Usability Features
The full-color moving map display is very easy to read at a glance but the pleasant voice prompts mean that you never need to take your eyes off the road.
The display will show you the road you are on, the full-color moving map showing where you are now, the name of the next road you will be on, how far it is to your next turn, which direction you will be turning, how much time and how many miles are left in your trip. The unit also gives you your current cardinal direction (north, south, etc) and an arrow always points to your final destination. As you approach a turn the display will switch over to show your next turn with a large yellow arrow.
Warning: at first I was spending way too much time staring at the 750M and not watching the road. This thing is extremely cool, but you've got to force yourself to drive the car first and only look at the unit when you are safely stopped.
The female voice prompts are pleasant and easily understandable. When you first start out she usually says "Please proceed to the highlighted route" while you pull out of your driveway.
For example, at highway speeds the unit will say "Freeway off ramp on the left in two miles." Then "Freeway off ramp on the left in one mile" and "Freeway off ramp on the left in point five miles." Finally, "Approaching freeway off ramp on the left." This is followed by a chime tone when you actually get to your turn. The voice prompts are so clear and concise that you can easily navigate in heavy traffic without taking your eyes off the road.
Routing and Directions
The automatic routing always made solid choices. For example, around my hometown, 95% of the time it chose the same route that I would have taken anyway. The other 5% were times where I would have used a back road instead of the main road in order to avoid rush-hour traffic and, lately, a nasty construction zone. The GPS can't be expected to know about that level of detail, and when I turned off of the suggested route the unit automatically calculates a new route based on my location and direction.
The Magellan 750M uses Nav-Tech maps.
I didn't find this to be a real problem in my travels, but if you live or frequently travel to an affected area this would limit the unit's usefulness. All of the NASCAR tracks that I visited, or tested routing to, were easily found and mapping worked fine.
Another great feature is the Points of Interest database that includes thousands of hotels, restaurants, parks, airports, banks, etc. Using this feature, in an emergency the 750M can find you the nearest hospital and route you there. Or you can find a place to fill your tank, get something to eat and get some sleep after a long day on the road.
Next, let's see how it performs under real NASCAR fan use.
