Not a bad unit for the price. Locked up once, not 100% accurate with streets vs. dead ends. Great for long trips, good for off-ramp services ahead.

I extensively used my companies pricier Garmin a few years ago, then bought this for myself after I changed jobs.

Two features I really miss, and feel they are not exclusive to high end models; the old Garmin said "arriving at destination ON RIGHT" (or left). This one just says "arriving at destination", so I spend more time swiveling my head around looking.

The Garmin also allowed me to program stops along the way during a route execution. The Magellan 1412 will only allow you to divert to "exit points of interests" and only along a freeway. Otherwise, if you're enroute, you have to cancel the route, search for what it is your looking for, then activate that route, then re-start your original route after. Or you can preplan it all -- as if you know ahead of time where you'll be needing to find a coffe shop on an old state road.

The "Exit POI" feature is very nice, however. How many times have you been on a long road trip and flown past an exit you thought was devoid of gas stations or restaurants because there were no signs ahead? This prevents that nicely and lets you see within 15 or so miles what is coming up along a freeway.

The POIs in the database are also pretty good-- lots more categories than I had on the older Garmin.

The battery is puny, and won't hold much of a charge. Keep the power cord close by.

The window mount is excellent -- better than the Garmin I had.

The speaker is small, and a bit hard to hear if you have a noisy car.

This one does say the name of the street-- a minimum standard in all GPS in my opinion.

After using GPS systems in rental cars, I decided it was time to buy one for my own vehicle. I picked this one over the others based on the screen size and feature set.

To start with, I didn't want any fancy features. I wasn't interested in the capability to play MP3's, run my cell phone, or balance the federal budget. What I wanted was a simple GPS, accurate, easy to read, obvious to use.

The 1412 was all that for me. I glanced through the manual, but there was nothing at all un-obvious about how to use it. I plugged it in, took one look at the screen, and was off.

It seems pretty accurate, although I have caught it giving slightly flawed directions (turn left in xx miles), although the map was correct and it did show the turn at the right spot. To get a feel for its usefulness, I have driven around some "tricky" areas, and it seemed to work its way through them with no problems. I also did not see any problems with it recalculating its way after a missed turn.

The POI database seemed pretty comprehensive, although it did miss a few shopping malls. It also seems that the map included (and the latest one available) is about a year or so out of date. Whether that matters probably depends on what you will use it for. I didn't think it was a big deal. The voice prompts seemed ok, although I ended up disabling them. It would have been great if there was a way to disable the voice prompts, but still leave the tone warning for a turn....alas, that does not seem possible.

I updated the firmware as soon as I got it, and the process went fine.

The screen was easy to read, even in sunlight. I also purchased a friction pad, and mounted it to that- which seemed to work fine. The unit powers up quick, and seems to get its bearings within a few seconds.

The only cons: No USB cable in the box- not a big deal since I have one, but the mini-USB cable can be an odd item. The manual was also on CD, not a hard-copy- but I found the unit intuitive enough that a didn't bother to RTFM. Would have been nice to disable the voice commands but still leave the tones.

I also live close to some rural areas in Washington State. The GPS did a pretty good job working on back-country roads, and even took a shot at a couple Forest Service and Logging roads, although its database was limited. I know it is not designed for off-road/back country travel, but it was encouraging to see it find a couple of roads.

In short, all I wanted was a GPS, and I am happy with it.

Would have given it 5 stars if it came with a USB cable. It would also be a neat feature to have a plastic cap to protect the LCD screen when storing the unit.

...since I've been using it, I've noticed that the maps are not 100% accurate. More like 98%. For instance, when driving along and I pull into certain shopping centers or business parks, those roads (and even though they've been around for many years); do not show up on the device. It shows the main road leading to those certain locations, but when you pull in, the display shows you as being just off the main road that got you there in the first place. Other than that, the device is very reliable and hasn't locked up on me or had any other ancillary problems. The POI locations and phone numbers are a great feature to have, especially on vacation, but I guess when it comes down to it, maps, locations, restaurants, stores....they are either IN business or they are NOT in business, so updates are always going to be needed. In closing I'd also like to mention that the display is excellent, as well as the voice and loudness. You don't have to struggle to hear it when it calls out your upcoming turns, etc.

This is my first gps. I tested many units in store before buying this one at best buy. It was a toss up between this and a similar garmin. This one seemed to have much better reception and faster address recognition. Right out of the box I was disappointed that it did not come with any other way of charging the unit besides the car adapter (not sure if the garmin did either). There are also a lot of POI's on this unit (6 mil) - not sure about how many on the garmin - something they may want to list on the box. The unit has only about half of the advertised battery life even with the screen on half power. The unit also looses charge when not in use after only a couple weeks. Most of my problems with this unit come from when it is not connected to the car adapter. I like to plan my trips before getting in the car and then put it on the windshield, something I have had some difficulty doing because the unit often freezes or shuts off while doing so. Even with the battery indicator showing a full charge, the unit will shut off randomly when trying to enter information. This was such a problem I exchanged it with a new one just to find out they all have the same problems turning off when typing. I believe it may be a problem in the provided software - I recently did a firmware update through the Magellan website which did not fix the bugs or shutting off (it added small red dots to help match streets to names). The software works fine when connected to the car charger though, minus the fact it sometimes gives some slow routes.

Pros:

Text-to-speech

Very easy to use and quick software

6 million POIs

Nice price

Very good reception even indoors

Cons:

Short battery life

Interrupted use when running on internal battery (shuts off)

No wall or USB charger included!

Not the smartest routes

I have been using my Roadmate 1412 for nearly two months. All in all, it is a competent GPS unit, but does have it's shortcomings. It will get you where you need to go, but not always in the fastest mode possible. The unit can occasionally get confused, but does adjust well, which is reflected in a revised route.

The largest shortcoming is the fact that the unit will occasionally freeze, and need to be reset. One form simply requires depressing the "reset" button, while the second requires re-initializing the GPS itself. Neither of these is a big deal if you understand what is going on, but for those that cannot easily troubleshoot, this would be a significant shortcoming.

Text to speech works very well, and most of the mapping is up to date, although you will notice a few issues with roads that are missing.

Dollar for dollar, this is a competent unit if you can figure out how to deal with the "freeze" effect.

Magellan RoadMate 1412 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator A great unit. Easy to use for what I wanted. Doesn't have phone hookup or picture view which I don't need. Easy to understand directions.

To get from A to B with no drama and minimum bells and whistles, this unit is a good deal, particularly since it was about $40 less expensive on Amazon than it would have been if purchased at Costco!

I bought this at Costco with a coupon for $[...] in June. After some city driving, it gave okay directions but occasionally it would give me some screwy directions when I would test it out using routes that were already known to me. The big test was when I took it to the Southwest for a road trip I took in August.

It performed okay there too but still there were times during missed turns during rerouting that it made some questionable decisions. I still ended up getting to where I wanted to go, but probably not in the best manner, regardless if I selected fastest time or shortest distance. Rerouting is automatic but the unit does not say it is doing so.

The points of interest feature is great and the Exit Point of Interest feature is fabulous since we did lots of highway driving. The Exit POI shows you restaurants, gas stations and dining in the upcoming freeway exits and how far away they are so you can better plan your drive.

The battery life is okay but it does take a long time to charge fully after discharging and the unit did not come with a home charging adapter. The unit does not charge well when it is actively being used so you have to keep it plugged into a hot 12 volt for a few hours when it's off to charge it up.

I had a Garmin before and that got stolen out of my car and it was their older "boxy" looking one. However smaller that was, it was faster routing directions (the Magellan takes significantly longer but not painfully so) and it had a choice of different voices (2 English and several other languages) whereas the Magellan only had one female English voice but had other languages available. The touch screen is decent but for some menu selections, there is a lag as the processor is working which means you can press your selection and have nothing happen for several seconds...for those of you that drive while you play with your GPS, this could be a problem.

Well worth the $[...] for its features and size but I am returning mine to Costco and picking up a Garmin just because I like that interface (and voice) better.

This is my 3rd GPS and I believe it's my favorite to date. It does give you the elevation of your location and the way you get to that is to tap on the "tow truck". I like that feature, especially since I live in the mountains. If you need to charge the battery while in your house, you can use the USB cable from your camera (I have a CANON). Once you connect the USB to your computer, hold the on/off button down and turn it off. It will charge the battery even when it's off. I like the way it recalculates my new route quickly. The speech is very clear for street names and turns. I get multiple satellites even in the house in a matter of seconds. My wife is hard of hearing and likes the chimes best of the 3 choices. She also likes the way it fills in while she's typing a street name or a city. Another feature she likes is how she can name a trip and make it a favorite. We couldn't do it with our Honda GPS and that aggravated her to no end. We did order a stylus for her because she has long nails and the stylus works just as well. We purchased a $5 camera bag from Big Lots and it fits the GPS perfectly. We stuck the stylus in the net pocket on the side of the camera bag. Fits fine. Hope this review helps.