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Magellan RoadMate 9055

Magellan RoadMate 9055Advantages
The Magellan RoadMate 9055 has one of the largest available LCD screen at 7 inches, and can easily be mounted in a wide variety of vehicles due to its extremely flexible mount. Point of interest searches are very quickly accomplished, and this GPS comes with ad-free traffic updates for the life of the unit.

Disadvantages
It doesn’t come with lifetime map updates, and doesn’t tell you what the speed limit is. Sometimes it also chooses less than ideal routes. People with small vehicles may find it takes up too much space.

Overall
The Magellan RoadMate 9055 is a user-friendly portable GPS device with a solid performance and a much larger than average 7-inch screen.

About the same size of the GPS units that are built in to some luxury cars, the Magellan RoadMate 9055 can also give you traffic reports in real time, support the use of a back-up camera and allow you to use Bluetooth hands-free.

The new RoadMate 9055 weighs only 7.8 ounces, which is almost three ounces less than the version it replaces, has a user interface that works well, and measures 7.5 inches long, 4.5 inches high and 0.6 inches thick. The LCD screen is very crisp and measures 800 pixels by 480 pixels.

You don’t have to worry about the stability of your GPS, since the mount for the RoadMate 9055 is very solid, and also has a heavy-duty extension you can use to bring your GPS unit either below the dash to avoid blocking any of your view out the windshield or 12 inches closer to you should you have a windshield that is far from you.

You can use this GPS device to locate restaurants, hotels and other attractions or points of interest, since it comes preloaded with maps for the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada that contain six million different POIs and the AAA TourBook, which also contains as ratings and descriptions for many of these points of interest. If you are a AAA member, you can also use the RoadMate 9055 to call for emergency road assistance. There is a OneTouch interface that lets you quickly access frequently used destinations and you can also use this device to plan multi-segment trips.

The RoadMate 9055 also has a newer, faster processor than older models. It noticeably increased the speed of searches for points of interest, making it much more pleasant to use. However, the graphics are still similar to previous models and do not contain a lot of detail. The RoadMate 9055 does not let you view multiple readouts continuously, you must press a pop up panel to see estimated time of arrival, elevation, real-time speed and direction at the same time. Unlike similar GPS devices from other companies, the RoadMate 9055 still does not show speed limits.

The routes provided are not always the best, in some cases taking you the long route to get to your destination rather than shorter routes that are available. The voice prompts are clear but can be really loud. However the real-time traffic function works well, showing you either a green icon if there is little traffic ahead or a red icon if there are traffic jams nearby. The RoadMate 9055 also allows you to connect hands-free to a Bluetooth device. Don’t count on using this device for walking though; it doesn’t contain any pedestrian maps and the battery life is only 30 minutes.

The Magellan RoadMate 9055 is a great option for those who like huge screens, as it offers lifetime traffic updates, a fast user interface and a hands-free Bluetooth mode, all for approximately $235.