Magellan Premium Car Kit for iPhone and iPod touch

• Compatibility: iPod touch 2G, 3G; iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4
• Transform your iPhone or iPod touch into a complete in-car solution for GPS navigation
• Charge your device while mounted; built-in GPS receiver enhances performance
• Noise-cancelling, hands-free speakerphone with powerful amplified speaker
• Works with any navigation or location-based app, including Magellan's RoadMate app

Well I have been using this for a bit over a week now and here are my impressions:

Pros:

-Excellent build quality; very solid and holds my iPhone (in a Speck PixelSkin case) very sturdily.

-Good mounting of iPhone with swivelling dock connector and flexible/adjustable top clip.

-Fits iPhone perfectly with my Speck PixelSkin case. But be warned it was adjusted to its highest point, so it wont fit a case larger than the PixelSkin.

-GPS fix more accurate than iPhone's internal GPS. This resulted in less jerky movements and less jumping around during GPS application usage.

Cons:

-GPS signal dropped out far more often than my standalone TomTom PND. This is unacceptable in a product meant to improve GPS reception that actually uses the same GPS chip as the TomTom PND I am comparing it with.

-With kit mounted on windscreen the iPhone overheated and stopped working (displayed a temperature warning message and forced itself into sleep mode) once. Mind you this was after three hours of driving, directly towards the Australian summer sun on a 35C/95F day. This is not a shortcoming of this Magellan kit, but rather an issue with mounting iPhones in car windscreens in general.

-When switching the car ignition from 'accessories' to 'run' and then to 'on', the Magellan kit naturally loses power momentarily. However when it powers back on, it often would not sync with the iPhone's Bluetooth as the power cycle was too fast. I would need to manually power cycle the Magellan kit (ie. remove power plug, then reconnect) allowing enough time for the iPhone to lose Bluetooth sync before re-establishing the power.

MAJOR MAJOR CON:

-When you plug a 3.5mm audio cable into the AUX connector on the Magellan kit (for attaching to a car stereo, or external powered speakers, etc.), the music and application sounds CONTINUE COMING OUT OF THE BUILT-IN SPEAKER!!! This is a ridiculous design, as it means to listen to music through your car stereo without the crappy built-in speaker ruining the music for you, you need to turn down the volume on the Magellan Kit (as this only controls the volume of the built-in speaker). But then if you receive a call, the call audio (via Bluetooth) cannot be heard (as you have turned the volume down on the built-in speaker, which is where the call audio is sent), so you have to manually turn the volume up on the Magellan kit again (using a fiddly little dial that is difficult and dangerous to find while trying to concentrate on driving). You have to do this EVERY TIME a call arrives... STUPID!

Why oh why was the kit designed like this? We will never know. However Magellan have responded to my question about it and have indicated that they will release some sort of firmware/software/application fix for this speaker problem in the near future.

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I am one of the early adopter, having bought this kit early when it was first available. I travel by car quite a lot as part of my job and I had the chance to test this kit extensively.

As the title stated, here are the major problems:

1). CHARGING

When I plug my iPhone 3GS, about 3 out of 5 I'll get a message on the iPhone saying that "This accessory is not for iPhone". I have tried every possible way to ensure that I am plugging the iPhone properly, which it does because the shape of the kit prevent the iPhone to be plugged in other ways, yet I still get that dreaded message and the iPhone DOES NOT CHARGE. it seems that the connector is not designed well and it does not recognize the iPhone most of the time.

UPDATE: Here's another thing I found about the charging issue: the car kit is SUPPOSED to CHARGE your iPhone while you are using the naVigation apps (TomTom, Navigon, Magellan Roadmate) at close to high brightness (due to sunlight). But when you do this, the car kit WILL NOT CHARGE your iPhone. I have tested this with 2 iPhone 3GS and none of them charge when I use any GPS application. Since the Iphone is running continuously, this car kit adapter cannot keep up with the power need.

2). GPS

The GPS inside the kit, when it work, it worked great. But most of the time, it DOES NOT WORK. Many times, my Magellan GPS or Navigon app will suddenly lose signal. I thought it was the application itself, but when I mounted my iPhone to a normal car kit with no GPS, I never lose GPS signal unless I am inside a tunnel or under heavy foliage cover

I tried my best to test this car kit, even beyond the 30 days return policy. Alas, this kit just perform badly.

Do not buy this kit!

Read Best Reviews of Magellan Premium Car Kit for iPhone and iPod touch Here

I received my Magellan premium car kit finally. I have already downloaded the Magellan GPS app from the iTune store and I'm very excited about how wonderful this car kit functions.

Not sure about some of the other reviewers but this Magellan car kit makes my iPhone so much better with much louder audio volume, I had to turn the volume down on the car kit because it was too loud.

The Bluetooth paired up quickly and the GPS reception is so much better when the iPhone is connected to the Magellan car kit.

This is the perfect solution since my family owns 5 iPhones, mostly 3Gs and not everyone own a GPS, with this Magellan car kit, we can share the car kit between our iPhones when someone needs to take a trip.

We all use protective cases and it's great that it is not necessary to remove our phones from the protective cases when we mount the iPhone to the car kit. This is a huge plus and a great design from Magellan.

I feel some reviewers may look into the mirror instead of blaming Magellan if they don't understand this car kit was probably designed for convenience more than cost savings. When they paid the $129 for the hardware, they should not expect the software to be included with the hardware.

The option is they can buy the Motion X software for $2.99 and use this car kit with a 3rd party navigation software and still enjoy the better GPS reception and BT features along with excellent audio volume output.

There will be some reviewers that may be disappointed but I would guess more will be delighted to find such options for their iPhones as the Magellan premium car kit.

I'm tired of carrying a cell phone and a GPS, and with this Magellan car kit, it made my life much more enjoyable.

Thank you Magellan for introducing us to this wonderful GPS solution for our iPhones.

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Hi,

I've been using this mount for months now and overall I'm pleased with it. The best thing about it is it holds the phone really well. It was secure using my 3Gs and now with my iPhone 4. The telescoping top bracket allows it to accommodate a wide variety of cases too (Note: I did have trouble with the Apple Bumper case as mentioned below). The thirty pin dock connector at the bottom also pivots. This makes it much easier to get the iPhone in and out of the mount.

Here are some other notes:

Positives:

Holds the phone very securely

Easily switches very smoothly from portrait to landscape

Charges the phone (though not very quickly if it all when using the GPS)

Provides an audio output jack so you can leave the cable connected when you remove the phone

Negatives:

The speakerphone quality is only marginal. I wasn't expecting it to be great and it's not.

The GPS reception is disappointing. Considering they market the built in GPS heavily you would expect it to pickup a really strong signal. My standalone Garmin Nuvi walks all over it when it comes to reception

The volume dial is very poorly placed. It's on the side behind the phone. I always struggle with adjusting it while I'm driving.

The bracket blocks the camera. I thought it would be cool if I could snap pictures/take video while driving but that's not going to happen.

It would not charge using the Apple Bumper Case on my iPhone 4. It does charge with my other cases including the Otterbox Commuter. The bumper case is just a little too thick at the bottom. To be fair a lot of my other iPhone accessories (cables, speakers, etc.) don't work with the bumper case either

It costs too darn much for what you get. The value proposition would be much better if it cost $50 or even $75 instead of $100+

If you're looking for a speaker phone you can do much better. For me it works well using my iPhone 4, Otterbox Commuter case, and TomTom's navigation software.

Best regards,

John

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This is exactly what I want. It transformed my iPhone into a full featured with Text To Speech GPS navigation devise (and it works also with the ipod touch, if you happen to have one). What a convenience.

Let me start off by noting that this is a mixed-bag, and it greatly depends on your expectations, and more so on what you're looking for. So, please read more reviews to get the benefits of various prospective.

The kit came complete with everything needed, except for the Navigation App. A number of apps is available on the market, I personally like Road Mate.

The adjustable vehicle mounting is very well built, sturdy, and holds the device very securely. You have a choice of mounting the cradle on the windshield with the suction cup, or use the dashboard mount. The built in amplified speaker is powerful. And the speakerphone has a noise cancelling feature (does not work so great though, people on the other end complained about noise); non-the less, the speaker is load and clear. The Bluetooth will pair with any phone, not only iPhone (if you use the kit with an ipod and regular phone). A car charger is also included.

Unlike other reviewers who complained about frequent satellite signal loss, I did not have this problem, may be because I have it mounted closer to the windshield?

The included maps are outdated, but, like other Magellan products, you can update the maps by calling Magellan's customer service within 30days of purchase.