Customer Reviews
For the money! 
2008-06-14
I've be a user of GPS units for many years. The positive reviews offered here seem to be complete and accurate; the few negative reviews don't take into consideration the cost of this unit, so I will just touch on several points to help round out the overview of this product. FOR THE MONEY, this product is fantastic; I think the best on the market. Very bright display, very simple, very accurate. The text to voice on this unit is one of the clearest and most pleasantly synthesized provider of information that I've run into. Heck, I think you could turn this unit upside down on the seat next to you and reach your destination without effort.
This unit is so new that all of the newest maps come loaded into it. I live in a fast growing Phoenix Metro area where highways are always coming on line and everything is here. I must have been one of the earliest purchasers of this product because there was only one review at the time. I waited until now to fully use and review. Multiple destinations, a great address book setup, simple to change things on the fly, I must recommend this product.
There may be slightly better products with more features for more money, but if you want a real performer that is heads and heals above other units at this price point, you can't go wrong here.
Up date: 7/5/08
Ok ... after further review. I've used this thing a lot for work. I still stand by the above info but must add this slightly negative finding. It seem the exact location that you route to is often off a bit. The unit might say "you have arrived," when in fact you are a few addresses past or before your expected address. It might say "destination on the right," when in fact, it is on the left. Once the unit was as much as a mile incorrect with its final finding. I would pull a star if I could. The unit is still a good buy and I have found all destinations I've ask directions to. I will check the Web and see if an update exists.
Got this one [...]...Love it!!! 2008-06-13
[...] The first piece I got, I was very frustrated with it. I couldn't get it to work...good thing it has the graphic display to show which/how many satellites are locked in. Mine didn't have any locked in to the GPS. I realized immediately that the product was defective and I got it replaced the next day.
I love the feature to set the GPS location manually (through "user options"). So sometimes when you turn it on, at far distant place from where you turned it off, the GPS will know approximately where you are so that it can lock in with the satellites quickly. It is a great feature.
I also like the screen size...the beep before each turn and the 6 million POIs. I also like the feature that when a bifurcation appears on freeway, it tells you to stay on the road with the name. I have used some GPS which just tells you to stay on the road (without the name) and it is confusing because I could have already jumped onto the lane which is about to merge onto some other freeway.
I haven't used the trip planner...I'll update my reviews someday when I use it.
frugal 
2008-06-13
this is my first gps.... i did all the research i could, and used the coupon from [...] to bring this unit down to a very reasonable price.
i have been involved in electronics (service, employment, etc) and know quite a bit about figuring out new gadgets,but i am still learning about this 1412.... i think it could be made simpler to figure out.. i might change my rating to 5 star when i figure it out a little more.. the poi
and the price were two important selling points... it is a necessity for some, and a toy for others....
easily worth 150$ 2008-06-12
I'm a courier and have used garmins nuvi 360 , 680, and 750 . I have also used magellan's 3140, and magellan's roadmate 1412. I drive about 200 miles per day and do about 30 stops and this is what I have learned.
the best thing to do , is to decide what features and price will fit your needs best before you buy.
for me , as a courier , the roadmate works great as I can take full advantage of the route optimizer and road exclusion feature.
also, for the price !! roadmate is a steal ! it has nice 4.3 in screen , snappy interface, great gps receiver , routes on par with the garmin if you don't go over 300 miles . ( after 300 mls its a total crapshoot ) plus its got current maps as of 3rd Q 2007 ! ( they are also navtek ! considered best maps of united states )
I have run garmin nuvi 360 and 1412 next to each other for a whole day to help me decide which 1 to keep. ( dont need 2 )
first I gotta say the garmin 360 is a better gps in almost every way. Better map display ( by far ) better routes over 300 miles , faster interface, longer batter life, better customer service , cheap map updates that come out every year ( map updates are like for magellan ) great poi loader software that makes adding red light cameras a snap . ( still haven't figured out how to add poi's for roadmate )
the only drawbacks for garmin is the up front cost . And on garmin there is now way to exclude a street from a route , or due multiple stops . 1412 has both these features and also has a bigger brighter screen.
So if you want a gps that has alot of bang for the buck , roadmate 1412 is probably your best bet.
If you want a great gps and don't mind paying a little more , the garmin is clearly better quality !
I'm keeping the 1412 only because I need the route exclusion , and multi stop routing for my job.
hate to give up the garmin but I just don't need 2 !
ps. I thought the 750 was the worse gps as far as bang for buck ! had same exact routes and maps as the cheaper 360 and 1412 , and 750 doesn's come with cover or home charger or blue tooth ! kinda lame !
also , the highly touted, newly introduced router software on the 750 was effective at ordering up stops , but unfortunately, it was so hard to use it didn't help me on the job.
for example , one lame thing about the optimizer is you have to enter your first and last stop before you can add other stops. Well, common sense tells you your gonna have to know where all you stops are to know which 1 is nearest and which 1 is farthest! DuH !!
they should just give you options like least distance ! or round trip !
that would make a lot more sense .
second problem was after you get too the first stop , it would start routing to the second . the problem was the final addresses were off sometimes and I wasn't actually to my first stop yet . ( very annoying )
final word , cant go wrong with garmin for casual use !
for couriers or truck drivers , magellan is pretty hard to beat !
Great GPS for the money 2008-06-11
We first saw this GPS at Costco for $[...]. Then, we saw the Coupon. Even without the coupon it is a heck of a deal. I would go so far as to say it is a steal! We've considered a GPS for our car for some time. We looked at Tom-Tom's, Magellans, Garmins and Navigon. Magellan just came out with a new line of hand helds and they have had a bit of a rocky start. So, we were initially a little leary of this new addition to the Magellan Auto GPS line. But, Costco had them as part of a working display and my wife and I got a chance to try the unit out in demo mode in the store. The unit was quick and flawless.
Though the unit has 6 Million points of interest, not every gas station, store and Resturaunt is in there. We find the problems to be with the establishments that are 10 or more years old. We also found this problem with the other brands as well. We actually liked the Tom Tom better than the garmin as well. Garmin is mighty proud of their units and need to figure out that they need to bring down the price point if they are going to stay competitive. The Navigon and it's 1 million POI's is a little limited based on it's competition. We have a Magellan 210 Explorist that we use for Geocaching, and we love it. So, we were willing to give this unit a try and we love it!
For the money, the Magellan 1412 is the way to go for a complete Navigation unit. We didn't want one to Play MP3's or have blue tooth or do traffic stuff. This unit is perfect for us and we look forward to using it a lot.
We found that the unit was very quick to re-route us when we missed a turn. The Text to speech pronounciation is very good. The unit comes with a built in battery so you can do routing in the comfort of your Home or RV and then move it to the dash and 'Away you go'. The unit changes to a black screen automatically, when it gets dark out to make it more comfortable for night driving. We find the user interface to be very intuitive. We would highly recommend this unit to anyone considering a GPS for the vehicle.
Happy camping. - Eric -
1412 Excellence 2008-07-08
Just installed the Magellan RM1412 and used it on a 725 mile round trip. Voice was excellent and instructions were right on, even in Chicago, where the new exways are really multiple! Could have listened to my human navigator but chose Magellan instead and it got me through the city and around the city, using two different routes. It worked flawlessley. Didn't even have the exact destination address and it got me to within sight of the house we were looking for in St. Charles, Il. I now have two of these 1412's. Also have a TomTom Rider I use on my motorcycle and it's a pain to use in the car. The 1412 car mounts(suction) work just fine. Well worth the money. Programming is somewhat time consuming (sound for POIs). Overall highly recommend.
Not Worth the Money 
2008-07-01
This was replacing my mio 310x, and I also own a TomTom 3rd edtion
Pro's - 4.3 inch screen, Navteq maps -not the latest but still better then Tele Atlas, Fast Satellite lock, Cheap.
Con's - Basic use of a GPS is to take me fast and safetly from one place to another. The routing on this is very bad.
The faster(quickest time) routes take you through by lanes of the town, If you select most use of freeways, even then it takes you to all the by lanes to get you to the freeway. Very slow re-routing. Battery life lasts only one hour after a full charge. No battery life indicator. You cannot change the color scheme. Slow POI seacrch. The maps are on a SD card, no internal storage space. Slow POI search could be because of cheap SD card. The maps are on a SD card, but you cannot change the SD Card. Will work only with the company installed SD card. 6 Million Searchable POI for U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada and not Just U.S. Virtually no customer support.
Returning this to get a never Mio which is of the same price for a 4.3 inch model.
GPS Travel Mate Navigater 2008-06-27
Only a week I had this. Did not have any problem setting up.
Easy to read, Easy to see map and roads, Tested few trips
Acuracy is very good no complaints yet.
Returned it, half-disgusted 
2008-06-26
UPDATE: In response to Dikster's comment, I am reorganizing this review, but keeping the rating the same.
Magellan 1412 device-specific:
I was going on a trip and my Sanyo NVM-4050 Easy Street 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (my review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1IQ2MOBUMBWBQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm) conked out a few days earlier, so I rushed to CCity and bought this unit at $250. The 1412 seemed to work OK, except that it was slower at (re)calculating routes than the Sanyo. Also, at a couple exits I took off I-15N close to Mesquite, the unit returned "No POIs for this exit." [I believe the POI library is device-specific; for example, the Magellan Maestro 3200 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator/4200 have 1.3 million POIs, while the 3210/4210 and higher models have 6 million POIs.]
Navteq maps issue:
The problem came when I was driving out of Page, AZ toward the Grand Canyon South Rim. The unit told me to take Coppermine Road for 42 miles and then join US-89. Worked fine for 15 miles or so - but after that, the paved road ended, and the rest of the path was dirt track!! Not something to be driven on in a Pontiac Grand Am (tried for 6 miles). Was turned back by a wise Native American (this is Navajo territory after all), who made his disgust for the GPS well-known. I later found out that if instead of starting down Coppermine Road, I had made a right, US-89 was just a couple miles away.
Part-device (slow)/part-Navteq (non-existent roads):
Incidentally, at the start of Coppermine Road, I made a (wrong) left - the GPS showed me (the arrow) as perpendicular to Coppermine Road, but it was just slow to adjust to my car's movement (should have seen the road signs, my bad). I ended up going down US-98 for 15 miles, as Magellan said I could take a right and join Coppermine Road. Except - the right was into a fenced-off farm!! I got such repeated non-existent turns all along US-98, till I returned to Coppermine Road.
Device/Navteq in a city:
On the plus side - the 1412 performed reasonably well back in Las Vegas, even pointing me to an Indian restaurant at the Rio.
Bottomline:
Still, I returned the 1412 to CCity, and will be sending my Sanyo in for warranty service (truthfully, not sure how the Sanyo would have performed in Page as it also uses Navteq maps).
In the mean time, I will buy a Rand McNally map... One of the guides I picked up in Page showed Coppermine Road properly as partly "unimproved road." Guess I should not have relied entirely on the GPS system.
By the way, it seems TomTom units currently do not use Navteq, unlike Magellan/Garmin/Sanyo (though I hear TomTom's situation may not last).
The Best for your hard work money 2008-06-17
Can you find anything like the Magellan RD 1412 for less than $200 bucks? no i don't think so
4.3 Screen
6 Million POIs
Text to speech
Fast satellites.
and it's Magellan.
