Magellan RoadMate 3065 Commuter 4.7 Inch Widescreen Bluetooth GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic Review

The Magellan RoadMate 3065 Commuter is the flagship model of Magellan’s 2010 line of GPS navigators. As the flagship model it has a host of premium features topped by a large 4.7 inch touch screen display (17 percent larger than a 4.3 inch screen) with Auto Night View for the best color and contrast for easy night viewing. Combined with the traffic receiver are free lifetime traffic updates ensuring real-time traffic information to help avoid traffic congestion. A distinguishing feature, not available on other models as yet, is Traffic Wakeup where the unit will boot up early to get traffic data on regular routes. Other key features include Bluetooth for hands-free calling, highway lane assist and the built-in AAA TourBook.

Magellan RoadMate 3065 GPS Navigator

Traffic Wakeup

When the Magellan RoadMate (or other traffic capable GPS navigator) is turned on it can take some 15 minutes to gather all the necessary traffic information for route planning. This delay can mean running into traffic congestion before the information to allow the RoadMate to plan a way around it has arrived. The Magellan RoadMate 3065 is equipped with a simple, yet effective, solution to this problem – the Traffic Wakeup feature. It’s function is to wake (turn on) the Magellan RoadMate 20 minutes before your set leaving time allowing the necessary traffic information to be gathered and ready for use in route planning. The set-up screen allows departure times and destinations to be set (via a slider) for the outgoing and return legs of a daily commute – hence the Commuter tag for this model.

A handy grief prevention function available with the Magellan RoadMate 3065 is Backup and Restore which provides a way of storing the address book and other data on an optional micro SD card inserted in your Magellan RoadMate receiver (bottom left edge). Once backed up the data can be restored at any time. The restore process replaces existing data so as with all such backup functions you need to keep your backups up to date. A built-in reminder would be useful for this.

Bluetooth for Hands-free Calls

Bluetooth mobile phone connectivity allows hands-free phone calls and easy access to your phones address book through the RoadMate 3065′s touch-screen display (you must import contacts from your phone first). For incoming phone calls, the Magellan RoadMate displays an Answer Phone screen with a green button to answer the call or the red button to end the call. A list of phones compatible for use with Magellan GPS navigation devices can be found on the Magellan web site. To make your voice clearer above the road noise the microphone is noise-canceling. You can adjust the microphone gain to achieve the best result for your situation.

Selecting a Destination

Selecting a destination with the Magellan RoadMate starts at the main menu which displays the following buttons:

Address: Enter an address using the on-screen keypad. To speed things along assistance is provided by QuickSpell which narrows your address and city searches as you type.

Points of Interest (POI): Provides access to a database of preloaded POI. There are 6 million POI covering gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and many more.

Previous List: provides a list of the most recent destinations which can be chosen again.

Address Book: addresses and destinations stored in the Address Book can be accessed to set as a destination

Intersection: Locations are often remembered as being on or near to an intersection and this option allows you to enter these details.

City Center: When travelling between cities this provides a simple way quickly select a city without having to know a specific address within it. When selected the route provided is to the geographical center of the city.

Settings: Provides a sub-menu of functions to customize the Magellan RoadMate to your personal requirements.

Current Location: Displays information about your position including the street name, names of streets forward and behind you as well as the Lat/Long information for your position.

OneTouch Interface

As well as the main menu, Magellan users have the new One Touch user interface which provides access to most commonly used searches (eg. find the nearest franchise of my favourite coffee) from the top level of the navigation interface. One Touch is similar to the favourites toolbar of a Web browser except it’s a real world search. Once set up by the user, One Touch significantly reduces the time a driver spends stepping through menus.

The capabilities of One Touch can be summarized as instant top level access to:

Favorite businesses, restaurants, banks, gas stations, services, searches and more
Specific addresses
Applications to play music, make phone calls, or find addresses
Points of Interest (POI) including the standard POI database and Magellan-exclusive AAA TourBook(R) guide travel information database This integrated searching was not available on earlier models.

Trip Report

If you travel for business then you may be interested a useful Magellan RoadMate 3065 feature to help with tax returns. For any business trip the trip report page needs to be accessed and the business trip checkbox ticked. When required, a Summary Report page can be retrieved displaying the total miles, total business miles and total time spent.

Other Notable Features of the Magellan RoadMate 3065

Spoken Street Names and Directions allows the driver to keep their eyes on the road while hearing spoken navigation instructions to confirm that the car is on route

Highway Lane Assist shows realistic highway signs to make it easier to choose the correct lane.
Highway exit POIs Search an excellent tool for the traveller to finds gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more near upcoming highway exits.

Multi-destination Routing lets you plan your trip with multiple stops. It’s possible to choose the order or have the RoadMate automatically optimize your route.

Route Customization allows customization of route calculation by setting a preference for the shortest distance, fastest time, most use of freeways, or least use of freeways

Automatic Re-route if you miss a turn the Magellan RoadMate will automatically calculate a new route to get you back on track.

The Magellan RoadMate is preloaded with maps for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The maps do however, vary with the purchase location.

Battery life is not especially long at 2 hours and it will takes 4 to 6 hours to reach a full charge.

Review Summary – Magellan RoadMate 3065 Commuter

Magellan’s RoadMate 3065 Commuter is a nice unit to use and has a beautiful, large 4.7 inch display for easy reading of the navigation interface. Free lifetime traffic updates along with the in-built traffic receiver are an attractive offer. Those facing a regular commute and relying on their GPS to save time, will appreciate the Traffic Wakeup function for getting traffic data early. Other key features in this well featured GPS navigator include; Bluetooth for hands-free calling, highway lane assist and the built-in AAA TourBook.