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603 of 604 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent GPS Unit! Nov 04, 2007
By Allen
I spent a lot of time researching a GPS unit to purchase. I "settled" for the Magellan 4250 because I couldn't justify the additional $100-200 to purchase a similar Garmin product and I stayed away from TomTom because a retail store rep mentioned that those units were returned pretty frequently.
I took this unit with me to Las Vegas and it got me from point to point without issues. Directions are clear and the interface is pretty straight forward. Entering addresses is quite easy, route calculation is reasonably fast. It has a day/night mode and is quite visible even in direct sunlight. My only complaint with the screen is that the unit is still too bright when in night mode and the brightness is set to the lowest level.
I used the Trip Planner to enter multiple destinations for my trip up to Vegas. This made going from one point to the next easy as I didn't have to make any address entries or search for a POI. I just click on Guide Me, select the destination from my saved Trip and I'm on my way.
POI was very useful. You can search POI by Name, Category or AAA TourBook and then search near you, in a city or near an address. I like the breakdown of POI Categories, very user-friendly. If you have a Bluetooth compatible phone, you can contact the POI if they include the phone number. Just select the phone number and you'll be connected via the built-in speakerphone, which works pretty well. A feature that I didn't think I would use is the ability to choose what POI icons (coffee shops, shopping areas, gas stations, atm/banks, etc.) appear on the map. I found this feature quite useful in searching for a nearby coffee shop.
AAA information is great, I actually used this to find a nice breakfast restaurant. It gave me the restaurant hours, diamond rating and dress attire. Additional AAA TourBook information include these categories: Accomodations, Restaurants, Destinations, Attractions and Events. I found the Events outdated, but I was told by a Magellan sales rep that AAA will be releasing quarterly updates. As of this review, AAA still has not released any updates, they hope to have it up sometime in late 2007. Looks like they are waiting up to the last minute.
AAA Members have additional benefits, see AAA's website for more details. One notable benefit is an extra year warranty.
The Voice Command feature is a nice extra, but it will most likely go unused.
Bluetooth was not compatible with my phone (Cingular 8125), however, I was able to test it using the Sony Ericsson W800 and it worked flawlessly. When you receive a text message an icon appears on the map and you can read the message directly on the screen. The same goes with phone calls. The only downside is that you can't import your contact list.
Live Traffic information is free for 3 months and it looks like $40 per year subscription, quite reasonable. When you have the unit plugged into the FM power/receiver, you'll see an icon on the bottom right hand of the screen indicating traffic status, or if there are any issues on the way to your destination. I have yet to determine how fast/accurate the traffic updates occur.
A nice feature with this unit is that once you have entered your destination, you can look at the direction list and if you see a street that you don't want to include (let's say because you know it has heavy traffic), select that direction/step and you can exclude this from your route. Nifty.
If you are into customizable icons/voices, they are not built-in.
Overall, I am very happy with this purchase and would gladly recommend it to family, friends and strangers reading reviews on Amazon.com.
Job well done Magellan!
*** 2007-11-29 Update****
I've had the unit for about a month now. I have additional comments.
Auto Detour: If you are in traffic, the unit will suggest a Detour. I've only used it once, but it came in very handy.
Traffic: I've come to the conclusion that this is pretty accurate, though I wish there was an option to use the Auto Detour feature before actually hitting traffic.
Exit POI: While on the freeway, I can check to see freeway exit Restaurants, Lodging, Gas Stations and Auto Service Shops. The unit displays the distance to each Exit POI.
Voice Command: I didn't think I would use this much, but with proper annunciation, I found it more convenient to say "Magellan Go Home" instead of pressing the options on the screen.
Size: Since this is my first GPS unit, I may be taking it's size for granted, but I like that I can fit it in my jacket pocket.
Customer Support: When I first got this unit, I couldn't register the product, so I called Customer Support. They were very helpful in helping me register my product. I also had to call them a second time to get assistance in activating my Traffic Subscription, again they were very helpful and was able to resolve my issue.
My Complaints:
- At times the unit is a little slow to respond when an option is selected
- There is no quick/easy way to add a POI by name to the Trip Planner
- Text to speech doesn't always come off well (i.e. Los Angeles/CA-60 W is read "Los Angeles Forwardslash C A Dash Sixty W")
- Searching for a POI by name takes about 15 seconds
- I upgraded my phone to the AT&T Tilt, Bluetooth usage is limited to making and receiving calls
That's about it. I still recommend this unit.
*** 2008-07-30 Update****
I upgraded the firmware on my unit to version 4.60 and I felt the need to update my review. Magellan has improved quite a few things:
- Improved visual cues on the map makes navigation easier
- Bluetooth connection is now automatic, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from a friend without having the need to re-connect my Tilt. I was even more pleased when I was able to dial a POI phone number without re-connecting. (Still no SMS or Contact support for my Tilt, but that is probably an OS issue)
- Map scrolling is faster
- Re-route calculation is noticeably faster
- Magellan even fixed the text to speech issue I mentioned in my last update
One of the features I wish Magellan would improve is the time it takes to do a POI Search By Name. I use this feature quite a bit and waiting the 15 to 20 seconds to display a result set just seems too long.
I'm pretty sure there were other improvements that I haven't seen, but the fact that Magellan has released at least 2 firmware upgrades since I bought my 4250 states that they are committed to improving the user experience for their products.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Job well done Magellan!"
*** 2009-07-12 Update****
Magellan released yet another firmware update, version 4.86, and I have to applaud them for their latest fixes/additions:
- POI Search By Name time has finally been reduced! I searched for a store (whose logo resembles a bullseye) and search took 4-5 seconds, very fast! There are still times when it takes around 10 seconds, but that didn't happen too often.
- Map drawing speed has also been increased when you scroll around, it is quite noticeable.
- Voice Command is more responsive.
- Lastly, Magellan added 2 new turn chimes, one for a left turn and another for a right turn. Very nice.
Alright, consider this my last review update (unless Magellan releases another firmware upgrade). I officially have no more complaints.
Thanks Magellan!
271 of 274 found the following review helpful:
 It's a good unit, but also has some flaws Dec 03, 2007
By M. Avecilla
I thought I'd follow up with my decision and share my experiences thus far.
I had both units, decided against the Garmin and popped open the 4250. This is our family's first GPS unit and our only other experience was a positive one using Hertz Neverlost.
PROs:
- As mentioned already, I'm a fan of the POI system on the Magellan and the fact that gas stations, ATMs, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee, etc show up as I roll by is appreciated. Easy to tap on an icon and get routed.
- POI alerts are pretty cool; I used the included SW to get red light cameras and speed traps and as you approach these areas, the unit will warn you that you're within your specified range of what ever it is. I let the wife take this on a business trip she went on and she regularly had the unit warning her of these types of things in an unfamiliar area.
- The AAA guidebook is actually pretty neat. Not only does it provide POIs, it further provides the AAA info such as a description of the place, typical cost, a rating, business hours, accepted forms of payment (cash, visa, MC, etc) and a phone number that you can simply tap on when paired with a BT phone. More info rarely hurts in my opinion.
- The voice recognition, while not perfect, is kinda cool. When rolling along, I can say, "Magellan", "Where am I?". The unit then presents me the trip computer (speed, heading, alt, etc) and states the road I'm traveling on. While that's kind of neat the first time, stating "Magellan, nearest coffee" and being presented options that I can vocally navigate to by glancing at the screen and selecting the number of the associated place, or moving to the next page by saying "next" or "previous" is more functional. You can also ask it things like, "nearest ATM", "go home", "nearest restaurant" to which you'll get a sub-menu you can work through (american, italian, etc.) or you can just get fancy and say "Magellan, nearest chinese restaurant" select one by number and have it route you without touching or looking (if you want to take whatever is closest) at the unit is neat.
- The unit is snappy in acquiring where it is (w/in 10 sec) and I can even get signals within my house. Maybe that's the norm today, but I didn't expect that.
- It's thin without any additional antenna to be extended. What you see is what you need. There is the FM antenna that runs with the power adapter if you're going to use the traffic subscription (I haven't tried this)
- Text to voice is nice. My wife was a big fan of having the unit speak to her in street names rather than being vague. I like it as well. Some names get butchered, but for the most part it's pretty good.
- My mobile phone (LG Muzic - Sprint) is not listed as supported, but it works for everything except the text messaging when paired with BT. I can find POIs, click on the phone number associated with the result and the unit calls the place. Speakerphone is okay and at times it is hard to hear with road noise. It's usable, just don't expect polycom quality.
- The estimated arrival time is nice. In my experience, I've seen it overestimate the amount of time needed by a couple minutes. However, it does update as you approach your destination and I've not yet exceeded the arrival time. I'd much rather have it work this way than be too aggressive with arrival time.
- When routing, once I've selected an address either by city, zip code or whatever that other option is that I can't remember at the moment, it gives me the option of selecting the parameters for routing (examples are shortest distance, fastest route, most use of highways, least use of highways) and an option to avoid toll roads. I can either just hit 'go' or update my parameters before hitting go. Again, maybe this is standard, but I like these options.
- Also, the ability to exclude roads is nice. Once a route is selected, I can hit the next maneuver arrow to pop up the maneuver list. From there, I can tap on a road and tell the unit to exclude the use of that road to reroute. Handy when construction/traffic is an issue.
- It came with a travel pouch. Nice touch when throwing the unit in a bag.
- AC adapter was included along with the car adapter. The Garmin I got only had the car adapter. Weird.
- Reroute is fast. Drive past an instruction and within a few seconds, the unit calculates a new solution. If you're moving enough, I've run into scenarios where the reroute computation start is fast, but takes a bit to figure out the actual route.
- Wife acceptance factor was good. She's not a tech guru, but is happy with this unit. It's intuitive for her to use and she told me it significantly reduced her stress when she had to drive in So CA on business having the unit with her.
- Adaptive keyboard is nice. As you type a city or street name, the unit removes invalid letters that aren't associated with the correct spelling of a street name. It's minimized fat fingering a wrong letter and speeds up typing since you can be a bit sloppy. Additionally, it does the same thing when selecting street number to allowing you to chose only valid house numbers for the street you've selected.
Cons:
- No support for waypoints on a multidestination route such that the unit moves onto the next destination upon arrival of the previous destination. The 4250 does allow you to plan a trip and enter multiple destinations, but it won't advance to the next destination without me telling it that I'm ready to do so. More of an annoyance to me than anything since I can get to the next destination within a few clicks.
- As mentioned previously, the power button doesn't always behave. I've held it on for 10-15 seconds with no response and didn't get one until I pushed it repetitively, held it down and did a number of other various things to get it to turn on. In the 2 weeks I've had it, I still don't know what the magic sequence of pushes of the power button is needed to get it to turn on when it decides to act up. But I've not had to use the reset button on this unit yet either.
- Routing gets a little wonky giving me some questionable directions at times; I have confidence the unit will get me where I need to go, but am not always certain that it selects the best way to get there; for instance, yesterday it essentially told me to take an offramp and then take the continuing onramp in lieu of having me just continue on the original road. Although technically, I guess it may have been the shortest route for the roads given. Still....
- While voice is cool, the unit is sometimes hard of hearing and you may need to issue commands multiple times to get it to respond. Some have reported false voice activations (radio or something else triggers it to turn on). I've had this happen only once when others in the car were speaking. There is an option to disable voice recognition.
- BT with mobile phone doesn't pull in my contacts. I can use the phone to dial using the contacts and the GPS unit handles the call; it'd be better to me if the GPS could see my contacts
- My GPS and phone don't 'see' one another when in the vicinity of each other; I've not had BT devices before, but I expected the units to pair automatically if they saw one another. Instead, I have to manually connect the phone to the GPS if I want to use it. Kind of a pain - maybe because my phone isn't supported?
- Unit hasn't woken up on a few occasions when connected to car adapter power. It usually comes on automatically when I turn on my car. There have been times that I've needed to play the power button roulette game until it comes on. I've not picked up on a pattern of when this occurs. I was going to exchange the unit, but am unsure now if I will after hearing this isn't an isolated thing among this model - I'm guessing SW bug is involved.
- Can't enter addresses via PC or trip plan. I think someone said tomtom can.
Those are the main things that I can think of. Overall, I'm fortunate to have gotten a unit that works for the most part and am happy with the features it brings for the price. There are some nice things that Garmin provides, but when it came down to it, having BT in this feature packed unit seemed to make more sense for me than the more expensive (when comparably equipped) Garmin 750. Garmin units are nice, but at the higher price I haven't yet felt the need for MP3s (I have an iPod and a music phone), pictures, a translating dictionary or other stuff I'd likely not use. I don't need a GPS that can make coffee, but I do expect it to guide me to coffee!
For me Magellan was the right choice and I'm pleased to have it as my first GPS unit. There's plenty of POIs, the AAA guide book is a nice touch and talking to the unit is neat. Hopefully this helps someone else that's looking to make a decision.
255 of 265 found the following review helpful:
 Buggy and unreliable Jan 11, 2008
By Jay Macintosh
I wanted so much to like this GPS. I spent a lot of time researching difference ones and narrowed my selection to the TomTom 920, the Nuvi 760 and the Maestro 4250. Both the TomTom and the Maestro had some cool features that really appealed to me (Voice inputs, AAA guide and so forth). In reading reviews, I decided against the TomTom since many indicated that it would not get you to your destination on the most efficient route and their customer service was attrocious. Reviews of the Maestro were mixed and the most common complaints where the unit crashing. The Nuvi had great reviews but was so much more expensive than the other two units. Amazon had the Maestro on sale for $356 and that opportunity was to great to pass up. On the first day of plugging the unit into the cigarette lighter I got a message "USB connection detected, please refer to PC instructions for downloading maps". It would not let me do anything and the screen just sat there frozen. Thinking I had not read the instructions thouroughly I unplugged the unit and operated via the battery. The unit worked very nicely, clear screen, nice picture resolution, voice commands worked great, all in all I really liked the whole package. The next day I went to turn the unit on and nothing happened. I kept trying and finally had to call customer support. They were very courteous and I had no wait time (unlike some reviews that quetioned the customer service). The rep told me to hold the power button for 10 seconds and push the reset button at the same time. After trying a few times, the unit finally powered on. I then told him that I had this problem when connecting the unit to the cigarette lighter. He told me to push the reset button while the unit was on and to try again. Same results "USB connection detected....". He then said that this was a known problem and that my unit was defective. These words echoed in my brain as this was the same answer I had heard so many other people utter in their review "this was a known problem". If it is a known problem then why not FIX IT!
Here I had read all the stories about other people having their unit crash and now I find myself two days later in the same predicament. I was both disappointed and frustrated. It is a really nice looking unit and works great when it works. But having two crash issues in as many days just made the product not reliable enough for me. I am amazed that a company like Magellan that has so much experience in the GPS market is able to put out their top of the line unit with so many bugs to make the unit unusable.
I ended up bitting the bullet and ordered a Nuvi 760. Based on what I have read, my wallet may be a little smaller but at least I will have a reliable GPS. I have not received it yet so I cannot compare the two but I am hopping for better results.
Update:
January 15th, 2008. I have now received the Nuvi 760 and took it for a test drive today. Right off the bat I did not like the interface of the Nuvi as much as I did on the Maestro. The way the Nuvi gave directions was very sparse. On the Maestro, it was very good at warning you in advance of turns that you may encounter, it even showed you a graphics of the turn you were about to make. Just before the turn, it would warn you and then right at the turn a little bell would chime telling you to turn at that spot. This was a very nice feature that I thought was standard on all units. The Nuvi does not do this and only tells you just before the turn. The volume level on the Nuvi is extremely very low, I can barely hear the unit on high level, the Maestro was much louder. The AAA detailed location features of the Maestro are a wonderfull feature that the Nuvi lacks.
Now, it has only been one day that I have owned the Nuvi so I will surely update this review again or post a full review on the Nuvi page, but so far I vastly prefer the interface and map routing of the Maestro but the Nuvi appears rock solid in performance. I did not encounter one problem or crash whereas with the Maestro I had two crashes and two problems that were fatal.
In summary, if we could put all the features of the Maestro into a Nuvi, we would have a perfect unit. I really wanted to like the Maestro and I really liked the Maestro features and function, if only it was not as fatally buggy I could recommend it.
71 of 71 found the following review helpful:
Great Product, Great Price Nov 29, 2007
By A. Dillenbeck
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.
67 of 68 found the following review helpful:
Works great! good value Nov 17, 2007
By M. Hamilton
"Mike"
I am very happy with the Magellan Maestro 4250. Registering and activating traffic with Magellan's web site worked smoothly. The unit picks up a signal quickly and gets traffic info within about 10 seconds which is plenty fast. I was able to pair using bluetooth with my LG CU500 phone which isn't listed as being compatible so that was an extra bonus. I mainly got this model for the integrated traffic, great POI database and multi route capability. Voice commands and using the built in mic for phone calls isn't perfect. I do need to move close to the mic and speak loudly for either to work well but it does work. It is nice to just say Magellan, Go Home. I expect from other info I have seen online that customer service from Magellan is horrible but I haven't needed it and I have never needed customer support for most electronic gadgets so while that weighed into my decision it wasn't a deal breaker. I chose the 4250 for the features I want for about $300 less than the Garmin 760. I am happy with my choice!
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