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: Poor unit at any price. Do not recommend. Returned it and got a Nuvi 650.
Summary: 2 Stars
Don't know what happened to my 1st review. I was going to update that review with new info. In a nutshell, my initial review went over how glitchy the unit was. I returned the 1st unit and exchanged it for an identical unit. Similar problems with the second unit. The power switch is a joke. Sometimes it turns on right away. Sometimes you have to hold the button down several seconds for it to turn on. Twice in a day it went to the setup screen at random. There was no way to exit the setup screen without rebooting the unit. The voice command given the level of accuracy makes it a gimmick, and not a feature. The bluetooth likewise was not consistent and did not work properly at times with the 2 phones I tested with it. It would do silly stuff like route the call to the handset rather than the speaker in the GPS. Yet other times it would route the call through the GPS speaker. Ok, lets say we don't need the voice and Bluetooth features. How does it do perform as a basic GPS unit? My experience was poor. While in the city it did an average job, I found that rerouting was not as quick as I expected at times. The graphics were only average at best. You can save a lot of money and get a plain wrap GPS that probably works better by skipping over the Maestro 4250. This week I took a trip through Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Mountain. It performed terribly. During much of my trip though Big Bear it showed that I was driving though the middle of the lake instead of through the city. Through much of Lake Arrowhead it showed that I was off road despite being on major roads. It could not find its way from Arrowhead to Big Bear, about a 30 minute trip. It was constantly recalculating the route between Arrowhead and Big Bear to the point that the GPS was totally unusable during that portion of our trip. That was the final straw that made me return the unit. In its place I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 650 for $50 less than the Maestro 4250. The difference is like day and night. The Garmin so far had worked flawlessly. It is a pleasure to use versus dealing with the Maestro's poor software that makes it unreliable and a pain to use. The Garmin also has a built in MP3 player that I enjoy playing through my car's stereo. I strongly recommend the Garmin Nuvi 650 over the Magellan Maestro 4250. There are known problems with the 4250, some of which are alleged to be fixed with the new firmware for the 4250. Unfortunately, so far Magellan has failed to post on their web site the updated firmware that is rumored to fix some of the bluetooth problems. Save yourself a headache and avoid this unit. I am very tech savy and feel that they rushed this unit to market before it was properly tested. Compare the reviews of the Nuvi 650 and you will see that I am not alone in finding the 650 a much better unit.Customer Review: Good GPS and good customer service with some minor flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this GPS in early December 2007. It was attractive and quite sturdy. Everything seemed to work as promised until about a month later in mid January 2008 when one day the blue tooth phone menu refused to display. I called Magellan customer support and after instructing me to reset the unit (which I myself had done several times), they asked me to return the unit to Magellan for repair.
Well, 2 weeks later I called them to check on the repair status and they informed me that it would take about a month for the repair to be completed. He claimed that they were double checking all Maestro units to ensure everything worked. As stated in some of these reviews, apparently they had released the unit before it was ready for prime time. The repair time may be acceptable to some, but not to people who rely on their GPS on a daily basis. I spoke to the supervisor today and he was going to call me after he had contacted Magellan headquarters. He kept in touch with me regarding the status and just a few days ago (after 3 weeks in the shop), they sent me a new unit. This one so far seems to work as advertised.
Magellan's customer service center is in India. As polite as they are, often they are just too difficult to comprehend. I had to constantly ask the rep to repeat himself which was very frustrating.
When it works, the unit itself is fine and has the following attributes:
- Good speech quality
- Quite accurate directions
- Voice command often works as advertised
- Quite attractive
- The traffic receiver works as advertised
The flaws that I have noticed are as follows:
- The unit does not automatically connect to your blue tooth phone. I have a Sony/Ericsson z525a. You have to re initiate the connection every time the unit or your phone is turned off
- Sometimes the unit just freezes and requires multiple resetting
- The list of compatible blue tooth phones is rather limited
- As stated above, the blue tooth menu has refused to display
These flaws seem mostly to be software related and probably fixed with an update. However, if you often use and rely on your GPS, you may want to wait until they have released the latest software version to purchase one. I hear the latest release is coming out in early (Jan/Feb) 2008. And hopefully they will have fixed all the flaws and the issues that I and other reviewers have encountered with this unit.
All said, it is a good unit with quite a few features at a reasonable price.
Customer Review: Many features - many flaws as well
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this and the Garmin Nuvi 650 and took them both for a long trip from Dallas - Atlanta - Destin, FL - Back to Dallas. It was a very good test of both systems and I actually returned the Magellan 4250 because of the following:
1. It gave me a weird route from Atlanta to Destin, FL that was 3 hours longer than Google, Yahoo and the Garmin. I had selected Quickest route when it did that. I then selected shortest route and it gave me another route that would take 6.5 hours. Isn't that the quicker as well? A friend of mine also said that the Magellan unit he had gave him a route that was 8 hours long from Houston to Dallas, instead of the regualar 5 hours.
2. I wanted to search for all Rest Areas that were coming up on my route. The exit POIs only show you the next 20 miles in your route. When you are on a long trip and want to get the next exit, you have to cancel the existing route and do a search. This will show you what you are looking for that is completely out of your way. The Garmin shows you the POIs you are looking for while navigating your current route and also shows the direction the POI is in. In the Garmin you can also ask it to show only POIs on your route.
3. The unit froze up at least a dozen times in 2 weeks and rebooted itself.
4. This unit wants to say out loud every darn thing you do on it. Example: 'Back', 'Cancel' etc. Would I not know what I just selected or what button I pressed on?
5. The voice prompts are very limited and the prompts available are even more restricted when you are in a route. Example: 'Nearest gas' command is not available when you are in a route. You have to cancel the route to get it. When you are in a route you only get the Exit POIs. When you r route is not on a freeway what good is the Exit POIs feature?
On the positive side:
1. I liked that you could select a segment in your route (say a particular freeway) and ask the unit to avoid that segment. This comes in handy when you know that there is construction or heavy traffic on a part of your route.
2. The FM traffic feature, though it is limited to only the big metro areas, is still a nice one to have.
3. I liked how the keyboard will automatically grey out the letters that are not applicable. Example: When you are entering 'Dal' for Dallas Ave, it might see from its database that the next character could only be 'l' and a couple of other characters and grey out the rest. Believe me, this helps when you enter street names and the keyboard is not QWERTY.
Customer Review: Could have used a bit more common sense
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first GPS unit so I really don't know what to compare it too, so this review is based just on my experience with this unit. Furthermore, I am not exactly the gadget guy, so don't expect my review to be too technical. Think of this review as the review for the average joe.
Why did I chose this unit?
To be honest, I based my opinion to purchase the Magellan one three criteria. One, was definitely the price, and compared to the major retail stores, Amazon had the best price by far, so it seemed like I was getting the most bang for the buck. Two, like I said, I'm not exactly a "tech guy" so a big part of my decision was based on aesthetics, rather than capabilty (though I did read up on it a bit). The sleek design and big widescreen display is very appealing. And finally, in this bad economy, I wanted to buy something American, if for no other reason than to help out our fellow companies. I know.. not much of a demanding list, but that's what I went with.
My experience:
As an assistant sales rep who uses this almost on a daily basis, my experience with the Magellan has been mostly very positive. Though at times, during what seems to be the most inopportune times, I have felt like throwing it out the car window. For example, there is a local street that I know has been around for a long time, but when I punched in the address, the street name would not populate! After calling customer service on it afterwards, I was told that I had to pay for a software update, which was quite expensive. Needless to say, that was very dissapointing.
On another occasion, I needed to get to Chinatown in Los Angeles. This is where I felt the designers could have used some common sense. For the Point of Interest feature, you would think, punching in "Chinatown" in Los Angeles or whatever city you need, it would suffice. Sadly, no.
Aside from those two incidences however (and I've had this for almost half a year now) the Magellan has been quite reliable. I've had friends and co workers who use other systems tell me that sometimes, their GPS unit sends them on longer routes and usually in circles as opposed to straight lines. That hasn't happened to me yet, or not that I know of.
Pros:
Sleek design, nice touch & wide screen display, pretty "user-friendly," and the voice command sounds good (as opposed to the annoying monotone robot voice).
Cons:
Have you pay a gnarly fee to "update" the map, and as stated above, could have used some common sense in it's programming.
Customer Review: Magellan Maestro 4250 - A Must-Have Item
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not overstating it when I say the Magellan Maestro 4250 is the best purchase I've made in the last 16 months. You might ask why?
First, the GPS device works great. I have the introductory subscription to traffic alerts (yes, they do work!) and the device even lets you talk to it so you can be hands-free when driving. My only big complaint is the manual for the device is AWFUL. To get Magellan's attention when driving just say "Magellan." It's very easy to use, tells you street names, and even can let you control you cell phone with a BlueTooth feature.
Second, I've used Magellan twice on trips to Hawaii. In Kaui it was like my own personal tour guide, telling me Auto Club-recommended places to see and restaurants to eat at along the way. I wouldn't have had the patience for reading road maps or guides (and I didn't have to thanks to my Magellan GPS device). I even used the Magellan Maestro 4250 in Honolulu when I rented a car. I had ordered a rental car with a GPS device, but as often happens they were "out of GPS devices." I ALWAYS take my Magellan with me when I rent cars because I've found 1/3 of the time they've rented all the cars with GPS, and I don't want to be without Magellan.
Third, in the Midwest on a recent trip I took Magellan and it got me everywhere I needed to go and faster, too. My work colleageus were with me and very impressed with how it functioned. One liked it so much he went out and purchased one for himself!
Fourth, I regularly need to get around awful southern California freeways, so I use Magellan's traffic feature to go around clogged highways--saving me time and stress. The traffic feature is extra after the intro subscription expires, but I believe it's well worth it.
Fifth, the device is very portable and easy to travel with everywhere in the world. I have put a Velcro back of my GPS unit and carry an extra Velcro to attach it to the dashboard on rental cars. It removes without any damage, and it never falls off.
If you buy this unit, I recommend you invest in a case. I went to Best Buy and bought a $19 case that protects it in my car and in my luggage. The case that comes with the unit is flimsy and not too good for travel purposes.
So there you have it. I wouldn't give up my Magellan Maestro 4250 for anything--even $500. I got mine for much less, but I think it's worth $500 for how much use I've gotten out of it--and the peace of mind it offers when traveling around major cities or anywhere else.