comparing Magellan 4700 and tomtom 740 live

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The new Magellan Maesto 4700 GPS just came out today. The ads say it has predictive travel which is like IQ routes . Which predicts travel according to the day of the week and time of the day. It also has live traffic and internet seach for poi's. If anyone can compare these two units I would be very interested. Thanks.
 
I'll stop in my local Best Buy to check it out. They have it in stock, hopefully they have one on display.

At first glance, based on Best Buy specs:
Magellan 4700 pros:
- route optimization
- WAAS enabled
- larger screen (4.7" vs 4.3")

Tomtom 740 pros:
- wider traffic coverage. Compare Yahoo maps (trafficcast, like Tomom) vs Magellan's Navteq traffic coverage.
- map self-editing (mapshare)
 
Is there any reason (other than marketing) that an online POI search coudln't be added to the BT enabled units?
 
If there's any interest in how the Telenav Shotgun live/connected PND compares to these two, I can probably add that to the thread. Should have an evaluation unit in my hands within the week.
 
Is there any reason (other than marketing) that an online POI search coudln't be added to the BT enabled units?

I don't see a technical reason.

Just two business ones:
- Tomtom wants to sell upgraded devices, they similarly disable LIVE traffic's added coverage on Bluetooth PLUS.
- There may per-device-sale licenses to use that data (like Tomtom pays Trafficcast for the American-740). So Google would not have been paid to offer its POI to older units.
 
Does this Mio product, Magellan 4700 have the feature such "Prepare Route" (the advanced planning from A to B)?
 
I've had a few different devices in the past, Magellan included, and never again. Just a personal opinion but: TOMTOM all the way!
 
What "added coverage" is there? Is it just added as far as more markets?

PLUS traffic only covers major interstates with flow reports. It has incidents on minor roads, but no flow reports.

LIVE traffic has flow coverage on interstates and large secondary roads. In Boston that's a huge difference since NIMBYs blocked major needed highway expansion in the 70s. Most of the commuter thoroughfares are not interstates. LIVE has them all, PLUS has none.

By the way, I went to 2 Best Buys this evening. Both had 4700's in stock, but none on display yet.
 
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I've been using Telenav's live Inrix traffic for the past few days (Telenav Shotgun) and have a couple of early comments. First off, the traffic does get delivered a little quicker on the Shotgun compared to the 740. Also, in the Tampa area at least, the Inrix reports look to more inclusive. Comparing side-by-side today, they pretty much shared the same incidence reports, but Inrix/Telenav did include a couple that were not shown on TomTom/TrafficCast. I also like that they show color-coded traffic flow on all the covered highways, which gives me a little more confidence compared to the 740 where I really don't know what's covered and what isn't. Traffic flow data is very difficult to compare, since TomTom's 740 doesn't show/indicate any traffic congestion if it's considered normal for that day and time. Inrix/Telenav showed fairly extensive coverage of Tampa proper, only major roads as you move away from Tampa/St.Pete and really nothing at all more than 30 miles out. So it looks like Telenav's Inrix traffic reports would also be of limited value outside of the top 50 metro areas. This is the same complaint I have with traffic on the 740. For whatever reason, the traffic flow reports available on-line (and from the same traffic providers!) is not being made available to users of navigation devices. So far only one service, MSNDirect (also primarily Inrix AFAIK), has shown any flow and incident data for me outside of Tampa and Orlando. Their problem is inability to deliver the reports quickly enough to be dependable. So far, I've found no generally satisfactory traffic service from anyone. If you live or work in one of the 50 major metros, either the Shotgun or TT740 might get you by. Otherwise current traffic services just don't have much value IMHO.
 

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