Most helpful client reviews
59 of 59 humans found the following review helpful.
With current firmware update this unit works well
By Eric D
See update at end of this posting.
I purchased this unit, the Magellan RoadMate 3050T, which is the 3000T, but with the receiver for Traffic-enabled info. For what I paid for this unit and the features it has, I believe it to be a very good deal.
The windshield suction cup mount works ok, but I wish it was a little stiffer. On bumpy roads the GPS may bounce up and down a little. With the unit mounted, the initial time I tried to power it up I thought I got a bum unit. You have to hold the power on button for up to 15 seconds the original time, when it comes to 3 seconds after the firstborn to have it spring to life. I think Magellan must state this right on the plastic shelter sheet they have on the face of the unit. It would have saved me a lot of startup anxiety.
Once I got it working it zeroed in on the satellites very quickly. In the windshield mount, the gps maintains an magnificent signal. In fact, much better then my Garmin Maps 76S. Even with heavy over cast and in tree cover I have full signal bars on the upper right of the display.
Speaking display, this unit is very bright, even in full sun. In fact, at night, with the luminance turned all the way down, it is a little more brilliant then I actually like.
The display makes use of a lot of icons. I had to breakout the manual to figure what galore of them meant.
I am a stickler for wanting to know what direction I'm traveling. I planned to buy the Garmin Streetpilot C550. I changed my mind after finding the Garmin does not display the normal compass heading on the main map display. The Magellan 3000T displays the heading full time in the map mode in the lower left corner. It uses the N, NE, E, SE, SW, W, NW headings.
A very good sounding lady gives voice directions. It is very clear, and volume level is likewise very good. This unit does not have the "text to speech". However, after using the Magellan 3000T, I actually don't care that it doesn't speak the road name. What it will do is tell you when a turn is coming up and which direction you will need to turn and on the display it gives you the name of the street. The directions are clear and understandable leaving no doubt what you need to do. The maps are from Navteq. I feel Navteq is the best out there.
Update speed of this unit is very good. The display refreshes quickly and I never feel it is lagging behind. The route calculator waste no time as well. Most route calculations take less then 5 seconds to complete.
With the TrafficKit, this gps may find you a way around most traffic flow issues like slowdowns, accidents, construction, and other reasons. Around the metro Detroit area it seems to work finelooking well. However, on a trip up north, it didn't work as well. I believe this to be more of an issue with the service provider then a problem with the gps. I'm sure with time this will improve. One detour it took me on saved us over an hour in stop and go traffic with just a few miles added to the distance. For one year of service it cost with regards to $60. I don't like how the TrafficKit attaches to the gps. The cables end up going all over the place and the antenna for the receiver is long. Seems they could have come up with a better design. I ended up leave the antenna lying on the dash. It just looks messy.
The software that comes with the unit seems a little lame to me. You in truth can't do much with it. I wanted to be capable to download the trip computer to my laptop. I have not found a way to do this. I'll be calling tech support to see if I'm missing something.
I have not tried the mp3 player or picture functions as I in truth don't care to have pictures on the unit. I'll try the mp3 in the near future.
For me, this unit is a keeper.
Pros: Easy to see, easy to use once I learned the system, pleasant command voice, easy to remove and install into it is mount,you have a choice of using the touch screen or navigation buttons.
Cons: Power-on mixing up the basi time I employed it, trafic receiver attachment messy, I had to upgrade the firmware to fetch it up to date, it corrects early version lockups reported in some of the early reviews.(no big deal to update)
Update as of 12-20-06
Cons and Pro addition to date: Can't use the MP3 player at the same time as navigating. POI database is wrong for southern Florida areas. Items in the database not where the gps shows they are in the state of Florida. POI very good for Michigan. All in all I still like this unit and find it as good or better then other brands in the same price range on the market.
43 of 43 persons found the following review helpful.
great value unit
By S. Mulkey
Main reason that I purchased this GPS is that it comes with the Sirf III chip. This is the most recent GPS chip on the market and it makes it alot posing no difficulty to get reception, even in a crowded city. The hype is true, because I am even competent to get reception inside my home. This is one of the cheepest units out there from the major GPS companies (Garmin, Magellan, tomtom) that has this chip.
I just got this unit today but felt I had to comment given that numerous of the negative reviews on this unit seem to be for stupid reasons. The interface is easy to understand, the screen was the brightest of all the others that I saw in the store, and while bulkier that the Garmin Nuvi, it still fits in my purse and costs significantly less. I also considered the Roadmate 2000, but it has less points of interests loaded on it. If that isn't primary to you though, it is worth taking into account as it is for less and littler than the 3000. Neither of them have text to speech (aka "say where") which enables the device to say the name of the street rather of just where to turn. I think that would be a nice feature, but you unquestionably compensate extra for a model that has it, and I've heard that the naming may be pretty unintelligble at times on widgets that have this feature. I altered the firmware on the magellan website and it was very easy to do.
I did have one routing error today, but that is due to mapping software, not the unit. I think that the same thing would have happened on any GPS unit. It would be nice if an AC adaptor came with the unit in addition to the vehicle adaptor. The windshield mount that came with the unit is dissimilar from the one pictured in the manual/quick get started guide. If this happens to you, you will have to recognise that the middle of the mount bends. I didn't comprehend this at introductory and the darn unit was pointing downward rather of perpendicular to the dash.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
No magic, but a very good car GPS
By Paul B
I have read some client reviews before buying this GPS. Now I see that a lot of things noted by the reviewers differ from my personal experience. Here is what I have noticed so far:
1. Maps: appear to be rather accurate. As of this writing, I did not experience any difficultnesses with the maps. I doubt that paper maps would be more accurate, or altered more frequently.
2. Updates: I have not so long ago downloaded and installed version 3.11, and had no troubles for the duration of or after installation.
3. Battery: not great, but rather reasonable. After all, it is a car GPS, so most of the time it will be plugged in anyway. If you need an AC adapter, I suggest buying an AC to 12V converter instead. (This is what I have). It is more universal and may be applied to power other units (coolers, car phone chargers, etc.) from an AC outlet.
4. Satellite reception and tracking: no complains here.
5. Menus and other UI: not one thing horrible. When you get applied to it, it becomes comfortable.
6. Music player, photo viewer: IMO utterly useless. (Same as Bluetooth, which is NOT build into this unit, and a lot of persons complain). Do you actually have no better way of playing your music or answering your phone calls? Then it's a pity. Honestly, I am not sure why did they even bother building all this functionality into a car GPS unit. Still, it works, and it is not unfeigned that you need proprietary software or a exceptionally formatted SD cards for it. I applied Windows explorer and a frequent SD card to copy MP3 files from my laptop and play it on my GPS (no Magellan software).
Summary: good GPS unit, exceptionally for the price (I got mine for underneath $300). If you need a navigation computer, consider buying a GPS antenna for your laptop, and then carry it with you all the time 
. For me, it is sufficient not to get lost in an unknown city, and at long last get where I wanted to be. Plus, it is rather cool to know how far are you from the destination, and how long it will take you to get there, even if you know the route by heart.
See all 35 client reviews...
