Magellan RoadMate 1220 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

Competition is good and I am happy to see another respectful contender in the GPS navigation arena. But competition is competition, so for the purpose of this review I have borrowed my wife's Garmin Nuvi and ignoring other drivers raced eyebrows, drove around for several weeks with two GPS navigators. First, what I really like about RoadMate: - it is small and slick and fits into my shirt pocket - it has three hours of battery life - it has fast and very well organized user interface - its address input feature is just great; in general I am able to enter a destination address in RoadMate two times faster than in Garmin. - RoadMate shows exit services and has lot of useful location-sensitive information only a touch away - it has a pretty loud speaker - it finds satellites faster than Garmin and loses them less frequently - when building the route, it allows you to select several travel options for that route (fastest, shortest, most highways) - it understand multiple intermediate... more >>

I HATE my husband's GPS (different brand). It's complicated; the last couple of times I've invited Suzy (that's her name) along for the ride, she was still insisting I make a U-turn as I was pulling into my destination--and she still thinks we live on the opposite side of the street. To be honest, Suzy is rather high maintenance and not very smart but my husband is inexplicably infatuated. So enamored is he in fact that I caved in to pressure and grudgingly agreed that yeah, I probably needed a GPS of my own, though my private resolution was to never turn it on. Then Lola came into my life and I'm thrilled to bits with her! It took her a few minutes to figure out where she was, but after that she was good to go. The packaging says to allow four minutes, but it was more like eight or nine. Since I have no intention of permanently attaching her to my car, the size is just perfect for purse popping. I was afraid the screen would be too small but it's perfect. The colors and... more >>

There is nothing fancy about this GPS. One outstanding thing is the very complete Points of Interest (PoI) library. Also handy is the ability to enter part of a name/place and it will figure out the rest. Finally, there is the small size, both for the device and included mounting bracket, and impressive battery life. None of this is revolutionary but for the price, it's not a bad choice if all you're looking for is clear directions to get where you want to go. One bad thing is the time it takes for the device to sync with available satellite signals. The one to three minutes when the device starts is a minor irritant. However, when it loses sync after going through a tunnel and takes the same time to reacquire its position is not acceptable. You really notice this if there is a turn following the tunnel that you miss because the device has lost track of where it is. My recommendation is this GPS would fine if you frequently travel, need to rent cars, and can get it on sale... more >>