Magellan's RoadMate 1470 is the first product released since the company was acquired by Mitac earlier this year, and if the 1470 is any indication, this is going to be a very good union indeed. An ultra-wide 4.7-inch display, easy to use interface, and uncommonly flexible routing options make the RoadMate 1470 one of the best GPS devices Magellan has produced in a very long time.

Mounting the RoadMate 1470 in the Car

Installing the RoadMate 1470 in the car is a quick and simple process that you can do yourself, and doesn't require any professional installation.

Pick a spot on the windshield where you'll be able to see the GPS easily, but it won't interfere with your view of the road. I typically install the GPS in the center of the windshield, about midway between the rear view mirror and the dashboard. Some people also like to install the GPS in the lower-left corner of the windshield.

Press the base of the mount (the rubber suction cup part) against the windshield glass, and then push the lever all the way down (towards the windshield) until it locks into place.

Magellan's updated windshield mount it an improvement over previous mounts. Lighter, simpler, and fewer moving parts to break, the new mount holds the GPS securely in place and is easy to remove.

One minor complaint is that Magellan continues to use a passive mount, so you have to connect the power cable directly to the GPS rather than the windshield mount. Active mounts, such as those used on some Garmin and TomTom models, allow you to connect the power plug to the windshield mount instead of the GPS, making it even easier to quickly dock or undock the GPS from the mount, without having to re-connect any wires each time.

Note: It's advisable to remove GPS and the windshield mount when parking in public places. Thieves know that a windshield mount probably means there's a GPS somewhere in the car, so it's best to keep the GPS (and the mount) out of sight from would-be thieves. Connect the mini-USB (power) plug into the RoadMate 1470.

I connected the power cable to the RoadMate before trying to slide the GPS onto the docking cradle of the windshield mount. That doesn't work, as the USB power cable gets in the way of the base of the mount. That means you have to slide the RoadMate onto the windshield mount first, then try to connect the power cable to the port on the bottom of the GPS (which is easier said than done, since you can't see the USB port on the underside of the GPS when it's resting in the windshield mount, so this can take some fumbling around.

This is an annoying design flaw that could easily be fixed with a differently angled power plug. The windshield mount itself is nicely designed, but having to connect the power plug after the GPS is mounted is irritating, and can be difficult -- especially at night. Hopefully Magellan will correct this and supply a different USB power plug that's either straight instead of right-angled, or that has a less sever angle to it.

Mounting the RoadMate 1470 in the car is easy, taking no more than a minute or two. The device is good looking, and the large, bright 4.7-inch display is easily read from the driver's seat. The windshield mount does a good job holding the RoadMate firmly in place, even when driving at highway speeds, or on bumpy surface streets.

Turning on the RoadMate 1470 For The First Time

Slide the power switch on the top of the RoadMate to power on the unit. The RoadMate 1470 takes 34 seconds to turn on. Unfortunately, there's no standby power mode, so you'll have to wait a full 34 seconds every time the GPS is turned on.

The first time the RoadMate 1470 is powered on, a brief setup wizard appears. Specify which language you want to use. The RoadMate supports English, Spanish, and French. Next, tell the RoadMate which time zone you are located in, and whether you are currently observing daylight savings.

Lastly, the RoadMate needs to know whether you prefer to see distances in Miles/Feet, or Kilometers/Meters. Touch whichever setting is appropriate for your region. Once the initial settings have been configured, the Main Menu appears. The RoadMate is now ready to navigate.

Finding An Address

The RoadMate 1470 allows you to enter a destination a number of different ways, but probably the most common method is to use a street address. To test Magellan's address entry system, we'll enter a destination address in New York City: 135 Central Park West. The first step in entering a street address is to tap Go To from the Main Menu.

I'll be entering a street address, so I'll tap Address. First we'll need to enter the city name, or zip code of the destination address. Entering an address on the RoadMate is a breeze, thanks in large part to Magellan's QuickSpell -- A handy feature that only allows you to press letter that would spell a valid city name. Letters that would not spell a valid city name are dimmed out. Tapping this button in the upper-right corner displays a list of recently found cities.

Once enough letters have been entered that only a few possible matching city names exist, the RoadMate automatically displays a list of matching cities. I'll select "New York, NY" and continue. Magellan's new Smart City feature further speeds address entry by sorting the list of matching city names in order of closeness to your current location. Next we'll need to enter the name of the street name of our destination address.

Spelling the street name is identical to the the city name: as you type, Magellan's QuickSpell feature only allows you to select letters that will spell a valid street name within the chosen city. This feature may not sound like much, but it greatly speeds text entry, and just makes the GPS easier to use. Once you get accustomed to the speed and convenience of Magellan's address entry, you'll miss it when using other GPS devices.

While spelling out a city/street name, you can press the green checkmark icon at any time to view all the cities that match the letters you have entered so far, or you can wait until enough letters have been entered that the RoadMate 1470 will automatically display a list of matching city names to choose from.

After entering the first few letters of the street name, the RoadMate displays the list of street names shown above. I'm entering an address on Central Park West, so I'll tap "Central Park W". Next we'll need to enter the house/building number of our destination address.

Notice that the RoadMate displays the valid range of house numbers for the chosen street (in this example, the valid range of house numbers along Central Park West in New York City is 1-499). This can be handy for situations when you're unsure of the exact house number.

Once the address has been fully entered, the RoadMate 1470 displays the address confirmation screen, shown above. This screen lets you begin navigating to the destination by tapping the large, orange, "Go" button, and also provides the following options:
Plus icon - Add another stop to the trip (you can add multiple stops to any trip)
Save - Saves the address to the address book
Options - Lets you choose one of four available routing preferences (shown below), or manually exclude specific roads from the planned route
Map Icon - Displays the entire trip on a 2D map, with the planned route highlighted

Setting a Route Method on this screen only changes the Route Method for the current trip. If you want to permanently change the default Route Method, you'll need to do that via the settings menu.

Tap Options to change the Route Method, or the Go button to begin navigating to the destination.

Navigating with the Magellan RoadMate 1470

This is the RoadMate 1470's Main Menu, and the screen you'll see whenever you turn on the device.

The Main Menu is simple and intuitive. There are five icons to choose from:
Go To - Navigate to a destination
View Map - View the map
Local Options - Displays local information, such as events, attractions, restaurants, gas, and details about your current location.

Whether navigating to a destination or just driving around, you'll spend most of your time looking at the RoadMate's map screen. A well designed map screen is absolutely essential for any GPS. A good map should be easy to understand, display text in a font and size that's readable from the driver's seat, and conveys all the vital information you want -- without cluttering up the screen. A well designed map should give let the driver get all the information he needs within a 1-2 second glance.

Getting the map right is a deal breaker for a GPS, and Magellan's RoadMate 1470 does a nice job displaying the information you'll likely care about, and keeps things easy to understand. Let's take a closer look at the information displayed on the map:
Turn instructions for next maneuver - Tap to display the maneuver list (available only when routing)
Distance and road name for the next maneuver - Tap to repeat last voice instruction
One Touch Menu - Touching this icon displays the OneTouch menu, a customizable list of shortcuts and commonly used addresses or POIs
Current position and heading
Volume controls
Information Display - Displays various pieces of information. Tapping this box cycles between speed, time of day, elevation, compass direction. While navigating to a destination, tapping this box cycles between displaying distance to destination, estimated time of arrival (ETA), and time remaining.
Zoom in and zoom out

The wider, 4.7-inch display, combined with a more refined map layout and larger text, makes the RoadMate 1470's map screen an improvement over Magellan's older GPS units.

When approaching a highway interchange, the RoadMate 1470 displays the Lane Assist view, shown above. High Lane Assist displays highway signs as you approach a highway interchange, giving you a clear visual indication of which lane you want to be in.

Lane Assist information isn't available for all highway interchanges, but I found coverage was quite good in the Northeast. Magellan says Lane Assist information will continue to be added for more areas with future map updates. Tapping Options on the Address Confirmation screen lets you change the Route Method (shown below), or view the turn-by-turn list of maneuvers for the route.

This is where Magellan really shines. There are four different "Route Options" to choose from. The estimated drive time is listed next to each of the four options, and the turn-by-turn directions for each option can be viewed by tapping the right-arrow icon on the right side.

Magellan provides four different Route Options:
Fastest Time - The fastest possible route provided the vehicle is able to travel at or near the speed limit.
Shortest Distance - The shortest possible route.
Mostly Freeways - Use freeways whenever possible.
Least Use of Freeways - A route that avoids the highway as much as possible.

The map view lets you visualize each available Route Option on the map before deciding which option to choose. By default the RoadMate chooses the Fastest Time option, unless you specify otherwise. The Maneuver List displays a list of all upcoming turns. Each line in the Maneuver List shows a description of the turn in the order they are to be made, with the next (closest) maneuver at the top of the list. To access the Maneuver list from the Map screen, tap the upcoming turn indicator.

One of the RoadMate's most powerful features is its ability to exclude, or avoid, a particular road/highway from the planned route. Magellan is one of the few GPS brands that allows you to browse a list of all upcoming turns, and choose specific road(s) you want to avoid. To exclude a road or highway from the planned route, tap the Avoid icon for the maneuver you want to avoid.

This a great feature that really comes in handy when you want to avoid a road you know will be problematic, or if you find yourself stuck in traffic and want to find an alternate route. Very few GPS devices have this capability, and no other unit makes it this easy.

In addition to excluding an entire road or highway, there may be times when you just want to find an alternate route for the next few miles. For example, if you find yourself stuck in traffic, or on a road that's been closed for flooding, you might want to route around the problem area for a few miles, then get back on the original path. Magellan's Detour feature allows you to do just that.

While navigating to a destination, the Trip Options screen, shown above, (Tap Menu > Trip Options) includes the Detour button. When you press the Detour button, the Alternate Route (Detour) screen appears. The RoadMate 1470 calculates three alternate routes, avoiding at the current road you are driving on for 3, 5, and 9 miles, respectively.

Each detour option also displays the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), and you can view the turn-by-turn list for each option by tapping the Avoid icon on the right.

Traffic

The unit I tested didn't include the optional traffic receiver, so I couldn't fully test the traffic service. Though I did notice that the RoadMate 1470 now includes a traffic setting that allows you to decide whether you want to see traffic alerts only along your planned route, or all traffic alerts in your area (below).

The "Show All Traffic Events" setting will display all traffic alerts received in your area -- not just those along the planned route. This can be handy at times when you might want to take a route other than the one the RoadMate suggests.

Conclusion

The RoadMate 1470 is quite possibly Magellan's finest GPS to date.The bright, 4.7-inch display is larger than most other widescreen GPS devices, and the additional screen space does improve the ease of use and overall navigation experience.

The new, slim design is elegant looking. A sensitive touchscreen and fast internal processor makes the RoadMate respond instantly to your every touch.

The RoadMate 1470 benefits from Magellan's excellent text-entry system, and spelling city and street names is assisted by the "QuickSpell" feature. Street and City names can be entered as quickly as your fingers can move.

The RoadMate 1470 has an updated map screen that is easy to understand, and displays all the essential information without becoming overly cluttered. Next turn, lane guidance, estimated arrival time, remaining distance, and other key bits of information are displayed on the map. The map’s refresh rate is excellent, equaling or beating even Garmin’s newest nuvi models. Map scrolling is smooth and seamless while driving.  An automatic map zoom feature adjusts the map’s zoom level to fit the current maneuver.

As with previous Magellan GPS models, the RoadMate 1470 includes AAA’s TourBook information. Traditional Points of Interest (POI) lookups only display a business’ name, address, and phone number. AAA’s TourBook data, by contrast, includes detailed reviews of restaurants, attractions, and events, complete with pricing, hours of operation, and parking information. When driving in an unfamiliar area, AAA’s TourBook data is a fantastic addition to the GPS that lets you make much more informed decisions about where to eat, sleep, or have fun.

The RoadMate 1470 gets all the basics right: address entry is easy, the map screen is good, lane guidance has been added, it has a large pre-loaded Points of Interest (POI) database, and missed turns are quickly handled and a new route is automatically calculated.

The OneTouch Menu is a nice way to group frequently used addresses or POI searches for quick access.

But where the RoadMate 1470 really shines is in the routing department.  After entering an address, the 1470 calculates 4 different routes: Fastest Time, Shortest Distance, Mostly Freeways, and Least Use of Freeways. Each proposed route is displayed in a unique color on the map, making it easy to visualize the path that each route would take you.  Even better, you can browse the list of all upcoming turns and manually exclude any road you want to avoid. 

Compared to the higher-end Magellan Maestro 4350, the RoadMate 1470 lacks the Bus, Pedestrian, Taxi, Emergency, and Bicycle vehicle modes. The traffic receiver isn't included with the 1470, and there's no Bluetooth, 3D landmarks or speed limit information on the map, or FM transmitter. On the other hand, the RoadMate 1470 is generally easier to use, has a wider screen, costs less, and has the same excellent routing options as the Maestro. Also, the Maestro 4350's traffic service requires an annual subscription fee. Lifetime subscription-free traffic is included for free when you buy the RoadMate 1470's optional traffic receiver ($79.99)

Overall stability seems to have improved, and the RoadMate 1470 never crashed during my testing, and was consistently reliable. Magellan continues to refine its products, and the RoadMate 1470 is the best GPS the company has made in years.

Magellan’s RoadMate 1470 is currently available at Amazon for $199.99 . If you purchase by April 30, Amazon is having a special and will include the Traffic Receiver for free. After April 30th you'll have to pay an additional $79.99 for it.

No other GPS device in this price range can match the considerable feature set and ease of use the RoadMate 1470 brings to the table.