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Garmin vs. Magellan GPS
WunderCade:
I borrowed a friend's Garmin Nuvi for a trip earlier this year. It was the first and only GPS unit I tried out. So I put it on my Christmas list, but the wife got confused and went to Costco and bought me a Magellan RoadMate 1412.
I have no clue about Magellan's. Any GPSphile's here that can chime in on their preference or recommendations of one over the other? I am thinking about returning this unit and just going to exchange it for a Garmin, that is unless Magellan is better????
protokatie:
Back in the day (c. 2000) I have played with both brands. Im no expert, but both seemed (at the time) to do more than the job. Bear in mind I have only dealt with hand held GPS's, not the "Illegal*" dash mount ones. From what I understand and have seen, Magellan was the premier name of GPS units at the time. BTW, if it works and has the features you want, I would just stick with what wifey got you.
*The "Illegal" claim is from Maine state law that makes it illegal to add anything to a car that blocks the view out of the windscreen. Even a car freshener hanging from the rearview mirror can get you a citation here.
TOK:
I can't comment too much on the Magellan, but I've had a widescreen Garmin Nuvi 250 for about a year and a half and I love it. Its like the most basic widescreen Garmin, and I've used it on a couple couple of game hauls and use it nearly daily for work. I've had one instance where a road had been redone (near Dorney Park in PA) and the Garmin got confused and thought I was on the wrong road. This was when I first got the unit and tested it in comparison to locations I knew... Even though it had the road info wrong in that one instance, it still focused on the destination and still would have helped someone that was lost.
As someone that has navigated using paper maps for 20 years, this thing is so nice. Like having someone with you to read off directions and turns. My wife is bad with directions and it gets her where she's going too.
polaris:
no direct experience of the models but when i used to work in an outdoor store they were both heading the way with the technology, imagine one would be as good as the other. i reckon features will come down to price now, if theyre comparable price they likely have the same features
Cakemeister:
I got a Nuvi 205 for Christmas. It seems okay. What I really think would be cool would be to have a way to download locations from your computer via USB straight from google maps or whatever, because the touch screens are slower IMO than just putting in the address from the computer. My Garmin hooks up to the USB (it charges itself that way or with a car lighter attachment) and it appears as a device, but there's no software to add locations. There's also some kind of memory card interface, but I don't see how that would do me any good.
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