Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

Manufacturer: Magellan Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours List Price:$599.99 Our Price:$337.98 Features: Voice Command; AAA TourBook reviews and ratings 4.3-inch WQVGA full-color, anti-glare, touch-screen display Bluetooth for hands-free calling SmartDetour prompts drivers to route around traffic and delays Simple, intuitive interface; Utlra-thin design, only .7 inches deep. Description: 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? 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 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.

Reviews:

One of my best purchases this year
This product had all necessary I and nothing, which I did not need. I sought a product with diagrams of Th US and Canada and after one, which had the spoken road name, therefore I always the monitor to regard would not have, while I drove. Also bluetooth the telephone abilities work, which better as if could I is, expected. I also did not wish all extra characteristics, which straight more one distaction would be, how a player mp3. and although it is a larger model, are it still enough small from sight to be held if it is needed. This is a large product and I it definately would recommend.


Navigation lacks accuracy
Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
We purchased this when the mount to our Magellan RoadMate 700 post wore out and couldn't be replaced. This Maestro is less accurate than the 700. Often the unit thinks the address is on the wrong side of the street, or it takes us to the wrong block. The calculated route will change once you start driving so reading the route in advance is useless. The route will spontaneously reroute and have you make turns that results in you going around in circles. Streets that were identified by our updated 700, do not show up on this Maestro. When spontaneous reroutes occur, there's a 30 second to 1 minute period when you have no route mapped -- very frustrating if you are driving since you don't know where to go.
We contacted Magellan and were informed that the problems are supposed to be corrected in the firmware update which should be available in the second or third quarter of 2008. Until then there is nothing they can do. This is what they consider "customer service". That's a long time to have to live with a defective software product. If I had known this, I would not have purchased the unit and instead would have waited until they got the bugs worked out before buying it. Also, if you get a Magellan gps, you may want to purchase an extra mount as, at least in the case of our RoadMate 700, they redesigned the mount so that when ours wore out it could not be replaced making the unit essentially unusable.


Magellan Maestro 4250 is very good!!! I like it.
Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
I recomend this product.


GREAT PRODUCT!
I am very much pleased with the government inspection department. He does everything, which I expected. Love the language acknowledgment. The price was as much better than all other places, which I looked. Would be recommended.


Serious issues where features don't function well
Magellan 4250
While a nice package, with many features, most of the features lack full functioning especially the BT connection. In a week of use the 4250 has miss routed me twice missing the same turn. More important to users is that you get on the road before you find that your phone is no longer paired. Unfortunately the BT feature is defeated by the fact that the 4250 does not maintain your pairing with your cell phone if you turn the unit off, or move to far away.

That means in the morning when you get into your car, start off, press your route and then get a call; you find the unit is not paired. The solution is that EACH TIME you power the unit up in the car you have to re-pair the BT to you cell phone.
It does seem frequently to hold the pairing on batteries, but not consistently.

Many features function well enough, but not at the iPhone level where the hardware was properly designed to do the obvious next thing correctly. Instead Magellan seems not to have beta-tested this unit. One important missing feature contained in the older 700 series is the moving bar that lets you know how close your are to the turn. The 4250 does maintains Magellan's right on the spot tone, that says, 'turn now'. However at night when you are told by the unit that you are approaching a turn, the turn arrow on the left side of the screen does not change color or length to let you know if the turn is one block down or right in front of you. A real loss of function compared with the 700 series. The 700 series used a bar graph at the bottom to show you how close within a block the turn is, the 4250 has a big arrow showing the turn in the left hand side of the divided screen, they could have easily changed its color or put the bar graph within the turn icon.

I will give this unit another week, but right now it does not seem worth the money. I am most likely to return it and go back to using my 700 series Magellan. I must say: Shame on Magellan for such poor software code and design.




Was expecting a much better product.....
The unit, which I received, had problems from the outset. The first thing, which I considered, was that the clay/tone, which was produced was terrible. I state that the unit is very small and compact and to much area for one high do not end loudspeakers leaves, but this was ridiculous. In order to hear the unit correctly when driving, the volume had to be stopped on "fully" and this sounded burned through like an old from garage loudspeaker at the house of your grandfather. The following thing, if you should miss a revolution, with driving a shown way, the unit, would have, which I may designate a "brain fart." They must pull literally more rueber to let around the unit it seize are thoughts. It could not check fast enough to drive in order to back-get you on rail when continuing. I know that.... Their first thought that I must drive like a Gesamtmaniac, but I really in the morning and a very matured driver to have really always been is. The unit would last do "schrulliges" something, which really disturbed me. When, employing the car, is the unit to fire, automatically above to the right? Wells it always and did not force me to switch it on manually. Also after the car away, is the unit been "disconnection" closes and enters into a sleeping mode, right? I would return well sometimes to the car and the thing would be still switched on. I really need total agreement because of an electronic device. That is my opinion after by something without mobile parts to be expected. Either I received a defective unit, OR Magellan did not think this through very well. I will give and will accept them the use of the doubt that this was fair a defect in the production line. Let us Magellan in such a way hope, because min certainly you lays down and permits all not to steal their market share.....


Not an improvement
I had used Magellan 700


Serious Quality Control Issues
I have had this GPS for over three weeks now. I believe it has serious quality control issues. It appears that Magellan simply dumps its products on the market without adequate testing.

1. Rerouting does not work most of the time. Whenever I use the reroute option to get a different route, it gives me exactly the same route as the original one. I tried this repeatedly, same result 90% of the time. This makes the reroute option practically useless.

2. It is extremely slow in recalculating a route(once you miss a turn), finding points of interest, and acquiring satellites.

3. For some reason, the fastest route is not fast at all. I planned a trip from NYC to Washington, DC, using "fastest time" option, the route it plans takes over five hours and about 300 miles while TomTom, Google Maps, and Mapquest all give you a route for just over four hours and 230 miles. Same result, of course, even when you select a different route method like "most use of freeways" because the reroute option is useless most of the time.

4. Touch-screen is refuses to respond most of the time.

5. No web updates (as of now) and useless customer support.

Having said that, there are a few things I like about it.

1. Loud and clear Text-to-Speech.
2. The audible "ding" at every turn.
3. Voice Recognition (when and if it works).
4. AAA TourBook.

I would say that this GPS should not have been released at this time and suggest that people stay away from it.



Get something else
This is a great Gps when its working. Ive had this unit for 2 days and already have to send it to be repaired for freezing up. Dont buy it.


Best of Show
This is my fifth government inspection departments unit. The best, which we had, is. The discussion characteristic can be a little sensitive, but it functions with better language modulation. Fairly like your wife, you should not at him kreischen. It ignores you. It gives verbal instructions in more detail than each possible other unit, which we had. Detailed info. can as oversize to seem, but, if it somewhere that you are familiar you with and the indications only one thing have, which is written on them, the unit give one of the correct answers are. The unit is so fast, as any other unit, which we tried, if we gave ourselves a calculated way. Detour the work largely as well as the detour characteristic. I would like to see vocal interface with unit such as directory to search in particular. It has the characteristic for POIs. For the money, the characteristics and the quality it is absolute the APPEARANCE the BEST.


Disappointed, poor routing
I compared the 4250 next to each other with my existing Roadmate 700/860. The good points 4250's are it are brighter, have alternatively released reloadable battery performance, accept limited language instructions of the bad point 4250's are it drive instructions. After two 4250's were giving tried against my adjusted 700/860 same instructions the IE both details: shortest time, distance, most use of the motorways etc. sends 4250 me normally on a longer way for example I lives away from to main California a highway and the model 700 assumes and sends to me in such a way, if I select shortest time, but me 1,5 miles south send the 4250 on agricultural roads for common radiant emittance with the same motorway that the other highway close goes to my house too directly.


Awesome! Everything I imaged and more.
I bought a new altima coupe and could not afford the upgrades of built in gps and bluetooth or the Boise Radio and XM. I am traveling and knew how handy it could come in. So, I did the homework, looking at available sytems on the market and price comparisons. This model had what I had hoped would be the capability to perform equal to built-in systems. It easily mounted on the windshield and have had it their from the first day. I go advance throught the screens easily. I planned my first route and the directions proved flawless. The bluetooth, proved equally handy for hands free operation of my cell phone. It easily connected to my Verizon LG phone and my callers say they heard me clearly. The 4.3 inch screen is sized amazingly large enough to view anything from small detailed directon to overviewing a large portion of the map. It looks smart in my car, and now feel that I have really saved a ton of money over built-in gps. Thanks


Pretty good
I just got the gps unit today so i cant say much about it yet except that despite what the description says, it DOES come with a USB cable and a ac dc adaptar

Update on 2/10:

I tried using it tonight and when I attached it to the car adaptar and then turned it on it said that the computer USB was attached and I could not do anything whether I turned it on and off or detached the wire. I had to reset the system.

It did a good job with night view. It had a few issues with the street name pronunciation, but nothing major.

I had no problem setting the bluetooth up with my handspring phone.

I was questioning some of the directions it gave me, but since I am from NJ where I am now, I knew better ways.

The traffic feature was pretty good so far.

I'll update you if anything happens.


Can't believe I didn't get one before.
Mobile government inspection department Nautiker I cannot believe Magellan of the Maestro-4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth that I waited so long, in order to buy government inspection department a unit. I investigated all units on the InterNet and decided to buy the 4250 because of the characteristics and the 4.3"Schirmes. I am lucky with the unit extreemly. It functioned large right from the box. I am really lucky that I received Magellan unit with the larger screen. It forms it simply to regard at a fast volatile view. Simply, and good instruction in the 82 side operators to use manually on the InterNet. First a diagram carried me, in order to examine, in order to guarantee that it functioned correctly. That lasted only one pair from days. The unit is thus exact, and I has you now confidence that it always settles the work. I could not now be without it. The purchase it on Amazon stored me approximately $125 of costing at best purchase. A straight added premium. They dispatched it immediately and I had them in three days.


Very Functional GPS
Convenient size and strong functionality make this a great GPS. Bluetooth works well for hands-free cell phone calls as well.


Magellan Maestro 4250
We are up to now very much pleased with this navigation system. We used some different marks of the government inspection departments navigation system and are this top sides. The large screen and voice the activated instructions form it very comfortably to use.


A Wonderful Tool
I have my Magellan Masestro 4250 for over one month now on the local (in order Jacksonville, flat steel bar) and used and it has long-distance journeys (to Georgia, to the south and to north Carolina) found, in order to be nearly faultless. It is uncanny, as it rings exactly for a revolution at the right time and to the place. It is also very good, if it in advance at the two-mile, a mile, which warns half mile of distances and you much the time, for which correct revolution gives to bring in position. It is very fast also to a refigure way, if a revolution is missed. IchBIN very with this contently. Additionally price Amazon was extreme competing and struck many places by $100. John Watson


Magellan Making Technology Great!
Excellent government inspection department unit with ability to downloaden repeated points of place of destination and optimize the clearance sequence. Credit that the customer service for the product is not very good it had to use belongs, but not it, since I possessed it (two months). It should be updated with present information for the date of the acquisition, since I noted that something points of the interest (POI) do not become in the present memory and in some roads are not located, although they were in the existence for more than 2 years. However in my line of the work (real estates), which the support me afforded, is time and cost saving and inestimable. My using this unit has 4 my customers to arrange at least to buy details the same unit for. Too badly I cannot receive a commission!!! In high of degrees recommended - at least during this very short time period of the possession. Stay co-ordinated!


Best features for the $$$
I did a lot of research including hands on at local stores as well as on line. For the price the Magellan Maestro 4250 is the best. I have had no problems with it right out of the box.

After screening for the basics ( accuracy, basic features), my priorities were:
1. large screen
2. voice response
3. Street name announcement
4. POI's

I have been very pleased with all. Have not had problems some others have encountered. The on/off button is sensitive. You must firmly depress and hold for a few seconds. Doing this I have had no problems with the button functioning.


My 1st GPS**LOVE IT!!!!
Since this was in, my 1. To be, I wanted to guarantee government inspection department that I made the right choice. After I had done something research, I decided, to go with MAGELLAN MAESTRO 4250. First of all, I received super+fast to him... on the next day! This government inspection department reached my expectations in each aspect. It is in the point with everywhere me goes, thinly and smooth... not bulkey like most them quite. I saw some different, but they did not do it for me. I am not on receiving which "inside am," however, if I will spend a good quantity money, I as, to receive the best very largely. I am pretty technically bent, but Magellan is very user friendly. I would recommend absolutely Magellan 4250. Worth each penny!


Kind of OK
I bought the Magellan 4250 and was hoping for something more user friendly. Since we know shortcuts we take them, but the GPS takes us another way longer because of traffic issues. The touch screen has to be pressed really hard and multiple times to work. I will contact Megellan to see if the issues I have are typical.


not what it seemed
4250 - Over all i like it really. Behind the bases the software is not intuitve. I had to work by some things. The support software/docs, which was sent with the unit, was not for the unit. After one had designated support on a pair of the expenditures, it became (duck ring my own POI's)i explained that those was email function not in, during quite some time to finally work the software was still missing. My 8800 black berry work largely by the unit. Place, too keep marking noted safe #, which first times you designate support! My dad received a Navigon at the same time. It thinks that it is large!


Magellan 4250
I bought that to Magellan 4250, after I had looked for each retail business and each on-line place of assembly, which I could find. Its size and abilities were this time the best for the money. It came into less time, than the free certified and all shipping were good. It accomplishes, as described and its a good small unit. Holds me a goal at most the time. Its not so good at the establishment of the exact addresses however none of them are. I normally fair program it, before I leave the office and it store it, until I am ready to use it. Satellites lift me very fast to see thus its main function work very well and its simple on. I must say that the ' additional expenses are generally useless. The language instruction actual nearly not possibly to use and all, which I can do, is to cancel the programmed place of destination, or ' go to legends home '. The computer voice does not express roads correctly. She says drive as D r or doctor. It also really butcher the motorways also. I do not know, why they disturb, this to promote. Bluetooth the characteristic is also useless for me. My ATT Synch for handfreely handling does not waive. All most irritating part of it was more charger/adapter the car. The end of the cord, which enters into the autolighter slot, is not enough ' long '. Also it fell down and I lost it straight away. It was obviously the matter.


helpful, easy to use gadget
So far, so good. My only complaint is that the voice activation feature is awkward...you have to cancel the trip you have programmed in before you can give certain commands, and then reset it after...seems backwards.
Otherwise it has been easy to figure out and has very nice, clear graphics. Love the touch screen, and the AAA information.


Lucky to get 2 stars
The only reason im giving it 2 stars is for the physical design and its ability to gain satellite coverage within 15 or 20 seconds.
I purchased 2 of these units for myself and my wife, since it looked the best out of the 3 or 4 that had integrated bluetooth. In California its now illegal to drive and talk on your phone without hands free.


negatives

- random freezing, it gets old having to hit the reset button every 4 or 5 times you start your car.

- anytime you say a word that starts with an M and has 3 syllables it would go into voice command mode.

- handsfree mode cellphone, on my tmobile MDA it would connect 3 or 4 days in a row, then I would have to reset the unit to get it to work, it NEVER auto connected to my phone, i would always have to activate it from the unit to get it to find my phone.

- my wifes motorola krzr it wouldnt even do that, she would have to go into her phones bluetooth menu every time she got in the car and activate bluetooth search after she had the car started.

- zero support or upgrades at magellans website.


to summarize, when it wasnt freezing, the bluetooth wasnt working, when the bluetooth was working, the unit would have to be rebooted. if your looking into buying this unit, dont. or buy it at a bricks and mortar store and try it out for a couple weeks so you can return it easily, at this point, i will have lost all the shipping money to amazon, to the tune of 65.00


Wow
Bought government inspection department briefly before my journey to California. Never such had a pleasant journey. It used everywhere I went, without keeping once lost. Could not believe, how exactly she was! I tried even to confuse it several times but she set me right back on rail. Service and delivery were exact, as announces. Everything in everything a very much satisfying acquisition.


Magellan 4250
I love this GPS. It is very accurate and easy to use.The only down side is it has frozen when i've rushed it.


Buyer Beware
I bought this for my wife during the 1. Week of 12/07. It has never function correctly, therefore I send it to to Magellan a service center for repair in late 01/08. I completely examined and documented the problems. Z.Z. expect I the return of the repaired unit or the call of the service Tech. The unit does not work in the cold weather. My unscientific tests showed that, when the surrounding temperature fell below 40 degrees f the unit would slow down to lock or load themselves again continuously above, in order to normally work. So as a night car of my wife, in in an unheated garage, the unit left, would not work, until the interior temperature of the car warmed up, and the components of the unit also warmed up. This 30-45 minutes would by routine take. At an opportunity the unit did not work for 2 days, although the inside of the car warmed itself to approximately 68 degrees f. Announcements are that there is a defective component. Other one, which that, at which rare opportunities, which it functioned correctly, the characteristics of the unit exceeded, my expectations and the achievement and the user friendliness were very good (7 to 1 high scale of the low -10).


Magellan Maestro IS NOT THE MASTER
My short lived experience with the Magellan Maestro was NOT a good one. While it seems to have the great color screens and features, the touch screen was very temperamental and very annoying. When needing to push one of the buttons on the touch screen, when touching the 9 on the keypad, it would enter a * on the screen. After re-calibrating the unit and trying it again, we still had NO SUCCESS.

In addition, the Blue Tooth feature was not worth the time. First of all, the setup process was a bit ambiguous and my phone was not even in the list of recognized phones. Ya know, it is not like a Palm Treo just showed up yesterday - they have been around for ever nearly. It would not keep the connection and plainly was a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. We ended up returning the Magellan Maestro because it was more of a headache to us than anything. We are in the process of looking further for one that will truly perform at the level of it's bragging rights. This one will not be on the radar screen for us in the future.

I'd recommend that you avoid making the purchase - but that is simply my opinion.

Hope this helps!


Better units elsewhere
I had Magellan Roadmate 800, which I liked really. Diagram-ascended Magellan wiped off the non removable disk drive assembly cleanly. After he had spent some days at the telephone with their Indian Tech support, a supervisor gave me a RA number, in order to dispatch her after Houston, in which they would install the original diagrams and an ascending again. To say unnecessarily, that could be done badly, while existing support Customer/Technical Magellan did not lose the unit. They goods finally in agreement to dispatch me the new Maestro 4210 (4250 sans integrated traffic). The 4210 attaches, to the satellites than the 800 however is faster not, as exact. My home address is approximately 3 miles far away from, where it says the 4210 that she is... The position hop back and forth between the road, which I drive and in the proximity all parallel roads - and she always tries to reroute me if she thinks that I am on another road. Problems of I did not have with the 800. Only AT of POIs represent above on the diagram, while I drive. And only the female voice is present. The diagrams on the 4210 calm appearance routes, which for 7 or 8 years - and me gone it is know that Tom Toms of diagrams are exact in this regard. I wish that I had bought a min or a Tom Tom.


Magellan Maestro
Mobile government inspection department Nautiker Magellan of the Maestro-4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth I bought this unit for the size of the screen, which is good. Voice activation work out, but into that catigories limited, those pour appropriately are present (i.e. close coffee.) Graphics are excellent. The note screen works well. Directed the downward is the diagrams is near however not on the exact point. I examined some points and am ft I within 1000, but do not demand. I would redeem.


Came with an A/C adaptor and a soft case not shown in the package list
I bought this piece of the beach camera and found to my pleasant surprise that she had the alternating current adapter, USB cord and a soft case in the package. These were not mentioned in the package list of the Amazon. I had bought him, these seperately however straight had returned. This was a large experience. Thus, if you buy this, you can do the individual parts in the package, you guarantee to wish can be lucky!!!


Handy, but could be better
This is the first government inspection department, which I possessed. We bought it at the at the end of December and it rather regularly for one approximately to month used. Since they were around for some years now, I was over some the Verschrobenheiten and other expenditures disappoints, which I discovered with this unit: The screen is even the way, which is too bright at night, on the lowest brightness attitude. It is nice that the screen turns automatically to a black background, but it is still too bright. We found that the government inspection department takes sometimes odd ways. Ex: We took a journey from Illinois to Wisconsin some weeks ago. The drive from Illinois to Madison was new to us, therefore we used the government inspection department, in order to receive there. However as soon as we were in Madison, we knew the best way, in order to maintain, to our place of destination to arrive (in Appleton). The government inspection department tried to shift us another way, which would have taken additional 2 hours, in order to arrive at the place of destination! (this used the choice "of the fastest way" on the way planner). The government inspection department held to try to check the way but, instead of, seizing which we did to then continue wished it us us around turn to drive back to Madison on the way which it had originally planned. This lasted one approximately hour long before it represented FINALLY from the way, which we took. Before it adjusted the way, it wished us 40 miles the same way retraces, in order to receive on the other way. This was ridiculous. When taking out to check in order to eat, you fill it above with fuel, notice at a remainder notice etc., will its nicely to have a way to pausieren navigation, therefore them try not constantly, the way while you are at the exit. If there is a way to do this I did not still discover it. A QWERTYTASTATUR would be a definite improvement. Since the letters on a contact-sensitive screen are fair, don't I see, why this is not the standard format? If it enters a city, in order to shift on, it emphasizes automatically the possible letters for you thus, it is simpler to work with this keyboard format. Ex: If you liked to travel to Chicago, IL, will it C, then the government inspection department eliminate (colludes itself), each possible letter to write, which will not be the following letter in the city name. The H was emphasized, but something like the X did not become (there to assume no city is in US, which with Cx begins). I straight do not understand, to sketch why they went through the effort of doing this, instead of, a QWERTYTASTATUR from the outset. Now the emphasized trick with a QWERTYTASTATUR would be rather cool. I used the system on batteries some and publish the system no warning that the batteries are in, to run. It fair cubes. This is to be received NOT well, if you build on the government inspection departments, in order you somewhere. It happened me evening and I kept nearly lost yesterday. I would think that they could add a battery monitor and you informed, when you received only a certain time quantity left on the batteries. (Laptope have it, why not these? can) things, which I like over the unit: The road name, when giving of directions proclaim to let is VERY nicely. I was with people with other government inspection department systems, which estimate fair saying "revolution right in the 5 miles" and in the driver exact are left, that the road to switch on to. Government inspection department legends "revolution to be right in the 5 miles on 1. Avenue "is large. There are some expenditures with the text to the speech, however. Examples of a pair come themselves to care: Instead of saying, Illinois 84 as the road name, says it to I L 84 (the letters in place of of the condition name expressing). Even if a road has repeated names, like highway a reference and a local road name, announces it it both however, without pausieren between them. Like large in, long name sounds. If you hear to the directions and not, regarding the screen, it can be difficult to recognize about which road them speak. Another characteristic, which we used and were, was the ability to have directions to an average handily. Recently we had to find a FedEx position and to everything, which we were given, were the average that the building was located on. I had considered that there was a way, that system guidance to an average to the order place to let and decided to try it. It functioned large! We recently did not shift from another range and had phonebook for a pair of weeks, to of of things such as small article memory to find from of etc. to. To lead we goods in the situation to use some the addresses in the government inspection department to find in order to help us, after the memory which we looked for to use and him in order us there. I find with the POI data base, few tricky to be (those to use looking up method by category i.e. can be difficult), but, if you liked to look for something straight for in particular, seem it, to be simpler. Ex: We tried to locate a main warehouse memory. I could not find it to use the category search but I wrote in the name main warehouse and found a memory. This system kind of served as Miniphonebook for us, until we received a material. Obviously each address is not stored in this system. It gave times that we wanted to find a McDonalds or a something and knew that it would give one near at us, but the unit did not know nothing about this specific position. The product is a good size. It is rather thinly, attachment easy in a purse or a bag, and widescreen is nice. I may be click the arrow in the corner the untereren left one on in order to see the way, which the system planned. I enjoy also the compass, which is convenient in the upper left corner, and which ability to affect this key in order to find fun information out such as speed rate, elevator, distance to the following exit, distance to the preceding exit, etc.. Entirely, I may help to have something steer for me and the unit into handy already came, but for the price I paid me expected more.


Many features - many flaws as well
I bought this and the min Nuvi 650 and took her both for a long journey of Dallas - Atlanta - to Destin, flat steel bar - back to Dallas. It was a very good test of both systems and I really returned Magellan 4250 because of the following: 1. It gave me a strange way from Atlanta to Destin, flat steel bar, which was 3 hours longer than Google, Yahoo and the min. I had preselected fastest way, when it did. I preselected then shortest way and he gave me another way, which would take 6,5 hours. That is not the faster in addition? A friend of me said also that Magellan unit, which he had him a way, which was long 8 hours from Houston to Dallas, in place of which regualar 5 hours gave. 2. I wanted to look for all remainder ranges, which came above on my way. Exit the POIs only appearance it the following 20 miles in your way. If you are on a long journey and liked to receive the following exit, you must cancel the existing way and do a search. This shows you, for that which it looks for you, is completely from your way. The min shows after you the POIs, which you also look for, when steering your present way and, represents that the direction is the POI inside. In the min you can also ask over for it, in order to show only POIs on your way. 3. The unit froze up at least times dozen in 2 weeks and loaded themselves again. 4. This unit would like to out say each verflixte thing loud, which you do on it. Example: ' back ', ' deletion ' etc.. I would not know, what I preselected straight, or which key I at operated? 5. The language requests being very limited and the requests, which are present, are even more reduced, if you are in a way. Example: ' instruction the next gases is missing, if you are in a way. They must cancel the way, in order to receive it. If you are in a way, receive only the exit POIs. When aren't you r way on a motorway, which good is the exit POIs characteristic? On the positive side: 1. I liked the fact that you preselect a segment in your way (you say a certain motorway) and over for the unit to ask could, in order to avoid this segment. This comes into handy, if you know that there is structure or strong traffic on a part of your way. 2. The FM traffic characteristic, although it is limited to only the large Metrobereiche, is still another nice one which can be had. 3. I liked as keyboard-will-automatically the grey from the letters, which are not applicable. Example: If you register ' Dal ' for Dallas avenue, them could of its data base that the following letter could to be ' L ' only and see by a pair of other letters and Graus from the remainder. Believe me, this help, if you register road name and the keyboard QWERTY are not.


Disappointed, Re-ordered and Disappointed Again
I received the first unit at Christmas time and was excited to use it. Charged it overnight and turned it on to input names and addresses. Turned it off overnight and it would not power on the next morning. Amazon was great..shipped another one and I returned the defective unit. Used the new one for two weeks and it locked up, same as the first. I ordered a Nuvi 660 and will keep my fingers crossed. It seems there are negative reviews wherever you want to look. Disappointed JHW in Indiana.


Happy Trails with Magellan Maestro
I found the mount very easy to attached to the windshield and has yet to fallen. This was my biggest concern. The Magellan Mastro 4250 has been useful even in and around the city. Especially with all the road construction going on.It has taken me from point A to point B without the hassle of having to wait in traffic for long periods of time. The screen is easy to read. It alerts me when it wants to reroute my line of travel because of some delay ahead . I've used this GPS for almost 1500 miles of travel and without a doubt I'll no longer have the need for maps. I give the Magellan Mastro 5 Stars Plus. P.S. It even helped me find a gas station too!! A.J. Martinez


4250 gps
Large bought government inspection departments two and had for an exchange yielded return, that I a long time for now have wait had and up to now not to receive. Mark only, which is not to my Likeing that is, by it the telephone numbers intered you necessity to also set address and name are. I have some telephone numbers not the address for. Other one then that minner thing it is large.


Magellan Maestro 4250
Mobile government inspection department Nautiker Magellan of the Maestro-4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth of this was the unit, which replaced the 4050 in the arrangement of Magellan. Which NEW is: Voice activated controls, established in traffic with the subscription (you receive the 1. 90 days FREE), afterwards to these costs $40,00 annually. PER: This is a wonderful unit, it has all bells and Whistles and is simple to use, no problems, which are found since acquisition. Window verge, adhering verge, alternating current adapter, DC plug comes for the car, soft case and comes even with pad cable straps to keep things tidy with everything neccessary extras:Suction. I like particularly the AAA info. over different places (even if it a AAA membership)and the fact to have, which has it over the CONS 6 million POIs: Express activated control are very limited, you can them only use, in order to find POIs. I wish that Magellan would have included more voice activated characteristics. Diagrams were present starting from July 2007, the unit for sales in December 2007 were released, wish I that the diagrams were present, it a new highway within my range give, which is opened to the diagrams for over one year and its not. I wish that the diagrams were updateable and it would be nice, if Magellan would include free updates for the first year. I BECAME IN HIGH ONE of DEGREES THIS UNIT RECOMMENDING.


Great GPS unit
To cling I improved from Magellan Roadmate, 700 - and I with the kind of diagram was lucky there, POIs and address entrance methods -, which it seemed to be meaningful with Magellan. I am, which up to now Magellan has regulated nearly all of and of disappointments very lucky, which I had with the old model: - energy cable/Battery energy: Over time became the power connection, which loaded loosely, which became to receive old unit, again, every time I went beyond an impact. The new unit has a stronger USB power connection and 3 hours of battery lives - size: the same screen size as the 700, but the new unit is small (and delightfully) - address entry: now with Reissverschluscodes! If you know the zipper, it accelerates address entry considerably. - satellites: the Maestro "finds usual" even within one minute of leaving the house. - navigation: although range receives some confusing decisions in DC occasionally, appropriate, it you always there. The diagram is very free, day or night, and I like the announcement of the divided screen - I tended to hate when the diagram left, during I one with me brought closer large revolution arrow straight to be replaced revolution. The only (up to now persons under age) disappointments with some the new characteristics - the language instruction works o.k., but you must speak loud and obviously express to be heard. A cool party in a full car leaves would amount to. Bluetooth o.k. works, but the connection must be repaired, every time it in the car received (possibly is this? ) the only problem, which I had up to now, is normal that the unit twice on start screen in the 40 froze, or, thus times has I it used - a reloading requiring (you have a handy feather/spring) - this is annoying and I hope that Magellan can give change marks.


Good GPS and good customer service with some minor flaws
I bought this government inspection department at the beginning of of December 2007. It was attractively and rather strong. Everything seemed to work as until approximately a month later promised middle January 2008, than one day the blue tooth telephone menu rejected to indicate. I designated Magellan customer service and after they had instructed me, they asked the unit (had several times done to reset the I themselves) me to return the unit to Magellan for repair. Well 2 weeks later I called it to examine around on the repair status and her informed me that it would last one approximately month, so that the repair can be accomplished. It stated that they were to be guaranteed double all Maestromasseinheiten examining, around worked on everything. As in some these reports indicated, apparent they had released the unit, before them were ready for the production time. The repair time can be acceptable for some, but not peoples, whom on its government inspection department on a daily basis are based. I spoke with the supervisor today and erWAR in the term to call me after it had associated with Magellan head offices. Forwards he remained in connection with me concerning the status and straight uniting days (after 3 weeks in the business), sent it to me a new unit. This seems up to now to work how announces. Customer service center of Magellan is in India. So politely, as they are frequent, are them fair too difficult to be understood. I had to constantly ask the representative to repeat itself which frustrated much. If it functions, is the unit fine and has the following attributes: - good speech quality - rather exact directions - language instruction works frequently, during announced - rather attractively - traffic receiver as the announced errors works, which are I considered, as follows: - the unit does not attach automatically to your blue tooth telephone. I have a Sony/Ericsson z525a. They must concerning introduction the connection, every time the unit or your telephone - sometimes the unit requires fair frosts and multiple connection place resetting - which are list of the compatible blue tooth telephones are rather limited turned off - as aforementioned above, the blue tooth menu rejected to indicate these errors seems mostly to be the software which is referred and with an update is regulated probably. However if you use and build frequently on your government inspection department, can you wait to wish, until they released the newest software-Version, in order to buy in. I hear that the newest release comes out early (January/February) 2008. And hopeful they repaired all errors and the expenditures, which found I and other rezensenten with this unit. Said one everything, is it a good unit with rather many characteristics at an appropriate price.


One of the best GPS
Large job Magellan on this government inspection department. It is fast and on directions accurate. The language instruction actual ehrfuerchtig, no more reaching and using note the screen. Probably worth the additional expenses few dollar! The following model cannot wait.


Get a garmin
The 4250 is a nice looking gps and has a great price at amazon 350.00.but it has to many problems.If you can get your phone paired it won't read your contacts and you have to do it all over if you turn unit off.If you turn it off it's hard to turn it back on and if your lucky the screen won't freeze.As for routing it kept telling me there was slow traffic ahead and kept rerouting, never came upon slow traffic.I really wanted to keep this gps but could'nt see why.I have a Garmin 680 and I have not had any problems.


Great annimation,
I received the order quickly. It works as well as it should. I find that when I have a route sometimes it avoids highways. I prefer using highways but it tends to take me to local streets instead, even when I'm side-by-side with a expressway. Other-than-that, when route reroutes it recovers direction and gets me to where I have to go. I still though have to use my common sense and disregard the GPS until I'm at a location I'm unfamiliar with. Could function better signal wise. As far as the ease of use, it's great.

I enjoy the favorite feature, and the fact I can make calls from the GPS once the phone directory is complete, using Bluetooth.




Don't Buy
This unit must have charged battery, in order to work. Not on A/C or D/C would work, it is battery was loaded. The battery received low, unit would work on not the loaded untill. , do Magellan and me try did receive to call only someone to overseas, that not any of my interests or? understood. Designated the USA numbers and terminated still up overseas.


Very pleased
I prefer this government inspection department system opposite others, which I had early bought. The loudspeaker is more readable and this government inspection department gives to you elections of the kind to be taken of the way, i.e. avoids shortest distance, shortest time, highways, etc.. I have more confidence with this government inspection department, than which had I before. Since I am very the provoked direction, I feel more convinced that I follow the directions, which are spoken with this Nautiker.


Likes to "malfunction"
I bought the magellan 4250 3 weeks ago and have used it around town. It likes to freeze on me sometimes and then it gives wierd commands. Like I go to the phone screen and tap on contacts and it says "cancel". Then I try it again and it works. Voice activation seems to take time to respond but again I am still getting to know it. People tell me that the blue tooth sounds are really good. Overall I think it will be helpful for road trips


Today's word is freeze
Magellan 4250
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I had this about two weeks now, yesterday this unit freezed on me.
I tried to turn it off, it woudn't,
I tried to reset the unit, it would not
I tried to press some of the options, but nothing happened
after long time, i was able to access it again
This is -1 star
-------------
Second thing is that if you call the support you will have to wait for long long time, I waited for half an hour before someone came online.

Before you buy this product, call their support line and you will find out how long you will have to wait.

This is also -1 star

-------------

Other than the above two items, this product seem to have all the options,
I also think that this product is better than Garmin, as my friend has Garmin GPS so I hear from this person from time to time.














It's ok but still not ready for prime time
I received this unit as a gift and was really excited. It had all the features I wanted such as street to text, route detour and millions of POIs. After using this unit, reality set in and eventually I had to return the unit. Props to Amazon with a no hassle return.
Here is my experience.
Pros...
Came with a protective case
Had millions of POIs
Correctly spoke the street names
Great to get you to places you haven't been before
Allows users to bypass or detour around roads. This part is great and would be better if you could program the unit always skip a certain road. Currently, it only allows the detour on the current route and doesn't save the detour for future trips.
Clear bright screen
Suction cup and mounting unit worked well
Could receive traffic reports (And yearly subscription was $20 or less.. I have forgotten the exact amount)
Locked on signals very quickly
Wasn't loaded down with extras that I wouldn't use such as audio readers, tip calculators, etc.

Cons...
The screen would randomly change from map to driving directions without anyone touching the screen
When selecting the fastest time, it would route us next to interstates but not on them thus making us hit many many stop lights. Getting on the interstate would cause it to recalculate and then it would behave.
We were driving home from a trip, when the fastest route was selected, it estimated the arrival time as 5:46 pm. When the shortest distance was selected, the arrival time would change to 4:06pm. The time difference was from it trying to make us drive through the city on surface streets instead of using the interstate which was almost totally empty.
Sometimes on short trips, if we deviated from course, it would take as long as 30 seconds to recalculate, thus causing us to miss the next turnoff and recalculate again.
When using the detour function, finding the correct street to route around was trial and error.
When using the detour function, the unit would "panic" when we told it we didn't want a certain off ramp and would try to have us get off the interstate 8 miles too early and drive through the city. (We just wanted to get off one ramp earlier, not five off ramps)
The screen seemed to forget it was a touch screen and would require repeated touches to use. (up to 6 times)
The suction cup on the mount only has a little rubber tab to pull allowing it to detach from the windshield. It's durability might be questionable and if it broke, getting it off the windshield would be a pain.

The breaking point was when it would try to route us through downtown areas instead of using the interstates when selecting fastest time. I checked every time and there weren't any traffic issues on the interestate, but the unit seemed to have a fondness for stop lights.


Easy to use, but problem with voice guidance
Interface/Looks: I liked really the interface of this government inspection department. To use simply and very intuitively. Although screen seems to the note to be very sensitive. I the discovery having much to put back, if I write an address, because two letters appear, although I tried to strike them once. Also the menus does not adjust to night mode -- it actual when driving too at night brightly, which diverts, particularly if it at the windshield is attached. Bluetooth ability: The mating worked first, but I must do it each time. But in some cases, it does not function. Very erratisch. Choice of route: The choice of route seems to be quite exact. However the language guidance seems not to be synch also in the choice of route machine. On the first day that I examined it and over asked for her to give to me a way house. From I-795 it asked me to take the west MD-140 (heading after Westminster) which is correct. However the language guidance asked me to take to the left which east MD-140 is. I just followed the sprachrichtung, in order to see the fact that which happens first and it explained to me that then it checks! I thought to me possibly, whom I did not hear straight it right first time, thus on the next day, examined I again with the same way and he really asked me the same thing to form left instead of saying, what shows the choice of route me. This is the large expenditure, because, if the language guidance does not agree with the choice of route machine, you could possibly be lost, particularly if you only on the language guidance as with driving on a busy motorway exchange or build a driving into the city. In most opportunities the 4250 gave me an exact way I returned the unit and bought a Harman Kardon GPS-810 yesterday. The interface is much, much better and bluetooth, which really fits for my work Brombeere-und of my Mrs. Schlages. But I would have to see the choice of route achievement of this unit. If I am lucky not yet with their, I take a view with the min Nuvi 660.


Great GPS with Traffic
I thrilled with my Magellan Maestro 4250. The user interface is very simple to use, looks it fantastisch, and it functioned, straight during I it too needs. I bought these 4250 for traffic characteristic and in the first week of the use her me already over 1 hour clearance time stored. Traffic characteristic to introduce was simple - I caused an account at the web site of Magellan and gave the suitable codes in catch. Traffic was active, as soon as I entered the resulting code into the government inspection departments unit. If you activate traffic characteristic, which you receive an autoicon in the untereren right corner of the screen, which is colored green, yellow or red dependent on traffic causes. This characteristic works well, if you let a way plan, but it also functions, if you are fair view a diagram of the range, which is you inside. If you affect the autoicon, them indicate all possible events (in the title format - i.e..' slow traffic, that at 37mph 2,4 miles on I-820W ' etc. shifts in front.) on your planned way. If you are fair view, which a diagram the range icons indicates along the roads conditions and you can affect these icons, in order to regard text descriptor. Twice in the last week 4250 around strong traffic shifted me and me valuable time stored. The choice of route was - it seemed automatic ' to regard ' traffic in front on the planned way and adjusted then accordingly. I cannot say sufficient positive things about this characteristic!


Buggy and unreliable
I wished as much to as this government inspection department. I spent difference much time investigate one and narrowed my allotters into the TomTom 920, into the Nuvi 760 and into the Maestro 4250. the TomTom had and the Maestro some cool characteristics, those me really pleased (language entrances, AAA leader and so on). In the read reports I decided against the TomTom since many indicated that it would not arrive you at your place of destination on the most efficient way and their customer service attrocious was. Reports of the Maestros and the most general objections in those were mixed unit the collision. The Nuvi had, large reports however was as much more expensive than the other two units. Amazon had the Maestro on sales for $356 and this opportunity was to large to exceed above. On the first day of the blockage of the unit into the cigarette lighter I kept an announcement determined to "USB connection, me refer please to PC instructions for the Downloading image". It me not nothing do to let and the screen sat straight there frozen. Thinking I had read not the instructions, thouroughly, I the unit separated and over the battery functioned. The unit worked very friendly, free screen, nice illustration dissolution, language instructions worked on large, everything in all, which I liked really the complete package. On the next day I went switching the unit on and to nothing happened. I held to try and had to finally designate customer service. They were not very polite and I had waiting period time (differently than some reports, those the customer service quetioned). The representative asked me to hold the energy key for 10 seconds and to press the resetting key at the same time. After several times, the unit were tried, which is propelled finally on. I explained as, the unit to him that then I had this problem, afterwards to the cigarette lighter. It asked me to press the resetting key while the unit was switched on and again to try. The same results "USB connection determined....". He said then that this was a well-known problem and that my unit was defective. These words resounded in my brain against, since this was the same answer, which I had heard, thus many other people to express in their report "this a well-known problem was". If it is a well-known problem then why not EMBARRASSMENT IT! Here I had read all stories over other people, those its unit abort to have and now me discovery two days later in the same position of constraint. I was disappointed and frustrated. It is a really nice looking unit and functions large, if it functions. But credit of of two expenditures for abort in there many days did not form the straight product reliably enough for me. I am surprised, who a company Magellan may, who am as much experience in the government inspection department market, set its top side of the line out unit with so many bugs around the unit uselessly to form has. I became up the Bitting the rifle bullet finished and ordered a Nuvi 760. Based on which I read, can my briefcase a little more smaller be, but at least I have a reliable government inspection department. I did not still receive it, therefore I cannot compare the two, but I hopping for better results. Update: January 15., 2008. I received the Nuvi 760 and took it for a test run now today. Quite away of the blow I did not like the interface of the Nuvi as much as, I on the Maestro did. The way, which gave the Nuvi to directions, was very meager. On the Maestro it good at the warning you was very in the lead over revolutions, which can find you, it even showed you graphics the revolution, which it were, in order to form. Briefly before the revolution it would warn that it and then to the right at the revolution, which would strike a small bell you explaining, to turn at this point. This was a very nice characteristic that I was standard on all units thought. The Nuvi does only briefly this and explains themselves before the revolution. The volume level on the Nuvi is hardly hear extremely very low, I can the unit on high level, the Maestro was many louder. The AAA exactly described position characteristics of the Maestros is one wonderfull characteristic, which lacks the Nuvi. Now it was only one day that I possessed the Nuvi, thus I reliably this report again update or a full report on the Nuvi side communicate, but up to now prefers I in considerable extent the interface and diagram choice of route of the Maestros, but the Nuvi appears rock body in the achievement. I found not a problem or collided, while with the Maestro I had two aborts and two problems, which were deadly. In the summary if we all characteristics of the Maestros in a Nuvi to set could, we a perfect unit would have. I wished really as to the Maestro and I might real the Maestroeigenschaften and function, if only she were, not since deadly Buggy I it have recommended could.


Good Product
I did an endless quantity concerning research am government inspection department of products. I read the reports on all web site and examined the products in memory. Magellan 4250 won me more rueber with price and characteristics. I looked for mainly for government inspection department a device to work in order to reduce my clearance time. There are repeated ways, which I can take to the work. However based on traffic, a way could be better as another way. Thus I wished a device, which could help me with this decision to government inspection department. I wished also the ability to have control over changing the way. I did not continue to wish also a device, which required me, to attach an antenna to the windshield to work in order to receive road signs (I am not a large fan of announcing to the Vandalen and would like not the controversy of an antenna down-take to employ, every time I go.) Magellan 4250 exceeded my expectations. You exchange mine time were reduced up to 10 minutes out. And I discovered new ways, which were essentially faster than one, which I had taken for YEARS. While min produces large products, I did not like the fact that I had very few legends over rerouting the way a satzanzahl of miles or excluding certain roads. Additionally that was Magellan approximately $300 more inexpensive than the min product, which I regarded. The only reason that I gave four stars to the product in place of five, is because of the Bluetooth. Not really a critical characteristic to me. However the fact that you must attach your telephone each time again, begin the device marks the useless characteristic again. Such a procedure is not necessary really. On a lateral note recommend me I in high of degrees to receive a kind of seat screw bolt verge device. I bought and I think that it is large. My government inspection department sits low and from opinion of the windshield out. I take simply the government inspection departments out device of my car, without having to hide the verge. I receive still another large road sign and I ensure not me around announcing my device to the thieves and I must not a verge down-take and her not set support, if I go too and leave work.


Too many problems for a top of the line preiced unit
The 4250 is too slow, the speakerphone is inaudiable to the person, you with speak and the language instructions being confusing and anoying and solved with strong, in order to understand instructions. E.G. ' you remain on way I35 N O R T H in 2 miles.' Or residence right, if you are to take an exit, other time taking exit is mentioned sometimes. The computer voice has a strange accent, that the party planner Franck of the film ' father of the bride ' is similar (really!) Except your money and you buy a min.


Extremely Good Unit
I have been using the 4250 for about a week now and the unit has preformed almost all of it's critical functions flawlessly.
1) Very quick satelite aquisition time - just under 1 min 30 sec for TTFF while inside my house (works in my basement). Less than 10 sec from warm start outside.
2) So far the unit has routed me exactly as I would have done.
3) The Voice Recognition works great (with the radio off) in my car even at 70+ mph .
4)Trafic alerts have been accurate (Hartford CT area) but so far have been of little value because I already know where and when they will occur. I'm looking forward to seeing it perform durring snowy conditions.
5) Voice directions are very clear and plenty loud for me.
6) Re-routing speed is ok (not the speediest).
Needed Improvements:
1) As already stated in many write-ups the Bluetooth synch when making or receiving phone calls is lost every time you shut the unit off. This could be a deal breaker for many.
2) When using it as a phone it's difficult to understand on both ends of the conversation.
3) It would be helpful if the unit offered you the option to accept or decline a recomended detour around projected traffic. Right now there are only two options 1) automatically detours you 2) just alerts you without offering an alternate route.

All in all I would highly recomend the unit based on it's primary function of navigating but considering the state of the bluetooth phone application I could not give it 5 stars.


This gift was a huge hit
Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
I have a factory installed GPS in my car so I bought this for one of my children. I like this one better than mine!! This is a great GPS, easy to use, great visuals and I love the voice command feature. Plus the AAA partnership is great for people who travel. We had no problems with installation and my daughter loves it. We did our homework to find the best one for our needs and I am glad we did. I highly recomend this unit.Since purchasing ours several people I know have purchased a Madellan GPS in the 4000 series. They have all given them rave reviews. So whether you buy the least expensive model or the best one with all of the features you should be very happy with a Magellan GPS.


Price
Mobile government inspection department Nautiker Magellan of the Maestro-4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth --------------------------------------------------------------- List price: $599,99 price: $356.95


great product
I bought this at the same time, which I bought the min 760 and had some min government inspection departments units in the past had. I estimate this 5 in everyone catagory, excluded in its bluetooth support, her always to my iphone attach and me pair it nearly everytime do not educate, which I would like to use it. The language instructions being fun, and the good work very much, and the price is then the min many less expensive.


Very Pleased with Unit
Like everyone otherwise, I spent weeks of the careful research, on which to buy government inspection department, I finally agreed upon on new Magellan Maestro 4250. It was close running between this and the min Nuvi 660. None are perfect, therefore it was an affair of comparing the characteristics and those selecting, whistles bells and me wished. This is, my first government inspection department thus has not everything, it also, to compare except using in a renting car which was also Magellan. Up to now I am very lucky with him. I did not try real time traffic update characteristic still registered or. Per * simple and intuitive user interface. Note screen accomodating the brightest cock. Screen is large to see clear and simple. * Free and audible text to the speech. The road name to say is one tremdous assistance. * Exact and reliable directions. Seems to waive even the new roads around. Explains to prepare you over upcoming revolutions in sufficient time. Explains to you, which is switched on for side of the road your place of destination, if you receive there. * Fast and automatically way counts, if you miss a revolution (does not force you, to form itself-turn to back-get over original way) * bolting devices at to a satellite signal nearly very fast after, if you are propelled on, and up to now, not connection lost. * Good allotters of POI. To steer easily identifiably and simply. Very useful, if you look a gas station or for a Kaffegeschaeft! On the other hand you can filter the POIs out, you role examine, the screen are not thus in disorder-thrown. Very nicely. * Black of the AAA of leader... handy * Day/Night lighting and colors * smooth and silver Design. Ultra thinly and mobile. * Language instruction very coolly. It takes sometimes some attempts, in order to begin attention of Magellan and with it it understands, what you wish. But, it is still useful. "Magellan, GOING home" is my favourite: -) * Additional expenses... Case, alternating current adapter. Cheat * he always does not select the direct route (abbreviations, which I know).. even after playing with the preferences (shortest way, fastest way, little use of the highways...), However the ways, which he selects, are appropriate. * Bluetooth.. it loses a star for bluetooth. I have a relatively new Nokia telephone, which is not supported. The list of the telephones, which is supported, although I present me, is actual, improves over time quite limited. Entirely, for the price, it is a good product and a reliable Nautiker. I would recommend it in high of degrees.


Better than many, but not perfect.
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.


Very nice unit overall, especially for the price
I have had the 4250 for a few days and overall I'm very happy with it. I was a bit worried about the power switch problem everybody seemed to be having but I have turned the unit on and off through quite a few cycles and have really not had this issue. The switch does seem to have a "sweet spot" and if you press it as it likes to be pressed, it seems to power up readily. When I use the cigarette adapter, the unit powers up with no problem without any button pushing at all.
I have tried the voice command and it is picky about the way it like to be spoken too... but overall it works OK. Of course the less outside noise, the better the voice command works. The bluetooth also works OK... not stellar... but I called home and talked through the unit at about 45 MPH. I would have liked a little more volume through the speaker, but I could hear the call and my wife said she heard me just fine. I did have an issue where the touch screen would not go into paired mode. When I was on the phone page and pressed pair mode, the page would come up and immediately go back to the menu without pairing. I did the reset where you hold the power switch down for 10 seconds and restart and the problem went away. It remains to be seen whether this will be a recurring issue.

The display is great, sharp and detailed. The voice that announces the manuvers is pleasant enough. The GPS itself has been dead on accurate and the maps are great. I take I-78 to work from PA - NJ every day and the unit can actually tell if I am in the local or express lanes! Only once or twice have I had some minor routing issues. I knew the unit was going to take me a bit out of my way, so I excluded the manuver... had to do it twice before she told me the fastest route. Funny thing was, the day before maggie told me the fastest way the first time.. go figure.

Overall, I am very happy with the 4250, I have 30 days to decide if it's a keeper and for now, it definitely is! I would have given it 5 stars if I didn't have to re-pair up my phone to the bluetooth each time.

I also have to mention, I was blown away by the service I got from Amazon with this order... I ordered the unit on Wednesday at about 4 in the afternoon... right after Christmas. I selected one day shipping. Within a couple of hours I had an Email saying the unit had shipped, and I had the unit in my hands the next day! WOW!


Very satisfied
After carefully researching GPS navigators I bought two of this model as gifts for my wife and daughter, both of whom are quite satisfied. I'm very impressed with the performance of this model.


Nice product, terrible support for Bluetooth concern
We bought two 4250 units for Christmas despite the possible Bluetooth of interest (stupid we!) Indeed we confirmed that one must repair the telephone and government inspection department system each device the time one, or other one is turned off. After reading off a report, we that a software ascending solution on the horizon would be, thought for regulating to this breakdown thrust and therefore were not concerned. However after multiple connection place designates to Magellan the Techunterstuetzung and to no confirmation of the problem or the confirmation that a software solution is directly threatening, we decided to return the units. We could do it, to out wait geerwogen to have, if the Techunterstuetzung had confirmed readily its knowledge of the expenditure (first the technician, who, over, was to suggest was tried the fact that loss of the mating was a normal occurrence but had been entitled to it later, a deviation, which). The unit is distinguished of government inspection department a perspective, but the Bluetooth was an important part of our decision to go to with this unit. We are very much disappointed, in order to have to go through the back getting headache, but stated that our interests are not sufficiently confirmed or addressed. If Bluetooth is an important characteristic, we would not recommend the 4250. We probably go to 360 or 660 at this point with the min nuvi.


Better than my old Magellan
I thought my old Magellan was great but this is even better. It is very lightweight and has a more versatile windshield mount. I enjoy most the new features such as bluetooth, AAA Tour book data, voice reponse and the fact that for each turn you are directed to take it names the street. The display is clear and bright. Just used it from CA to Seattle. It is great.


GPS Review
I used this government inspection department for 2 weeks and was very pleased with him. The directions were good and if I form a chnage in the directions because of knowing another way, them adjusted. I would recommend this everyone. It is simple to use the only problem which I found it the fact that appearance is being my address as a half block away - however then thus does Googleearth as well as other InterNet directions.


A solid choice, but not without flaws
I bought that to Magellan 4250 of Amazon for $357. I have before Magellan Roadmate 760, a HP rx5915 clearance companion (TomTom) and three min Handheld possessed, from which used one I also for self navigation overseas (a min government inspection department map 60CSx). I have fought over, which new government inspection department to receive to for a pair from months now and this, the min Nuvi 760 the Navigon 2100 and the new HP to have investigated to a large extent 300 row. Design. The unit is attractive with black one and silver in the indicating panel and in it is nice and... over the size of a bag PC device thin. The rail plate adjusts only two possibilities, but you can receive that third degree of freedom, by turning the direction of the suction bowl on the windshield thus it is. I like this verge much more than the old flexible verges on the Roadmate row. Those were horrid. They include a case of voucher for it, that is an inexpensive, but nicely from them, somehow doing also. Start. The unit always does not begin easily above. It seems sometimes, to the attorney waste screen ' to stick ', even if I press the okaytaste. It begins normally fair fine, but, if it clings, it still normally receives after one approximately second break 10 going. Occasionally I must switch it on away and again. I estimate that this is, which we receive with a Windows CERIUM created device. Satellite Satellites. First time I the unit began, explained I to it, where I was in the Configmenue and am very fast it, a satellite bolting device on each start to receive. It is generally ready to go, before I leave my route and is at maintaining a bolting device been very reliable. It is many faster than the old Roadmate and faster than the rx5915 (also the SirfIII splinter has). Diagrams. It is not disturbance of Magellan, but I am quite provoked up with Navteq for screwing the diagrams around my house. Before approximately three years, I reported the fact that its diagrams my neighbourhood road lacked although it here since 1985 is. Emailed back approximately six months, later saying it, which they were added come and them their data base past. Which they did not say, it is that they confused totally up, which where is, roads in the middle in houses sets and less than half of its material length shortens the entire road. One which for confusion! I had to adjust my ' house ' to one point down the road, which is still on the diagram. Others newish things within my range (like a new main street, which is opened over one year only for a point), are in the place, although, thus you should give not too much weight whether my neighbourhood will badly transfer. min uses the same company for their diagrams and TomTom uses another company, Teleatlas. Fundamental navigation. The 4250 seems to do an acceptable although not perfect, job of steering. I drove it to another city one approximately to hour far away today (on a way, which I am with familiar) and he formed, which I regards, to be the ' right ' elections. It had a pair of the questionable calls that I must hold an eye on. With a place I took an exit to the notice at a memory and my journey to continue, wanted her me on the highway the wrong way for an exit to send back, instead of, straight asking me to do u-turn and again register the highway. Another time, I pulled the road for gas down and, when it checked, wished it me the main street cross, which became traveling I down and on local roads to go (instead of, link back on the highway to turn). My experience was that all government inspection departments devices do a certain quantity of this material, but I was surprised by these two, which seemed through somehow up to now from appropriate standard. I must hold an eye on him, the remainder of navigation was rather smooth. A function, which I did not still use, is that, once a way is calculated, you can a segment preselect and it exclude. That is something, which is the min lacked that I really wished, thus I glad to see it here. Stimme/Text ton speech. The voice on this not largely. It is voice the irritating woman, who bends, to grind on the nerves. I turned the volume down and that, which it was helped much but I do not understand, why they do not give us a choice of voices, how they did with the Roadmate. Why do companies remove characteristics, which do not cost to add nothing (or much) the new product, which is developed once on the old? text ton speech is point a Polierer as on the old Roadmate, but I however probably turn it off, as I did before. It drives me moved that the voice reads each individual point of a long line of the changing road name. They separate the different names with a/auf the screen..., why one does not have straight it read to the first diagonal stroke. It is totally ridiculous and attractive, so that it holds, ' revolution over and over to repeat quite on Bennett road/US 29 business/US 250 bypasses, while you approach a revolution. They can see the changing names on the screen... as about straight leaving it to ' revolution right to Bennett road ' to say? Traffic. I live in a rural area and do not use this. I store my free activation for my following journey and thus can not speak also, as well it works. Take POIs out. This is one of the characteristics, which I have a quantity potential think. I am not able ge$$$WESEN to still examine it but was disappointed that it says in the manual that, if you take out to a gas station with it then it cancels your present way. That seems stupid, since it can remember a sentence stopovers, so that a journey and it can reroute around a traffic problem, without losing your way. Still are the one small disturbance and I think that the characteristic is useful. I find week out in one approximately, when I will travel on intergovernmental highways. Screen. The screen is sharp and free and brightly. I read note of some people that they do not like the colors, but I. I find it nicer as the colors either on the rx5915 or the Garmins Nuvis, which I regarded. It turns automatically at night mode, which is not as nice it nicely, but the night colors as on the rx5915 -. the 4250 night colors being a black background with white roads, in which the colors of the night rx5915 are a nice set of darkness and light blue. _ still be this a very nice screen and be simple, each condition inside read, which I already strike have (have not the sun direct on it still have) mode. One of the things, which I liked over the min Nuvi, 760 I was the ability to take a set of stopovers and to optimize it during the shortest time, to travel it all regarded. Like that I was pleasantly surprised to find that the same characteristic has the 4250. They set up straight something stopovers in the travel publisher and explain them then to optimize the journey. To keep as short very nicely, if you have a half dozen errand to let and the GPSr you to help wish run to, the journey, as possible. That is over all, which I did with journeys, but completely seemed simple to do. Language acknowledgment. Forget over it; this is worthless. It is enough badly that the things can explain you it, extremely limited that is you (and mostly not the things, which would really wish you), but it can not you hear regular noises road of the surplus even. I had to lean way toward to the unit forward straight to receive it to react around on ' Magellan ' the keyword and it never reacted on most other instructions, which I gave it. And if you wanted to know something like next AT, you would have to cancel your way, before you even asked, since those elections do not show above, when a way is active. Do not deceive simply this characteristic exist forwards. Bluetooth. This was by the fact disappointing that it remembers not my telephone (Razr v3) and attaches again. They would think that that operation key in the telephone menu ' to attach ' it would do, but it not. I must enter into my telephone and each time let it for new devices look, around it to receive attached. Now would like who continuously? Even if attached, is the loudspeaker limited and it cannot make the contact list of the telephone accessible, so, which is this another worthless characteristic in my book. I stick to headphone to mine bluetooth. Points of directory of the interest. It is inserted points of the interest is rather complete, although it would be nice, if they would let you combine a search by category and name. They must select or the other one, which means cannot to narrow and then in particular look for you it by category down first. Still it and it function have quite much everything, which I asked over for it at all approximately. The directory functioned well and closes the choice of storage of of to three telephone numbers, plus a note catches, for each entry. If you use bluetooth with your telephone, it selects those numbers, if you wish. They can mark an entry like a ' favourite ', in order to have your most used addresses in a shorter list. Customized POIs (you designate ' now increased '), can be only stored with the contained POI software and is one of the weaknesses Magellan. I cannot be expressed strongly enough senselessness permitting not, not be registered government inspection departments coordinates into the directory or permitting that addresses are registered into the habit POI document. In order to form my POIs, I must use Google mass around me the government inspection departments coords for a given address to give and into the POI the manager often commodity to then copy. Accepted, each address in your directory government inspection department a coordinate is finally, is absurd it that you cannot copy those freely back and forth. Add it that you are limited on only 10 categories POI in your customized document and you only to surprise to have itself, what they thought. So altogether, the directory is pretty good and habit POI handing over is quite limited. Aaa Tourbook. I became not very excited over this, when I selected the 4250, but, after I by him geschauen had, I had changed understanding for mine. It has a ton large information about places, which travel you through. Instead of finding, the names the close convenient hotels straight, it gives you much information about everyone. They look above the hotels close you and it pass on you the AAA of stars, a description of it, Annehmlichkeiten (thus it can you know if he has high-speed InterNet in such a way and), whether he domestic animals take, and so. He does the same for food, cases, maintenance, etc.. I think that this is very useful. Entirely. I was not at first safe, but I began to think that I hold this unit. Although I unite errors in the product underlined, is the truth that each mark has principal defects. Owners of the new min Nuvi 7xx row weight that them lock to itself strongly to the roads and set you on roads that you not on are and that them can last a long time to begin above. They have also a multiplicity of the UI expenditures, which are different as those, which has Magellan, but straight, like attractive. There are also many things, which I like better over the Garmins. , a complete run expenditures for usefulness have the TomToms (if my TomTom created rx5915 any example is) (like a showing you the address for an entry not in your directory and showing not of addresses of POIs, which you looked for for) and it gave me some amazingly creative ways, which out and around bolts you, going miles from your way, when a simple right revolution would have received you, where you went. But the TomTom has also some really nice characteristics, which lack the others. It not compensated simply, with so I will be able to sketch to that none of the companies a complete product really and the act am selecting straight deciding, irritating things would really use which to live to be able and be able and which singular functions you. I do discovery surprising, if the people, which sketch these things at all, use really their own products. If so, I see straight not, like her the decisions would meet, her. Anyway I think altogether, am this unit pretty good, and even if the min it out in strength border should (which did not become I it is safe), gives it no way, which it enough better, which would be Extra$150 to justify or more, which costs it. And this has some nice characteristics, which the min lacks. While I am a point, those over my electronic devices is possessed and in the morning rather strongly, to, for 95% of the people out to please there, this would be a fantastische unit with lots large characteristics. Only objection is that, since, I would say you to the language acknowledgment and bluetooth practically uselessly the being that, if one lack to its less expensive models the language acknowledgment and bluetooth but it is differently identical -, it would be supposed the better bet. On an absolute scale from which I think, to a GPSr should be, I this 3 stars would have given, but out compared with the other elections there, I believe that 4 stars better its represents relative earnings/services.


Poor unit at any price. Do not recommend. Returned it and got a Nuvi 650.
Do not know, what my 1. Report happened. IchWAR in the term to update this report with new info.. In a nutshell my output report went beyond that, how glitchy the unit was. I brought the 1. Unit back and exchanged it against an identical unit. Similar problems with the second unit. The energy switch is a joke. Sometimes it switches on immediately. Sometimes you must hold the key down some seconds, so that them switch on. Twice on one day it went to attitude to the screen coincidentally. There was no way to take the attitude out screen without loading the unit again. The language instruction, which is given the level to the accuracy, forms it a trick and not a characteristic. Correctly sometimes bluetooth was likewise not continuous and did not work not with the 2 telephones, which I examined with it. It would do stupid material such as way the call to the listener instead of the loudspeaker in the government inspection department. It would shift different time nevertheless the call by the government inspection department loudspeaker. If you are called good, leaves legends, which we do not need the voice and the Bluetooth characteristics. How accomplish as fundamental government inspection departments unit? My experience was bad. While in the city it settled an average work, I found that the detour was not so fast, as sometimes I expected. Graphics were at best only average. They can save a quantity money and receive a normal packing government inspection department, which works probably better, by jumping over 4250 over the Maestro. This week took I a journey by sea-head of the arrow and Big Bear mountain. It accomplished terriblly. While much my journey, although Big Bear showed it that I drove the center of the lake in place of through from the city. By much the sea-head of the arrow showed it that I was away from the road despite the Seins on main streets. She could not find its way from the head of the arrow to Big Bear, an approximately minuzioese journey 30. It constantly checked the way between head of the arrow and Big Bear to the point that the government inspection department was totally useless during this part of our journey. That was the locking straw, which let me return the unit. In its place I bought a min Nuvi 650 for $50 less than the Maestro 4250. The difference is like day and night. The min had worked up to now flawlessly. It is a pleasure to use against employing the bad software of the Maestros to use the marks it unreliably and pain. The min has also established in the player MP3, which I enjoy playing by stereo of my car. I recommend strongly the min Nuvi 650 surplus Magellan Maestro 4250. Give to be regulated well-known problems with the 4250, by which some are stated, with the new microprogram list for the 4250. Unfortunately up to now Magellan does not have can on its web site the updated microprogram list communicate, which becomes geruechteweise verb-ridden, in order to regulate some bluetooth the problems. Except headache and this unit avoid. I am very savy the Tech and believe that they rushed this unit, over to marked out, before she was examined correctly. Compare the reports of the Nuvi 650 and you see that I alone am not, if I find the 650 a much better unit.


4250 review
Purchase of my Magellan Maestro 4250 GPS was quick. Product was received within a week. I have since purchased additional items thru Amazon which were shipped elsewhere and the service was again quick and accurate.
Great job Amazon. In the short time I have used the GPS it is "AWESOME".



3 1/2 stars -love it & hate it. I can't decide
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.


Good product, poor support
Well after reading off all reports over min, Tom Tom and Magellan (m), I decided that the price and the user friendliness of the M were the entscheidene factor. After I received it, I set up him, turned off to him, registered and it one day designated. The next day, I tried, to switch it on and he would not concern. I tried to look for Techunterstuetzung and received an announcement saying that the support is 6-5 PST, it this times was natural past. I sent back an email in support, and her the undeliverable impact. Hmmm, as much for that. Fortunately I received it, in order, by striking to return resetting, on after one while and to propel at the same time. Now the good part, I had Saturday a lunch party to go to too on the next day therefore I programmed it with the address and selected fastest time. She did it is job well and I was impressed. The only note, which I form over the way, it selected, was that, if it had been peak hour traffic I would have sat in something main traffic. This is not real critism the government inspection department, they(all from them) straight has not the healthy human understanding, which humans have. They must use healthy human understanding, if you use these things. Before the only other negative commentated, the diagram was did not have a main highway close at my house, which was accomplished approximately 3 year, therefore held it to ask me to go back to another road which was a slower way. Also the road, which I live on, was wrongly spelled. Goes illustration! (the min let harm it also, only the Tom Tom it right had), I examined support place of assembly and nothing over the 4250 exist there. Nothing!!! Thus support receives another star removed the evaluation. Like that final result, the product is good to use simply and exactly, but supports sucks. I hope that Magellan receives the announcement from all negative posts over its support. Again you must use healthy human understanding, if you use these things. Lucky GPSing.


Good GPS, HORRIBLE Customer Service
I bought a Maestro 4250 in November 2007. I spent many weeks the InterNet over the differences between Magellan and Garmin including borrowing friends a Maestros 4000 investigating. My locking decision was based on the fact that Magellan AAA POIs had, the ability, to designate AAA road service with your position and had real time traffic with free 3 month a subscription to the service. I obeyed the instructions for receiving subscription the code and as I came in, received he into my government inspection departments unit "inadmissible code a registered" disturbance. After 20 plus attempts, I associated with customer service. I spent one hour at the telephone different support personnel explaining, what it was wrong finally to be explained to do and please that they not which knew Monday repetition attendance. Well I do not have repetition attendance, because the unit died and would not propel again later to this afternoon. I returned the unit for another 4250 and went through again the steps for traffic subscription code and received again the inadmissible code registered disturbance. Because of the work situations I was not capable of designating customer service to Thanksgiving day and on this day spent 2 hours on influence, before I finally hung above. I designated customer service some days later and a representative dechiffror fast the problem and gave myself a code of the new product and dependent me, in order to enter this code on Magellan web site and to receive new activation a code on-line. I did as dependent, but the place of assembly held, to me had me to explain a code and only would already try to sell me a one year's subscription to traffic service. I called customer service back and after expenditure 10 minutes on influence was explained that the reason for happening this the web site became worked on was and the correct choice in a pair would appear from days. She never did and until today I Magellan Corp over snail mail a letter to the head offices sent, because obviously they cannot touch other method. The government inspection departments unit to also work and has meant impossible of the relative record numbers I is very nice to find found. One of my principal reasons for the purchase of this unit was it is real time traffic choice, which I had not witnessed yet.


Not quite ready for prime time
After extensive research, I purchased a Magellan 4250 - great price for a fully loaded gps. Out of the box eperience was good, nice bright clear screen, fast satellite hook-up, dead on location accuracy, and an intuitive menu system. But (you knew this was coming, didn't you?), after trying it out and spending over 2 hours on the phone with three different support technicians, I have decided to return it.

Why you ask? First, it has an annoying habit of refusing to turn back right after being turned off. It sometimes takes a full minute or more to turn back on. Guess I could live with that, but not the next issue. The bigger problem is with its bluetooth features. It would link up with my cell phone and function properly - receiving and sending calls perfectly. However when you turn off the 4250, and later turn it on, the link to the cell phone is completely gone, like it never was there. The only way to re-establish the link was to go thru the discovery process again.

Hello tech service. I eventually talked to three different techs (the good news is that wait time was very reasonable, less than 1 minute each time), and was eventually told that 1) this is a known problem (it actually was duplicated by one of the techs who had a 4250 availble to her 2) that there is a work around - turn bluetooth off on the cell phone before turning the 4250 off (nope - didn't make any difference) 3) that the 4250 was supposed to be shipped with firmware 2.36 (mine had firmware 2.24, 4) firmware 2.36 would fix this problem, and 5) firmware 2.36 would not be available for download for approximately two months!

Hmm....what to do. Since bluetooth was important to me, and the principal basis for my decision to buy (along with the good price), I decided to return it. Too bad, it's otherwise a nice unit. But releasing a new model with an obvious flaw and more importantly not being able to supply a software fix for several months is definitely not the way to win my business. I guess I'll pay the price for the equivalent Garmin.


It's a good unit, but also has some flaws
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.


Great Product, Great Price
Saw I lasted when, if I, which the some products on the market I would be on most interested out. The top side of the line Maestro 4250 for Magellan has some characteristics, which something, which I wished and if they are set to the use, came out with large results are. _ IL list away of some the desirable and little desirable quality of it. Per: - vibrant, acceptable size of the 4.3"Schirmes. and well layed out.Black exterior are beautiful. The pastel inks, which are indicated on the screen, are nice IMO. The Garmins are only the different, which I was interested. - navigation. Divided screen is large when coming up to the close direction. To follow very simply. - text to the speech. It works well, but you are limited on Mrs. one. She speaks it well. Example: Turn to the left on at main street in 1.2 miles. - POIs. Well groups and simply to understand as well as many from them to. - possibility 2D/3D. - multi-journey planner - attitude very simply and sticks well to the windshield. - Car/Home loading unit comes into handy Cons: - if it w/out specific direction crosses, finds I that very small detail is shown on the diagram. As soon as I set me into a specific place, he calls each road around my position bischen strange (this still, regarding) - copy "more darkly". It knows a bright point, but, if it attitudes, which adjust you okay are (attitudes help, but frequently split up in the opacity if into double or divided screen mode, which not frequently somehow is) - speech volumes its. Loud and freely, but each possible kind of music can tone it thrash, therefore you do not guarantee that them are on the highest level, thus you a direction to miss. Indefinitely: - language instruction. This is a biggie and a lot of people, which regard this model, knows that very few or no different one at the moment marks this. Functioned simply, by saying "Magellan" in, which it answers an instruction with "legends," then, you can say or contact-sensitive screen the instruction. It functions, BUT you must speak with READING and free voice. Radio must to be honestly out be supposed, or it is dumbfounded. To be, but I not your complete review/purchase away from him would create a pretty cool characteristic. If it were a point, which is more sensitive for speech, it would be an excellent characteristic. DRAW UP Decembers 6, 2007 - the things, to the note of to take worry themselves not, it still suggested in high of degrees the good. 1.) placed I mean starting position as the present position, when I was in my route, to see to the fact that exactly it was it POINT ON and perfectly referred me to my road and into my exact house and drieveway was, after exchanges one minute of 30 early on. 2.) satellites are always full signal over here, which is fantastisch. 3.) shift again computation (this is a biggie of my opinion after!! ). I missed appropriately my main street and started, by following the main street. It took less than 5 seconds, in order to check a way to keep easy in order to back-get another way (, gave it knew me secretly that another possibility, back). Reliably it took enough me thrashes the exact road, which I hoped for and was in my route the following minute. The bad. 1.) energy switch can be very intractable, but holds it downward hard for 5-10 seconds and it always loads up. 2.) POI's.. during it several of them it gives, not generally very well arranged, if it comes to overhaul. I find that I drive too far away to the naehsten grocer's shop memory, if I know its for a fact only 5 miles down the road. She hides herself sometimes on the lower surface of the list with much higher distance equivalent for any reason (those is, why its at the lower surface, because its sorted by naehsten distance, if you select that somehow, but its there) of summary: For the price this product is hard to strike compared with min and TomTom products. Buy the 4250, you are not disappointed.


abysmal customer support
I accidentally entered the wrong S/N when registering my 4250 online. Though it accepted the S/N I entered. The print is extremely misleading and I made a typo because of it. What looked like a 6 was actually a 5. I was unaware it was the wrong s/n until I tried to activate the free 3 month traffic subscription. After I entered the traffic subscription coupon it generated a coupon code that did not work (a ridiculously long code that I entered several times) on my device because of the S/N error. (I figured out the S/N error only through perusing the different user settings and finding a product information page. If you buy one of these, don't try to read the box, turn on the device and go to the product id screen.)

I called India (customer support) and it was an excercise in futility, and I knew that as soon as the guy answered the phone. This is not a racist comment in any way. The problem is customer support is farmed