Magellan RoadMate 1340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
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The newly redesigned Magellan RoadMate 1340 GPS device boasts a 3.5-Inch color touch screen and ultra-thin design, delivering powerful navigation in a compact package. This easy-to-use device gives you confidence while on the road with premium features including: AAA TourBook, highway lane assist, spoken street names, multi-destination routing, and pre-loaded maps of North America. Exclusive Magellan OneTouch personalized search icons let you easily bookmark favorite destinations so you can access them anywhere you travel. Find your favorite café or restaurant in any city with a single touch. The RoadMate 1340 navigation device delivers your favorites at your fingertips.
Features
- Includes maps of United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico
- Text to Speech Announces street names and directions at each turn
- Features a portable 3.5-Inch color touch screen
- Features AAA TourBook and Roadside Assistance menu
- Personalize OneTouch search icons with your favorite places
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 4 x 3 x 7 inches
- Weight: 1 pounds
CRAP
Caused alot of stress. I wante to make it part of the road/landscape of Hawaii. Of course I could have bought a defective one, but mine really is a piece of crap. One positive when it did work at least you could enter a Hawaii **-*** (dash between numbers) address.
Magellan roadmate 1340 GPS review
I bought the Magellan roadmate 1340 GPS from amazon for a deal of $79, oh great immediately after the second day it got hiked to $115…thank i have saved 48%. Lets come to the point.
I was able to use it just out of the box. It is really pretty simple to use. Address feeding is more simpler than my previous MIO C220. Also the one touch is of great help. Acquiring signal is pretty quick within 30-45 secs or even less than that i don’t see a delay in it. Also when it is powered up to the car charger, it is powered on automatically when the car starts and shutdown (asking permission) when it stopped. I really liked the feature.
Lane assistant is the added feature. Volume is good and audible and also the screen brightness is not an issue for me. Overall it is a steal of a price with all the best features. Going for 1440 and 1470 just for size is really waste of money when u get all the features in this for very less.
Magellan GPS
This is a quality GPS at a lower price point. It has all the basic features one would expect. The only minor negative I can come up with is the screen size is a little on the smallish side. On the whole, for the price, I highly recommend the Magellan.
Road Mate 1340 – great aid
Nice compact unit with AAA tourbook built it. The unit does a good job of getting me from point a to b. I had a problem with a software upgrade and had to send the unit to Magellan. They retuned another unit within a week. The upgrade is a vast improvement with the extra custom buttons, qwerty keypad and auto time zone change.
It was great on a recent trip I took from Chicago to Virginia. While travelling in PA, we were able to pull up restaurants on the GPS while traveling to call ahead for hours and make a reservation to get seated quickly. The routing was good.
I found that if one is traveling off the beaten path, it does not necessarily select the best or fastest route. For example, on a trip to Burlington, WI, the GPS rerouted me 20 miles out of the way and added an extra 1/2 hr to my travel time. Also, I was parked in a shopping center in Lexington, KY searching for a Starbucks, the nearest one was 0.3 miles away. The GPS could not locate me in the parking lot, so it gave me a round about way to get there. When we arrived, we recognized the shopping center on the other side of the lot. I guess I really needed that cup of coffee.
I also purchased the traffic link. It saved me traveling from Indianapolis to Chicago by rerouting me around more congested expressways. However, I also have received alerts that were old. So the jury is still out.
Voice prompts fuzzy at high volume
I can barely understand the voice prompts coming from this unit. I drive a diesel Ford F250 truck and when I turn up the volume high enough to hear over the sound of the engine, the voice prompts are fuzzy and distorted. I have to look at the screen to figure out where it wants me to go instead of just listening to the voice prompts. …Makes it a little dangerous while driving.
The screen is small, but you get what you pay for. This is a low end unit. I would say that if you don’t have a vehicle that has a lot of engine noise, this unit is ok. But if you do have a lot of engine noise, definitely buy something else.
Disappointed with Megallen Roadmate 1340
I bought Roadmate 1340 3 months back when there was a very good deal. I like the GPS except for 3.5″ screen. But that is fine. It was good GPS with really good features untill the time it started rebooting while on the road and will not come back to the previous destination. So I send it back and got a new unit for the same model. Becaused I liked the value for money for this GPS. Then came the most frustating part. My GPS takes 10 to 15 minutes to capture signal. Also while on the go it hangs and will not show the root any more and this happens while it tries to recalcuate the routes. At this point I was totally disappointed and I returned the GPS.
I feel Garmin Nuvi is better than Magellan Roadmate series. I’m search for deal on Garmin.
Thanks,
AMA.
Excellent User Interface, but Questionable Routing on First Try
This is the second GPS unit I have ever owned. The first one is a very old Garmin model with a tiny black and white screen. I used that one religiously for probably 5+ years all around the U.S., Canada, and even Hawaii, with no problems whatsoever. Notably, I never once had my Garmin give me wacky routing from point A to point B. When I first plugged in this unit, I was impressed with the nice user interface. I never had to open the user manual for anything. It was a breeze to figure out. However, user interface is not the most important feature of a GPS unit. It is more important that the unit does its job–to get you where you want to go. On my first journey–a 20-mile trek across town–I ran into trouble right away. Mind you, I was not in a new area with new roads. I started in a town that is over 100 years old, and the Magellan GPS had me drive past the road where I knew that I should have turned right, then make a right on the next road, make another right, and then make a left onto the road I already crossed. There would have been no problem just making the right turn on the correct street, but the Magellan took me on the “scenic route” through a residential neighborhood. I was so intrigued by where it was routing me that I followed like an idiot, even though I knew I had missed my turn. Let’s just say that you wouldn’t want this to happen in a bad part of town, where the scenic route could mean driving down a dark alley or side street when you could be on a main road. I have used this unit maybe 4-5 times since that first experience, and it has worked fine. However, first impressions are lasting, and it will take me a while to put that experience behind me and believe in this unit. Again, my Garmin was a trusted co-pilot for many years. I even named her–Carmen my Garmin. Then, I kicked her to the curb when a better looking co-pilot came along. If Maggie my Magellan turns out to be a dimwit, I still have Carmen in her pouch.
Loved it Until…
I am VERY disappointed in this product. I originally purchased it in July 2009 at a major membership warehouse store. I really thought is was going to be reliable and enjoyed using it for the first 3 months I had it. Then, suddenly one day, the display froze. I turned off the unit and tried to restart it. It wouldn’t fire up.
I tried several different methods to contact their support group. I can safely say their customer support was absolutely the WORST I have ever dealt with. Naturally, as is customary now, I wound up speaking to someone off-shore, probably in India, who was difficult to understand and who had difficulty relating to trying to solve my problem.
Finally, I was given an R.M.A. number and told to return the unit and a replacement would be sent out 7 to 10 calendar days after they received my defective unit. I followed their instructions and waited, the replacement unit (refurbished), was sent out. They provided tracking for the FedEx Ground shipment. Thirteen business days later, after frequently trying to track my package, I got the message on the FedEx website that my package had been delivered. I did not receive anything. I checked with my neighbors, they didn’t get it. Finally, I found that the FedEx Ground delivery driver had left it sitting on TOP of my rural delivery mailbox, on the street about 1/4 mile from my home, in a plastic bag in the pouring rain.
The replacement unit worked fine though, so I thought I was out of the woods.
Recently, however, I went onto [...] and noticed there was a firmware update available for my unit. I downloaded it and followed the updating instructions to the letter. 3/4 of the way through the update a message appeared saying a file could not be loaded and the update failed. My unit wouldn’t even turn on.
Magellan support wanted me to send it back again, at my expense, for another replacement. After several emails, I finally was able to get them to send me a prepaid label for the return. I guess that could be considered a bright spot. Two GPS unit failures in a five month period is unexcusable however.
Moral of story, FOLKS, DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING ANY MAGELLAN GPS PRODUCTS!! THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCTS AND THE SUPPORT ABSOLUTELY SUCK!!!
I have since purchased a Garmin nuvi 265WT. The price was only slightly more than the Magellan Roadmate 1340 but the features and reliability are far superior.
Decent little GPS
Overall my first impression was good in terms of the way it handled and felt. But the address entry was not as good as in my current GPS, the display is really small, and I am having a hard time getting a signal in my car. Truth to be told, my current GPS also gives me sometimes headache concerning the signal, but it does get one eventually. This one is pretty much a loss inside the car. So, in open space, for hiking and so forth, it will probably work, but in the car I would be cautious,
Disappointed
In addition to this device, we also own a Garmin. The touch screen on the Garmin works better. With the Magellan sometimes you press a letter, the device announces the letter, but it doesn’t display in the input field. The Garmin also allows you to save a location based on where the divice is (the middle of a park near a soccer field). The Magellan doesn’t have this capability. You can save a location, but then you have to enter an address. If you don’t, the Magellan doesn’t set the location when you select it. You get an error message. For the Magellan you need an address or an intersection. The keyboard on our Garmin is a Qwerty. The keyboard on Magellan is not. It takes longer to locate the letters you’re looking for to type. Finally, the Garmin seems more intutive to use than the Magellan. The Magellan is good for a couple laughs when the street names are being pronounced. If you pass your turn/destination, the Garmin let’s you know by telling you it is recalculating. The Magellan simply tells you where to make your next turn. The lane assist is a nice feature that we do not have on the Garmin, I would not have purchased the Magellan had I realized at the time of purchase what I know now.
If you are rural, DON’T!
This GPS works great, don’t get me wrong.
However, it refuses to recognize smaller city names, and loses the signal if you get near any COWS or FARMS. This is not a great thing if you live out there, or travel there, and don’t want to get lost. (isn’t that the POINT of having a GPS??)
I have driven for miles and miles unable to see a map of my current location. Thank Goodness I wasn’t lost, or I would have been in real trouble.
On the plus side, it has hundreds of interest points and great maps if you need it for city or suburban driving.
Just remember, if you are used to a Garmin, this asks for the street FIRST, and then drills to the city. If that city is some remote camping area, good luck.
I’ll hang onto it, since getting lost in farm country is generally not dangerous, but seriously if you live out there, find one with WAY better signal strength.
Great Cheap GPS
Not sure how to rate this thing, I absolutely love it, but it has some niggling flaws.
The Good…CHEAP, two year warrantee with a AAA membership, excellent directions, very good maps, shows POIs as you go by them (with company logo, which is so cool), on a highway you can see what services are at the next exit with one button, excellent windshield mount, highway lane assist is good but really it should be called “highway SIGN assist”, can add traffic if you want, can display ETA.
The Flaws…TTS is ok but the street names are noticeably quieter than the rest of the speech, POIs are about 90% complete, AAA data is not combined with the rest of the POI data which makes it sort of useless, some POIs are only displayed if there is room for the icon.
The Missing…current speed limit.
Overall…I find that the state of GPS is about 5 years from being ready for prime time at a reasonable price. So for the money, this is a very usable tool, the 3.5 screen is FINE, directions are excellent, and you really don’t have to look at the thing, I have mine in my cupholder out of my eyeline.
Great product … or is it?
As a first-time GPS owner, I have found I REALLY like the features of this unit …. but, sadly, it may get returned. Yesterday I purchased a Garmin nuvi 260 for $[...] more than this unit cost, and I hope to decide within a few weeks which one to keep. I would have no problem keeping the Magellan, except I’ve realized after a whole summer of usage that I just don’t trust the thing!
Pros of the Magellan Roadmate 1340:
- Text to Speech directions. Definitely a must for a GPS since it tells you what road you are actually looking to turn on.
- Lane Assist shows you clearly which side of the highway you need to be on. Great feature – to get this on Garmin you have to pay a lot more money!
- Ease of use — you can quickly turn the volume down right on the map screen. You can also toggle between speed, direction, ETA, distance remaining and time remaining right on the map screen. This is a nice feature and is not available on the Garmin 260 – it only displays arrival time and speed (though you can touch a button and bring up a large dashboard with this info – but it’s not as easy to read.)
- Route Changes can be made if you want to plan to use a different road ahead of time (don’t do this while driving, of course). It is nice to have the option to tell the unit you do not want to use a specific turn; the Garmin I have does not offer this feature. However, you cannot exactly tell the Magellan which way you DO want to go – it decides for itself which other routes to use…. sometimes it can be trial and error to get it to take you the way you like – in the end I print a Google map if I really want to have specific routes planned out. Of course the Magellan will recalculate your route once you deviate from the one it chose.
- Quick and easy to get to your address book, and it also lets you store other information like phone numbers.
- Points of interest can be displayed on screen if you choose. You can also push one button while driving on highways to bring up POIs. Very nice feature.
- The Magellan tells you 2 miles in advance, then 0.5 miles in advance, when you need to make a turn.
- You can add at least two stops to a trip, and it is easy to change their order if you decide to go to a different place first. I haven’t used this feature … it might even be more than two stops?
- When setting a destination, you have the option to choose between four navigation preferences, and the Magellan will bring up a screen so you can see them side by side and see the times the routes take.
Cons of the Magellan Roadmate 1340:
- I have read in a discussion forum on Amazon that customer service absolutely STINKS. I have not had any experience myself, but this would be a HUGE drawback for me if I ever needed any help with the unit. Who needs that kind of frustration?
- The main reason I will probably return the unit to Costco is because, as I said, I don’t really think I can trust it. I am always second guessing its directions, because I have had many experiences with it telling me things I should NOT do. I cannot seem to fix these quirks with changing navigation settings (like using faster or shorter routes, etc.) For example:
1) Driving from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., on I-270, the unit consistently tells me to exit in Gaithersburg, MD. It KNOWS I need to continue on 270 to the D.C. beltway, but on every trip, it tells me to exit on Rte. 28. If I don’t do that, it tells me to exit on Rte. 189. Who knows why? I can’t take the time to see where it is sending me. What if I am somewhere one day where I really don’t know my route and it does this sort of thing?
2) Last week I was shopping in unfamiliar territory and it told me to turn left at a major highway. Since I was sitting at a traffic light, I zoomed out to see where I was going, only to discover that the Magellan was sending me left, then right, then right again, then left. Crazy! All I needed to do was make a right turn and I would be heading the right direction.
3) When I began to approach my checkered flag (same shopping trip), I saw that the green route continued past it, then looped around and came back to it. The unit wanted me to drive 0.7 miles further than my destination, then turn around and use the same highway to come back to it. I used my brain and turned into the shopping center, which I could see approaching on the left.
4) On a beach trip with my parents this summer the Magellan didn’t like anything we did. We were using Rte. 17 in Virginia to get to the Hampton Roads area, and continuing on to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The Magellan did NOT want us on Rte. 17 and kept telling us to get off at all these different exits. It did not help to change navigation settings. Thankfully my mom knows the way by heart, and we had no idea where the Magellan wanted to send us. I really just wanted it on so we could see how much longer we had to go. This experience and others confirmed for me that I will always need to plan my trip ahead of time, and will always need to supervise the unit to make sure we don’t follow its quirky directions.
All in all, I regret to get rid of this handy little unit, but like a bad boyfriend, we have some trust issues. I am not sure if this unit behaves worse than others, or if I should expect the same quirks out of Garmin. Time will tell. I WILL say that the unit has served me well many times and has gotten us “found” quickly when we were lost. I am not an avid traveler and mostly wanted a GPS to help me navigate this region, which is fairly new to me. For $[...] the Magellan Roadmate has done just that…. but am I just waiting for it to take me 20 miles out of my way someday?
Magellan Roadmate 1340-used
This item does not seem to be receiving a signal, so may have to return it.
endless error message
I bought the Roadmate 1340 a couple months ago. It worked OK right out of the box. However, other reviewer comments about the brightness of the screen (it isn’t bright, and is easily washed out in bright sunlight) are quite accurate. However I could have tolerated that.
After 2 months, my unit began displaying an error message when I enter an address to navigate to – “Your device needs to be restarted to increase performance. Please wait while your data is saved.” At this time, the unit freezes for about 30 seconds, then reboots back to the main menu. When I re-enter the address, any address, the same error message appears. The unit is non-functional.
I updated the firmware available on the Magellan site, hoping this would be the fix. Not so. Same problem.
[...]
I’m returning my unit ([...]) in favor of a Garmin. I have had a Garmin 330 (very old school by today’s standards) that has been very reliable. I’ll pay for the map updates for the Garmin.
Very cool little GPS
We bought this GPS two weeks ago – it’s our first GPS system.
First up, it is very very simple to use. There are a number of great features – the voice instruction clarity is great and the instructions are spoken clearly and in plenty of time to complete each manoeuvre. Particularly impressive are instructions on entering / exiting interstates!
We have found it to be incredibly accurate – last week we took a drive into the North Georgia mountains and the directions were inch perfect, in an area where even the hotels do not recommend relying on GPS systems!
The only slight downer is that on first start-up it took 15 mins to find a satellite link; subsequently it can take 2-3 mins, however this only seems to happen at our home – when starting out elsewhere it is fine, so I figure this is more to do with where we live than anything else.
Some folks have commented on clarity of the screen display in bright sunlight – honestly we have had no issues at all in this regard.
All in all a great buy for the price!
Unreliable, low quality
I was prepared to like the 1340, having used many Magellans in the past. However, the spoken street names on the 1340 I tried were muffled/garbled, unintelligible and usually late. The chime that should sound when you are at a turn always sounded after the fact. The route selection was way off course and the gps couldn’t discern when I had reached my destination. I couldn’t believe how long it took to acquire a signal – even when the car had not moved while the gps was turned off.
I was totally surprised this unit was of such low quality. Perhaps the new ownership needs to pay more attention to quality control.
The unit gets a “2″ only because it has a good database.
Good for $99 but lacks addresses
I couldn’t resist so I bought the thing at costco [...]. I would
of gave it 3.5 stars if I could have.
Pros:
voice is clear
nice warning beep before a turn
bright enough for me
tells you if your in the right lane on a freeway when coming up to
many exits
small and light so I can tuck into my fanny pack when I leave my car
Con:
Takes 30 seconds to warm up but that wasn’t a really big deal to me.
My biggest gripe is that I deliver marketing pieces to addresses
for my business. Last time I was out I delivered to 35 addresses.
It did fine all except 3 addresses. They didn’t exist! Okay,
I thought alright the addresses are too new but that wasn’t the case.
All addresses were at least 2 year old!
A few days later I’m trying to locate the house we just bought.
It was built in 1958. Guess what? The gadget didn’t have the
address! In fact, it didn’t have any of the addresses that started
with a “1″! So all houses in that subdivision that began with a
“1″ on that street didn’t exist in its database!
It makes me wonder how many more addresses will I not be able
to find?
If it keeps coming up with missing addresses. I”ll probably end
up returning it to costco.
Notes from a Garmin User
Magellan does not support Apple computers, so if you are one of the growing number of people using a Mac, look elsewhere. Otherwise you’ll have a GPS you can never update.
I have always used Garmin GPS’, so Magellan is a bit new for me and it’s impossible not to make comparisons. Both Garmin and Magellan work much the same way, but have some interesting differences.
They talk at different times. Magellan speaks menu selections, and when you spell something, Megellan will speak the letters as you type them. Once you’re underway, Garmin becomes the talkative one. Both units will announce upcoming turns, but often the Garmin makes more announcements than Magellan. When you’re at the turn, Magellan sounds a gong while Garmin speaks. If you miss a turn, Garmin will announce that it’s “recalculating.” Garmin gives you a button that will make it repeat the last instruction it gave. If you are lost in a strange city battling heavy traffic, Garmin’s repetition is welcome. You’re less likely to miss anything. If you’re not so stressed, Garmin can feel like it’s nagging you. Which is better? It depends on what you prefer.
Personal preference will also determine whether or not you like Magellan’s menus. Garmin users will find them off-putting. The battery gauge and satellite signal strength meter are on the “Favorites” page for some reason. You can find addresses and points-of-interest in the “Go To” menu. (Just like Garmin’s “Where To” menu.) But confusingly, there is also a “Local Options” menu that does much the same thing, but works less well. For example, search for restaurants in the “Go To” menu and you’ll find results broken down by category (Mexican, Italian, etc.) much like Garmin. Look for restaurants in the “Local Options” menu and you’ll get every local place that sells food. Taco Bell, Steak and Ale and the local grocery store all thrown together in one big, useless pile. Once you learn the Magellan menus, they become less frustrating. But you’ll likely spend the first week muttering under your breath, “I know it saw it somewhere….” Magellan’s learning curve is steeper than Garmin’s.
The little Magellan does have a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve. One of these is “POI visibility” Magellan assigns icons to points-of-interest, so if you turn on visibility for restaurants, for instance, you can watch as little knives and forks float past your position on the map while you drive. It’s entertaining, and you can tap on the icons to see what they are and start navigating to them. You can even scroll the screen with your finger–something Garmin won’t let you do. So if you need to know what lies beyond the street at the edge the screen, you can have a look and tap on any icons you find there. It doesn’t work very smoothly, but it does work.
A more useful trick is the ability to save searches. If you have a fondness for Starbucks, for example, you can save a search for “Starbucks, near me” and assign that search to one of the buttons on the “Favorites” screen. So now you have a Starbucks button that will always take you to the nearest Starbucks, wherever you are. Quite handy. There are only three buttons you can assign, however. Two of them come preprogrammed for finding the nearest bank and gas station.
Magellan also has information from AAA about some of its points-of-interest. Restaurants, auto repair shops, campgrounds and much more that have been rated by AAA are listed along with short reviews and other info. It’s all buried in the “Local Options” menu.
There are a couple of annoyances too. For every point-of-interest search you do, you have to specify if you want to search near your position, or in another city or near another address. If you’re sitting in Dallas and trying to find a Burger King in Albuquerque, it’s handy. But the most of the time, you want to find something nearby. Garmin can find far-away points-of-interest too, but they rightly make it a separate option rather than create an extra step for every search you do.
About those searches: Magellan’s searches are less forgiving than Garman’s. Looking for a Wal-Mart? Better not forget the hyphen, because if you search for “Walmart”, Magellan will try to convince you there isn’t one for thousands of miles.
The screen is too dim for sunny days, and the computer voice is less natural sounding than Garmin’s.
Overall, I’ll keep my Garmin, but the Magellan is quite a neat little unit too. If you think you would like the AAA information or the ability to make your own favorites button, you won’t go wrong with the Magellan. Unless you have a Macintosh.
Does the job, not much to complain about
Nice unit with some great higher-end features like multi-destination and text-to-speech. Some reviews have complained about the relatively dim screen under bright conditions. While there’s some truth to that, it wasn’t too bad under real-world driving. Just mounted the unit high enough on the windshield so it was shaded the entire time. Only thing I’d like to see added is a “pause trip” or “make a stop” feature, so I could tell it to quit trying to re-route me while I stop for gas or a break. Fairly quick startup, probably not breaking any records but not irritatingly slow. Using the address book and POI features, I was able to save most destinations for my vacation in advance. Didn’t appear to make any routing mistakes while driving around Colorado. Elevation stats kick in at higher altitudes, but not available under about 7000 ft.