GPS manufacturers produce many different models, in an attempt to provide choice. Often however, the result is confusion. Hopefully, the chart below will help you plow through Magellan’s choices and lineup. All models shown below offer six million points of interest and multi-destination routing.
NEW: Click on column headers to sort chart. You can also click here for descriptions and more information about various features.
| Model | Amazon page |
Screen Size | Micro SD Slot |
A/V IN | Min. Battery Life | Maps | Traffic | AAA Tour Book | Lane Assist | Blue- tooth | Map Update | Compare prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magellan SE4 | Amazon |
4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | 49 states | Option | No | No | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 1420 | Amazon |
4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | 49 states | Option | Yes | No | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 1424 | Amazon |
4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Option | Yes | No | No | No | Compare prices  |
| Roadmate 1424-LM | Amazon |
4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Option | Yes | No | No | Lifetime | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 1700 | Amazon |
7.0″ | Yes | Yes | 30 min. | US Canada | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 1700LM | Amazon |
7.0″ | Yes | Yes | 30 min. | US Canada | No | Yes | Yes | No | Lifetime | |
| Roadmate 2035 | Amazon |
4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | 49 states | Lifetime | No | No | No | No | Compare prices  |
| Roadmate 2036 | Amazon |
4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
| Roadmate 2036-MU | 4.3″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | One Free | Compare prices  |
|
| RoadMate 2045 | Amazon |
4.3″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 2055 | Amazon |
4.3″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 3030 | Amazon |
4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Option | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 3030-LM | Amazon |
4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Option | Yes | Yes | No | Lifetime | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 3045 | Amazon |
4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 3045-MU | 4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | One Free | Compare prices  |
|
| RoadMate 3045-LM | Amazon |
4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | Lifetime | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 3055 | Amazon |
4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 3065Commuter | Amazon |
4.7″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 5045 | Amazon |
5.0″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 5045-LM | Amazon |
5.0″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | Lifetime | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 5175T-LM | Amazon |
5.0″ | Yes | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | Lifetime | Compare prices  |
| RoadMate 5230T-LM | 5.0″ | No | No | 2 hrs. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | Lifetime | ||
| RoadMate 9020 | 7.0″ | Yes | No | 30 min. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | No | No | Compare prices  |
|
| RoadMate 9055 | Amazon |
7.0″ | Yes | Yes | 30 min. | US Canada | Lifetime | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Compare prices  |
- Maps – Where it says 49 states, the pre-loaded maps include the entire U.S. except for Alaska.
- Live traffic – A nice feature that isn’t quite ready for prime time. Expect lots of inaccurate reports as well as incidents that aren’t reported. Delivered over FM, this service is available in certain metropolitan areas — a coverage chart is available on Magellan’s website.
- Bluetooth for hands-free cell phone use – Another nice idea, though sound quality often leaves something to be desired. Here is a list of supported phones.
- AAA TourBook – Rates five categories (accommodations,
restaurants, destinations, attractions and events), and provides detailed information. For
restaurants these include types of cuisine, description, hours of
operations, parking/credit cards accepted, ratings and cost. The AAA roadside assistance screen shows phone numbers for AAA
roadside assistance and membership enrollment, and some basic
information about your current location.
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The Magellan comparison chart is excellent! I have both a Roadmate 1475 (actually a 1470 with free traffic) and a Maestro 5310.
What I am trying to find out now is if it keeps a log of your trip that can be downloaded or simply copied when the unit is plugged into the USB port, for later processing or plotting. For example, in Street Atlas (if converted to GPL format) or in Google Earth (if converted to KML). A very good conversion package, BTW, is he free GPSBabel.
Maybe, but I doubt it. try this though… Connect it to your computer and look for a .gpx file. Also, here are a couple of threads on GpsPasSion that relate to older models:
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=130931
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=101648
Thanks for response, Rich,
I did find interesting posts elsewhere on this site about “hidden menus” on some models and it turns out that both of mine have them. They have an option to “record vehicle position” which creates a log file. There’s also a “playback” option but I haven’t had any success with that yet.
However, here’s what I did find out about the log files:
The Roadmate 1470 creates a “.BIN” file on a Micro-SD card.
The Maestro 5310 creates a “.PVT” file on an SD card.
I am trying to find something now that will convert these to something I can use. GPSVisualizer attempts to convert the “.BIN” file but what I get puts me in Russia and it’s northern seas; some distance from New York State. 😉 It rejects the “.PVT” file as not containing any GPS data.
So, I’m still searching……
Joe
You might try extracting it with Magellan’s free Vantage Point software or Magellan Content Manager. GPS Visualizer may think the .bin is an old Navitel format. I wonder if it’s reading everything correctly except for not assigning a negative number to longitude. If so, you might be able to fix that in a text file or spreadsheet.
Rich,
I downloaded and installed both of them here on this Vista machine. The installation process didn’t have any complaints.
Unfortunately, neither one recognized either the Roadmate 1475 or the Maestro 5310 when they were plugged in.
They sound like useful utilities, though; I wish at least one of them had worked.
Joe
That’s weird. They list the 1475T as a Content Manager compatible unit!
I’ll probably try it again today just to make sure. But it came up and said it couldn’t find a GPS device and one option was to retry. That’s didn’t do anything.
I even tried having it plugged in before starting the program as well as afterwards when the message came up.
I like the idea of the programs automatically checking for updates and helping with their installation. So it would be good if I can get it going. But I think only the 5310 is showing an available update now because the 1475T is discontinued.
I’m looking to get a GPS for the first time? Everyone recommends a garmin because of the routing. However I like that the magellans DING before a turn. Do the garmins do that?
They don’t ding, but they do say “turn right on blah street” at about the same point. Recent Magellan units are pretty good, but their service and support still sucks.
What is the difference between a Magellan RoadMate 5230T-LM and a Magellan RoadMate 5235T-LM? Is the 5235 just an updated version of the 5230?
Questions I have based on reviews that I have read,
The Map update software only works with Windows XP. Is this correct or does it also work with later versions of windows ?
The Garmin nüvi 55 is a good buy if you need a basic GPS and don’t have or want to use a smartphone