Magellan has long been in the GPS business, and its RoadMate ($34.99) app for iOS brings that experience to your smartphone. That's a high price compared with free GPS apps like Waze and our Editors' Choice, Google Maps. That means Magellan needs to bring something extra to the table. While RoadMate has some helpful features, like built-in traffic alerts, when it comes to navigation, the app is unfortunately lost.
Interface and Points of Interest
When you open the app, you're greeted with a map of your current location. Tap the traffic icon on the bottom left and you can see nearby slowdowns, traffic jams, and other incidents. Below that is a panel with your speed, direction, and the distance to your destination. Menu options include Enter Address, POI Search, Contacts, History, Settings, and Enter Coordinates. You can also overlay cards on the map with nearby POIs and traffic incidents.
When you select POI Search in the menu, you can search Yelp, BestParking.com, and Foursquare (an account is required) in addition to Magellan's database. First, I searched for restaurant a few miles away from where I was called Harlem Public; the closest match in the app's database was Harlem Public Library. And I couldn't find it in Yelp except when I navigated through categories, which was annoying. Eventually I realized that your search term first shows matching categories, then subcategories, and then business names at the bottom. It would be convenient if you could search all the POI listings at once, especially since a nearby Italian restaurant was in Yelp, but not in Magellan's listings.
That said, many of the other businesses I searched for were in the database, include Fairway Market Harlem (which was labeled Fairway Wholesale Market) and the St. George Theatre in Staten Island, neither of which are in TomTom's database.
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Car Navigation
It's surprisingly difficult to input an address; you can't just type it in as you can on Google Maps, MapQuest, and Waze. You have to first enter the city, then the street name, and then the house or building number. While you're driving, the app displays the speed limit and the next turn over the map view. In Settings, you can choose how to handle alternative routes: Auto Reroute, Never, or Always Ask.
My first trip using the Magellan RoadMate was to a part of Long Island that I'd never been to, so I was completely dependent on the app. It was a wild ride, to say the least. It directed me to the correct highway to get to Long Island, but then kept offering inaccurate, confusing, and at times dangerous voice prompts.
For example, the app told me a few times to turn where no turn existed, such as a random left turn that would have sent me over the highway median. It was like having a navigator in your passenger seat who can't read and doesn't accurately observe their surroundings. In addition, the app kept recalculating the route even though I wasn't missing any real turns. At one point in the trip, the app told me to make a legal U-turn up ahead, and then immediately said to continue straight.
Magellan RoadMate (for iPhone)
It was hard to trust the app when it offered the correct turns, and often the voice prompts were not timely. At one point, while driving in the HOV lane (I had a passenger), which is the left-most lane, the app said to get off at the next exit, which was all the way to the right. It was coming up so fast that it would have been impossible to get to without putting us and other drivers in danger. At another point, it said to continue straight at the Shell Station ahead, but it was actually a Mobil station, and it seems unnecessary to offer a landmark when going straight.
There were a few traffic alerts along the route; some accurate, some not. I was able to easily find a bank on the way, and the app navigated me there with no issues. However, when navigating from the bank to another part of Long Island, it was such a mess that I switched to Google Maps.
On another trip to Fairway Market, after I entered the highway, the app's voice prompt said to turn left in half a mile, which is actually impossible. A minute or so later, it told me, correctly, to stay on the highway to the 125th St. exit, which is the fastest way to get there. On the way home, I purposely passed my exit. It took the app a while to realize I had missed my turn, then it sent me to a turnaround ramp that's marked "Do not enter; authorized vehicles only." (To be fair, MapQuest did the same). After I skipped that, it sent me to an appropriate exit where I could turn around.
Walking Directions
RoadMate also offers walking directions, which is handy. Walking directions were much better than driving directions, though still a bit wonky. For instance, when I navigated to a restaurant less than a mile away, I got an alert that said the route was the maximum walking distance of 20 miles. On the second try, I didn't get that alert, and the directions were accurate, though that app is slow to recalculate if you miss a turn. It also didn't know that the George Washington Bridge is pedestrian-friendly when I navigated to a park in Fort Lee, like Apple Maps.
Magellan Is Lost
Despite being named after a famous explorer, Magellan's RoadMate app has some major navigation issues, including out-of-nowhere voice prompts, phantom turns, and constant recalculations. For these reasons, we simply can't recommend it. You're better off saving your money and using our Editors' Choice GPS app, Google Maps.
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