"Must Have" Features in the Magellan 1212
Reviews and Ratings
For an affordable priced GPS, the Magellan 1212 has a lot of desirable features. It has preloaded maps for North America and Puerto Rico. You may view the maps in 2D and 3D and along with Magellan's "TrueView" feature, you can view a split screen detail of the approaching turn. The Magellan 1212 comes with "SayWhen" which is Magellan's trade name for text to speech. This provides the unit with the ability to tell you the name of the street to turn on, in addition to what direction to turn and when to turn. A real safety feature and probably the most desired feature in car GPS units. You can create routes a number of different ways:
1. Entering the address of your destination is aided by "QuickSpell" which has the ability to anticipate your entry and will finish it for you in addition to correcting your spelling.
2. You can touch the interactive icon in any of the 6 million, preloaded, Points of Interest and a route will be created to that destination.
3. You can select a destination listed in your address book or a previous destination. You can customize your route by specifying the fastest route, the shortest route, the most economical route, etc. You can also exclude highways, tolls and more. Should you miss your turn or take a wrong turn, "Auto reroute" will get you back on course and on your way again. If you run into a traffic jam or slow traffic, "SmartDetour" can be customized to automatically activate and provide a detour around the problem, if possible. A SD slot is built into the Magellan 1212 but you'll have to purchase the SD card separately as it is not provided with the unit. Address book allows you to create your own Points of Interest in addition to the 6 million Points of Interest preloaded with the unit. With a SD card you can use the backup/restore feature to backup your address book. Magellan feels that the best GPS navigation is provided using the Centrality Atlas III processor which has an integrated GPS receiver. The Centrality Atlas III has high sensitivity for obtaining satellite locks in weak GPS signal areas and gives an accuracy of 3 meters.
REVIEWS There is nothing like word of mouth recommendations. That's why we have included owners' reviews of the Magellan 1212 on this site. When someone purchases a GPS with their own money and actually uses it in everyday life I think you can get a much better picture of how the Magellan 1212 will meet your needs. We have tired to include both the pros and cons of the unit being reviewed. I hope this will help you make a decision. Owner Magellan 1212 Reviews
Amazon:
Magellan 1212By Joe F, March 6, 2009
"Maggie" gets you there!
I must say that I really had my doubts about this little wonder simply due to the low cost. It was the ONLY one in this price range with such high end features as Text To Speech, trip planner, and automatic detour. If you think you don't really need the Text To Speech feature, think again! After using two Garmins in the past that did not have this feature, I would never be without it after trying it. You don't even have to look at the device. Instead of just generic instructions like "Turn right in .2 miles", it says something really useful like "Turn slight right in .2 miles on Hawthorne Street". That removes all doubt as to whether the right turn in .2 miles is this road, or the one right next to it at a slight angle. If I had to find one thing to complain about, it's that the screen does not seem to like it when you press the letters and numbers. Sometimes it would not do anything, or I would have to press it multiple times to get the selection to take. What I found however is that it really likes light quick taps on the numbers and letters. Once I got the hang of this, the problem completely dissapeared. The selection rate with quick taps instead of pressing against the screen took my success rate to 99.9% on the first tap. Just quick fast taps and she takes you where you want to go. Wherever you are, whenever you are ready to go home, just tap the little picture of the house and you're on your way. By Edward J. Silveira, February 8, 2009
We bought this in anticipation of our road trip from Virginia to Key West and return in January 2009. Finally broke down and bought one because the price seemed right. We used it to get around Richmond and it is easy, intuitive and spot on. Navigation is very good, and all works as advertised with the exception of the elevation (it's not 143 feet above sea level anywhere in Florida, particularly on the causeways). Exit POIs work very well. In Key West it had us take 4 successive right turns, was recommending a fifth so we had to hit reroute to snap it from that behavior. One time the voice sounded like a 78 played at 33 and 1/3 (sorry for the arcane reference), but the best description and we powered off and on and it hasn't happened since. When routed to our home on a rural Virginia road, if we pass the dead end street on which we live, rather than tell us to "make a legal u-turn" it tries to send us almost 11 miles in a circle back to the street turn we missed. Strange. For the price we can live with it's idiosyncrasies.
By L. Pinzow, January 7, 2009
RoadMate 1212 This is the best ever. Easy to follow directions, ample warning before turns. My only complaint is when going off track by taking an exit on the highway just to get gas, it directs you via local streets to the next exit instead of back to the exit you used previously. Best Buy:
Magellan 1212 GPS navggationBy Anonymous Reviewer, 03/14/2009
What's great about it: Great price. Very easy to use.
What's not so great: Map is spotty.
Overall, this GPS is a great value. It is very easy to use straight out of the box. No need to read the instruction manual. I just read the reference card to familiarize myself with the basic functions. But, this GPS is not perfect. My first test for this GPS was to see if it knew where "Home" was.....it didn't. It knew that there was a street, but the wrong street. It had a different name for my home street. All other streets in the neighborhood were correct. Next, I tested the POI fuction. I wanted to see if it would take me back to Best Buy since it isn't too far away. It listed 3 Best Buys in my general area and listed the closest one first. Very easy. As far as the route, it was spot on to the route that I would take without the GPS. Up until I actually got within half a mile. The problem is we overshot it by 300 yards. So it helps to pay attention when you start getting close. Next, I tried the "Get me Home" feature. This is where it really got weird. It wanted me to go back around to the freeway instead of taking one of the back roads that was shorter and faster. I took the back road to see if it would reroute. It did that just fine. It knew what I did and adjusted the route. But, when I got close to home it wanted me to go the long way in through the back of the neighborhood. Very strange. I took my normal route and it adjusted. It was also about 5 house away from my actual address. Overall, a good GPS. If you can deal with the spotty internal map then I think you will enjoy it. By mmiller, 03/07/2009
I bought this for my son to help him find his way around to the various small towns around the area and when he goes to off to college. It was easy to set up and use. It worked great and it found all the addresses we needed to go with one exception that it had my street and the one next to us confused, but a friend's gps has the same issue. It isn't a problem since we know where home is. The only problem I had with this one is that the battery would not hold a charge for more than 20 - 30 minutes even after a full charge. I plan to exchange it. I haven't decided whether I will purchase the same one or go for an upgrade. By Anonymous Reviewer, 02/20/2009
The Magellan 1212What's great about it: easy to use, voices street names, you never even have to look at it while driving
What's not so great: could have used sexier female voice (with italian accent maybe)
first gps for us; it is even better than expected. can now travel anywhere, even new jersey. the points of interest are awesome - can find almost anything you can think of. the auto detour option is cool too! Owner Magellan 1212 Ratings
Amazon:
20 Reviews:
5 star = (13)
4 star = (6)
3 star = (0)
2 star = (0)
1 star = (3)
Best Buy: 21 reviews: 4.5 out of a possible 5
Test Freaks: 9 reviews: 9.3 out of a possible 10
Magellan 1212 Specifications
Introduced: October 2007
Unit dimensions: 3.30" H x 3.63" W x 0.69" D
Display size: 3.5" diag
Display resolution: 480 x 272 pixels
Display type: QVGA color touch screen
Weight: 4.9 ounces
Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion
Battery life: Up to 3 hours
Antenna type: Integrated multidirectional patch
What's in the Box:
Magellan 1212 GPS receiver
Pre-Loaded Maps for United States, Puerto Rico and Canada
Vehicle power adapter
Adhesive disk for dash mounting
Windshield mount
Basic cradle
User manual on CD ROM
Quick-start guide
Note: The state of Minnesota prohibits the installation of portable GPS units on the windshield of your vehicle.
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