GPS Review: Magellan Roadmate 760

A decent GPS review has hit the wire on the Magellan Roadmate 760. The top of the line automotive GPS Receiver from Magellan, has many high end features, and is fairly well repected and rated. Some of the well liked features are the fact that it has user profiles available, which allow you to have your own sets of detinations and preference settings. this can come in handy if you share with other workers or members of the household. Of course a big thing is that the device comes pre-loaded with Maps and Points of Interest for your region (Like North America), as well as other regions (like Eurpoe) that you can later unlock for a fee. Not bad if you happen to travel there and want to navigate your way on the roads, unlock and go.

Other GPSLodge.com Magellan Roadmate 760 Coverage:

Magellan releases the RoadMate 760 - June 21, 2005

GPS Review: Garmin Streetilot 2720 vs. Magellan RoadMate 760 - July 25, 2005

While the text to speech feature is a good thing, the review finds issue with it: "One aspect of the audio we both liked and found a bit disconcerting at the same time was the text-to-speech technology that Magellan has named Say Where. With Say Where, a user can have the unit announce street names. Most portable in-car GPS devices provide only simple voice prompts like, "bear left", "exit right" or "right turn"-each phrase being an individual audio file. We were impressed that the 760 can provide complete spoken directions, such as "bear left, New Jersey Turnpike cars-only lane," or "right turn, Meadowlands Parkway." What's perplexing is that the text-to-speech portion of the directions were all spoken in a female voice no matter what voice/language we had selected for the unit as a whole. Thus, in our configuration, we selected a male American voice, which provided the turn distance and direction instructions, while the spoken street name followed in the female voice."

Another big feature on this high end device is the multisegment trip planing. Have to go several places? No problem, the RoadMate 760 can handle it. "While most portable GPS devices are based on the same NAVTEQ navigation database, the 760 adds several new features that set it apart from others. It supports multisegment trips, with a special optimize function. In addition to a map view, the 760 provides a list view for turns on your route. If you change a direction instruction, it recalculates the route. Should you lose the satellite signal, it automatically switches from map view to turn list view after 15 seconds. The only other in-car receiver we've reviewed to date with this latter feature is the TomTom GO, which was the first to offer this capability."

I don't want to leave it out, but we have discussed the SmartDetour features in our other coverage of the Magellan Roadmate 760 here at GPSLodge.com. See related posts below.

Overall Impression
"If the lack of a 3D map view doesn't bother you, the excellent navigation options make the Magellan RoadMate 760 a worthy, if expensive, product. On the whole, though, we still find the Lowrance iWAY 500C superior and a better bargain."

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Again, GPSLodge.com Magellan Roadmate 760 Coverage:

Magellan releases the RoadMate 760 - June 21, 2005

GPS Review: Garmin Streetilot 2720 vs. Magellan RoadMate 760 - July 25, 2005

via PCMag

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