Magellan RoadMate 800 Portable GPS Navigator

I purchased this unit a few weeks ago after researching quite a few options. The navigation portion of the unit is outstanding. The screen is very bright. The 3D view is way cool. It takes only 30 seconds or so normally for the unit to acquire your location. It routes very well. Has loads of features. The screen is very readable. It autoshifts from daytime to nighttime view. Both look great. The voice comments are excellent. It comes with an MP3 player and a picture viewer also, but that is NOT why you would buy this unit. You would purchase it because it is a great navagation system. The mp3 and picture viewer are just little extras. They work just fine. The unit is very portable and can easily be switched between cars. It can also be used outside the car with its built in rechargable battery. The only complaint I have so far is that the windshield mount, while quite sturdy, still allows the unit to vibrate around a bit. Also, the manual is, as usual with some of... more >>

I bought this unit specifically to navigate around New England during a 10 day vacation. I agree that the display brightness is terrific, the voice queues are great, and the unit is easy to figure out without reference to documentation. The mounting bracket works well and holds fast. While it took several minutes to initialize in Southern California, when I turned the unit on in Boston it immediately updated. It's wonderfull to have all the US (and more) in a handheld, battery operated device with 4.5 GB to spare. This RoadMate takes some time (10 to 20 seconds) to detect a user course change and seems to get confused occasionally about what direction the vehicle is moving by asking for one U turn and then another to compensate. It annoyingly broke a 100+ mile stretch of I84 into multiple segments with instructions to "keep right" or "keep left" when all one needed to do was stay on the same road. I agree that it makes little sense have a built-in an MP3 player that cannot be used... more >>

I have been doing a lot of research to decide between 760 and 800. It turns out that 800 comes with features that I cannot use while driving, such as MP3 and picture viewer. It does come with battery which I think is good to have. The main difference that 760 has and 800 doesn't is 760 announce the name of street that you turn into. This is a absolutely must have feature in my view. I bought 760 in Feb, 2006 and have been loving it ever since... more >>