Magellan RoadMate 2200T 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The 2200T just came out this fall (2006), so many of the online review summaries have not adequately compared it to the competition. The most direct competition comes from the Tom Tom One (same price range), although many may be considering paying more money for the Garmin Nuvi 360 as well.

I took a look at the Nuvi 360 in the store, and it was quite flimsy feeling compared to the 2200T. The Nuvi felt a bit cheap compared to the very solid feel of the 2200T. Considering the Nuvi's significantly higher price and large overlap of key features, I didn't consider the Nuvi further. Your mileage may vary, but the Nuvi seemed like a poor value.

The Tom Tom One has gotten a lot of praise, and I'm sure it's a good product, but most of the online reviews were written before the 2200T was widely available. The reasons that I chose the 2200T over the Tom Tom are:

1. Spoken street names. Often called "text to speech," the 2200T actually says the street names when giving directions ("Turn Left on Main Street") so you can keep your eyes on the road (and look for the street sign). The Tom Tom just says "Turn Left" and you either have to trust that it means the next possible left turn, or you have to take your eyes off of the road to find the street name on the the screen. And on the Tom Tom website it doesn't appear that the name of the street that you should turn onto is always displayed on that map.

2. Display information. The 2200T always displays above the map the name of the street you are on AND below the map the name of the street you will turn on next. You can always find that information quickly. The Tom Tom only displays below the map the name of the street that you are currently on: there is no fixed display of the street (or exit) coming up (a big oversight in my view). You have to wait until you get close to it to see it on the map itself. This can be a problem if you need to get into an exit lane or turning lane well before the turn--the Tom Tom will notgive you adequate information to do that.

3. Display information (part II). The 2200T shows a detailed view of the intersection at the upcoming turn as you approach it: this clearly diagrams any tricky traffic flow that you may have to navigate, and it can appear on half the screen while the standard map remains on the other half. In a sense, the 2200T walks you through the turn, which can be extremely useful when street layouts and traffic flow are complex and unfamiliar (exactly why you buy these things in the first place). The Tom Tom only has the standard map view, so it doesn't provide the extra detail that the 2200T does (it's not even a view that you can manually call up).

4. Interface design. The 2200T has a very easy to understand design. Many extra bits of information are accessible by pressing different buttons on the map screen. Press the readout of distance to the next turn, for example, and it repeats the last verbal instruction. Or press the symbol for the next turn in the bottom left, and it shows a whole list of the turns for the route. The Tom Tom also has a friendly interface, but the online reviews that I saw didn't credit the 2200T with also being good.

5. Expandable. The 2200T can be expanded to include off-road topographic maps (when Magellan introduces these in the next couple of months). The Tom Tom only has maps for roads, and Tom Tom has no expansion plan to include topo maps.

6. Backup and restore without a PC. The 2200T will backup (and restore) all of your stored data (addresses, additional points of interest) to an SD memory card. No connection to a computer required. The Tom Tom needs you to have a computer with their software installed in order to backup and restore.

7. Import Points of Interest (POI) from all standard formats. The PC (Windows only) software for the 2200T reads all of the standard file formats (including XML) for Points of Interest. So if you want to pull a dataset off of the internet (for example, if you are into geocaching), the 2200T software can show them on the map. The Tom Tom does also have the ability to add data points, but it's unclear from their literature whether all of the standard formats are supported.

8. Battery life. The 2200T has an eight-hour battery life, so you can really use it all day outside of the car (if you're walking around an unfamiliar city, for example, or if you get the upcoming topographic map upgrade for off-road use while hiking or fishing). The Tom Tom One has only a two-hour nominal battery life, and the manufacturer's estimates are usually optimistic. It's a pity since the Tom Tom One is also highly portable and would otherwise be useful when not in the car. (N.B. The 2200T only ships with a car charger. If you want to use it outside of your car when you first open the box, you need to charge it up for two hours. You may want to get an AC charger in this case (unless you plan to be driving for a couple of hours after you get it). AC chargers are available from Magellan and various after-market suppliers on the internet.)

By comparison, the Tom Tom has few advantages. It does provide Macintosh software as well as Windows, but the Magellan 2200T is self-contained. The PC software is not required to operate and backup the device, so the advantage here is slight.

I hope the results of my research are useful. Both the Tom Tom One and the Magellan 2200T are very good, but I think the 2200T offers more value. I also notice that several folks have posted comments about inaccurate maps and software problems with the Tom Tom (which uses the Tele Atlas map database). I expect Tom Tom will sort out those problems, but the 2200T uses NAVTEQ maps, which are the best available for consumer GPS, so accuracy should be very good out of the box.

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Product Description:
Magellan RoadMate 2200T

Get the first full-featured, pocket-sized, expandable vehicle navigation system! Simple touch-screen menus make it easy to select virtually any destination and get turn-by-turn voice and visual guidance. The Magellan RoadMate 2200T can be upgraded to become a CrossoverGPS™¹ and work for all of your outdoor adventures. And because its waterproof to IPX-4 theres no need to worry about coffee spills, rain, humidity or it getting wet.

The Magellan RoadMate 2200T offers the best-in-class battery performance for up to 8 hours of continuous use. You can navigate your outdoor adventures and trails, search points of interest, plan trips, listen to music and view pictures even when youre away from your vehicle. It is rugged, waterproof to IPX-4 and fits in your pocket so you can take it with you anywhere. And with the advanced processing chipset, SirfstarIII, receiving a satellite signal is faster and easier with a stronger and wider search range. Quickly acquire a signal when you first turn on your receiver.

Its smart design makes the Magellan RoadMate 2200T easier than ever to use. Simple touch-screen menus and a built-in interactive map of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico makes it easy to select virtually any destination and get turn-by-turn directions as you drive.

Use the touch screen to enter an address or select a point of interest and get an instant route using the shortest time, shortest distance, most freeways or least freeways. 1.5 million pre-programmed points of interest enable you to quickly find gas stations, airports, hotels, restaurants and much more.

Select the points of interest icons that you want to appear on the map. Touch an icon to get detailed information about a destination, including phone number when available. Save your own personal points of interest to the internal Address Book or Favorites List to quickly navigate to frequent destina

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Navigon 7100 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Review

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(More customer reviews)I ordered my Navigon 7100 at the end of August and received it on September 7th.In the last few weeks,I have been all over .... New York City, Washington, Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, San Francisco/Oakland, California, etc.For most of those journeys I have had my Nuvi 660 next to the Navigon 7100.Both have their strengths and weaknesses.Overall, my personal conclusion is that the Navigon 7100 is for me the way to go.I will be packing up my Nuvi 660 in a few days and sending it off to one of my kids.

Below I will list some Pros and Cons of the 7100.The 7100 has not by any means been flawless.But its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.And most of my complaints are easy software fixes.I feel that Navigon has gotten the message from those of us in the USA and is attempting to address our issues.They won't be here long if they don't.They may believe that they have the superior product but they may go the way of Beta in the Beta / VHS competition, if you remember that from years and years ago.

I have spoken to higher ups at Navigon and they could have brushed me off.Instead, once I got that far, I found someone willing to listen, acknowledge their shortcomings and say they will fix things.So far they have done so with the 4 GB fiasco.The rest remains to be seen.I am hopeful.I believe that they will now do what it takes.The people I have dealt with struck me as sincere and willing to do what it takes.

By the way, while I adjusted the route profile based on recommendations on forums and even from Navigon to the Optimum setting, I have found the Fast profile setting works best for me.

I also have turned off the Menu animation setting which seems to work better for me.

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Pros of 7100

Excellent screen and info.I like info and I get all I need with the 7100.I especially like the upcoming turn arrow showing up if it is a close turn to the next turn you are taking.

The 7100 adjusts for your time zone automatically.You need to do this manually on the Nuvi 660.In California my 7100 showed the correct time while my Nuvi was on Eastern time.I was only there a day and didn't bother to change it.

The 7100 makes it easy to engage the night/day mode, as well as 2D/3D mode.Though an auto setting for day/night would be a nice add-on, it is too easy to do manually to make a difference for ME.And I like the color scheme of the night view.Very cool.

Ability to block portions of route and have trip recalculated.Makes life easier if I want to avoid certain roads.

Seems to lock onto 1 or 2 more satellites than 660 when I was able to check, not always though, but a lot of the time which may help explain my next observation.

Its position in relation to the road in my observations was a bit more accurate than the 660.I would be just about passed the exit ramp when the 660 would show me just entering it.

I found the refresh rate to be a bit more frequent than the 660.While it may be an optical illusion, it seemed to be moving more often than the 660.Again, this is my personal observation and might help explain the above observation.

Reality View is excellent.It has helped me on countless highways.Once though it showed one more lane than the highway had.But it helped me navigate the right way anyway.This is probably the number one feature for me.

Lane Assist is not visible when Reality View is on, but if you hit the screen to disable Reality View (quick feature and easy to do) I often see the Lane Assist present there.Helped me getting to Oakland, Ca. airport as I exited and needed to turn left by showing me both lanes were left turn lanes way ahead of the pavement markings showing me that.Helped me to decide what lane to use for the upcoming turn.

Speed warning (caution) has helped me keep my speed where I want it to be.Though I got used to it and needed to remind myself that it isn't always there, especially on the local streets.

Time of arrival is more accurate for ME than 660.The 7100 would on short trips show 5 to 10 minutes longer to get there but ended up being closer to the actual time of arrival than the 660.On a 5 hour trip the 7100 showed arrival to be 35 minutes longer than 660 at the start.Ended up being closer to actual arrival time than 660.Nuvi kept adding time, even though trip was going smoothly.Much prefer a more conservative approach.Again this is what I experienced in my journeys.

Fairly fast recalculation of route when turn not taken (I did that intentionally at times to test it out).Though once it seemed to take forever.

Traffic info reception is excellent.External antenna not needed in major cities, but helps in outlying areas.

Windshield mount is easy to put on and take off.Stable and secure.Wobbles on occasion but not noticeably an issue for ME.Brings the 7100 closer to you than any other system I have used that I mounted on the windshield. And I found it has lots of adjustment options to get the view I wanted.Had my doubts at first, but love how it just floats near you. My Nuvi mount would fall off until I started using water on the rubber mount before attaching.Even then once or twice it came off.

Easy to spot a McDonald's on your route and by turning in its direction get to it fairly easily rather than search the POI database.

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Cons of 7100

No feature to avoid HOV roads/lanes.I have an entrance ramp near me to a major highway that is open only during morning rush hours and is only for HOV use.The 7100 always wants to take me to that highway that way.I can never use it since it is only me in the car.And the times it tells me to go that way it is closed anyway.

I enabled the feature to avoid U-Turns, but the 7100 tells me to make them anyway, even if I could easily go around the block.I could understand it doing so if I am at a dead end but that hasn't been the case.There has been a clear view of the sky and good reception at the time.

My saved destinations do not show up on the map.It would be nice to see them as I go near them.The Nuvi shows all my destinations on the map as I go by them.

Text to speech needs improvement.While I have found that most streets are named, the pronunciation is awkward.If not spelled in a conventional way it is mispronounced.Centre becomes Cen-tray.Marble is Mar-blay.Stonefield becomes Stoney-field.

Toll roads are labeled as TOL for some reason.Even though there is plenty of space for it to be TOLL.As a result the text to speech says, turn onto xx "tall"...for TOL.

Battery life is not as good as I expected.It has a nice warning though to tell you that the battery is almost gone.Maybe Navigon should check with Apple and its iPhone for a better approach.'

Finding a Point of Interest if you don't know the city it is in is difficult.The Nuvi will tell you all the POIs close to you, though you have a long wait as it loads them to get to the next screen.If I want a gas station nearby it doesn't tell me if it is ahead of me or behind me.The Nuvi would give me arrows to help me see where it was.Not knowing could mean circling back to get to it rather than hit something along the way.Its POIs on the route don't give you a lot of options.I would much prefer getting a list to choose from than the ones the unit selects to position on the route I am taking.

Long start up time.Though it is a breeze when I stop for gas and get going again.It took seconds for the 7100 to crank up the times I bought gas or had a quick lunch.My Nuvi was still loading as I headed on my way.Blocks away it joined the 7100.Most of the time though (other than the quick stop routine), the Nuvi was the winner here.

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Again, these are all MY PERSONAL observations.I know others have had different experiences on many of these observations.

All in all I find the Navigon 7100 to be an excellent GPS for MY needs.And even though I paid a higher price for it when I bought it than it sells for today, I think I got my money's worth.

Is it perfect?Not at all.It has many things that could be better.Is it the best GPS I have come across and owned?Yes, I can honestly say that it is FOR ME.I have owned the Tom Tom GO, the StreetPilot III, the Nuvi 350, 360 and 660.For now, this is the one for me.I change GPS units often. Buying the newer maps was not worth it for me since if I added to that price what I could sell my GPS on ebay for it would come close or fairly close to buying a newer model.And I need the latest maps, which are outdated when they are released.

All in all, I am sold on the Navigon 7100.For ME it is a clear winner!

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10-18-07

In the last few days I have been to Memphis and Boston. I must say I am happy to report that the start up time when I get into my rental car seems to be quicker. Also, while I didn't expect to get traffic info in Memphis and almost didn't hook up the external antenna to pull in traffic, when I did I got an alert quickly about a 2 mile congestion spot on a highway on my route. I hit avoid and got diverted to side streets which got me to the hotel fairly quickly. I passed over the highway I was to go on and sure enough it was stop and go traffic. Really saved me time and aggravation.

In Boston I noticed a few things.... one is that in the underground tunnels the 7100 kept...Read more›

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Product Description:
In the U.S., German-based Navigon may be the biggest name in gps you'venever heard. Navigon has long been a major provider of navigation software to automotive manufacturers for in-dash gps navigation devices, but only recently did they introduce portable navigation devices under their own name. What they offer up, however, demonstrates immediately that this is a company that knows navigation inside and out.

More about Navigon

Navigon...James Navigon
The first thing you notice about the Navigon 7100 GPS Navigator is, well, the Navigon 7100 GPS Navigator. It's beautiful. It's the kind of device you'd expect an international spy to have in their rocket car. It's less than an inch thick, and its shiny black casing will go well with just about any car interior. Paying the same attention to every detail, Navigon's included car mount raises the bar even higher, with a design that is not only easy to use, but echoes the 7100's in a way that makes device and accessory become one, adding a touch of style and elegance to any vehicle's interior.






The Navigon 7100 offers a premium navigation experience in a sleek package. View larger.

Intuitive, animated menus offer predictive text input, helping you select your destination quickly. View larger.

The lane assistant provides guidance to the optimal lane for your route. View larger.

The reality view guides you with photo-realistic 3D images of junctions. View larger.
Packed with Features
When you stop ogling the outside and really start using the 7100, what you notice is that Navigon has decided to avoid media support and instead has focused on navigation-based features. This means the 7100 is packed, offering an array of features that are, at the time of this writing, unmatched at this price point. It provides you with turn-by-turn directions, including actual road names via text-to-speech. It includes built-in Bluetooth technology that enables hands-free mobile phone integration, which not only increases driver safety, but is fast becoming a necessity as states pass laws against talking on a cell phone hand set while driving. It warns you when you are exceeding the speed limit. It offers 2D and 3D map views with incredibly precise road visualizations (more on that below). Its Navteq data contains millions Points of Interest (POIs) such as restaurants, hotels, golf courses, gas stations, banks, etc.



Reality View and Lane Assistant
The 7100 has two features that are a great help in negotiating unfamiliar or complicated road systems. Lane Assistant recommends the best lane for you to be in relative to the proposed route, so you won't find yourself trying to move over three lanes when the freeway splits.

Reality view guides you with photo-realistic 3D images of junctions, complete with actual sign text and exit ramp guidance. This makes translating what the navigator is telling you to what you see on the road instantaneous.


Free Traffic for Life
This is a biggie. The Navigon 7100 comes is the first GPS device to offer subscription-free, real-time traffic information via the integrated traffic receiver with no additional fees or setup for the life of the product. Be advised on traffic flow and incidents, as well as the best alternate routes. The traffic info starts working as soon as you get the 7100 out of the box.



Zagat Ratings and Branded Icons for POIs
All of Navigon's gps navigators offer Zagat ratings and reviews for their POIs, so while this device may not get you a beer, it can tell you where to find the best one. Branded icons displayed on your map make it easier to navigate to a familiar location of your choice.


Superior Software and Hardware
The features and functions of the Navigon 7100 are controlled via intuitive, easy-to-use animated menus that use predictive text input to quickly and easily select your city, state and address. Maps and menus appear on its extra-large and elegant, high-contrast 4.3-inch, full-color touch-screen display with an easy-to-read 16:9 aspect ratio for an exceptional view of the road. The Navigon 7100 includes a powerful Samsung 400 MHz processor, a fully integrated SiRF Star III GPS chip, 64 MBs of both RAM and ROM built in, and a rechargeable 1,200 mAh lithium ion battery that is rated for 4.5 hours of continuous use. All this is housed in an ultra-thin, sleek piano black housing that weighs only seven ounces, and measures just 5.1 x 3.5 x 0.9 inches (W x H x D). The Navigon 7100 even comes pre-loaded with complete maps of the U.S. and Canada, providing you with superbly accurate, seamless door-to-door directions wherever your vehicular travels might take you.


Note that the 7100 runs on the Microsoft Windows CD Net 5.0 operating system. A PC is required to use additional map data, and in such cases users require Windows 2000, ME, XP or higher, as well as a CD ROM drive and a USB port. An SD/MMC card reader is recommended as the 7100 not only uses SD cards, but also comes with a 2 GB SD card in the package.


What's in the Box
The Navigon 7100 preloaded with North American maps, 2 GB SD card, car charger, wall charger, car mount, USB cable, CD and user manual on DVD, quick installation guide, and warranty information.



About Navigon
NAVIGON has been a leader of GPS navigation since 1991, and has a long history of industry innovations. NAVIGON created the world's first dynamic personal GPS product in 1996, launched the industry's first navigation software for the Pocket PC in 2000, and unveiled the first Traffic Message Channel-based (TMC) avoidance feature on mobile navigation product in 2002.

NAVIGON has helped revolutionize how consumers get from place to place with software products for practically any navigation-ready hardware. Personal navigation devices (PND), smartphones, and in-dash navigation systems directed by NAVIGON's award-winning MobileNavigator (MN) software delivers reliable information on millions of destinations in an intuitive, easy to use format. NAVIGON is a valued partner to the automotive industry, and in 2006 strengthened its category competency by acquiring NAVTEQ's navigation software business.

NAVIGON is a privately-held software company based in Hamburg, Germany, with NAVIGON USA headquarters in Chicago, IL.

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For Navigon 2000S 2100 Max 8100T GPS navigation Portable Travel USB Plug-in 12V Car Charger Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is my third charger and they all seem to have the same defect. The plug-in end that charges the device is fagile and breaks very easily. All 3 chargers have broken in the same way the metal tip of the plug-in breaks opens and eventually looses connectivity and can no longer charge the device. The lastest one is working fine for now and it is number 4.

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Product Description:
For Navigon 2000S 2100 Max 8100T GPS navigation Portable Travel USB Plug-in 12V Car Charger

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