Magellan Maestro 3100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by Magellan
|
List Price: Our Price: $30.99 You Save: $119.00 (79%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Magellan Maestro 3100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: MAgellan Maestro 3100
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been shopping for a navigation GPS for a while, and had pretty much decided that $200 was my price point. I was zeroing in on the Mio C220, but my wife really wanted a Magellan, since she'd seen one at the store. We were in Target yesterday and the Maestro 3100 was on sale for $199 so we went ahead and purcgased it. Interestingly, within two or three hours it was put to a pretty decent test when I had to go to a strange part of the county to pick someone up at a hospital and then ferry them to a pharmacy and hotel. More on that in a minute.
Setup was quite easy. Basically, you stick the mount to the windshield, plug the unit into the cigarette lighter and push the "On" button. The first time I turned it on it took a minute or so to figure out where it was, but since then it's come on very quickly. I assume that's because it wakes up in the same place where it went to sleep. I'll be able to know for sure that's the case the next time I take a business trip.
Inputting an address is fairly easy, but can be a little bit frustrating, especially if you don't know the city name of your destination. That sounds odd, I know, but when you enter an address you first have to enter the city or zip code, then the street name, then the number of the address. It works great if you KNOW the name of the city, but in larger metropolitan areas it can be a little difficult. By way of example, the hospital was in Tukwila in a neighborhood called "Highline" and the pharmacy we needed next was in Des Moines. We were able to get to the hospital by using the Points of Interest feature and the name of the hospital, but the pharmacy was a little trickier. We had the street address, but because the GPS was "smart" enough to know the range of street addresses in Tukwila we couldn't simply enter the address of the pharmacy. We tried several other names, but eventually has to call the pharmacy to see what town it was in. Once we found out the name of the town, though, we were able to get there quite easily. From there to the hotel was quite easy as well, using the Points of Interest to find the Doubletree near our location. Getting home was simply a matter of puching the icon for "Home" and telling the GPS to calculate the fastest route.
One other thing that is a little odd is that there's a CD and a USB cable that comes in the package with the GPS that have no real function (as nearly as I could tell). The CD simply has a link to the Magellan website and a user manual in PDF format. The USB cable doesn't seem to have any real function, or at least I haven't found a use for it so far.
Overall, it seems like a great value. I'd certainly recommend it for anyone that wants a simple device to use in unfamiliar areas. Although it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a more expensive device, it performs its job as a navigation aid quite well.
Customer Review: You get what you paid for.
Summary: 2 Stars
I have had this GPS for a month and just took it on a long trip. Save your money because you get what you paid for. This is an inexpensive unit and leaves a lot to be desired.
I named it Barbara after my mother in law (she is always giving directions) First, the maps are not up to date and do not have many current roads, at least where I live. On this long highway trip Barbara was mostly quiet except when you come to a major crossroad, then she tells you to stay on the current road at least three times, and sometimes more.
In my case I had driven most of this route many times and know the best way around some major cities. Barbara always wanted to direct me through the town and not give me the best route. In one case she had me going north when I needed to go west. Looking at my atlas I could plainly see that there was no way to get where I needed to be if I followed her directions. This happened many times on roads that have been around for decades. I felt that I could not trust the unit!
If you are in a strange area in the dark and there are not any alternate routes, Barbara would get me there every time. And I can say that that was a big help. But this was at the end of the route is a very rural area.
Next the display, if you can afford a larger display, buy it. This one is small and even with my small fingers I had trouble with some on the buttons. This is a heads up display with two nav bars at the top and bottom on the screen. They display the current road you are on and the one where your next turn is. My logic says the top bar should be the turn you are going to (heads up). But no, that is the road you are on and where you are going is on the bottom. Yea it's a minor thing but annoying.
OK, now try to find a point of interest while you are on a route. Food, Rest Area, etc. Your only option is to exit a point of interest. Now why would I want to exit if I was looking for one? I pushed the button and got a screen that would give me small icons with a distance from my current location. This was not any help at all, especially if I wanted to know where the next rest area was. To find that you must canx. your route and then pick the point of interest button. Barbara will then give you a list of categories to choose from. Alphabetical order, NO WAY!! Try pushing the little down button to find what you want, while driving. This makes you an accident waiting to happen. This unit should be classified in the same hazard category as cell phones!
I could go on and on but I think you get my drift. When you buy a cheap product, you get what you paid for!
Jim
Customer Review: Great GPS for the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a long time TomTom user, and I bought this GPS for my wife because it is small, simple, and inexpensive. We've been very pleased! The SIRF star III GPS chipset is incredible! It was able to lock onto 8 satellites from INDOORS! My TomTom GPS receiver is lucky to find 4 signals in the backyard with a clear sky. The NAVTEQ maps used by Magellan are much more accurate in the U.S. than the outdated TeleAtlas maps in my TomTom. I used both devices to search for 5 random addresses from my address book -- all of which are at least 5 years old. The Magellan found them all flawlessly -- even those with re-mapped zip codes in mid-2006! The TomTom found 1 of the 5, got me close to a second, and didn't have a clue about the street names in the other three. (Incidentally, TomTom won't provide me with a map update because they dropped support for my device, which is only 3 years old!)
The Magellan Maestro 3100 doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the more expensive devices have, but it does GPS navigation as well as anything I've tried -- and I've tried most of them out there. I didn't buy a GPS to be an MP3 player and a picture viewer -- I already have an iPod for that. Any my car stereo has Bluetooth, so I didn't need hands-free phone capability. Why pay for features if you don't want/need them?
The only disappointment in the 3100 is the Points of Interest database. It only has 750,000 entries, whereas other competing (albeit more expensive) devices have several million. Still, it was able to find gas stations, ATMs, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores -- all the important stuff -- with no trouble. So I can't find campgrounds and beaches -- big deal! I usually don't get a spontaneous urge to go camping while I'm driving around anyway...
A previous reviewer mentioned the SD slot. Currently, it is used only to backup and restore your Address Book, Favorites, etc. Maybe a future firmware release will provide additional functionality...
Other nice features include trip planning with multiple stops; an address book where you can enter custom names,addresses, AND phone numbers; a Favorites list; a dedicated "home" button; detour planning; etc, etc.
There is also a great "where am I?" feature that with a single button push will display your precise location -- street, nearest intersections, lat/long coordinates, etc. This could be very useful if you need to summon emergency help.
All in all, this newly released (April 2007) GPS device should definitely be on your shopping list if you're looking for basic, low cost navigation.
Customer Review: THE BEST VALUE FOR WHAT YOU REALLY NEED...update 1/08 review, plz read
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm new in this GPS fad, but I have this and tried another brand( tom tom). What I like about this then the Tom tom is that this will give me a tone just as you are suppose to turn as the TT don't tell you. In the POI in this gps I put my finger on it on the map and up comes info on what I pressed, while the TT gives me a menu for me to keep searching for info about the POI. When I get to my destination, this gps tell me at the place where I suppose to be and on which side of the road while the TT tells me after I pass the house by 10 houses. I really wanted a TT from all the great reviews that I'd read, but on Black Friday it was all sold out and decided on this. I'm glad I made this choice. Also TT known for the different languages, but the TT is made in the UK, so most if not all except the US voice will tell you in meters and not miles, and yards instead of feet. It will get some use to on the TT, but no thanks. This unit is also small can be slipped into your pocket, just like the TT one. If you don't need mp3, bluetooth or text to speech (tells you the name of the street), then this would be perfect for you. I live in New York City and the map is pretty good accurate for me, not sure about the rest of the country, so I would highly recommend this.
UPDATE review 1/08
Reason.
1) No updates, even if you wanna pay to get it. Its already programed for 2007. I live in NYC and 1/3 of the POI has moved and new stores had taken its place. So some of the POI are not there anymore.
2)Some address I put in doesn't except (out of range numbers) or when I put it in I arrive at a wrong location. 3 out of 12 address I entered so far has given me trouble.
Thats the bad, the good:
When everything is right its awesome.
1)gives me a warning beep telling me to turn when I am at the corner or exit. Alot of other GPS warns you only ahead of time then its up to you to know when to turn/exit. this will warn you twice at least.
2)Very portable. You can put this in your pocket, it so small.
3)price, its cheap, but then again its only for today. it maybe obsolete next year unless you live in the suburbs where nothing really change. My city changes every month.
This GPS is not for everyone,but if the minuses I describe don't bother you then this is the BEST.
Me personally, I love it for its portability. I live in NYC all my life, so I know where I am going, but sometimes I need to go to a new place and this would help me alot... most of the time.
Customer Review: Works Great in Every Way!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this unit on July 6th from a local electronics store, and paid $199 on sale. Normal price was $299. I took it out of the box, mounted it to the windshield, and it quickly found about 7 or 8 satellites with a strong signal. I'm currently on a business trip in an unfamiliar city, and I'd used map printouts to get me to the store. Well, this unit quickly and efficiently got me back to my hotel with ease. Calculations were fast, and the graphics are clean and crisp. The voice prompts are clear and loud...and this is where my original "Except" post title comes in. On the System Settings screen, none of the changes get saved. For example, it's stuck on the Int'l Date Line - West time zone. When I change the Time Zone to Eastern U.S., it doesn't "remember" it. The save button changes color, and it clicks at me, but (unlike the other settings screens) it doesn't announce nicely "Saved!" It also is stuck on the highest volume.
I contacted Tech Support, first via the web (no response) and then via telephone. The call does get routed overseas (India is my guess, from the conversation). The gentlemen walked me through several rounds of hitting the Reset button on the side of the unit. Then he told me that this model doesn't say "Saved!" verbally on the Systems Setting screen, but changes indeed get saved. No dice, I said. Anyway, after about a 1/2 hour conversation, Magellan is sending me a brand-new unit in the mail, with a shipping label for me to send in my faulty unit.
As I indicated, everything "except" the settings screen works great! I would actually keep the unit as-is, because having the time be wrong is no big deal. I have a car radio for that, and a watch. Having the volume at its loudest isn't too bad, although at night it might be a problem. So, here's hoping "7 business days" pass by quickly, and that my replacement unit does not have this issue. I'll post an update when the new unit arrives.
***UPDATE***
Magellan sent the new unit via FedEx and it arrived in 5 days. It included a pre-paid UPS label to return the old unit. Although I was given 30 days to do so, I sent it out immediately. The replacement unit works great, and I've had absolutely zero issues with it. It has already paid for itself. I am someone who gets very frustrated in unfamiliar cities when I don't know where I'm going or what turn to take. The Magellan Maestro 3100 is inexpensive ($199), small, well-designed, and portable--in short, everything I wanted in a navigation unit.