4. Unboxing

Figure 6: The Magellan RoadMate Retail Box

What's in the Box

• Magellan RoadMate 3000T Unit
• Quick-release mounting bracket
• 12 - 24 V Vehicle Power Adapter
• AC Adapter
• USB Cable
• Suction-cup windshield mount

Figure 7: The Magellan RoadMate 3000T. Although the unit is quite small, I couldn't help noticing how much larger the screen could be. Not sure why Magellan opted for the smaller screen, but given the screen size, I would have liked to see a slightly smaller form-factor.

Figure 8: Here we see the rear of the RoadMate 3000T. As you can see, there is a single speaker, an external antenna connector. Here the unit is connected to the quick-release mounting bracket.

Figure 9: The left side of the RoadMate 3000T. The rubber cap protects a SD memory card slot.

Figure 10: On the right hand side of the unit, we see a headphone jack (could also be used as a line out), a USB connector, a reset pin, and the power adapter.

Figure 11: The top of the RoadMate 3000T. When I first unboxed the Magellan RoadMate 3000T, I was excited to see that Magellan had finally added an external volume control. After years of requesting this feature from Magellan, I thought they may have finally gotten it right. However, when I tried to adjust the volume for the first time, I realized this isn't a real volume control (in the sense that you can leave it set to the volume level you want). Instead, it's a rocker click-wheel. So you can click either left or right, but only when the unit it powered on, and then it just brings up the software volume control. So, it's better than nothing, but not as good as a real volume control.

The large black + and - buttons on the right and left hand side are for zooming in and out on the map. I found the placement of these buttons on the unit to be extremely irritating. Given the shape of the device, there's almost no way to hold the unit without accidentally pressing either (or both) of these huge buttons. I'm frankly confused why Magellan would choose such prominent placement for buttons that aren't regularly used during normal navigation.

Figure 12. The included 12v cigarette adapter

Figure 13: The included AC adapter.

Figure 14: No, this isn't zoomed in to macro -- the suction cup mount really is that big. Holy smoke! Look at the size of this thing!

Figure 15: To be fair to Magellan, I've been bitching for years about the crappy flex-arm mount they included with the RoadMate 700 series, and at least this mount is solid and secure, and the GPS unit doesn't jiggle around when it's attached. It does a good job of securing the unit to the windshield, and that's really what counts here.

Figure 16: Rear view of the suction mount.

Figure 17: End to end, this sucker is almost 6 inches long.

5. Mounting the Magellan RoadMate 3000T in the Car

Figure 18: The included suction mount

I'm always surprised at how many issues there seem to be surrounding the mounting hardware the various gps manufacturers provide. So I always pay special attention to this detail, as poor mounting hardware can ruin an otherwise fantastic product (i.e. see the TomTom GO 910 review). No real complaints here - the Magellan mount works well, and I think Magellan deserves credit for clearly directing some development attention towards improving the mount that was used on the previous RoadMate series..

Figure 19: Once the suction cup is mounted to the windshield, the quick-release bracket slides onto the mount, and from there you can snap the RoadMate 3000T on or off with relative ease.

Figure 20: Side view of the RoadMate 3000T connected to the windshield mount.

Figure 21: When I first saw the form factor of the RoadMate 3000T, I expected to dislike the way it looked in the windshield. However, I have to say that actually the unit looks pretty good; the mounting hardware is solid, and the unit itself is small enough not to be intrusive.