It’s incredible how the GPS navigation market has evolved over the past few years. Not so long ago, everybody was counting on those bulky maps to plan their trips; it was after all the only realistic and reliable solution. Some years later, internet services such as mapquest.com and yahoo maps became a driver’s best friend. What could be easier than in-putting your origin address with the destination and getting a full map with step by step directions?
Today GPS navigation is becoming more and more popular. If you have been in the market for a new car in the past few years, chances are that your specific model had an extra GPS option. In 2005 when I was buying my new Acura, I had two models available. One of them was the basic TSX model and the other one was the same TSX but with the navigation package. I never experienced GPS navigation before so I was a bit sceptical and considering the extra package was over 2,500$, I decided to pass on the option.
Three months later, when my partner decided to buy the same car with the navigation package I started wondering what this technology was all about. We had a meeting in 2005 in New York City; it’s a 6 hours drive from our offices in Montreal. During the drive, I became fascinated with the precision of this technology. We in-putted our Manhattan address and the GPS system displayed real time graphical directions while it provided voice commands of where we should take exits and in how miles the exits were up ahead.
After this trip, GPS navigation became a necessity for me. No more print outs from mapquest.com and no more distractions by checking the typical paper map every 20 minutes; its all about getting to your destination from wherever you are without any hassles.
While most of us don’t have cars with a stock GPS Navigation, there is still a way to take full advantage of GPS Navigation without spending the expensive car manufacturer navigation price tag. Several stand alone GPS units can be bought on today’s market that feature the same, and in most cases, superior features and specifications to an original manufacturer solution.
In this review we take a look at Magellan’s newest RoadMate 6000T GPS.
The RoadMate 6000T
The 6000T is Magellan’s state of the art navigation model. The unit weights a mere 245g and spots a very defined and attractive design. The 6000T can easily be moved from car to car or packed in a suitcase. Compared to most GPS systems on the market; the 6000T is surrounded by control buttons giving you the ability to manage the system easier and more efficiently than touch screen controls. For example, by pressing the phone button, you automatically go to its Bluetooth calling options. The buttons are illuminated with blue LEDs; giving this product an attractive and very visible interactivity at night. Its 3.5 inch touch screen is crisp and clear and the brightness level is excellent. The product’s integrated battery allows drivers to operate the device without its cigarette lighter adapter.
The 6000T features the SiRF Star III GPS chipset. This chip technology boosts GPS sensitivity and accuracy levels. Prior systems without the SiRF Star III chipset always had signal reception problems in marginal areas such as urban environments and bridges. Not only does this technology feature improved signal strengths, but it won’t take ridiculous amounts of time to acquire satellite signal back whenever you enter a tunnel or an indoor parking. Signal tracking is very strong and overall very satisfying with the RoadMate 6000T
An interesting trait on the 6000T is the ability to get real time traffic data. Magellan includes a FM TMC traffic receiver on this model along with a 3 months trial period. This option provides full traffic statistics along with construction and weather issues present on your destination route. If an incident is present on tyour route, the system will automatically notify you and suggest an alternative solution.
The mapping software used on the Magellan is the one from NAQTEQ. This specific software is very popular in North America and is somewhat more complete and accurate than its competition from Tele Atlas. NAVTEQ is used by all car manufacturers for the factory OEM GPS solutions. We never experienced any accuracy problems with this specific solution and are very satisfied with the results. The 6000T comes with pre-loaded maps for the US and Canada with over six million points of interest such as restaurants, ATM’s, airports, parks, historic sites, gas station and much more.
The 6000T processing time for routing and re-routing is very fast. We did a test to route a trip from Montreal to New York City and the processing time was set at around 5 seconds.
Text to speech voice prompts with street name pronunciations is acceptable. While I wasn’t expecting precise pronunciations, the unit managed to do the job quite well, especially considering the fact I live in Montreal where English and French are the main languages and where the majority of streets and intersections have French names.
A smart feature on the 6000T is its ability to plan your route by shortest distance or shortest time providing more efficient routing. The trip planner feature lets you input several random addresses (up to 20) and the system will automatically calculate the most efficient route and tell you which addresses you should visit first and in what order. You can also customize the mapping software with the 6000T in order to exclude routes you prefer to avoid, such as toll roads. The Auto re-route trait is a very useful option where the 6000T will adjust your course whenever you take a detour or miss an exit making it easy to get back on track.
Something I really like on Magellan products is the Quick Spell feature; it's an intelligent address finding feature. Whenever you want to type in an address, an alphabet display is present and as you spell your destination, the options narrow down making it a lot easier to get the next letter. For example, if I want to type in Manhattan, I would press M and A and the system would automatically display the next available letters from its database; eliminating the inexistent characters of city names. Furthermore, you can simply use part of the name and it will give you all of the available options.
The Magellan RoadMate 6000T is the first in the Magellan line to deliver the convenience of hands-free calling with Bluetooth enabled phones. Any Bluetooth enabled phone can be paired with the system to provide a full hands free experience. Your phone connects with the 6000T and starts accepting all calls. Whenever you get a call, the software displays the callers name and number; pressing the answer button allows you to start talking right away. A log book with all of your received/dialed calls is available as well. You can also dial numbers manually on the dial pad.
Other features on the 6000T include a built in MP3 player and picture viewer. These are basic features that allow a user to load audio in MP3 or WMA files and pictures in JPG and BMP in a SD or MMC card and have the ability to listen to music or display images. I don’t personally see my self using neither of these features; however they might be of greater interest for some.
Summation
Magellan has done a great job with its Road Mate 6000T. The unit packs many interesting features into an attractive and very portable device that anyone can use to make traveling easier, fast and more comfortable.
If you are someone that’s always on the road and has different daily destinations to visit, I believe the route planner feature is without a doubt a unique and unbeatable addition. Furthermore, I found the 6000T to be very precise and an easy to use solution.
There are many cheaper solutions on the market; it’s 599$ USD retail price tag is somewhat high. That aside, when money is not a major consideration and quality of functionality and design are most important, the Road Mate 6000T is by far for one of the most advanced and feature packed GPS solution on the market today. You get what you pay for.
Carlos David Donoso
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