Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Magellan
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: 3 1/2 stars -love it & hate it. I can't decide
Summary: 4 Stars
This review is designed to just give an over-view of one mans experience with some of the 4250 features, not a piece by piece description and review of all its capabilities. I give it 4 stars but really its 3 1/2. After a month, here's my review:
Overall the mapping function worked well. One instance while driving in SF it routed me a direction i would never take because i know that route to be extremely slow. Disappointed because i thought it gave crappy direction I went home to google maps and entered the same starting/ending point and google gave the same directions. So while GPS directions are good, theres no substitute for local experience.
A feature it didn't have that i like on my old garmin was when it rerouted you, it immediately said "take a left in ..." its a small feature, but it allows you to keep your eyes off the gps and drive instead of studying the GPS wondering is it done yet, whens my turn?
A new feature that i haven't used yet but seems really cool is the detour. Let say constructions going on, with one button it will reroute around that for a user defined amount of miles.
POI - Remarkable. Favorite feature. Plus the built in AAA roadside map which give you descriptions and phone numbers of local attraction is awesome. Also there 'exit POI' is a great new feature. If you're driving on the freeway, it tells you what gas/food/lodging lie ahead in each exit. 5 stars if I only based my review on POI.
Bluetooth - They have a screen of death! Can you believe it? Yes, a screen of death. If you go into the bluetooth screen and click bluetooth manager, it, without fail, will do nothing. And you can't get out of it! The only way to exit this mode is to reset the unit - thus the name, screen of death! Then once it restarts, 1/2 the times its so slow that you need to restart it again! I can't express my disappointment that such a reputable brand like Magellan would allow their product to be shipped with such a major fault.
Where am I - is a great feature that rivals that of the most expensive Garmin. Tells you you're current location and your next major cross street. Great if you're lost at night in an area you don't know.
Voice activation - is a nice feature, more of a novelty then anything else. Just dont try showing it off around your friends because i've been embarrassed by it more then once. And while trying to use it in 'real world' situation, half the time I find myself repeating the same commands at the GPS a mere 6 inch away - must be quite a sight for fellow drivers passing me by.
I have yet to activate the traffic feature so I can't comment on that topic. Going to wait til i move to LA - this feature was a necessity so hopefully i'm not disappointed
Overall I found this product a mere day before I was going to buy a Garmin unit (either c550 or nuvi 660). I thoroughly researched the garmin line and once i stumbled on this unit, it compared with the garmins best model, the 760 ( 4250 has multi destination, where am I - plus voice & detour, something garmin doesn't have).
And since this unit was almost $300 less then its comparable garmin 760, I quickly switched camps and bought this. And i happy with it - I don't know. The screen of death and the fact it doesn't say when it completes a reroute are major flaws to me. But there are great features on this unit not found on any Garmin helps it stand out. I'll give it one more month to grow on me, contact customer support to resolve this problem because this unit is like the underdog and i'm really rooting for, even with the screen of death. If i decide to return it i'll probably buy the nuvi 660.
PS - Heres a little fun fact i didn't know. Magellan is a straight in South America named after its explorer, Ferdinand Magellan in 1520. It was feared by the most intrepid maritime navigator in its day because of its icy and windy route.
Customer Review: Better than many, but not perfect.
Summary: 4 Stars
The portable GPS market is still in its infancy and thus no one GPS is perfect.
Compare the TomTom GO720 with the Magellan 4250 for a second. TomTom has a boat load of features and nice menus, most used menu options can be defined by the user and the list goes on. TomTom lacks accuracy and a large POI data base.
The 4250 has a huge POI data base, which is really important when in an unfamiliar city and you don't know what stores/places exist in the area. The accuracy has been better than the TomTom 720, but isn't perfect. The TomTom places my house on the wrong side of the street and 1/2-mile away, whereas the 4250 is still a little soon of where my actual home is located, but places it on the correct side of the street. The TomTom has me turning left for a shopping center that doesn't exist, instead of correctly informing me to turn right. The 4250 had this one correct, but failed at other times.
The bad thing about the 4250 or the TomTom GO720 and most likely all the portable units is being able to trust them 100% of the time.
The last unkind words is the routing the 4250 comes up with. Sometimes it nails it and other times it'll take you on a scenic tour when there was a more direct route. Since the 4250 has 4-routing options (Fastest, Shortest, Most use and Least Use of Freeways) I've tried them all and at times it has provided a better routing and yet at times it provides the same routing or worse.
The speech-to-command feature is limited, needs a very quiet environment and a loud talker to work correctly. While it can be nice to just say what you need the GPS to do, I've given up and resorted to touching the screen to get what I want in a reasonable time frame.
Pros: Of the four GPS units I've used (TomTom GO720, Garmin 196, Magellan and a laptop running Street Atlas USA), the 4250 comes out on top for having the best POI database and has been more accurate (road depictions, directions, routing etc) than the TomTom. The Garmin 196 and Street Atlas USA have been the most accurate, but lack either portability (Street Atlas) or the inability to store all the street level maps in the USA (Garmin 196). Magellan doesn't interface with the PC/MAC other than to get updates, whereas the TomTom can be controlled by the PC/MAC and has a nice docking station. This interface allows you to sit inside you home and plan you trip on a real keyboard and larger display. Magellan needs to take note of this feature!
Cons: Expensive, though I purchased mine for $150 less than retail by shopping around on the internet. Speech recognition is terrible. The spoken directions are hard to hear in noisy vehicles. In my Jaguar XJR, no issue, but in my Dodge RAM 1500 Pick-up, the road noise can make it hard to hear the GPS or the GPS to hear you. TomTom has a great "speak-up" feature if it detects a noisy environment. TomTom also allows the screen brightness to be controlled in gradients and dims the screen as the ambient light falls, whereas the 4250 only has a night and day mode with the setting of brightness the user chooses and does not dim or brighten as the lighting condition change. Rerouting is also a little slow if you miss your turn etc. The TomTom wins out here on speed.
Summary: If you could take the TomTom 720 and the Magellan 4250 and make one unit out of them, then you'd have something a bit more "perfect". If a POI database is important, pick Magellan. If features (e.g. detection of noise and lighting conditions, the ability to tell TomTom of map errors and software for the PC/MAC that allows you to interface to the GPS, then pick TomTom.
One last note: TomTom is in Beta testing of a new map set, which might tilt the scales in favor of the TomTom if accuracy and the POI database are improved to the same level of the Magellan.
Customer Review: Great Product, Great Price
Summary: 5 Stars
I took a while in seeing which of the several products out on the market i would be most interested in. The top of the line Maestro 4250 for Magellan has several features that are something i desired, and when put to use, came out with great results. Il list off some of the more desirable and less desirable qualities of it.
Pros:
- 4.3" Screen.. vibrant, decent size and well layed out.Black exterior is beautiful. Pastel colors displayed on the screen are nice IMO. The Garmins are the only others i was interested.
- Navigation. Split screen is great when coming up to near direction. Very easy to follow.
- Text To Speech. It works well, but you are limited to one women. She speaks it well. Example: Turn left on to Main street in 1.2 miles.
- POI's. Grouped well, and easy to understand, as well as many of them.
- 2D/3D possibility.
- Multi-trip planner
- Setup.. very easy and sticks well to the windshield.
- Car/Home charger comes in handy
Cons:
- When cruising w/out specific route destination, i find that very little detail is shown on the map. As soon as i put in a specific place, it names every street around my location.. kinda weird. ( Still looking at this)
- Dark Mode. It can be a bit bright, but if you adjust settings you'll be okay. ( Settings help, but often split in dimness when in dual or split screen mode which is not often anyways)
- Speech Volume. Loud and clear, but any sort of music can tone it down so make sure it is on the highest level so you dont miss a direction.
Undecided:
-Voice Command. This is a biggie, and lot of people looking at this model know that very few or no others feature this right now. It simply works by saying "Magellan" in which it will reply with "Say a Command" then you can say or touchscreen the command. It does work, BUT you must speak with a LOUD and clear voice. Radio needs to be off to be honest or it will be dumbfounded. Its a pretty cool feature, but i wouldn't base your whole review/purchase off of it. If it was a bit more sensitive to speech, it would be an excellent feature.
EDIT December 6, 2007 -
Things to take note of.. don't worry, it still is highly suggested
The Good ..
1.) I set my HOME position as the current position when i was in my driveway to see accurate it was. it was SPOT ON and directed me onto my street and into my exact house and drieveway perfectly after a 30 minute commute earlier on.
2.) Satellites are always full signal around here which is fantastic.
3.) Route Recalculation ( this is a biggie in my opinion !! ). I purposefully missed my home street and drove on by following the main street. It took less than 5 seconds to recalculate a route to get back another way. ( i secretly knew there was one other way to get back easily). Sure enough it took me down the exact street i was hoping for and was in my driveway the next minute.
The Bad ..
1.) Power switch can be very stubborn, but hold it down hard for 5-10 seconds and it will always boot.
2.) POI's.. while there are several of them.. they are not generally arranged very well when it comes to distance. I find that i drive too far away to the closest grocery store when i know for a fact its only 5 miles down the road. It sometimes hides on the bottom of the list with a much higher distance equivalent for some reason ( which is why its at the bottom because its sorted by closest distance if you choose that anyways, but its there. )
Conclusion: For the price, this product is hard to beat in comparison to Garmin and TomTom products.
Buy the 4250, you won't be disappointed.
Customer Review: If I could only get my money back....save yours & RUN from this junk!
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased the Magellan Maestro 4350 through AAA Mid-atlantic last July. It worked fine for the first few weeks, then I noticed that it started freezing, sometimes when starting up, at other times, it would freeze in the middle of directions and leave me hanging in the middle of nowhere (of course with a GPS unit, why would I bother to print out directions from Bing Maps, Yahoo or anywhere else??).
The only way to unfreeze the blasted unit was to reset it. I logged on to Magellan's site to see if perhaps there was a map or other software update, but there were none available. So I dealt with the constant freezing and fighting in traffic with it, etc.
Then (and I really should have seen this one coming from a mile away and been prepared), I jumped into the car on Wednesday mounted the GPS into the holder and alas!! The bloody little thing absolutely refused to even turn on. I've practically drained the battery in the car hoping perhaps the unit had run out of juice, but after almost 24 hours hooked up to the laptop and a direct outlet power source, the horrid little thing still won't start!! I've called AAA - Mid-atlantic...and of course, I am still waiting for a callback to resolve the problem (this of course after the gentleman started out with his disclaimer that AAA is a reseller like Best Buy and they are not responsible for the product's manufacturing (exactly what I want to hear after I spent $250 for the thing less than a year ago).
I also called Magellan and their response was to call AAA since I purchased it from them...hmmm, their rep forgot to take the Customer Service training course (I hope) Magellan offered. So, it looks as though I will be going back to Garmin (which was stolen hence the reason I bought this clunker).
A few other issues to point out with this little delight:
1 - the 3D rendering of the maps (even in the cities) looks NOTHING like they do on the commercials
2 - the Bluetooth capability is very good...as long as you are prepared to re-sync your phone to it each time you enter the car
3 - unlike Garmin, you have to enter in the entire city name before it returns a list of the most likely cities (with my previous Garmin, you only had to enter the first few characters before it recognized the city name)
4 - without any available map updates, the unit was essentially useless the moment I purchased it, I live in Loudoun County, VA and with all of the construction over the last few years, there are MANY new roads which this unit never picked up
5 - if the highways/roadways in your areas have exits which if you stay on the exit road will take you back to the highway, the Magellan Maestro 4350 will tell you to take the exit road, then get back on the highway until the next exit...it is best to read the Turn-by-Turn directions all the way through before you start moving so you can alleviate these types of issues. The first time it happened I was on the Capital Beltway and felt like an absolute idiot the second time I exited the road only to get back on it. I could never find any settings to change which affected this issues. Magellan is also aware of the issue since when I called them about it several months ago, they said that yes, it could be annoying (once again, that agent also forgot to take the Customer Service training)
Bottomline, please save yourself the grief and buy a Garmin or anything other than this horrid device. For the money you pay, it is too bloody unreliable and useless, not to mention frustrating to work with.
Customer Review: Works Great! Best Value for the Price. "Make a Legal U-Turn..."
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this unit for Father's Day 2008. It was up and working within a few minutes of getting it out of the box. The unit powers up quickly and finds the GPS satellites right away.
I can pair it to my Bluetooth phone without issue as well (Samsung i760). Although the sound quality is pretty good, it does pick up all the background noise, so not a replacement for a bluetooth headset or other handsfree. It also doesn't pull from your contact list on your phone, so you have to know the number you are dialing. Not a feature I would give 5 stars, but bluetooth and phones are quirky anyway regardless.
The mounting system that comes with the unit works well on my Prius and is a little finicky on our Accord. The Accord dash is very long, which makes the windshield slope at a sharp angle, so you have to undo all the knobs to loosen the holder, squeeze it in and then re-tighten everything. You only have to do it once (I bought a second one to avoid moving it between cars) and it stays. I have had the mount in my Prius for a year and it hasn't moved or even gotten loose. The line of sight is good and has some pretty fine adjustments to tweek it to just the right viewing angle.
The maps seem to be right on target, however, if you are taking a long trip and it tells you to go one way, the return trip isn't necessarily going to take you back the exact same route. I'm not sure if that is the traffic service trying to reroute or just a glitch in the map program (which isn't Magellan's issue but the database software, of which there are only 2 databases used by all GPS systems). It would be a nice feature to have a "return" feature that would remember your route for the return trip.
I also have a AAA membership, but haven't really found the AAA information helpful or up to date (2007 is the last update I believe). I don't use the Points of Interest much, but they can be helpful finding gas (it would be nice if the traffic service also had gas prices available, which would be easy since many sites provide this service and they are usually pretty up to date).
All in all, I have been pleased with the unit. It gets me where I am going. Yes, sometimes, it can be confusing when there are odd intersections or you have to make several quick turns together (yes, yes, I know, make a legal u-turn at the next convenient intersection!). I read a lot of reviews before purchasing (I always overthink these things and spend hours reviewing something to the point of overkill). There were knocks on customer service (which I haven't had any and I have updated the firmware 3 times and updated the map twice with little or no issue), but when I do need service, I have always been able to get them on the phone fairly quickly and email responses are quick.
I think at some point, all GPS units that are in a similar price range provide about the same functionality. I liked the database Magellan uses and thought having AAA available as well were the pluses. Customer service pretty much sucks everywhere these days (except Amazon, which has been great with service and returns for me for almost 10 years now), so even when it was knocked, it didn't really concern me much. If I don't have to call them, then that means the product works and that is a better sign than if customers have to make lots of calls to get service in the first place. It really comes down to pesonal preference and this was my preference. I am a computer geek (I have owned my owned IT company for 10 years) and this unit works for me. Hope this review helps!