Magellan RoadMate 1200

Magellan continues to put out newly packaged units for the market, keeping the line updated with some pretty high end features like voice recognition on the new Maestro Elite 5340 Elite with GPRS mobile connectivity to give you live updates on traffic conditions and some limited connectivity to the internet while driving. So while the high end of the market is important for driving news and profitability with those higher profit units, a lot of people understand that the start of the GPS battle is waged on the entry level end of the market.
Those battles are fought with deep discounts, specials where a $15 dollar difference can drive units off the shelf by the dozen. The issue is that with so many people coming into the GPS market, and buying an entry level unit for their first unit, you really need to lock them up with a great experience, so when they are destined to upgrade you keep them as loyal consumers, and they upgrade within your line. Ok; long story short, it appears the Magellan RoadMate 1200 falls short on the quality needed to get people to stay with the Magellan name, according to a recent review by CNet, where they thought the unit fell short in a few key areas.

CNet saw that slow performance in a couple of areas really brought the experience and overall usability to a screeching halt. Slow at registering inputs had them waiting after screen taps so that they said they "Spent a lot of time looking at the hourglass", while some sluggishness in turn commands had then getting the command as they were passing the street they needed.