USB port: my previous model had the USB port located on the left side which was terrible because I then a cord running invariably underneath and behind the unit to the power plug. This model makes an improvement by locating the port underneath. I do wish the unit had been oriented other way so that you don't have to scrunch the cord to run it the other direction (is this for a British car because no American model has power located on the left side of the driver, and most drivers will place the item near the center.
2. Spoken languages: Not much choice here, just English, French and Spanish.
3. No capacity I am aware of to add voices or sounds off the internet.
4. There is a micro-SD slot, I have no idea what to use it for since it is not explained anywhere. Map updates of some sort? Nothing is noted anywhere that would tell the user what the purpose of having this is.
Cons:
1. Quite honestly, I have not encountered any real problems or issues.
2. If you must have features such as Bluetooth, or voice dialing, this does not have those features.
3. On/Off button: My previous unit had a button you had to press and hold down for a few moments before start-up. This unit has a sliding on/off button. Frankly, after some use, the button is an annoyance. Not a major issue, but I don't like this button!
4. Can't tell my location: actually no, that isn't true! - I can tell my present location, but compared to my previous Magellan here is the difference - I had a digital compass with an altimeter. Neat stuff when driving across the Mojave desert or Imperial Valley below sea level. I can't find this feature anymore on this unit and greatly wish it was there because it was cool. Definitely not pleased with this. Knowing your position relative to a compass was a nice feature. Knowing your altitude was a bonus. Why was this taken out?
Overall, I find this unit to be a simple and reliable source of driving information. It has many features relative to the price. It is easy to use, and uncomplicated. Having only used Magellan GPS units, I cannot comment on other models such as Tom-Tom or Garmin (they have some cool commercials though), but I believe a buyer cannot go wrong with this unit if you're looking for an easy and basic GPS unit. Overall, I am quite pleased. I do not believe a user will be disappointed in the slightest with this unit.
May I also recommend this friction mount:
HDFMB-2: i.Trek V2 Open Front Heavy Duty Friction Mount Base for Garmin, TomTom, Magellan GPS Devices
Pros:
1. The 4.3 inch screen does not sound like a significant upgrade from a 3.5 inch, but it is like going from a standard definition TV to a HD television system. It is a noticeable difference. Graphics are nice, and you get pop-ups showing the correct freeway ramps to take, plus the unit zooms in on tricky freeway intersections and the like. Nice feature.
2. Set-up: I found this to be quite easy and straightforward. In fact, all I did was power up the unit and let it find a satellite location. This does take a few minutes, so don't expect directions in moments. However, after the first satellite location, it only takes mere seconds for subsequent location finding. Power is scant, so you will need to power up the unit with either the included power cord for the car, or the USB cord.
3. The unit itself is about the width of your thumbnail, which is pretty small. A speaker is located in the back, with the USB cord on the bottom.
4. The holder which is included is far better constructed than my previous model. It feels more secure and stable, and the hook-up to the unit is a slide-in slot on the back rather than the previous holder which was like hands. (let me note I didn't have problems with that holder, but this feels more secure).
5. One touch is a feature that takes you to the things you would probably want beyond directions such as your route home, points of interest, gas and battery power and satellite strength. It is very easy to locate and works well when driving.
6. Points of interest include AAA listings and are fairly good. Some locations will be out of date, but overall you can find the things you need most. It has helped me locate things like a gas station when low on gas!
7. Ease of use: it is straightforward and easy to use. Easy to punch in a location and have the GPS locate you a route.
8. Brightness seems fine in broad daylight. A driver may want to go to system features and turn off the battery saving feature which seems to make things dimmer at all times.
9. Traffic feature: for a pretty low price, you can buy a power adapter which allows you to receive traffic updates for your unit. This is (considering the price) a great feature.
Neutral:
1. Location of USB port: my previous model had the USB port located on the left side which was terrible because I then a cord running invariably underneath and behind the unit to the power plug. This model makes an improvement by locating the port underneath. I do wish the unit had been oriented other way so that you don't have to scrunch the cord to run it the other direction (is this for a British car because no American model has power located on the left side of the driver, and most drivers will place the item near the center.
2. Spoken languages: Not much choice here, just English, French and Spanish.
3. No capacity I am aware of to add voices or sounds off the internet.
4. There is a micro-SD slot, I have no idea what to use it for since it is not explained anywhere. Map updates of some sort? Nothing is noted anywhere that would tell the user what the purpose of having this is.
Cons:
1. Quite honestly, I have not encountered any real problems or issues.
2. If you must have features such as Bluetooth, or voice dialing, this does not have those features.
3. On/Off button: My previous unit had a button you had to press and hold down for a few moments before start-up. This unit has a sliding on/off button. Frankly, after some use, the button is an annoyance. Not a major issue, but I don't like this button!
4. Can't tell my location: actually no, that isn't true! - I can tell my present location, but compared to my previous Magellan here is the difference - I had a digital compass with an altimeter. Neat stuff when driving across the Mojave desert or Imperial Valley below sea level. I can't find this feature anymore on this unit and greatly wish it was there because it was cool. Definitely not pleased with this. Knowing your position relative to a compass was a nice feature. Knowing your altitude was a bonus. Why was this taken out?
Overall, I find this unit to be a simple and reliable source of driving information. It has many features relative to the price. It is easy to use, and uncomplicated. Having only used Magellan GPS units, I cannot comment on other models such as Tom-Tom or Garmin (they have some cool commercials though), but I believe a buyer cannot go wrong with this unit if you're looking for an easy and basic GPS unit. Overall, I am quite pleased. I do not believe a user will be disappointed in the slightest with this unit.
May I also recommend this friction mount:
HDFMB-2: i.Trek V2 Open Front Heavy Duty Friction Mount Base for Garmin, TomTom, Magellan GPS Devices
176 of 204 people found the following review helpful
By Pavahotti
Amazon Vine™ Review
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This Magellan GPS is not a bad GPS. Indeed, for someone who has never used a GPS before, this might be a pleasant experience. But for the past two or three years, I have used a Garmin GPS. And compared to the Garmin, the Magellan is an exercise in frustration.
Let's just start from the beginning.
Satellite connection:
This thing took an inordinate amount of time to connect to the satellite signals when I first started it up. I don't know if this is because it was searching the entire world for the correct satellites, or what, but all the Garmin GPS devices I have used ask you to input your initial position manually, probably so that it doesn't have to go searching the entire sky to figure out which satellites to use and where you are. It took so long to connect, in fact, that I thought I had received a faulty unit.
On subsequent startups, the connection was much quicker, but still not as fast as my two-year-old Garmin.
Entering addresses:
Typing in your destination address is a bad experience. Why? Well, as you type each letter, the Magellan tries to figure out which street you are talking about. This is fine, but as soon as it figures out -- or thinks it figures out -- what street you probably mean, it jumps to a screen of street name suggestions. This would be fine if it paused briefly before accepting new input. But it doesn't, and so fast typists like me will inevitably choose a street or city without seeing what we have selected, because we are still typing the name. Then you have to go back and start again.
In comparison, the Garmin throws in a slight one second delay before allowing you to choose the intended street name from its list of suggestions. This prevents any accidental input.
Navigation:
Okay, this is a big one. The Magellan's navigation algorithms are, for want of a better word, funky. I had the machine set to give me the fastest, rather than the shortest, route. However, its alleged fastest route is almost never the actual fastest route. This is a huge problem, essentially negating one of the main benefits of a GPS. I know how to get to a lot of places around town in a roundabout way, but presumably a GPS is able to calculate the most direct route. However, as I entered in destinations into the Magellan, I was shocked and annoyed to find that its fastest route was always several minutes longer than the Garmin's fastest route. (For comparison's sake, I was often using the Magellan and the Garmin at the same time.)
The Garmin always knew what it was doing. When I entered in an address across town, the Garmin usually told me to take the freeway (specifically, I 66), and would give me its estimated time of arrival. The Magellan, however, wanted me to take an odd, non-freeway route, with an estimated time of arrival of several minutes longer than the Garmin's calculation. I double-checked the Magellan's settings to make sure that freeways were enabled, and indeed they were. For some reason, the Magellan simply wasn't using them. When I decided to take the Garmin's advice, the Magellan eventually recalculated the route, and now that it was on the freeway, it gave me an updated time of arrival -- several minutes shorter than its original so-called fastest time.
The Magellan's fastest time calculations are simply wrong. I know this not just from my experimental observations, but also because it has a neat feature where you can see a screen listing the estimated time of arrival using its various different navigation settings: fastest time, shortest route, etc. Frequently, it's "fastest time" was actually longer than the rest of the navigation options. This makes absolutely no sense and is indicative of a bug in the navigation algorithms.
Voice guidance:
Had I never used a Garmin GPS, I would have thought the Magellan's voice guidance was perfectly adequate. However, with the Magellan and the Garmin sitting next to each other, both trying to explain what to do next, the differences -- and the shortcomings of the Magellan -- were obvious. The Magellan's computerized voice was stilted, and nowhere as natural sounding as the Garmin. The Magellan would say something like, "Right Turn, Point Five Miles, Harrison Street." The Garmin would say, "In Point Five Miles, Turn Right on Harrison Street."
Voice guidance on freeways was even worse, a crying shame considering the high speeds at which one drives on the freeway. You should not have to use any brainpower to decipher what the GPS is trying to tell you, and yet the Magellan required some concentration and decoding. It would bombard you with various route and exit numbers, giving you far more information than you need to take the next exit, and rattling off that information without natural pauses. It was frustrating.
Freeway navigation theoretically should have been made more pleasing than the Garmin by the addition of Magellan's interesting sounding Exit Sign Technology. This feature allows you to display the various green freeway signs on the screen of your Magellan, highlighting the sign that you want to follow. This is supposed to be easier than just listening to the voice telling you which exit to take. But it really just adds confusion, as I have to stare at the different reproduced signs, (which are not actual pictures of the real highway signs, by the way, but just generic green highway signs that usually look nothing like the real signs), and try to figure out what it wants me to do. Again, this just requires more brainpower and makes it more likely that I will get confused at 80 mph and miss an exit.
And the Magellan's timing was off. Timing on a GPS is a very subtle, yet important feature. The GPS has to be able to tell you when to turn at different times depending on what speed you are going, how far ahead the turn is, whether you're going to need to switch lanes quickly to make the turn, etc. Garmin's programmers got this right; Magellan's didn't. Again, this is something that I might not even have realized had I only been using the Magellan, and had I never used a Garmin. But, having had a successful GPS experience for years, the deficiencies in the Magellan's voice and timing algorithms were evident.
Display:
The navigation display colors are horrible. I don't know if the Magellan engineers had never used any other GPS devices, or did not focus group their display, but the colors they chose to delineate roads and routes are completely nonsensical. During the day, in order to indicate the routes to take, the Magellan highlights your suggested roads in a light yellowish green line, which is displayed over a slightly darker yellowish green background. At night, the color scheme is not much better. Now, my eyes are fine. I am in my late 20s and I can generally see things on a LCD monitor with no problem, and yet I had trouble seeing which roads were actually highlighted.
The Garmin gets this right. It overlays a bright pink line against a gray background during the day, and a dark blue background at night. This is much easier to see. There are never any questions over whether or not a road is actually highlighted. I always know where I'm supposed to go.
It is really ironic that the Magellan, which has an amazingly clear and bright LCD screen, would be so inferior in this area to my old clunky Garmin with its faded screen. But because of the questionable choice of colors, the Garmin crushes it.
Does the Magellan have any pros?
Sure. As I said, it has a beautiful screen. It is generally a fast machine (except for connecting to the satellite, sometimes). Its navigation interface, although cluttered, gives you quicker one touch access to destinations than the Garmin does. This is handy when on the highway, for instance -- it takes two taps to see the list of nearest gas stations (Where to, Gas), compared to four taps on the Garmin (Menu, Where to, Food/Fuel/Etc., Gas Stations). The Garmin is less cluttered, but it takes longer to wade through its many submenus. Finally, the Magellan's standard closing phrase ("You have ARRIVED!") sounds far cooler than the Garmin's ho-hum "Now arriving."
Bottom line:
My two-year-old Garmin GPS is a far superior device to this brand-new Magellan. Had I never known the Garmin, I would be satisfied with the Magellan. But I know what a GPS device is capable of. I simply cannot use the Magellan because it is incredibly frustrating and gets a lot of things, most notably navigation calculations, very wrong.
My advice? Look at Amazon's list of best selling GPS devices. The crowd is rarely wrong, and in this case the crowd and I both agree: If you want to get somewhere, Garmin is the way to go.
Let's just start from the beginning.
Satellite connection:
This thing took an inordinate amount of time to connect to the satellite signals when I first started it up. I don't know if this is because it was searching the entire world for the correct satellites, or what, but all the Garmin GPS devices I have used ask you to input your initial position manually, probably so that it doesn't have to go searching the entire sky to figure out which satellites to use and where you are. It took so long to connect, in fact, that I thought I had received a faulty unit.
On subsequent startups, the connection was much quicker, but still not as fast as my two-year-old Garmin.
Entering addresses:
Typing in your destination address is a bad experience. Why? Well, as you type each letter, the Magellan tries to figure out which street you are talking about. This is fine, but as soon as it figures out -- or thinks it figures out -- what street you probably mean, it jumps to a screen of street name suggestions. This would be fine if it paused briefly before accepting new input. But it doesn't, and so fast typists like me will inevitably choose a street or city without seeing what we have selected, because we are still typing the name. Then you have to go back and start again.
In comparison, the Garmin throws in a slight one second delay before allowing you to choose the intended street name from its list of suggestions. This prevents any accidental input.
Navigation:
Okay, this is a big one. The Magellan's navigation algorithms are, for want of a better word, funky. I had the machine set to give me the fastest, rather than the shortest, route. However, its alleged fastest route is almost never the actual fastest route. This is a huge problem, essentially negating one of the main benefits of a GPS. I know how to get to a lot of places around town in a roundabout way, but presumably a GPS is able to calculate the most direct route. However, as I entered in destinations into the Magellan, I was shocked and annoyed to find that its fastest route was always several minutes longer than the Garmin's fastest route. (For comparison's sake, I was often using the Magellan and the Garmin at the same time.)
The Garmin always knew what it was doing. When I entered in an address across town, the Garmin usually told me to take the freeway (specifically, I 66), and would give me its estimated time of arrival. The Magellan, however, wanted me to take an odd, non-freeway route, with an estimated time of arrival of several minutes longer than the Garmin's calculation. I double-checked the Magellan's settings to make sure that freeways were enabled, and indeed they were. For some reason, the Magellan simply wasn't using them. When I decided to take the Garmin's advice, the Magellan eventually recalculated the route, and now that it was on the freeway, it gave me an updated time of arrival -- several minutes shorter than its original so-called fastest time.
The Magellan's fastest time calculations are simply wrong. I know this not just from my experimental observations, but also because it has a neat feature where you can see a screen listing the estimated time of arrival using its various different navigation settings: fastest time, shortest route, etc. Frequently, it's "fastest time" was actually longer than the rest of the navigation options. This makes absolutely no sense and is indicative of a bug in the navigation algorithms.
Voice guidance:
Had I never used a Garmin GPS, I would have thought the Magellan's voice guidance was perfectly adequate. However, with the Magellan and the Garmin sitting next to each other, both trying to explain what to do next, the differences -- and the shortcomings of the Magellan -- were obvious. The Magellan's computerized voice was stilted, and nowhere as natural sounding as the Garmin. The Magellan would say something like, "Right Turn, Point Five Miles, Harrison Street." The Garmin would say, "In Point Five Miles, Turn Right on Harrison Street."
Voice guidance on freeways was even worse, a crying shame considering the high speeds at which one drives on the freeway. You should not have to use any brainpower to decipher what the GPS is trying to tell you, and yet the Magellan required some concentration and decoding. It would bombard you with various route and exit numbers, giving you far more information than you need to take the next exit, and rattling off that information without natural pauses. It was frustrating.
Freeway navigation theoretically should have been made more pleasing than the Garmin by the addition of Magellan's interesting sounding Exit Sign Technology. This feature allows you to display the various green freeway signs on the screen of your Magellan, highlighting the sign that you want to follow. This is supposed to be easier than just listening to the voice telling you which exit to take. But it really just adds confusion, as I have to stare at the different reproduced signs, (which are not actual pictures of the real highway signs, by the way, but just generic green highway signs that usually look nothing like the real signs), and try to figure out what it wants me to do. Again, this just requires more brainpower and makes it more likely that I will get confused at 80 mph and miss an exit.
And the Magellan's timing was off. Timing on a GPS is a very subtle, yet important feature. The GPS has to be able to tell you when to turn at different times depending on what speed you are going, how far ahead the turn is, whether you're going to need to switch lanes quickly to make the turn, etc. Garmin's programmers got this right; Magellan's didn't. Again, this is something that I might not even have realized had I only been using the Magellan, and had I never used a Garmin. But, having had a successful GPS experience for years, the deficiencies in the Magellan's voice and timing algorithms were evident.
Display:
The navigation display colors are horrible. I don't know if the Magellan engineers had never used any other GPS devices, or did not focus group their display, but the colors they chose to delineate roads and routes are completely nonsensical. During the day, in order to indicate the routes to take, the Magellan highlights your suggested roads in a light yellowish green line, which is displayed over a slightly darker yellowish green background. At night, the color scheme is not much better. Now, my eyes are fine. I am in my late 20s and I can generally see things on a LCD monitor with no problem, and yet I had trouble seeing which roads were actually highlighted.
The Garmin gets this right. It overlays a bright pink line against a gray background during the day, and a dark blue background at night. This is much easier to see. There are never any questions over whether or not a road is actually highlighted. I always know where I'm supposed to go.
It is really ironic that the Magellan, which has an amazingly clear and bright LCD screen, would be so inferior in this area to my old clunky Garmin with its faded screen. But because of the questionable choice of colors, the Garmin crushes it.
Does the Magellan have any pros?
Sure. As I said, it has a beautiful screen. It is generally a fast machine (except for connecting to the satellite, sometimes). Its navigation interface, although cluttered, gives you quicker one touch access to destinations than the Garmin does. This is handy when on the highway, for instance -- it takes two taps to see the list of nearest gas stations (Where to, Gas), compared to four taps on the Garmin (Menu, Where to, Food/Fuel/Etc., Gas Stations). The Garmin is less cluttered, but it takes longer to wade through its many submenus. Finally, the Magellan's standard closing phrase ("You have ARRIVED!") sounds far cooler than the Garmin's ho-hum "Now arriving."
Bottom line:
My two-year-old Garmin GPS is a far superior device to this brand-new Magellan. Had I never known the Garmin, I would be satisfied with the Magellan. But I know what a GPS device is capable of. I simply cannot use the Magellan because it is incredibly frustrating and gets a lot of things, most notably navigation calculations, very wrong.
My advice? Look at Amazon's list of best selling GPS devices. The crowd is rarely wrong, and in this case the crowd and I both agree: If you want to get somewhere, Garmin is the way to go.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
6 year old Magellan is more reliable
Difficult to enter addresses, constantly looses its way and wanders off into the woods. My old Magellan is much more reliable. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Olred
2.0 out of 5 stars
Calibration issues with the screen
I bought this product as a used item and my experience was disappointing. It worked well for around 2 months however screen calibration started as a major issue specially on the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mohit Sahni
1.0 out of 5 stars
Evidently no quality control at your supplier.
I bought this GPS as a Christmas gift for my grandson. He opened the package on Christmas eve and IT DIDN"T WORK! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Eldon A. Brewer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect. Easy to use. Fast Shipping.
Perfect Fast Shipping Easy to Use.
May not be as Nice as a Garmin and a little more Technical than a Tom-Tom, but over-all
I juts really Like this little unit. Read more
May not be as Nice as a Garmin and a little more Technical than a Tom-Tom, but over-all
I juts really Like this little unit. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Clifford L. Reihing
1.0 out of 5 stars
software prompt for firmware upgrade after 3 years then dead after it.
This is 3 years after i bought this device. After i enter a new address, my roadmate 1440 showed "Your device needs to be restarted to increase performance. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A Lin
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fine until you need service
I use a GPS all the time, and have used a wide variety of them. I liked Magellan's the best as they were a fair price and had good maps. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Anyon
5.0 out of 5 stars
GPS
I would be lost without this Magellan. We have 4 in the family. Easy to use. Great Product. No Problems. We talk to Magellan as if it's another person in the car with us. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Lucy
1.0 out of 5 stars
Does not stand the test of time
I have had this GPS for the past 1.5 years. This is my second Magellan. My first one was a 4300 which I really liked. Read more
Published 9 months ago by B. Michaels
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magellan Roadmate
This is my 3rd Magellan GPS and am happy with the performance of this one. Have had other GPS units TomTom, Garmin, and valuewise, Magellan is outstanding. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Winger
1.0 out of 5 stars
Only lasted 6 months
This was my 3rd Magellan and my last. They only last 8months. DO NOT BUY ANY OF THEM. The function s are great, they dont last very long and they wont fix them. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mizzle "Emily"
