Magellan Maestro 4250 4 3 Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
We’ve been big fans of Magellan’s Maestro line since it came out in early 2006. The Maestro interface is incredibly easy to use, even for those who are not completely comfortable with electronics. At the same time, Magellan was ahead of the industry with useful innovations like multi-destination routing and pre-loaded reviews for points of interest like hotels and restaurants (from AAA). With it’s 3200 and 4200 series, Magellan has improved the Maestro line giving them a SirfStar III chipset that provides super-fast. satellite lock and making them thinner. In fact, at .7 inches, these are — at the time of this writing (November 2007), the thinnest portable GPS navigators available. Distingushing between models is also fairly easy.
3200 and 4200 Family of Navigators
Distingushing between models is also fairly easy. The 3200-series navigators feature a 3.5-inch screen, while the 4200s have a 4.3-inch widescreen display. The 3200 and 4200 offer great, basic navigation with turn-by-turn spoken directions, pre-loade maps of the 48 contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, and 1.3 million POIs. The 3210 and 4210, add maps for Canada and Alaska, AAA travel information (see details below) and bump you up to 6 million POIs. The 3220 and 4220 add maps of Mexico. The top-of-the-line 3250 and 4250 add a host of other features, including text-to-speech directions that give real street names, bluetooth for hands-free phone calls, integrated traffic (with a free 3-month subscription), and voice command.
What Makes the Maestro 4250 Exceptional?
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Easy to use navigation features SmartDetour and auto re-route. View larger. |
Access built-in AAA information from your GPS touch screen. View larger. |
Easy To Use Interface
The intuitive user interface makes the Maestro series incredibly easy to use. Use the big icons on the 4.3-inch widescreen touch screen to search for your destination by address, intersection, or any of 6 million points of interest (POIs), including restaurants, hotels, airports, gas stations, and more. You can even touch an onscreen icon for a nearby destination, see name and address, and get an instant route. Turn by turn visual and spoken directions guide you every step of the way.
Auto re-route gets you quickly back on track whenever you make a detour or miss a turn. QuickSpell feature intelligently searches and checks spelling when you enter addresses. The 4250 offer multiple view options, including 2D, 3D, and TrueView that shows your upcoming turn using a 3D split screen. Maneuver List displays the full turn-by-turn details of your route. Auto night view adjusts color and contrast for easy night viewing.
Click to see a video on the Magellan Maestro 4250’s Voice Command system. |
Voice Command and Control
Voice Command further enables hands-free operation so you can keep your eyes on the road. Say a command to access the most used navigation functions. Find the nearest coffee, restaurant, gas and ATM or get an instant route home. Plus, you can ask for your location, the distance to your destination and quickly get details for the nearest roadside assistance and more, all with the sound of your voice.
AAA-enabled
With built-in AAA travel information, the Maestro 4250 gives you instant access to the most trusted source for trip planning, searchable AAA TourBook listings, Show Your Card & Save locations for member discounts, approved auto repair facilities, attractions, events, and more. The Maestro 4250 also provides AAA members roadside assistance details, with exact location and a toll-free number. Plus, the Maestro 4250 is Bluetooth-enabled so you can connect your Bluetooth cell phone directly to AAA for immediate help when you need it most.
Note: AAA member roadside assistance requires AAA membership.
Bluetooth for Hands-Free Calling
The Maestro 4250’s Bluetooth wireless technology lets you make hands-free phone calls with your Bluetooth-enabled phone. You can store or sync numbers and contact information through the easy-to-use touch screen, and even place calls directly through the Maestro 4250’s integrated microphone and speakers.
Integrated Real-Time Traffic
The integrated traffic receiver offers onscreen RDS-TMC traffic incident reports in real-time. A free 3-month traffic service subscription makes it easy to avoid accidents, slow downs, road closures, severe weather and more. Your Maestro 4250 automatically recalculates your estimated time of arrival based on traffic conditions and prompts you to reroute when a quicker way is available.
One of the thinnest portable GPS navigators on the market
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Take It Anywhere
The 4250 is super-thin, lightweight and fits easily into any pocket. The integrated rechargeable battery enables you to operate the Maestro 4250 away from your vehicle for up to three hours. The battery recharges while driving via the included vehicle power adapter.
Tons of Data
The 4250 comes pre-loaded with Navteq maps of the United States and Canada, and 6 million points of interest (POIs). POI data includes telephone numbers and addresses.
It also has an Address Book in which you can create and store POIs and addresses that you use frequently.
Flexible Routing
The 4250 provides a particularly large number of routing features relevant to its price point. Multi-destination routing lets you select up to 20 destinations and find the best route to get to all of them. SmartDetour prompts you to route around heavy or stopped freeway traffic.Customizable route methods let you choose between several different routing methods, including “Fastest Time”, “Shortest Distance”, “Least or Most Use of Freeways”, and “Avoid Toll Roads”. Route exclusion lets you pick streets and freeways you want to avoid.
What’s in the Box
Magellan Maestro 4250 GPS receiver, Adhesive disk for dash mounting, Basic cradle, Vehicle power adapter (12-24 watts), Quick reference guide and CD, Windshield mount
Optional Accessories
AC Wall power supply/charger, USB data cable
About Magellan
Magellan is a leader in the consumer, survey, GIS, and OEM GPS navigation and positioning markets. Recognized as an industry innovator, the Company is the creator of the award-winning Magellan RoadMate series and the Magellan Maestro portable car navigation systems, the Magellan eXplorist and the Magellan Triton outdoor handheld navigation devices, and the Hertz NeverLost car navigation system, the best-selling single frequency GPS survey product line on the market. The Magellan Maestro series includes such unique features as built-in AAA travel information and voice command and control driving which no other portable GPS manufacturer in the U.S. or Canada offers. The company is recognized worldwide through its Magellan brand and has experienced dramatic revenue growth as GPS technology has proliferated across a range of consumer and commercial applications. The Company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with European headquarters in Carquefou, France.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars easy to use
I really love my magellan maestro. It is really easy to use and very self-explanatory. I didn’t really need the manual. There were a few instances that it gave me odd directions but it was on VERY rural roads that are probably not even on a map. In every situation, the route was obvious and I didn’t have a problem at all. The only thing I would like is to have a different voice option. I have a hearing problem and “Maggie’s” voice is sometimes hard to understand. As long as I don’t have the radio too loud or the kids aren’t screaming, it is fine.
4 Stars Magellan GPS in Canada
We selected the Magellan Maestro 4250 after reviewing comments of reviewers of different GPS receivers. It was selected because of the screen size, price, and the inclusion of software for Canada since we were planning on a trip to New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia. The Maestro saved us a lot of nervous tension regarding getting to our destinations. However,everyone should know it was not 100% accurate. On a few occasions, we found ourselves going in a circle and in one case, a dead end. One time, we ended up on a gravel/dirt road. I would say it was accurate about 95% of the time. Do plan on having a paper map with you. In general though, I think it was a smart move to have purchased it before the trip since it allowed the driver to see more of the surrroundings without the tension of driving in unknown areas.One problem yet to be resolved, is to get the current software for the supplimental traffic advisory service. I was not able to download it from the internet as suggested in the paperwork received at purchase.
5 Stars Great unit… if you upgrade to the latest firmware
The best piece of advice that I can give is to immediately update the firmware. The device came pre-loaded with firmware version 2.32. The latest available for free from Magellan’s website is 4.6. This latest firmware has solved the constant crashing problem, and further address many of the complaints of the previous generation of software.
Overall, I find the Magellan quite easy to follow. It’s definitely a communicator… telling you two or three times of each impending turn. It gives you a split-screen view of upcoming turns, and beeps when you’re at the turn. The map is clear and concise, and seems to have about the right resolution of those little extra side streets. I personally prefer it over Garmin’s view.
There are certain quirks to the interface, however. The address book is hidden under “routing,” and it is difficult to add a previous address to your address book. Similarly, there is no way to independently adjust sound effect levels, so either that annoying “CLICK!” is too loud, or the turn-by-turn instructions are too quiet. And finally, while you would think that your car is in the middle of the little triangle indicator, it’s actually a little bit in front of it. Overall, though, these are minor complaints, and don’t detract from the overall score of 5.
Whenever I have trusted my own navigational instincts over the Magellan, I have been proven wrong. Near-instantaneous remapping is a feature that I use almost constantly. Not only that, but if there is a route that you prefer to take, you can simply charge on ahead and take it, and the Magellan will re-route accordingly. Estimated times seem to be about right. The additional points of interest database, while 90% useless, is actually 10% useful for finding gas stations.
While there are things to nitpick about the unit, once updated it’s actually suprisingly reliable, useful, and intelligent. I’d gladly buy it again.
4 Stars Good navigation
Like all navigation devices, this one has its minor annoyances, but is overall a good buy and a good device.
1 Star Old maps come with the unit – upgrade is $80!
Prepare to immediately put down another $80 for the up-to-date street maps.
I just got mine today – bought it from Amazon few days ago.
Was very upset to find that it came with pretty old maps (beginning of 2007) and upgrade is NOT free even for the brand new units.
Called their tech support and was told that this is the company policy and that I have full right to return my 4250 if don’t like this.
Decided to use this great advice and so will be returning my device – taking into account the price of this upgrade it’ll be cheaper for me to get some nice Garmin unit.
BTW – this is the second Magellan device that I have, the previous one needs map upgrade as well so I decided that instead of paying for the maps for my old RoadMate unit I’d rather get a new smaller device with new maps. Now you can understand the level of my frustration!
No more Magellans in my house for sure!
Very unhappy with Magellan – sure they will be losing a lot of their customers on such stupid upgrade policy.
Buy/More Info
