Review by K. GENTRY for For Magellan RoadMate 1200 / 1210 / 1212 / 1340 / 1400 / 1412 / 1430 / 1440 / 1470 GPS Portable Travel USB Plug-in Rapid 12V Car Charger
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After breaking the power cord for my Magellan GPS, I looked around for a replacement. Magellan was ready to sell me a new one for $25. Same price for a generic one from an electronics store. Then I found another one here at Amazon for $12. And, finally, I came across this one for less than a dollar. The price disparity was so great that I was inclined to be suspicious of its quality, but for less than a dollar I was willing to risk it. It works just fine. As noted by another reviewer, the cord is just a little on the short side, but I have found it long enough to reach over the steering wheel from the cigarette lighter to the lower left corner of the windshield in my 2003 Toyota Rav-4. I’ve only needed to use it a single time since the purchase – but so far, so good.

Review by J. Mccart for For Magellan RoadMate 1200 / 1210 / 1212 / 1340 / 1400 / 1412 / 1430 / 1440 / 1470 GPS Portable Travel USB Plug-in Rapid 12V Car Charger
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This device works like it is designed to, however the cord is the coiled type, and seems a little short. If you are needing to span a fairly long distance from the GPS unit to the cigarette lighter plug, then you may consider a non-coiled design.

I have a Jeep Cherokee, and the GPS is mounted on the front windshield. Not a great distance to the lighter socket, but it is a bit of a stretch with this coiled cable.

Otherwise this one works well, with a good solid connection on both ends, and an indicator (red) LED light tells you the plug is operating.

Review by T. Price for For Magellan RoadMate 1200 / 1210 / 1212 / 1340 / 1400 / 1412 / 1430 / 1440 / 1470 GPS Portable Travel USB Plug-in Rapid 12V Car Charger
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If my Roadmate 1200 is off, this charger will charge it. But if my GPS is turned on, with the charger plugged in, the GPS gives me a message that a usb cord is plugged in – and the GPS won’t work. So I have a charger that will not charge a GPS when I need to use it I would not buy it again.

Review by captain crunch for Garmin Oregon 450t Handheld GPS Navigator
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Received my Oregon 450T on April 2. Setup was very straight forward and within minutes I was downloading geochaches directly off the computer….way too cool not having to print pages, manually type coordinates etc. The touch screen is great, very similar to ipod or iphone and common sense oriented. Screen view quality is very good and don’t understand other reviews on Oregons I’ve read that rated this poor for the screen view. The 3 axis compass worked great and is a huge improvement over older gps’s. Overall I was very happy with this product until:

After 4-5 hours playing with this, I set the unit down while still “on” to see how long the batteries would last. Next morning, I picked up the unit, touched the screen and got a low bat warning as expected. Shut the unit off, installed new bateries, turneed “on” and the unit automatically went into DEMO Mode and locked up. The unit in the demo mode would not connect to my laptop for software updates etc. Called Garmin tech support, was on hold for 25 min. before getting a tech on the line. The tech asked me to do a number of things that didn’t work before asking me to hold another 10 min. for a different PC Tech. After another 20 min on hold, the new tech had no idea what to do stating that this is a hardware issue, maybe a demo unit or something and told me to just return the product to Amazon. Not impressed with Garmin tech support. After googling this issue, I found multiple forum discussions with the same problem. Seems logical that Garmin Tech’s should have been more informed on this issue, especially since there’s a firmware upgrade in the system to fix this.

Ordered a replacement from Amazon. I plan to download the new firmware (if needed) then do the very same setup and battery check to see if it locks up as well. Overall, think this is a great product, but, feel that Garmin is using their customers as “beta testers” instead of loyal customers. My confidence in product reliability to take this GPS on a Backpack trip or Elk Hunt is nil at this point. This product is a great geocache toy, but, will stick to my old Magellan for any serious treking.

Review by David Harris for Garmin Oregon 450t Handheld GPS Navigator
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I bought an Oregon 450t, used it on three trips, and am so dissatisfied that I am returning it.

I use a GPS to map trails for hiking guidebooks. I have recorded over 200 trips with my trusty old Garmin 60csx before it locked up. I ordered a 450t as a replacement.

The unit I received has major accuracy problems. Under moderate forest cover in the San Bernardino mountains, it indicated that I was a mile away in the middle of the lake. Meanwhile, the GPS indicated it had an accuracy of 57 feet. When I drove out and back along a dirt road through the forest, the unit recorded a track resembling a figure 8. The unit also had poor accuracy under the canopy of the Columbia River Gorge. It seemed to work fine on Mount Hood. The 60csx works fine under this forest condition, and even my ancient Foretrex worked better.

The 60csx orients the screen to the direction that you are moving. The Oregon seemed to be configured to do the same, but the screen orientation often seemed random.

The touch screen is tolerable, but disappointing after I’ve become accustomed to the excellent touch screen on an iPhone. It is difficult to read in sunlight, far more so than on the 60csx. My experience with automotive Garmin touch screens is that they wear out after 2-3 years (especially if they get dropped).

Perhaps my unit was just defective. However, even if it had worked correctly, I would still recommend the 60csx over the 450t to serious users because of the screen readability and the short lifetime of Garmin touch screens.