Thursday 10 December 2009

Deck Your Car Out with a Magellan GPS System

By Joseph Aaron

Nearly all of the major GPS device marketers are making efforts to further develop their wares. They are offering more up-to-date features to make navigation easier for travelers who use wheels, sneakers, or any other method of transportation in between. Although these companies are really trying to keep these GPS devices affordable for the middle-class consumer, the consequence of all the technology housed in the device will understandably be larger price tags. The best that these designers can do for those of us who can't pay for all the latest technology is to market absolutely basic models of the GPS devices which are affordable for Joe 6-cylinder. A nice option is the Magellan Roadmate--70 Portable GPS Navigator.

Magellan GPS devices are slightly different because Magellan has always manufactured their top-selling models to be inexpensive but also convenient. The disadvantage of affordability, logically, is that brand new technology is hardly ever found at low prices. Consequently, the quality of Magellan's GPS models has received mixed reviews. Magellan addressed this issue by producing several high-end versions for the most demanding GPS users.

Magellan Maestro

When you are looking for a reasonably priced navigator for your car, the Magellan Maestro line-up offers quite a few models which are specifically for vehicle navigation. Magellan Maestro models are available in the 3000, 4000, and 5000 range. Each of the 3000 models are remarkably low priced with a few like the Maestro 3100 selling for below $200 which is amazingly cheap for a GPS device which offers 2-D and 3-D display options. Probably their best function is the QuickSpell feature, which allows uncomplicated input for road names.

Every other single aspect, including the performance is mediocre and hanging is all too constant. With the exception of a couple of the 4000 and 5000 models, the Magellan Maestro is really not reliable, but the price remains reasonable.

Magellan Roadmate

As implied by their name, this collection of Magellan GPS devices were made for cars also. However they are different from their Maestro siblings as far as appearance. Roadmates are designed to be more portable, having a smaller profile yet having the same interface. As a result the Roadmates are about as easy to operate and much easier to keep than the Maestros. A great unit is the Magellan Road mate--70 Portable GPS Navigator.

In the area of performance, the Roadmate is a bit improved with one or two models such as the Roadmate 1212 offering the Centrality Atlas III Processor. If you prefer playing with the menus, you may observe a fairly irritating delay while pressing the buttons. The battery life isn't remarkable either; it's usable for somewhere near 3 hours at which point a recharge is called for.

On the bright side, the Roadmate is thought to be better than several of the Maestro budget models, logging far more POI's than the Maestro 3100 which has a inadequate 750,000 points of interest. The Roadmate closes the gap with competing manufacturers by offering over 6 million points of interest. Text-to-speech, which is generally a welcome feature, is also included in several of the affordable models. The price isn't too bad either, which is notable for a slim device. A good device to look into is the Magellan Roadmate--70 Portable GPS Navigator.

Despite the fact that there are only two collections to select from, they each have at least 10 models within each set all with different prices and functions. The least expensive Magellan devices aren't recommended for constant users on account of the regular crashes, but the higher quality models are quite satisfactory and will be sufficient for travelers to be pleased with.

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