Magellan RoadMate 2200T Portable GPS Navigator, Silver

Other products by Magellan

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6 x 9 inches ; 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000IELOY4
• Item model number: 980897-01
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,345 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 15, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

If you don't own a car with its own navigation system, and you're tired of looking up destinations on the internet and printing the results--or even worse, stopping to ask for directions--the Magellan 2200T make be just what you're looking for. Its sturdy and easily portable design, simple operation, and multi-function capability make it a great choice for any journey.

Small, rugged, and powerful; the Magellan 2200T packs everything you need for navigation, and nothing you don't. View larger.

Select from a huge database of POIs. View larger.

Navigate to a tasty snack in a jiffy. View larger.

Use the address book to store your most important destinations. View larger.

A user-friendly browser lets you search through and display your photos. View larger.

Design
The Magellan 2200T is compact and solid, making it easy to bring along wherever you go, as well as providing a sense of confidence that it can survive the bumps of bruises that come with the mobile lifestyle. It measures just 3.7 x 2.0 x 0.6 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 7.8 ounces, making it only a little chunkier than your average PDA or Smartphone. The first thing you'll notice on its exterior is almost complete lack of buttons. This is because all interaction with the 2200T happens between the touchscreen and your finger. In the interest of simplicity, there is not even a stylus that can fall to the floor and roll under your the seat of your car. The only button you'll find on the device is the recessed rubber power button on the top right.

All other connections are protected by rubber covers that can be peeled away for access. Below the power button you'll find ports for USB, headphones, and the external power supply. On the left is an SD/MMC card slot, a reset button, and a handy hold button that puts the device in a temporary power-saving mode.

Setup and Interface
Setup is as easy as turning the device on, since it comes loaded with maps of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, and is ready to go right out of the box. We found interacting with the touchscreen to be intuitive and reliable. With this device, there's really no need for a stylus or navigation buttons, which simplifies things on the road. The screen itself is sharp and clear with its 320 x 240 pixel resolution display and support for 64,000 colors. The 2200T comes with a dash or windshield mount, a wall charger, a USB cable, a CD with software for photos and music. Unfortunately, a vehicle charger is not included, however.

The 2200T not only provides audible commands for turns, but is able to indicate street names using a text-to-voice system Magellan calls "SayWhere." We found this to be a very useful feature, especially when attempting to navigate in an unfamiliar city, although some of the street names were difficult to understand, particularly those derived from Spanish.

A handy music player makes enjoying tunes on the go a breeze.

Navigation
The main purpose of any car GPS device is to take you reliably from point A to B. Here the 2200T performs nicely indeed, providing several options for finding your destination. To get going you can select either a street address, a specific point of interest, a destination from the address book, or an intersection (if you're not sure of the exact address). To speed up text entry, the unit employs a QuickSpell feature that displays only the letters that spell an item in its database. This greatly reduces the letters from which you have to choose to tell it where you want to go.

Once it knows where you are headed, the device offers you the choice of shortest time, shortest distance, most use of freeways, or least use of freeways. You'll also find a trip planner that lets you layout and save multiple destinations.

Other Goodies
Like a number of other similar devices, the Magellan 2200T also houses an MP3 player and a very nice photo/slide viewer. It's a breeze to drop music files or photos into the folders already located on the included SD card. We found the music player intuitive, with no serious learning curve. You can't listen to tunes and navigate at the same time, however.

The device is also ideal for sharing snapshots of summer vacation with grandma once you make it over the river and through the woods. Colors are crisp and bright, and displaying your photos is idiot-proof for anyone who has ever used a computer or digital camera.

The 2200T is a rugged and functional GPS navigator that is easy to use and reliable. If basic navigation is what you are looking for, and you can do without the bells and whistles of Bluetooth connections and real-time traffic information (although Magellan states that real-time traffic information can be added to the 2200T as an accessory), this could be just the ticket.

Pros

• Rugged device with multiple functions and options
• Easy to use
• Reliable map included on SD card
• Includes MP3 Player and Photo Viewer

Cons

• Can't listen to MP3 player and navigate at the same time
• No bells and whistles

What's in the Box
Magellan RoadMate 2200T, windshield mount, DC power adapter, USB data cable, quick reference guide, reference manual on CD-ROM, car holder, and adhesive dashboard disk.

Product Description

Get the first full-featured, pocket-sized, expandable vehicle navigation system! Simple touch-screen menus make it easy to select virtually any destination and get turn-by-turn voice and visual guidance. This CrossoverGPS1 can be upgraded to work with all of your outdoor adventures. And because it's waterproof to IPX-4 there's no need to worry about coffee spills, rain, humidity or it getting wet.The Magellan RoadMate 2200T offers the best-in-class battery performance for up to 8 hours of continuous use. You can navigate your outdoor adventures and trails, search points of interest, plan trips, listen to music and view pictures even when you're away from your vehicle. It is rugged, waterproof to IPX-4 and fits in your pocket so you can take it with you anywhere.Its smart design makes the Magellan RoadMate 2200T easier than ever to use. Simple touch-screen menus and a built-in interactive map of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico makes it easy to select virtually any destination and get turn-by-turn directions as you drive.Use the touch screen to enter an address or select a point of interest and get an instant route using the shortest time, shortest distance, most freeways or least freeways. 1.5 million pre-programmed points of interest enable you to quickly find gas stations, airports, hotels, restaurants and much more.Select the points of interest icons that you want to appear on the map. Touch an icon to get detailed information about a destination, including phone number when available. Save your own personal points of interest to the internal Address Book or Favorites List to quickly navigate to frequent destinations.Additional advanced features include multi-destination routing, almost two million pre-programmed points of interest and SayWhere text-to-speech that tells you the street name of your next turn. Plus, Secure Digital (SD) memory card compatibility and built-in music player and picture viewer let you take entertainment wherever you go.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

240 of 241 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best in its class, November 13, 2006

By	Charles (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The 2200T just came out this fall (2006), so many of the online review summaries have not adequately compared it to the competition. The most direct competition comes from the Tom Tom One (same price range), although many may be considering paying more money for the Garmin Nuvi 360 as well.

I took a look at the Nuvi 360 in the store, and it was quite flimsy feeling compared to the 2200T. The Nuvi felt a bit cheap compared to the very solid feel of the 2200T. Considering the Nuvi's significantly higher price and large overlap of key features, I didn't consider the Nuvi further. Your mileage may vary, but the Nuvi seemed like a poor value.

The Tom Tom One has gotten a lot of praise, and I'm sure it's a good product, but most of the online reviews were written before the 2200T was widely available. The reasons that I chose the 2200T over the Tom Tom are:

1. Spoken street names. Often called "text to speech," the 2200T actually says the street names when giving directions ("Turn Left on Main Street") so you can keep your eyes on the road (and look for the street sign). The Tom Tom just says "Turn Left" and you either have to trust that it means the next possible left turn, or you have to take your eyes off of the road to find the street name on the the screen. And on the Tom Tom website it doesn't appear that the name of the street that you should turn onto is always displayed on that map.

2. Display information. The 2200T always displays above the map the name of the street you are on AND below the map the name of the street you will turn on next. You can always find that information quickly. The Tom Tom only displays below the map the name of the street that you are currently on: there is no fixed display of the street (or exit) coming up (a big oversight in my view). You have to wait until you get close to it to see it on the map itself. This can be a problem if you need to get into an exit lane or turning lane well before the turn--the Tom Tom will not give you adequate information to do that.

3. Display information (part II). The 2200T shows a detailed view of the intersection at the upcoming turn as you approach it: this clearly diagrams any tricky traffic flow that you may have to navigate, and it can appear on half the screen while the standard map remains on the other half. In a sense, the 2200T walks you through the turn, which can be extremely useful when street layouts and traffic flow are complex and unfamiliar (exactly why you buy these things in the first place). The Tom Tom only has the standard map view, so it doesn't provide the extra detail that the 2200T does (it's not even a view that you can manually call up).

4. Interface design. The 2200T has a very easy to understand design. Many extra bits of information are accessible by pressing different buttons on the map screen. Press the readout of distance to the next turn, for example, and it repeats the last verbal instruction. Or press the symbol for the next turn in the bottom left, and it shows a whole list of the turns for the route. The Tom Tom also has a friendly interface, but the online reviews that I saw didn't credit the 2200T with also being good.

5. Expandable. The 2200T can be expanded to include off-road topographic maps (when Magellan introduces these in the next couple of months). The Tom Tom only has maps for roads, and Tom Tom has no expansion plan to include topo maps.

6. Backup and restore without a PC. The 2200T will backup (and restore) all of your stored data (addresses, additional points of interest) to an SD memory card. No connection to a computer required. The Tom Tom needs you to have a computer with their software installed in order to backup and restore.

7. Import Points of Interest (POI) from all standard formats. The PC (Windows only) software for the 2200T reads all of the standard file formats (including XML) for Points of Interest. So if you want to pull a dataset off of the internet (for example, if you are into geocaching), the 2200T software can show them on the map. The Tom Tom does also have the ability to add data points, but it's unclear from their literature whether all of the standard formats are supported.

8. Battery life. The 2200T has an eight-hour battery life, so you can really use it all day outside of the car (if you're walking around an unfamiliar city, for example, or if you get the upcoming topographic map upgrade for off-road use while hiking or fishing). The Tom Tom One has only a two-hour nominal battery life, and the manufacturer's estimates are usually optimistic. It's a pity since the Tom Tom One is also highly portable and would otherwise be useful when not in the car. (N.B. The 2200T only ships with a car charger. If you want to use it outside of your car when you first open the box, you need to charge it up for two hours. You may want to get an AC charger in this case (unless you plan to be driving for a couple of hours after you get it). AC chargers are available from Magellan and various after-market suppliers on the internet.)

By comparison, the Tom Tom has few advantages. It does provide Macintosh software as well as Windows, but the Magellan 2200T is self-contained. The PC software is not required to operate and backup the device, so the advantage here is slight.

I hope the results of my research are useful. Both the Tom Tom One and the Magellan 2200T are very good, but I think the 2200T offers more value. I also notice that several folks have posted comments about inaccurate maps and software problems with the Tom Tom (which uses the Tele Atlas map database). I expect Tom Tom will sort out those problems, but the 2200T uses NAVTEQ maps, which are the best available for consumer GPS, so accuracy should be very good out of the box.

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth considering, November 27, 2006

By	PRAANT "consumer" (Castle Rock, Colorado USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this item from Amazon and definitely found it worth recommending to others who might be interested in an not-too-pricey or not-to-cheap GPS receiver. I have used it for about 3 weeks now to navigate my way in NJ/NY/DE/MD/DC

Form Factor - Small / Lightweight / Portable / Very nicey sealed to be splash resistant. The antenna is built into the unit, not a pop up type so no fear of breaking anything. I expect the unit to be very durable because of this.

Battery Life - Specs say around 8 hours, but I have been able to get at least 5 hours or so without recharging the unit, one problem though was that the power level is not visible at all times on the main screen and the unit just shut down at low power without any advance warning. No wall charger supplied and thats a bummer for a unit that costs close to $450.

Navigation - Very clear and accurate directions. Ultra fast rerouting (less than 6 seconds) if you were to miss a turn. Anything faster will be counter productive. The interface is very basic compared to others, but I chose the unit for its simplicity. The built in antenna was able to lock on to at least 11 out of 12 satellites at 90% of the time. Worked nicely in Washington, DC hovewer in New York this unit was useless with tall buildings it could not even get a bearing on its current position.
The maps were accurate most of the time however not perfectly upto date. One good feature is that this unit is upgradeable compared to the Roadmate 2000, hovewer cost to upgrade is unknown at this time.

Text to speech feature - This unit actually spells out street names "Turn right on Main Street in 0.2 miles" instead of just "Turn right in 0.2 miles". On occasion I have even tried to navigate without looking at the screen just listening to its voice prompts in the background and the unit did a good job at pointing me in the right direction. I personally found this feature to be very useful and definitely worth the extra premium in price. One drawback the unit could not not spell numbers it says "exit one-zero" instead of "exit ten", interestingly for interstate highways it said the opposite "I twenty five" instead of "I two five"

I am still testing the unit and will continue to add to this review

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good value for the money. Good features, few drawbacks., November 6, 2006

By	E. Morales (Newtown, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased a Magellan 2200T two weeks ago. Overall, I am happy with this GPS unit and I think it provides good value for the relatively low cost (compared to other units in its class).

The reason I purchased this unit (instead of the Tom Tom One and some of the Garmin units) is that it DOES include features that I valued like:

- Text to speech, the unit says the name of the street / road you need to take
- SIRF III chipset (faster satellite lock)
- Extended battery life (don't need to be constantly charging the unit)

This unit also excludes some "features" that others charge for that I don't feel add value to a GPS unit in this price range, specifically Bluetooth capabilities. I own a BT phone and headset, and can't imagine why I'd want to drag a GPS unit into the mix.

The NAVTEQ maps are as accurate as any GPS unit, and the POI set is adequate (I think it may contain slightly fewer points of interest vs. other units).

Again, overall I'm happy with the features, quality, and functionality. My only "wishes" are for a more robust POI database and a better online documentation from Magellan.