Magellan RoadMate 1200 Automotive GPS Reviewed

by Justin

The Magellan RoadMate 1200 car GPS, variably priced in the vicinity of $200, immediately looks to be the perfect entry-level navigator. Reasonable price and reputable name; how could you possibly go wrong? CNET spilled the dirt on the RoadMate 1200 GPS, pointing out that it’s not quite as ideal as it sounds.

With a 3.5-inch touchscreen, the RoadMate 1200 is only about the size of a deck of cards and weighs in at 4.9 ounces. It’s compact design lends it to other uses besides vehicle navigation-it’s work just as well as a pedestrian unit as well. Unfortunately, Magellan didn’t provide a pedestrian mode for the unit, so you’re out of luck. Despite the small screen size, the maps are easy to read and the touchscreen is responsive to your navigation of an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

A basic navigation system, the Magellan RoadMate 1200 doesn’t come with too many advanced features. It comes with the standard preloaded 2D or 3D maps of the US and Puerto Rico on an SD card, 1.3 million POIs, and a Trip Planner. Despite the number of POIs, CNET’s reviewer found that many popular spots in a high-traffic destination like San Francisco were either missing or out of date. The RoadMate 1200 is fairly intuitive when it comes to map routing, usually finding the fastest way to destination by trying to eliminate freeways and toll roads. It will even recalculate your route if you veer off course. Other features include text- and voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, QuickSpell to aid in the text entry process, and a split-screen view.

Overall performance was lacking with slow processing, at times alerting the reviewer to a turn just as she was passing it, although its route mapping was accurate and the voice-guided directions were loud and clear.

Via CNETÂ