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AnchorDesk

David Coursey
Need directions? My top picks for GPS devices

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004
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If you're looking for a turn-by-turn, voice-prompted GPS navigation device for your car, one your non-techie spouse will actually like to use, or if you're looking for a clone of the Hertz NeverLost system that can be easily moved from car to car and comes with a complete, built-in map of the U.S. and Canada, look no further than Magellan's RoadMate 700.

GPS alternatives
When it comes to figuring out where you are and where you're going, you've got lots of options. Here are three of the best.
There's also a less expensive version, the RoadMate 500, which makes an important compromise that some people will notice (more on that later). Those who don't will consider the 500 a great way to save money.

Selling for between $800 and $1,300, the RoadMates are clearly not devices for the faint of pocketbook. But if you can afford them, either is an excellent choice. (If you can't, see below for some more affordable alternatives.)

IF YOU'RE NEW to all this, let me explain: The RoadMate is a GPS-based navigation device that will help you get to your destination with a series of turn-by-turn directions. Those directions appear onscreen, with prompts from a computer-generated voice through the unit's built-in speakers.

Consumer versions of this technology have been plagued with problems: Getting the address you're looking for into the device, hearing the voice prompts in a noisy car, and making the device affordable have all been surprisingly tough. Magellan meets the first two challenges well and is forced to punt a bit on price. These sorts of devices are not inexpensive to build, use expensive intellectual properly (maps), and don't sell in the zillions of units. However, the RoadMate is about a third less-expensive than models I've looked at in the past.

The RoadMate comes in two models, identical except that the 700 has a built-in hard drive for map storage, while the 500 doesn't; it requires you to download regional maps into RAM (that's the compromise I mentioned above). If you aren't traveling across country, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. But if you're a trucker, RVer, or otherwise prone to wake up in a different state every morning, or if you're a business traveler and want to move the RoadMate from car to car and city to city, spend the extra money for the hard drive.

These touch-screen GPS devices solve many problems that have plagued earlier attempts at high-end in-car navigation. Entering an address using the on-screen keyboard is easy because the screen is touch-sensitive, but also because the software narrows down the options as you "type" new letters, eventually offering you a small menu of choices. In two months of use, I've never had to type in a complete street or place name.

The user interface is quite intuitive, especially for new users. The voice prompts are loud and clear, although the RoadMate has trouble with some street names. It does fine with numeric highway designations, however.

AS FOR the quality of directions, the unit never got me lost, save once in a new subdivision where the streets had changed from the original plan. There was one freeway onramp, stuck in the middle of a commercial area and used for only one direction, which the RoadMate wasn't aware of. That would have cost me an extra mile or two but the directions given were spot on.

If you happen to miss a turn or decide not to take the RoadMate's directions, it will usually tell you to make a "legal U-turn" to get back on the original route. If you keep driving in the "wrong" direction, the unit will quickly recalculate the route. This allows you to take shortcuts the Magellan doesn't figure into your route, or to intentionally head off route--say, to find a restaurant--without any worries about getting to your destination.

While I think the RoadMate is very good for its intended audience, there are some things I have issues with:

• My old Garmin StreetPilot displays upcoming exit names while I'm driving on the freeway. The RoadMate should, too.

• The Locate key on the RoadMate brings up a display showing how far you are from specific streets. But instead of saying that you are "X miles from" one place or "Y miles to" another, it uses obscure "<" and ">" characters. And the streets it chooses are rarely the closest ones.

• It's possible to be driving on a road and getting directions when the street doesn't show up on the display. I think I had to zoom out to see the road I was on when this happened, but at first glance it looked like the RoadMate had crashed.

• The RoadMate doesn't display time or vehicle speed on the main display.

• The RoadMate doesn't automatically change displays at dusk to a color more suitable for use at night. You can do this manually, but why should you have to?

• It is more difficult than it should be to add your current location to the address book. This should be a single, rather than a multistep process.

There are also some geekier issues: Because the unit is so tightly coupled to the ease-of-use crowd, it really isn't a good all-purpose GPS. It's too difficult to get the unit to display latitude and longitude, and it doesn't do UTM positions as well. There is no output for sending GPS data to a computer or other device.

MOST PEOPLE won't notice these arguable deficiencies, and those that do probably have another GPS (or six) that can be pressed into service alongside the RoadMate when required.

I've now driven about 5,000 miles with the RoadMate and found it to be an excellent travelling companion. More importantly, so did the several other people who have driven my car. They even used it when I wasn't around, which is high praise for a GPS device. This one's a keeper.

For those of you who aren't up to these prices, you do have other options. The Garmin 2610 lists for $1,166, but can be had for less than $800. While it lacks the hard drive, it does have an interesting feature set, comparable to the RoadMates. I've seen this device but haven't had a chance to really work with it. The Garmin StreetPilot III is the device I used to covet before playing with the RoadMate. The price--about $700--is lower than the RoadMates, but I don't think the user experience is at all comparable; the 2610 a better buy.

What do you think? Would you buy a RoadMate? Do you have a GPS system already? TalkBack to me below!

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