Thoughts and Impressions

Magellan clearly designed this unit with long road trips and RVs in mind, and it shows in the feature set. The main menu has a prominent button for inputting your vehicle’s height, weight and dimensions, and will take those into account when planning routes—not routing you under a low-hanging overpass when you’re driving a tall vehicle, for example, or keeping you clear of weight-limited thoroughfares in a fully loaded RV. The ability to act as a Bluetooth speakerphone is also a huge plus, allowing you to make and receive calls on your cell phone without taking your eyes off the road or your hands off the wheel for more than a moment at a time.

One thing that stood out immediately with this unit is the speed. Previous units from Magellan have suffered from a noticeable lag in just about everything, from satellite fixation to route calculation to simple button pushes. This unit, while still not instantaneous, still manages to be much more responsive.

Another area in which this unit stands out is its ability to improvise. Previous units would complain loudly if you deviated from the assigned route, constantly asking you to turn around until it became clear that doing so would be slower than just going on. This unit is much more accommodating, taking your unannounced detours into account and recalculating a sensible route from there. This one change—the GPS unit working with you rather than trying to fight you—does a great deal to improve the overall experience.

Conclusion

While a smartphone’s GPS navigation might well be sufficient for someone who spends most of their time going to and from the same places, a dedicated GPS unit is essential for anyone who spends a lot of time traveling to new places, whether for work or for pleasure. For those who need more out of their GPS navigation than the bare-bones basics Google Maps provides, the Magellan RoadMate RV5365T-LMB GPS Navigator is a smart and capable choice.

Pros

Snappy UI
Can act as a Bluetooth speakerphone with no extra wiring or accessories
Saved locations and proximity searches make programming a route faster and easier

Cons