8. Locate Screen

Figure 30: Magellan's Locate Feature

Tapping the top bar on the map screen brings up Magellan's locate screen. The locate screen shows your current location, and also provides an easy way to save your current location into the address book. The left side of this screen shows your heading, a street address for your current position (if any), the next and previous street, and lat/long coordinates of your present position. The right side of this screen shows a compass along with the elevation and your current speed.

The Locate Screen is useful if you want to quickly find out where you are, give details of your location to the police or a AAA, or if you want to save your current location for future reference in the address book (for example, if you want to save an address that is not in the POI database).

9. Navigating with the MRM 2000T

The RoadMate 2200T provide several ways to navigate. The most obvious, and most common, routing is to a known street address. The RoadMate also allows you to route to an intersection, or any of the 1.5 million pre-loaded Points of Interest (POI), such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations, parking garages, etc.

Figure 31: Navigation Main Menu, Page 1

After you choose 'NAV' from the main menu when you power on the RoadMate, the 'Menu' button brings up the main (navigation) menu:

• Map Button - brings up the map screen
• Detour Button - gives you the option of re-routing the trip around traffic problems ahead of you
• Cancel Route - cancels the route you are traveling on
• Re-route - used to re-calculate the route you are on (the MRM 2200T does automatically re-calculate if you miss a turn or have veered off the route)
• Exit POI - shows a list of POIs (Points of Interest) that are near upcoming freeway exits (can only be used when traveling on a highway)
  

Figure 32: Navigation Main Menu, Page 2

• Region - Used to access additional map regions stored on the RoadMate
• Trip Computer - Brings up the trip computer, which displays information about previous trips that can be saved
• Trip Planner - Used to plan multi-destination trips that can traveled or saved
• Options - Brings up the options menu

10. Navigating To A Street Address

Navigating to an address involves choosing a destination address, and selecting a preference for how you want the RoadMate to calculate the route.

Figure 33: Routing to a Street Address

From the main menu, tap 'Street Address'. This brings up the screen shown above in figure 33. From here, you can choose to search for an address by city, zip code, or previous city. Another nice feature unique to Magellan is the ability to enter an address based on the zip code. This is a great time saver when you know the mailing address of a place you want to route to, because all you have to enter is the zip code instead of typing out the full city name. Also, there are times when you may not be sure of the city name, but know the zip code.

Figure 34: Spelling a City Name

In this example, I chose 'Search by City', after which you are presented with a touchscreen keyboard (shown above in figure 34) so you can type out the name of the city. To illustrate the address entry process, I am going to tell the RoadMate to take me to 135 Central Park West in New York City.

Figure 35: Magellan's Text Input System

Using the touchscreen keyboard to spell out the city name, the keyboard will display only those letters that spell a valid city name. In my case, I am entering 'Manhattan' as the city name. Notice that only the letters that would spell a legitimate city name are available.

Figure 36: Select City Name

Once you have spelled enough of a city name that only a few possible cities match, the RoadMate automatically presents a list of city names that match the letters you've typed out. I'm navigating to an address in Manhattan NY, so I choose 'Manhattan (New York, NY).

Figure 37: Selecting a Street Name

Once the city name has been entered, it's the same process for entering the street name. I spelled out c-e-n-t-r-a-l p-a-r and the RoadMate presented me with the list shown above in figure 37.

Figure 38: House Number

The third step in entering a street address is inputting the house number. In this case, I'm navigating to 135 Central Park West, New York, so I'll enter 135. Notice that the RoadMate tells you the valid range of house numbers for any given street name. In this example, the valid house number range for Central Park West is 1-499.

Figure 39: Choosing a Route Method

The final step in entering a destination address is choosing a route method for the RoadMate to use. There are 4 options: Shortest Time, Shortest Distance, Least Use of Freeways, and Most Use of Freeways. Additionally, you can check the box to have the RoadMate avoid toll roads. I wish Magellan would update this handy feature to include the driving times for each of the four routing methods. Currently, you have no way of knowing how much longer it will take if you choose 'Least Use of Freeways'.

I nearly always choose 'Shortest Time'. In my testing the Shortest Time option almost always selected the optimal route. More on this later in the review.

Figure 40: Calculating Route

Route and re-route calculation on the RoadMate 2200T is speedy. Most routes I tested were calculated within 4-5 seconds.

Figure 41: Map Screen During Navigation

Once the RoadMate starts routing you to your destination address, you are shown the map screen shown above.

1. Current Street Name (name of the street you are currently on)
2. Zoom out
3. Location Icon (shows your current position on the map)
4. Next Maneuver (shows what type of maneuver you will to make next)
5. Distance to Next Maneuver (when tapped repeats the last instruction)
6. Time to Destination (when tapped, displays the total remaining distance of the trip)
7. Menu Button
8. Mute
9. Zoom In
10. Satellite Signal Strength

Magellan has done a nice job with the map screen, presenting the information in a way that's easy to interpret. This is one of Magellan's strengths; they've been in the in-car GPS business for a long time (BTW, Magellan was the company that made the Hertz NeverLost rental GPS system), and their well-designed map screen shows it. The color scheme is pleasing to the eye, and it's easy to see where you're supposed to turn.

Another nice feature is the inclusion of a mute button right on the map screen - handy when you want to mute the volume without having to navigate around the menus while driving.

Figure 42: Magellan's Split TrueView Screen

As you approach a maneuver, the map screen automatically changes to a 'TrueView' display (shown above in figure 42) and then back to the map display just prior to the turn. The Split TrueView screen shows the upcoming maneuver with half the screen as a 2D map, and the other half with a 3D arrow showing the next turn. You can disable this feature if you prefer a regular map view, although I found the split screen extremely useful.

Figure 43: Maneuver List Screen

Tapping the top of the map screen (when navigating) bring up the Maneuver List screen. The Maneuver List screen displays all the maneuvers remaining to reach your destination. If you loose satellite signal reception, the RoadMate automatically displays the Maneuver List.

The bottom of the screen displays the heading, distance to next maneuver, time to next maneuver, and distance for the entire route. Tapping on the 'X' in the upper right corner returns you to the map screen.

Magellan has an excellent feature called Route Exclusion. If you want to avoid a particular road, you can tap on any maneuver in the maneuvering list to exclude that maneuver from the route.

Figure 44: Route Exclusion

Want to avoid a specific highway or road? Tap on the maneuver you want to avoid in the Maneuvering List (shown above), and the RoadMate will exclude that road and re-calculate the route. This is a very nice feature and so far I've only seen it on Magellan's GPS units.

Figure 45: Exit POI

Another nice feature I've only seen on Magellan's GPS units is the Exit POI feature. When navigating to a destination address, tapping 'Exit POI' from the main menu brings up the Exit POI screen, shown above. From here, you can select what types of Points of Interest you want to be notified about, then the RoadMate will display a list of those POI types that are near upcoming highway exits. Note that you don't have to be navigating to a destination to use the Exit POI feature -- you just need to be driving on a freeway.

Figure 46: Exit POI List

Once you've selected which type of POIs you want to see, the list of appropriate points of interest is presented, showing POIs as you approach each highway exit. You can tap on any of the POIs listed and have the RoadMate route you to the POI. This is a really nice feature for long road trips, for example, and I've only seen this feature on the Magellan units.

Figure 47: Satellite Signal Strength

Tapping on the GPS signal icon from the map screen displays the satellite status page.