Roadmate 1412 review

[Phillip Naffziger]

I had posted earlier that I had demo'd this model and found that it seemed to suffer from touchscreen lag and didn't always want to announce the address number and streetname upon arriving at the destination...sometimes it would only announce the number. I rolled the dice and decided to get this unit anyway. I've had it for over a week and am happy to report the unit works great. The touchscreen works great w/ only a light touch and have not seen any lag issues. The unit also announces the complete destination number/address 99% of the time. The routing map graphics are different/improved vs my old 4040 as well as the 4250. It now auto zooms (like Garmin) as you approach a turn. The TTS seems more natural/consistant between the recorded voice and computer voice vs my old 4040. The speaker is clearer and louder vs the 4250. Maybe this is due to the 1412 being a bit thicker/more robust, maybe it has a bigger/better speaker? The routing has been excellent and always announces which side of the street (except when routing to POI's). A neat feature that I found is that I can give a destination a name by hitting the edit button and typing a name. When I arrive, the GPS will say "you have arrived at "Aunt Betty's House at 1234 Maple Street". I've done the same for my "Home" button. I don't know if the 4250 or other units have this capability to announce the name you have typed in. I notice that when I miss a turn, the 1412 does not say "calculating route". It simply remains silent and once it has recalculated a new route, it redraws the map announces the next turn at the appropriate time...2 miles, 1 mile etc. The windshield mount is smaller vs my old 4040 and there is no vibration...very stable/steady. Like my old 4040, the 1412 automatically powers up when I start my '06 Toyota Tacoma. It automatically powers off (sleep mode?) when I turn off the key. If I'm currently in route and shut down the truck, the route resumes when I get back in and fire back up. Garmins don't do this? Don't you have to re-enter the address? Overall, I'm very happy with the 1412. No issues with freezing-up/re-booting. It's a well built, great basic 4.3" GPS w/ TTS, 6 mil POI's, updated maps without traffic/AAA/BT features that I don't need.

[fzotto01]

I just purchased the same unit 3 weeks ago for my wife (I own the RM 1200) and I have to agree, it is a great unit. We needed text-to-speech and Spanish language, otherwise the 1200 would have been fine. We initally purchased the garmin 260 and we were not too happy with the interface, maybe we were used to the RM 1200. Regardless, it is a nice unit ans I recommend it.
On a side note i had to deal with magellan regarding a dead auto adaptor (see other post) and the entire process was a breeze!

[Marc]

My 4250 auto zooms. I am running the updated software. Cannot tell you if it did it before the update or not.