1. Veasey Said,

   I had the unit three weeks before I had an issue with the address input. I could only use addresses saved to my Address Book. I called Magellan and within five minutes of the phone call they agreed to replace it at no charge.

   Functionallity on the actual unit is intuitive and very straight forward. I you are not familiar with electronics, though, it is at least easy to learn how to use it. I recommend this product as an entry-level or first GPS for any user. It’s a fair price, has several features including the address book and a decent archive of POIs, and very easy functionality.

   Magellan customer service has been top-notch and very friendly. Unlike reviews I have read about other competitors.

2. Johnstone Said,

   Not all GPS devices are made equal. The Magellan RoadMate 1220 packs a decent punch for the price. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it does the basic job of getting you from point A to point B with minimal difficulties.
   This is our second GPS unit. My husband received a GPS unit made by another manufacturor for his birthday and it was more expensive with some special features. It has had a few hiccups nevertheless. I wanted a GPS for my vehicle and decided to give this one a try.
   It is very easy to use. The brightness level doesn’t always seem to go quite bright enough in the bright sunshine on my dash. The display while driving sometimes appears jumpy and bumpy. But this unit’s speaker is louder than my husbands and hasn’t frozen up like his either. The pros outweigh the cons without a doubt.
   If you are looking for a basic GPS unit and do not want to pay for all the bells and whistles, I would highly recommend giving this one a try.

3. Quigley Said,

   This GPS is a great value/budget GPS. It is nearly the same as the Garmin 350 I purchased a few years ago.

   – Size/Mounting.
   It’s actually thinner/smaller than most of the GPS units out there. The downside is that you only get a relatively small screen, but for the majority of people out there, it’s going to be good enough. It mounts on the windshield or on an adhesive pad you can apply to the dash. They work really well, although it would be nice if Magellan would have an option for a bean bag dash mount or something similiar.

   – Functionality
   As far as mapping, routing, etc it works pretty well. A few times it would decide to send us in the wrong direction at the start of the route, after pushing past the initial wrong directions, it corrected itself. This may be a symptom of poor GPS signal and not waiting enough to let it acquire. If you completely don’t know where you’re going, this could be an issue for you.
   The one annoying thing I found is the map on the screen is delayed slightly, like the GPS can’t keep up. The notifications (sound/voice) are correct, so not sure what’s going on.

   – Software
   Magellan has some slick software. When you start putting in a town/city/etc, it will automatically remove the letters that aren’t available, and will try to guess it for you, makes entering much easier. The one downside of this unit, is I couldn’t easily find a way to see all the restaurants in the area, and filter. For instance I wanted to find an A&W, however i would just have to wait till it came into closeness, instead of being able to filter it and see the nearest one. There may be an obscure way to do this, I just haven’t found it yet. Text to Speech, which is normally found only in higher end models, is on this one, and it’s great.

   – Upgrades
   I only have mac’s, and Magellan doesn’t support them as of yet. Either way it doesn’t appear as there are any updates available for this device currently, so it’s not a big deal. You can access the POI’s you add, and a few other things, as the GPS mounts when you add it.

   Overall for the price this works very well, it essentially gives you the functionality for about half the price it would have cost you two years ago, in a tidier package, worth it.

4. Purdy Said,

   Competition is good and I am happy to see another respectful contender in the GPS navigation arena. But competition is competition, so for the purpose of this review I have borrowed my wife’s Garmin Nuvi and ignoring other drivers raced eyebrows, drove around for several weeks with two GPS navigators.

   First, what I really like about RoadMate:
   - it is small and slick and fits into my shirt pocket
   - it has three hours of battery life
   - it has fast and very well organized user interface
   - its address input feature is just great; in general I am able to enter a destination address in RoadMate two times faster than in Garmin.
   - RoadMate shows exit services and has lot of useful location-sensitive information only a touch away
   - it has a pretty loud speaker
   - it finds satellites faster than Garmin and loses them less frequently
   - when building the route, it allows you to select several travel options for that route (fastest, shortest, most highways)
   - it understand multiple intermediate points and optimize the route among them

   Now, things I am not particularly fond of:
   - the screen is two times dimmer than Garmin’s screen, but still perfectly usable
   - it takes RoadMate 35 seconds to start up (Garmin’s startup time is 20 secs)
   - it never bother informing the driver when it lost satellite reception, conveniently freezing the display with no further directions
   - it never informs the driver about missing a turn, recalculating the route in silence (now I appreciate Garmin’s “recalculating” message)
   - the map has bugs and is not yet upgradeable (I hope this is temporary)
   - no maps for countries other than USA and Mexico are available (I hope this is temporary too)
   - the so called 3D map is hardly 3D and has limited zoom capabilities
   - the text to speech system suffers from chronic tonsillitis and is sometimes difficult to understand

   Now for real problems:
   It is sad when an almost perfect design is nearly destroyed by two drawbacks. Each problem may be relatively minor, but their combined effect is disastrous.
   The first small, annoying bug: when the unit zooms into the map at an intersection, it never returns back to the original zoom. This means that after the first turn you get maximum zoom and unless you adjust it manually while driving, you have no clue as to what lies ahead.
   This problem alone could be OK if not for numerous bugs in voice prompts. This is the part where improvements are overdue.
   RoadMate voice guidelines software is way behind the competition. It may tell you to “stay on the current road” several times and then suddenly tell you to take exit. It may bother you with multiple advices to “stay on the current road” without any visible reason. At the fork it may or may not tell you whether to keep left or right. It may prompt you to take a “slight turn” just because road bends but sometimes it really means a turn. Even worse - if right exit happens to bend to the left, the unit sometimes tells you to take a “slight left turn”.
   To be frank, voice prompts are usually correct, but bugs mentioned above are too often. In the end I just want to see the next turn at the unit’s screen.
   It all boils down to the simple question - would you turn your attention to the road and rely on buggy instructions or start adjusting zoom level at 3.5 inch GPS screen?

   In comparison, Garmin unfailingly starts prompting you for any turn enough in advance to let you make any necessary changes, and keeps reminding you of the turn. It almost never makes mistakes in voice instructions. It always tells you whether to keep left or right. Also, Garmin always zooms out to show the next turn (unless the next turn is a few hundred miles away).

   Well, RoadMate is not a terrible GPS system, but in light of other choices, I would not necessarily recommend this one.

5. Kenneally Said,

   If you’re looking for a compact, lightweight GPS with a bright screen at a low price the Magellan RoadMate 1220 might be for you. And, this unit does seem to offer a lot of value, including the ability to add an optional FM traffic receiver.

   But ultimately, for me, as a frequent traveler, the very long time that this unit takes to lock into the satellite signal was a deal-breaker.

   A bit of background - I bought a Garmin nuvi 360 for [...] 3 years ago. The unit is small, has the ability to add European maps, and it finds the satellite moderately fast. But it’s 3 years old, and definitely not up to current standards.

   The RoadMate 1220 is reasonably priced, has a very bright screen, is compact (no external or flip-up antenna) and very lightweight. It also offers full speech-to-text (unusual at this price) to speak street names in addition to directions. The speech isn’t nearly as clear as my Garmin, but it’s usable.

   So what’s not to like? Well, the RoadMate 1220 takes *forever* to lock into the satellite signal. If this is your first GPS unit, or if you don’t travel frequently, this might not be a problem.

   But, for me, the difference with my 3-year old Garmin nuvi is dramatic:
   - Magellan RoadMate initial powerup took 8 minutes to lock into the satellite
   - on a trip to San Francisco, the RoadMate took 13 minutes to lock (by comparison, my nuvi 360 took 5 minutes to lock in the same location - a full 8 minutes faster)
   - after a week turned off, turning back on at the same location, the RoadMate took 7.5 minutes to acquire satellite lock

   For reference, GPS units always take longer to re-lock into a satellite signal if you have traveled more than 200 miles since last power-on. And, if it has been more than 5 days since last powered on, they also take longer. But the time the RoadMate 1220 takes to lock the satellite signal is unacceptable. As a road warrior, I just can’t see waiting around - my 3-year old Nuvi is long enough wait as it is.

   Some other items I don’t care for:
   - highlighted route color during the day isn’t very easy to see or high contrast (bright green against a lighter green background) … at night the contrast is better against the black background

   - map display is 2D not 3D

   - the direction chime comes way too late (literally right when you hit an intersection) … to be fair, the RoadMate gives plenty of notice with more frequent updates than my Garmin as you approach the next turn

   - if you enter a destination and hit GO before waiting for the satellite lock, when the signal is (finally) acquired the RoadMate strangely talks through all the directions from the point you last turned it off, instead of recalculating from the new starting location. This is particularly odd / amusing if your last point was, say, in Pennsylvania and you are now in California. My Garmin is smart enough to “recalculate” the route from the current position after a power-on.

   - doesn’t include a carrying case, although at this price point that’s not surprising

   - mounting bracket doesn’t offer quite the flexibility of mounting positions that my Garmin mount offers (the mount hinge only flexes up and down, in a circular fashion)

   - You are limited to the maps provided with the unit (an optional microSD card can be used to load additional points of interest but not other maps)

   Some good points to note:
   - customizable user interface (you can choose which categories to show in the top level)

   - large number of categories

   - when you arrive at your destination, it asks if you want to find the closest parking areas

   - bright clear screen (as noted)

   - small, compact, lightweight case without need for flip-up antenna

   - optional FM traffic receiver available

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