Magellan RoadMate 1212

I'm not a GPS expert (this is my first one), but from what I have read in reviews and seen at stores, the Roadmate 1212 is awesome, especially for the price ($80 at BestBuy on Black Friday). It's hard to find a GPS that speaks street names for under $200 (most in this $ range only speak the turns - I found a Garmin 260WT for $189 that did this, but that was on a super sale). Don't be fooled by the specs on the Roadmate 1200 - it does not have spoken street names, just turns. The 1212 is the least expensive model that calls out the street names. The touch screen is very responsive, menus are easy and intuitive, and the features for this price range are great (points of interest mapping, POI off of highway exits, auto-rerouting if you miss a turn, accurate routing, easy detour and rerouting during current trip plan, etc.). 3.5" is plenty big so don't be fooled into thinking you need 4.3". In fact, bigger is not better, especially if you mount on your windshield - you want to be able to v... Read more

Costco in Mesa, Arizona had a Black Friday sale for $100 on the Magellan Roadmate 1212 yesterday. My wife and I were out to get it at 9:00 a.m. On the same outing we saw and picked up a refurbished Magellan Roadmate 3100 at Pep Boys for $69. So we tried them both out and discovered the refurbished 3100 didn't pronounce the street names (Text-to-Speech), and though it had something like 160 million Points of Interest vs. the 6 million in the 1212, the 1212 had our local Target store, while the 3100 had no Targets within 8 miles. So we returned the 3100 and kept the 1212. One thing we noticed in testing the 2 devices was that Text-to-Speech really makes for safer driving and is reassuring when you get off course. We turned into a neighborhood and the 1212 got us right back onto course via a way unknown to us. Hearing it say "Turn left on Capri Street" was very reassuring to us, and was the deciding factor in returning the 3100 in spite of the price difference. (I also knew the ... Read more

I purchased the 1212 from a big box store recently and so far I like it. It is very easy to use and the interface (Windows CE Core 5.0) is easy to use and the voice direction is clear and easy to understand. There are a few quirks though.... 1. Sometimes the system lags when you press a button and you have to press it again or wait. 2. If you enter into a submenu from the map or route screen it is difficult to get back to the original map menu. Though the system seems to still keep you on track and let you know about turns etc... 3. The included software link and software on the installation package are not very useful. You get a standard PDF version of the user manual which contains a good amount of information on the operation of the product and was useful. The software POI (Points of Interest) editor allows you to enter additional points of interest and upload them to the GPS. Only one problem with this software. Unless you know the longitude and latitude coordinates of the plac... Read more