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| Magellan RoadMate 2000 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator | 
 enlarge | Brand: Magellan
Category: CE
List Price: $449.99
Buy New: $159.00
You Save: $290.99 (65%)
New (5) Used (3) Refurbished (6) from $89.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  71 reviews
Sales Rank: 9050
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Native Resolution: 320 x 240
Display Size: 3.5
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 3.4 x 4.3 x 1.1
MPN: 98088901
Model: 980889-01
UPC: 063357115612
EAN: 0063357115612
ASIN: B000HZTB80
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not bad but has some flaws November 28, 2006
33 out of 36 found this review helpful
This is my second GPS unit. The first one I used was the VZ Navigator on my cell phone. Compared to my cell phone GPS, this one is seriously lacking in built-in points of interest. There are no listings for businesses such as movie theaters or drug stores. It lists symphonies and repertory theaters, but no cinemas - go figure.
A more serious problem is that it seems to take forever to calculate your route, even after it acquires satellite triangulation. Sometimes it takes over a minute to calculate your route. Then when it does, the screen just says "Go to route." I don't know what that means except that it doesn't start giving directions right away even after it spends a minute or so calculating your route.
The display is excellent. And when it finally finds your route it works well. It did reboot spontaneously a couple of times, which was annoying. I'm considering returning it, but I'll try technical support first.
An OK GPS Device November 27, 2006
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
I bought this GPS device in the black Friday's sale from Best Buy. I drove about 200 miles with it. This is my experience.
Pros:
1. Small size. The device is quite small. The 3.5-inch screen occupies most of the face. It's only as deep as a cigarette package. The portability is nice.
2. Ease of use. There is only one button on the side of the device. User's input is all through the touch screen. There is a product manual. But the only time you need to read the manual is about how to unlock the device the very first time you use it. After that, everything is intuitive and user friendly.
3. Receiver chip. It uses SiRFstar III receiver chip, the latest microcontroller chip from the world's largest GPS chip manufacture. This chip is used by other GPS devices, which can be 3 times as expensive as Magellan RoadMate 2000. Since the receiver chip is the single most important factor determining a GPS's positioning capability. Compared with other GPS devices, there shouldn't be complaints on the accuracy and signal acquiring speed since they are all using the the same chip.
Cons:
1. Random crash. It happened twice to me since I bought it and drove with it. The first time, I was in the middle of some operation on the screen. The second time, it just crashed when I made a sharp turn on a simple local road. When it crashes, it will reboot automatically and resume the route in totally 4 or 5 seconds. There is really no influence on using it unless you need the direction right at that time. However, this can be annoying.
2. Failure to direct on the go. Today my friend drove me from my home to a nearby airport. I turned on the GPS while we were on the road. It acquired signals in 3 to 4 minutes (reasonable for a cold start) and calculated the right directions. However, it consistently asked me to "proceed to the route", which means to the GPS device I wasn't on the right route to the destination although we were driving precisely on the freeway suggested by the GPS. As a result, it wouldn't give us any turning guidance, although I could see the arrow moving on the correct highway. I am not sure what caused the issue. And I will try later to see if I could duplicate it. But this is a quite serious flaw because when it happens, the GPS device is totally useless except that it shows where you are. I really hope they can release a firmware update to fix this as soon as possible.
3. Crude interface. The interface seems to me quite crude. The color scheme is harsh and lines are jagged. Although it doesn't affect the usage at all, I hope it can be more appalling to people's eyes.
In general, I'd say this is an OK GPS device. On the hardware side, there are really no much complaints. But on the software side, there are some serious things to be ironed out. I only wish they can release the updates soon to fix the problems before I can recommend this device without any reservation.
 Simple and inexpensive... November 25, 2006
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
I don't know what pretend people.. this magellan is basic in all sense.. don't have bluetoot, don't have mp3 but if you need something to go from a to b quickly and easy, this is the gps.
Magellan help me navigate every day in california delta, thousand littles routes are memorized in this little gps; this magellan drive from San Francisco all the way to New York, withound any problem at all..
Finally it's inexpensive, simple and functional.. the rest.. well.. the rest can buy an expensive garmin or tomtom... magellan is enough for me..
4 stars when it worked, 0 for support and quality November 17, 2006
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
I bought the Roadmate 2000 and at first it was great. I was able to obtain a satellite fix in about 1 minute out of the box. On my first trip there were no maps, just the street I was on. I tried playing with the zoom and nothing helped. After about 1 hour, the unit spontaneously rebooted itself and asked me if I wanted to continue my route. After that all seemed well and the mapping worked fine. However about once every hour or so the unit would reboot again. I tried calling support but there was a total failure of communication. What they would say made no sense and after 15 minutes of frustration, I hung up and returned the unit.
Amazon replaced the unit, but the new unit would not get a satellite fix at all. Another call to the Magellan support desk was worthless. They kept apologizing and repeating whatever I said (I presume the support person was in India). They suggested that it could take 15 minutes to get a lock every time I started the unit. That is insane. The second unit went back as well.
While the first unit was working it did a great job routing and rerouting as I missed a turn. My only complaint was that if you are "on a route" but not a highway, you have to cancel your route to use the POI locater. In other words, if you are going some place that doesn't take you on a highway and you decide to look for a MCDonalds, you must cancel your current route to navigate to McDonalds instead of just adding it to your itinarary. Bad idea.
Did I say that Magellan customer support is worthless?
 WON'T TAKE YOU AROUND WHEN YOU'RE IN EUROPE!!! October 24, 2006
21 out of 59 found this review helpful
Actually this COULD have been a great GPS! And, it has a "really nice" opening for a SD Memory Card. But, I just called Magellan and was told, "Oh, the European Maps won't be made available for this model." That's ridiculous in my opinion----to make a product that won't accept "maps from other countries". I mean, someday, in about 10 years, you MAY want to go to London...or Paris....or Rome...and drive around in a rented car, right? So, then you find out yourself----because Magellan won't tell you up front----you find out yourself, "oh, I have to buy another GPS that will accept European Maps." Phooey! Magellan should have in big letters on the box: "WILL NOT WORK WITH EUROPEAN MAPS". But, it leaves that information up to the customer to seek out. I wouldn't buy this product for that reason alone! If you agree or disagree email: boland7214@aol.
PS: If you want to bring your GPS to Europe, check out Garmin GPS. Also the Garmin C530, for example, has a screen that is easier to read because the information is in BIGGER LETTERS and always on top.
PPS: To be fair, if you are SURE you only want to drive in The USA The 2000 is worth looking into because it worked very well for me around my neighborhood. And, there is another similer model for $100 more (!) that I was told "will have capability to work with European Maps IN THE FUTURE SOMETIME!" That model is the Magellan 2200T.
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