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1. PRAANT "consumer"

   July 25, 2011

   50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Definitely worth considering, November 27, 2006

   By 

   PRAANT “consumer” (Castle Rock, Colorado USA) –

   This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 2200T 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

   I bought this item from Amazon and definitely found it worth recommending to others who might be interested in an not-too-pricey or not-to-cheap GPS receiver. I have used it for about 3 weeks now to navigate my way in NJ/NY/DE/MD/DC

   Form Factor – Small / Lightweight / Portable / Very nicey sealed to be splash resistant. The antenna is built into the unit, not a pop up type so no fear of breaking anything. I expect the unit to be very durable because of this.

   Battery Life – Specs say around 8 hours, but I have been able to get at least 5 hours or so without recharging the unit, one problem though was that the power level is not visible at all times on the main screen and the unit just shut down at low power without any advance warning. No wall charger supplied and thats a bummer for a unit that costs close to $450.

   Navigation – Very clear and accurate directions. Ultra fast rerouting (less than 6 seconds) if you were to miss a turn. Anything faster will be counter productive. The interface is very basic compared to others, but I chose the unit for its simplicity. The built in antenna was able to lock on to at least 11 out of 12 satellites at 90% of the time. Worked nicely in Washington, DC hovewer in New York this unit was useless with tall buildings it could not even get a bearing on its current position.
   The maps were accurate most of the time however not perfectly upto date. One good feature is that this unit is upgradeable compared to the Roadmate 2000, hovewer cost to upgrade is unknown at this time.

   Text to speech feature – This unit actually spells out street names “Turn right on Main Street in 0.2 miles” instead of just “Turn right in 0.2 miles”. On occasion I have even tried to navigate without looking at the screen just listening to its voice prompts in the background and the unit did a good job at pointing me in the right direction. I personally found this feature to be very useful and definitely worth the extra premium in price. One drawback the unit could not not spell numbers it says “exit one-zero” instead of “exit ten”, interestingly for interstate highways it said the opposite “I twenty five” instead of “I two five”

   I am still testing the unit and will continue to add to this review

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2. Charles

   July 25, 2011

   242 of 243 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Best in its class, November 13, 2006

   By 

   Charles (Santa Cruz, CA USA) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Magellan RoadMate 2200T 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

   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 not give 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…

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