Even though its been sitting on my table for a couple of weeks, life has conspired to keep me from trying out the Magellan RoadMate 1470 until today. And I put it to a good test — straight out of the box, no preplanning a route — on a trip to a city a little more than 100 miles north of where I live, to a specific destination I have never been to before. To say the least, the pressure was on this little gizmo.

While I’ve still got some playing to do with it before I write a full review in a few days, I’m happy to report that my initial impression is that it is a pretty darn good portable navigation device (PND). I’d even go so far as to say it rocks. While it lacks the non-navigation frills of a high-end model, it has more than enough navigation-related bells and whistles for a mid-range PND, and performed well on both the open road and in urban canyons. There a couple of nit-picky things I’ve found so far that bug me, albeit mildly, but the first impression is definitely two thumbs up.

More to come on the Magellan RoadMate 1470. …

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