Magellan RoadMate 2000 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

This GPS system is fairly cheap and does most of the things you would want a GPS unit to do - get you from point A to point B. Basically, that's all I really wanted when I bought this unit and I am happy to say that it has been pretty successful in doing that. I had a little trouble at the start because it wouldn't lock-in my route and always had "Proceed to Route" on the screen even though I was already on the road and moving to my destination. Having said that, this machine has a few annoying issues. First, it sometimes just restarts automatically and could leave you hanging if you have to turn or something. Second, it gets lost when you are surrounded by tall buildings. Hence, you have to be sure that you know the turn-by-turn directions prior to entering business districts, etc. Finally, it's "shortest time" route may not be the optimal route every time. I went on a trip to Milwaukee to Chicago and the GPS took me through rural Northwestern Illinois, which increased the... more >>

I bought this GPS device in the black Friday's sale from Best Buy. I drove about 200 miles with it. This is my experience. Pros: 1. Small size. The device is quite small. The 3.5-inch screen occupies most of the face. It's only as deep as a cigarette package. The portability is nice. 2. Ease of use. There is only one button on the side of the device. User's input is all through the touch screen. There is a product manual. But the only time you need to read the manual is about how to unlock the device the very first time you use it. After that, everything is intuitive and user friendly. 3. Receiver chip. It uses SiRFstar III receiver chip, the latest microcontroller chip from the world's largest GPS chip manufacture. This chip is used by other GPS devices, which can be 3 times as expensive as Magellan RoadMate 2000. Since the receiver chip is the single most important factor determining a GPS's positioning capability. Compared with other GPS devices, there shouldn't be complaints... more >>

This is my second GPS unit. The first one I used was the VZ Navigator on my cell phone. Compared to my cell phone GPS, this one is seriously lacking in built-in points of interest. There are no listings for businesses such as movie theaters or drug stores. It lists symphonies and repertory theaters, but no cinemas - go figure. A more serious problem is that it seems to take forever to calculate your route, even after it acquires satellite triangulation. Sometimes it takes over a minute to calculate your route. Then when it does, the screen just says "Go to route." I don't know what that means except that it doesn't start giving directions right away even after it spends a minute or so calculating your route. The display is excellent. And when it finally finds your route it works well. It did reboot spontaneously a couple of times, which was annoying. I'm considering returning it, but I'll try technical support first... more >>