Magellan - RoadMate 1440 GPS

Bought this unit because Best Buy had a 20% off coupon. I meant to buy the 1470, but ended up with the smaller 1440 instead. I can't say anything negative about this choice. I'd been looking for a GPS system for a few years and the price with discount made this a good deal. What's good about it? I started using it about town to try it out. Worked great. I'd purposely take wrong routes to test how well the re-routing function worked, and it was very fast, but in some cases, not fast enough, such as missing a street and being able to take the next street. Not a fair comparison as I already knew the way to go. Worked fast enough in regards to freeway exits though because it had a bit more time to work with. As always, the human brain is faster than computers! Voice is clear and loud. Unit does not have Bluetooth. This may be an issue for some people but not for me. Unit is very compact, easily stows in a glove compartment or side pocket to get out of sight and hidden away quickly. Negative: It took a while to really get started. It took over 45 minutes the first time I used it to find itself. But this was upon first power-up and was indoors. Some destinations it was unable to find easily. Some destinations were difficult for the unit to find in its database, even when provided with appropriate information short of the address(this was a test I used to see how friendly it was). This can be worked around by taking a different approach to finding locations. The unit comes with an adhesive disc for dashboard mounting. DO clean the surface you plan to put this disc on with maybe an alcohol wipe first, just make sure the surface is very clean prior to applying. I didn't and my disc got a bit dirty and would not stick and is now trash. However, the regular windshield mount option does work just fine on glass. I was hoping to mount on the dash, but my plans have changed. Good alternative might be one of those bean-bag type holders, which I am looking into, which might be a better solution for me anyways. Major negative. I needed this unit to get me to a location, but instead, I ended up with this error: "Your device needs to be restarted to increase performance. Please wait while your data is saved." I fail to see how restarting and then not helping me get there is an increase of performance. Thank goodness Maps on my iPhone got me to where I needed to be that day. But ever since then, the unit has become flakier and flakier and buggier and buggier. I did upgrade the firmware to 1.15, but that did not address or resolve the issue. Magellan claimed to have received isolated reports of this problem and will have new firmware available by end of September 2009. Here it is October, no updates yet, and I'm days away from a major trip where I need the Magellan 1440 to work properly. One of the other bugs now is that even trying to input addresses of friends or even saving locations(from data base to address book, like amusement parks) is also causing the same issues, not just inputting destinations for travel. Note: Firmware upgrades were easy to do. Just charge up your battery first, which can be done via the USB port, as you will need to at least have the unit unplugged from your computer to have the device boot to the new firmware after the new firmware is loaded. I hope this firmware issue is resovled promptly. I overall like this unit, and I like how it functions when it functions properly. Overall, company support appears to be good. Right now, this firmware issue is a fatal flaw that is the only real warning. Once this issue is properly resolved, this unit will be reliable, stable and good for all users again.

was going to get a Garmin 255W or 1300. What the 1440 offers that Garmin does not are: SmartDetour: When you are on a route and are stopped in a traffic jam, the 1440 starts flashing a detour icon that you can then select a distance to detour off your route if you want to. Highway Lane assist. On a route that is on freeways, you will see the exit road signs ppop up indicating which lanes to be in and which exit sign to follow. Pretty nice. Text is a little small though. Multi-destination routing. You can add via points, PI's and addresses in a multi-destination route and save it to your adddress book. There is an Optimize option and it will sort the desinations for you. Exit POI's: Wow, this is so cool. You can select the Exit POI button on the map and you will see a list of upcoming exits by distance. You can then select one and see what Food, Gas and Lodging are available at that exit. Is there a McDonalds coming up on the trip? So easy to find out now. You can select from 4 different routing options and compare them before you start your trip. You can even change enroute. For instance, you start on Fastest route and then along the trip you can change to Shortest for example. The 1440 displays more roadnames on the map than the newer Garmins. The map display is nice and colorful as well. Pleasent to look at. Pros: Map Color scheme is nice. No jaggies like tomtom Refresh rate is smooth. Shows current road as part of map. Exit POI's really nice. Lane assist feature works very well. Ability to compare routing options. Menu GUI is easy to use. Best GUI graphics and colors compared to Tomtom and Garmin 2 page One Touch menu. POI Search really good. SmartDetour works great. Cons: I don't like transparency of top info bar The icon in lower left corner for ETA, speed, etc. only can show one item at a time. I would like more info on screen like tomtom. Cannot simulate routes like tomtom. No triplog. No TTS choices. Car pointer seems 25-75 feet off. Battery capacity. Firmware is still not where it needs to be.

We used to own the smaller screen version of Magellan until my wife "misplaced it". The unit itself works immediately as soon as you enter your time zone or local data and plug it in the cigarette lighter. Purchased this brand because we're used to Magellan's instructions. I was contemplating on getting the Garmin brand to try it out, but decided against it since we already have accessories from our previous GPS. The screen, sound, ease of use and price are GOOD. A couple of nice features this one has compared to our previous model are the wide screen (4.3") and image graphics (highway/freeway signs are superimposed to show you which way/sign to take). This model has upto 6 million POI (Points of Interest) which is what you should be looking for also when choosing a GPS. The only minor thing I found or should I say 'hear' is the voice. It sounds like it has a 'Cold'. I found this a bit funny actually. Don't get me wrong...the voice is very understandable! I didn't give it all 5 stars because nothing is perfect! The bottom line... The unit took us to where we wanted to go and back. Don't forget...you have the ability to return the product within a certain period if you don't like it. I hope my little review helps! Take care and happy driving!

i drive for a living and input many addresses in a day, this unit is much easier to see in the sunlight then my tom tom was. the lane assist is a real cool feature. the AAA guide was a great surprise, the keyboard is large enough to really type on as opposed to my tom tom, the volume is loud and can be easily understood. many poi's is a big help, although some are in the wrong place. would like to see a choice of map styles and i do not know why this is not a feature, you cant change the voice which they should have also included. and it does not show the time when your in navigate mode. but all in all it seems to be a good unit with many features you can only get on more expensive units.

I purchased a 1440 in April. When it worked, it was a very nice little unit. I liked the chimes at the turns, and the lane assist was spot on. The interface was very nice, and the POI's and AAA info was great. Please note that I said "when it worked"! The "Rebooting to improve performance" error did happen to me several times (and always at the time I was supposed to make a turn or take an exit). This was more than frustrating, but when the unit came back up, it did get me to my destination (although I could have done without the tour through some less than safe areas). The most annoying thing about the "when it worked" issue was not the above mentioned error, but the insanely long time it sometimes took to find a satellite signal. Sometimes it would lock on right away, but most of the time it took more than 15 minutes to find a signal. When going on vacation this past August I drove from Long Island to Westchester before it knew where it was. At Thanksgiving I volunteered to deliver meals to shut-ins. My first thought was: I wonder if my GPS will work for this? Luckily it did, but why should I have to wonder if I can use it or not? The next day I was in NJ, and thought about using it to find a different road than the one I was on... no signal for over an hour! That was the last straw. Thankfully I bought Best Buy's "Black Tie" protection when I bought the unit. They were great! They gave me 100% credit towards any other GPS they sold. I selected a GARMIN nuvi 1300T. I love the nuvi! It actually works. All the time. Everytime. Yes, I do miss the chimes at the turns, and yes it would be nice to have the lane assist, and yes, the POI's are not as good, but the touch screen is WAY more responsive, the graphics are much nicer & brighter, and most importantly IT WORKS! Sorry Magellan, while you definitely have some nice features for the money, what good are they if the stupid thing doesn't work? As for me, I'm a Garmin girl from now on!

This GPS is by far the coolest gadget I have bought in a long time. (I do love my sidekick though, on my 3rd one, they get better everytime!) Anyways, I was very excited about this purchase because I knew I wanted it and I had high expectations because a few of my friends have them and it's so awesome to never be lost. As soon as I took it out of the box I plugged in it to the car adapter, and it turns on and pinpoints my location in a couple minutes. I test it out and go deep into a neighborhood and then input my work address since I had work in 30 mins, so I did and it gives options of fastest time, shortest distance, mainly freeway, avoid freeway, super neat. I choose fastest time and on the screen are options to "save" or "go"....so you can save any destination. It took me out of the neighborhood perfectly, it warns you miles before your turn and which way you're going to turn so you know what lane to be in, it even makes a "ding dong" noise right before you turn (which can be turned off if you want). I left work and used it on the way home and it actually shows the big freeway signs so you know which lane to be in. I passed my exit to see what it would do and it takes a couple seconds and it reroutes! It says the street names with no problem. So many points of interest I even looked up a golf course for my parents trip they are going on in a few days, and found it so I saved it to the address book so now it's preprogrammed! I found an arena that my friend is having a competition at and saved it too! This GPS is amazing. Very user friendly, so easy to navigate, the screen is a great size. It came with car charger, USB cable, dash/windshield mount, handbook and CD. I can't help but smile because I think to myself, "finally I'll never be lost again or have to print out mapquest ever again!"

On the positive side, the unit took only seconds to setup in my car and find satellite signals; the voice directions were clear and easy to understand; the firmware update took only several minutes to install; the functions were intuitive and easy to use. I returned it, because you cannot add missing places of interest unless you go to the location and add it as a waypoint. Also, I entered my 6-year-old house address and was directed to a location about a half mile away.

I purchased this today as it is made with the Neverlost technology that is used by Hertz. It is a pretty decent unit. The only issue in the last three hours is that when I type in an address, sometimes it will pause/freeze on the letter. The only other issue is that it doesn't have every thing on the preloaded maps. I was in the parking lot of FedEx and the closest location that it pulled up was five miles away. I would give it a 4/5