Not sure if posting this in the other thread would be hijacking it or not. Decided to go with a new thread.
My Magellan 4350, about a year or so old, not sure, just went toes up. I moved it from a car to a truck for a trip with guests, and it just freezes during the boot up process (with the sweep arm of the "clock" at 25 mins.). I tried rebooting various ways, running the battery down, reloading firmware & OS, nada. I get an error about finding problems in the TFAT but it never resolves them. Reloading fails just as Vermont starts. The screen looks a lot like a TV screen in 1965, tuned to channel 8, where there is no channel 8!
Of course, a couple of weeks ago I paid for a one year traffic update renewal. Oh well, maybe it's that soon to be discontinued MS version anyway. It was never quite up to date, but was just barely worth renewing. And I'm not sure my system was ever successfully backed up (hard to tell from the process). I'd HATE to lose all those addresses.
Anyway- for this thread. I, of course, am looking at buying another Magellan, or perhaps follow the suggestions and go with Garmin. So I'd like to review what I liked and did not like, to see how the Garmin or others compare. I'd love to know what features I'd lose, if any, by going to another brand.
LIKES:
-AAA points of interest. Seems to be more of them, and I'm familiar with the way it works.
-Some destinations can be "one touch" where you can more quickly select them, without scrolling thru the address book. Mine got kinda long.
-Could enter waypoints.
-Could tell it to take you to a searched destination, say Panera Bread, mid trip without losing the main trip route.
-It could display the nearest restaurant, or a listing of, say Panera Breads, in order of closet to furthest.
-It always took into account where I was, when searching for addresses or other destinations, so I did not get every Main Street in the country in some useless order.
-Detours were suggested, based on traffic, although this was awkward and didn't work very well.
-Standard USB charging port.
-Zooming in/out. Although zooming out to see the entire planet wasn't cute after the first time.
-Volume controls.
-"Preview" of trip, where you could basically "drive" thru the route at various speeds (up to well over 1,000 mph) while sitting still.
-2D/3D map views.
-Could back up my addresses (but not sure it worked).
-Could save phone #s etc with addresses.
-Could create a destination by saving current location.
-Would like to be able to scroll thru map, pick a spot and save it as destination. Not sure if the 4350 did this.
-Traffic updates, although they may not have been very up to date.
DISLIKES:
-Pronunciation of some words was REALLY bad.
-Tendency while driving on the interstate, especially, to direct you to take an exit, drive thru it to the other end, and re-enter the hwy. Dumb logic.
-Sometimes thought you were on a parallel street, not the one you were actually on.
-Seemed to sometimes recalculate route for no good reason.
-Started locking up, but this may have been my warning something was wrong.
I had no use for the hands free phone or playing AV from an SD card features.
So, Garmin & other users- What do I get by changing brands, what do I lose? Why do you prefer yours?
And Magellan users - how has your experience compared to mine?
My Magellan 4350, about a year or so old, not sure, just went toes up. I moved it from a car to a truck for a trip with guests, and it just freezes during the boot up process (with the sweep arm of the "clock" at 25 mins.). I tried rebooting various ways, running the battery down, reloading firmware & OS, nada. I get an error about finding problems in the TFAT but it never resolves them. Reloading fails just as Vermont starts. The screen looks a lot like a TV screen in 1965, tuned to channel 8, where there is no channel 8!
Of course, a couple of weeks ago I paid for a one year traffic update renewal. Oh well, maybe it's that soon to be discontinued MS version anyway. It was never quite up to date, but was just barely worth renewing. And I'm not sure my system was ever successfully backed up (hard to tell from the process). I'd HATE to lose all those addresses.
Anyway- for this thread. I, of course, am looking at buying another Magellan, or perhaps follow the suggestions and go with Garmin. So I'd like to review what I liked and did not like, to see how the Garmin or others compare. I'd love to know what features I'd lose, if any, by going to another brand.
LIKES:
-AAA points of interest. Seems to be more of them, and I'm familiar with the way it works.
-Some destinations can be "one touch" where you can more quickly select them, without scrolling thru the address book. Mine got kinda long.
-Could enter waypoints.
-Could tell it to take you to a searched destination, say Panera Bread, mid trip without losing the main trip route.
-It could display the nearest restaurant, or a listing of, say Panera Breads, in order of closet to furthest.
-It always took into account where I was, when searching for addresses or other destinations, so I did not get every Main Street in the country in some useless order.
-Detours were suggested, based on traffic, although this was awkward and didn't work very well.
-Standard USB charging port.
-Zooming in/out. Although zooming out to see the entire planet wasn't cute after the first time.
-Volume controls.
-"Preview" of trip, where you could basically "drive" thru the route at various speeds (up to well over 1,000 mph) while sitting still.
-2D/3D map views.
-Could back up my addresses (but not sure it worked).
-Could save phone #s etc with addresses.
-Could create a destination by saving current location.
-Would like to be able to scroll thru map, pick a spot and save it as destination. Not sure if the 4350 did this.
-Traffic updates, although they may not have been very up to date.
DISLIKES:
-Pronunciation of some words was REALLY bad.
-Tendency while driving on the interstate, especially, to direct you to take an exit, drive thru it to the other end, and re-enter the hwy. Dumb logic.
-Sometimes thought you were on a parallel street, not the one you were actually on.
-Seemed to sometimes recalculate route for no good reason.
-Started locking up, but this may have been my warning something was wrong.
I had no use for the hands free phone or playing AV from an SD card features.
So, Garmin & other users- What do I get by changing brands, what do I lose? Why do you prefer yours?
And Magellan users - how has your experience compared to mine?
