Magellan RoadMate 1340 3 5 Inch Portable GPS Navigator

Magellan RoadMate 1340 3 5 Inch Portable GPS Navigator

The Magellan RoadMate 1340 device boasts the acclaimed OneTouch menu, a 3.5-inch color touch screen, and an ultra-thin design. Preloaded maps and points of interest for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico make the RoadMate 1340 ideal for both business trips and vacations. Easy-to-use, premium features give you confidence on the road and deliver a powerful navigation experience.

Turn it on and go! Click to enlarge.

OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches anywhere you travel. Click to enlarge.

AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places to stay, play, dine, and save. Click to enlarge.

Highway lane assist signs show highway signs to point you in the right direction when approaching interchanges and exits. Click to enlarge.

Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or optimize a trip for the most efficient route, helping you save time and money. Click to enlarge.

QuickSpell with SmartCity search narrows your address and city searches, making destination entry easy. Click to enlarge.

The Magellan RoadMate 1340 includes many premier features, starting with Magellan’s exclusive OneTouch favorites menu, QuickSpell with SmartCity search, and highway exit point of interest (POI) search, to name a few. Magellan’s attention to detail delivers a superior user experience.

Intuitive and robust navigation
The RoadMate 1340 lets you bookmark your favorite destinations and searches with the OneTouch favorites menu so you can access them anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite cafe or restaurant when you’re traveling within any city.

QuickSpell with Smart City search help you quickly enter addresses and narrow your address and city searches, making destination entry easy. Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or optimize a trip for the most efficient route, helping you save time and money.

Safety first on the road
You can keep your eyes on the road as you drive because spoken street name guidance announces the street name along with audible turning cues. Highway lane assist offers visual aids to point you in the right direction and ensure that you’ll choose the correct lane well before your next turn.

Should your vehicle unfortunately break down as you travel, the AAA locate screen provides your location so help will know where to find you. Get support fast with the AAA Member Roadside Assistance1 phone number and your location displayed on the RoadMate 1340 screen.

Ready to roll
You’re ready to travel with preloaded maps and points of interest for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that make the Magellan RoadMate 1340 ideal for both business trips and vacations. (Mexico map activation available for purchase on www.magellangps.com).

With millions of points of interest at your command you can easily locate gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more. If you need more information or you want to save money, select the AAA search menu after your search entry. AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.

When you’re traveling down the Interstate and need to find gas, food, or lodging in a hurry, touch the highway exit POI icon to see which upcoming highway exits have the services you need.

Do you often find yourself tied up in traffic? The RoadMate 1340 is Traffic Link compatible, offering live onscreen traffic-incident reports. (The Traffic Link accessory is sold separately).

Turn it on and go!
The Magellan RoadMate 1340 is loaded with premier features you’ll need to get you where you want to go.

Magellan RoadMate 1340 Features

• OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite cafe or restaurant when you’re traveling within any city.
• 3.5-inch color touch screen provides powerful navigation that’s easy to view and use.
• AAA TourBook provides ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.
• AAA Member Roadside Assistance gets you help fast with a toll-free member service number to assist you in finding an AAA approved tow truck or repair shop. The menu also shows your exact GPS location so you can provide precise information to your location.
• Highway lane assist signs show highway signs to point you in the right direction when approaching interchanges and exits, and ensure that you’ll choose the correct lane well before your next turn.
• Spoken street names and directions so you can hear and see where you need to turn next.
• QuickSpell with SmartCity search narrows your address and city searches, making destination entry easy.
• Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or optimize a trip for the most efficient route, saving you time and money.
• Preloaded maps give you information and directions as you travel the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. (Mexico map activation available for purchase on www.magellangps.com).
• Millions of points of interest (POIs) help you easily find gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more.
• Highway exit POIs search shows you gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more near upcoming highway exits.
• Branded POIs display your favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and more by their respective logos.
• Traffic Link provides live, onscreen traffic notification updates. (This accessory is sold separately).
• Customizable route method lets you select the shortest distance, fastest time, most use of freeways, or least use of freeways to customize your route.
• Address book enables you to create and store contact information.
• Auto night view adjusts your screen’s color and contrast for easy night viewing.
• Automatic re-route lets you quickly get back on track in case you missed a turn.
• Plan route on map by simply touching a destination on the map screen and then directly routing to it.
• Rechargeable battery gives you the freedom to drive wireless or plan your trip when your vehicle’s engine is turned off.

What’s in the Box
RoadMate 1340 GPS receiver, Pre-loaded maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, Windshield mount, Adhesive disc for dash mounting, Vehicle power adapter, User handbook, USB cable, User manual on CD-ROM

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star endless error message
I bought the Roadmate 1340 a couple months ago. It worked OK right out of the box. However, other reviewer comments about the brightness of the screen (it isn’t bright, and is easily washed out in bright sunlight) are quite accurate. However I could have tolerated that.

After 2 months, my unit began displaying an error message when I enter an address to navigate to – “Your device needs to be restarted to increase performance. Please wait while your data is saved.” At this time, the unit freezes for about 30 seconds, then reboots back to the main menu. When I re-enter the address, any address, the same error message appears. The unit is non-functional.

I updated the firmware available on the Magellan site, hoping this would be the fix. Not so. Same problem.

[...]

I’m returning my unit ([...]) in favor of a Garmin. I have had a Garmin 330 (very old school by today’s standards) that has been very reliable. I’ll pay for the map updates for the Garmin.

5 Stars Very cool little GPS
We bought this GPS two weeks ago – it’s our first GPS system.

First up, it is very very simple to use. There are a number of great features – the voice instruction clarity is great and the instructions are spoken clearly and in plenty of time to complete each manoeuvre. Particularly impressive are instructions on entering / exiting interstates!

We have found it to be incredibly accurate – last week we took a drive into the North Georgia mountains and the directions were inch perfect, in an area where even the hotels do not recommend relying on GPS systems!

The only slight downer is that on first start-up it took 15 mins to find a satellite link; subsequently it can take 2-3 mins, however this only seems to happen at our home – when starting out elsewhere it is fine, so I figure this is more to do with where we live than anything else.

Some folks have commented on clarity of the screen display in bright sunlight – honestly we have had no issues at all in this regard.

All in all a great buy for the price!

2 Stars Unreliable, low quality
I was prepared to like the 1340, having used many Magellans in the past. However, the spoken street names on the 1340 I tried were muffled/garbled, unintelligible and usually late. The chime that should sound when you are at a turn always sounded after the fact. The route selection was way off course and the gps couldn’t discern when I had reached my destination. I couldn’t believe how long it took to acquire a signal – even when the car had not moved while the gps was turned off.

I was totally surprised this unit was of such low quality. Perhaps the new ownership needs to pay more attention to quality control.

The unit gets a “2″ only because it has a good database.

3 Stars Good for $99 but lacks addresses
I couldn’t resist so I bought the thing at costco [...]. I would

of gave it 3.5 stars if I could have.

Pros:

voice is clear

nice warning beep before a turn

bright enough for me

tells you if your in the right lane on a freeway when coming up to

many exits

small and light so I can tuck into my fanny pack when I leave my car

Con:

Takes 30 seconds to warm up but that wasn’t a really big deal to me.

My biggest gripe is that I deliver marketing pieces to addresses

for my business. Last time I was out I delivered to 35 addresses.

It did fine all except 3 addresses. They didn’t exist! Okay,

I thought alright the addresses are too new but that wasn’t the case.

All addresses were at least 2 year old!

A few days later I’m trying to locate the house we just bought.

It was built in 1958. Guess what? The gadget didn’t have the

address! In fact, it didn’t have any of the addresses that started

with a “1″! So all houses in that subdivision that began with a

“1″ on that street didn’t exist in its database!

It makes me wonder how many more addresses will I not be able

to find?

If it keeps coming up with missing addresses. I”ll probably end

up returning it to costco.

4 Stars Notes from a Garmin User
Magellan does not support Apple computers, so if you are one of the growing number of people using a Mac, look elsewhere. Otherwise you’ll have a GPS you can never update.

I have always used Garmin GPS’, so Magellan is a bit new for me and it’s impossible not to make comparisons. Both Garmin and Magellan work much the same way, but have some interesting differences.

They talk at different times. Magellan speaks menu selections, and when you spell something, Megellan will speak the letters as you type them. Once you’re underway, Garmin becomes the talkative one. Both units will announce upcoming turns, but often the Garmin makes more announcements than Magellan. When you’re at the turn, Magellan sounds a gong while Garmin speaks. If you miss a turn, Garmin will announce that it’s “recalculating.” Garmin gives you a button that will make it repeat the last instruction it gave. If you are lost in a strange city battling heavy traffic, Garmin’s repetition is welcome. You’re less likely to miss anything. If you’re not so stressed, Garmin can feel like it’s nagging you. Which is better? It depends on what you prefer.

Personal preference will also determine whether or not you like Magellan’s menus. Garmin users will find them off-putting. The battery gauge and satellite signal strength meter are on the “Favorites” page for some reason. You can find addresses and points-of-interest in the “Go To” menu. (Just like Garmin’s “Where To” menu.) But confusingly, there is also a “Local Options” menu that does much the same thing, but works less well. For example, search for restaurants in the “Go To” menu and you’ll find results broken down by category (Mexican, Italian, etc.) much like Garmin. Look for restaurants in the “Local Options” menu and you’ll get every local place that sells food. Taco Bell, Steak and Ale and the local grocery store all thrown together in one big, useless pile. Once you learn the Magellan menus, they become less frustrating. But you’ll likely spend the first week muttering under your breath, “I know it saw it somewhere….” Magellan’s learning curve is steeper than Garmin’s.

The little Magellan does have a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve. One of these is “POI visibility” Magellan assigns icons to points-of-interest, so if you turn on visibility for restaurants, for instance, you can watch as little knives and forks float past your position on the map while you drive. It’s entertaining, and you can tap on the icons to see what they are and start navigating to them. You can even scroll the screen with your finger–something Garmin won’t let you do. So if you need to know what lies beyond the street at the edge the screen, you can have a look and tap on any icons you find there. It doesn’t work very smoothly, but it does work.

A more useful trick is the ability to save searches. If you have a fondness for Starbucks, for example, you can save a search for “Starbucks, near me” and assign that search to one of the buttons on the “Favorites” screen. So now you have a Starbucks button that will always take you to the nearest Starbucks, wherever you are. Quite handy. There are only three buttons you can assign, however. Two of them come preprogrammed for finding the nearest bank and gas station.

Magellan also has information from AAA about some of its points-of-interest. Restaurants, auto repair shops, campgrounds and much more that have been rated by AAA are listed along with short reviews and other info. It’s all buried in the “Local Options” menu.

There are a couple of annoyances too. For every point-of-interest search you do, you have to specify if you want to search near your position, or in another city or near another address. If you’re sitting in Dallas and trying to find a Burger King in Albuquerque, it’s handy. But the most of the time, you want to find something nearby. Garmin can find far-away points-of-interest too, but they rightly make it a separate option rather than create an extra step for every search you do.

About those searches: Magellan’s searches are less forgiving than Garman’s. Looking for a Wal-Mart? Better not forget the hyphen, because if you search for “Walmart”, Magellan will try to convince you there isn’t one for thousands of miles.

The screen is too dim for sunny days, and the computer voice is less natural sounding than Garmin’s.

Overall, I’ll keep my Garmin, but the Magellan is quite a neat little unit too. If you think you would like the AAA information or the ability to make your own favorites button, you won’t go wrong with the Magellan. Unless you have a Macintosh.

Buy/More Info