0ur opinion:

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Say a command and enjoy hands-free control of your Maestro! The Magellan Maestro 4250 GPS Navigation System features a large 4.3' wide-format color touch screen and amazingly easy-to-use interface to add pleasure to your driving experience. lt includes built-in maps of the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, 6 million pre-programmed Points of lnterest, integrated AAA TourBook guide information, SayWhere text-to-speech, LlVE traffic report capability and more. Plus, make hands-free phone calls with your Bluetooth -enabled phone. Say a command to access the most used navigation functions with Voice Command and Control. lts QuickSpell feature intelligently searches and checks spelling while entering addresses and P0ls, making it easy to find what you're looking for with just few touches of the screen while the lnteractive onscreen icons show nearby services. Touch an icon to see the address and phone number (when available) and get an instant route. lt even lets you store locations in the Address Book for easy navigation on recurring trips. Set the Home button to your house or any location to easily find the most direct way back from wherever you are. You can even backup your personal data using your own SD cards. The integrated traffic receiver offers onscreen traffic incident reports in real-time.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. The SiRFstarlll GPS receiver and built-in high-sensitivity antenna provide the fastest position acquisition in the industry for reliable navigation. SmartDetour prompts you to route around sudden slow freeway traffic. The integrated rechargeable battery provides navigation for up to four hours when power is unavailable. Ultra-thin, elegant and completely mobile; take your Magellan Maestro anywhere for easy, accurate navigation!

-- November 13, 2007:
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 lll chipset that provides super-fast. satellite lock and making them thinner. ln 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 P0ls. The 3210 and 4210, add maps for Canada and Alaska, AAA travel information (see details below) and bump you up to 6 million P0ls. 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 lnterface
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 (P0ls), 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.




lntegrated 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.

0ne of the thinnest portable GPS navigators on the market

Take lt 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 (P0ls). P0l data includes telephone numbers and addresses.

lt also has an Address Book in which you can create and store P0ls 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

0ptional Accessories
AC Wall power supply/charger, USB data cable

About Magellan
Magellan is a leader in the consumer, survey, GlS, and 0EM 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.









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Testimonials

Average Buyer Rating:

Buyer's feedback: - * MAGELLAN WINS ...
AFTER READING ALL THE REVIEWS I HAVE TO AGREE WITH ALLMOST EVERYONE GOOD AND BAD. REASON FOR BAD IS FIRST I BOUGHT A MAGELLAN 5310. LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT IT AT FIRST THEN EVERY THING WENT BAD. I HAD TO TAKE IT BACK BECOUSE IT LOCKED UP AND WOULD NOT WORK. GLAD I DID THE 4250 COST LESS AND HAS VOICE COMMAND AND BLUETOOTH.

THATS WHEN I SPENT DAYS READING REVIEWS, REALIZED THEY ALL HAVE THERE PROBLEMS AND FOR THE PRICE,OPTIONS AND POI I STILL REALLY LIKED THE MAGELLAN AND THE 4250 SEEMED LIKE THE ONE. SO I RISK IT AND ORDERED ONE.
REALLY GLAD I DID THIS ONE HAS WORKED PRETTY MUCH FLAWLESSLY.

I STAYED AWAY FROM TOM TOM BECOUSE SEVERAL FRIENDS TOLD ME IT HAS BAD MAPS,THE ASSOCIATE AT THE STORE AND THE REVIEWS ALL AGREAD. HEARD GOOD THINGS ABOUT GARMIN BUT NOTHING TO CONVINCE ME TO PAY MORE THAN I DID FOR MY MAGELLAN.

THE 4250 ROUTES AND REROUTES QUICKLY. THE POI IS ALLMOST A GOOD AS THE YELLOW PAGES IT HAS EVERY THING YOU COULD NEED,AND ONE CLICK ROUTES YOU THERE. PLAN ALL YOUR DESTINATIONS FOR A DAY IN A FOLDER AND GO TO IT AND JUST SELECT THE NEXT DESTINATION IN ANY ORDER AND IT ROUTES YOU. ADDRESS BOOK WORKS GREAT TO, SELECT TO ROUTE OR IF YOUVE ENTERED A PHONE NUMNBER JUST TOUCH IT AND THE BLUETOOTH CALLS FOR YOU.

THE SCREENS A GOOD SIZE. VOLUME IS GOOD EASY TO HEAR SOME REVIEWS SAID HARD TO HEAR OVER THE RADIO, WELL IF YOU WANT A LOAD RADIO YOUR NOT GOING TO HEAR IT DUH, WARNS YOU IN PLENTY OF TIME TO GET OVER FOR AN EXIT OR TELLS YOU THE ENTRANCE IS ON THE RIGHT OR LEFT, IF ITS A QUICK TURN IT TELLS YOU FOR EXAMPLE TURN LEFT WITH AN IMEDIATE RIGHT TURN SO YOU GET THE RIGHT LANE. THE TOUCH SCREEN WORKS PRETTY GOOD, IT WORKS BETTER WITH A PEN. THE VOICE COMMAND WORKS ALSO PRETTY GOOD TO. YOU DO NEED TO REPEAT COMMAND A COUPLE OF TIMES,AGAIN ITS NOT PERFECT BUT IT DOES WORK WELL. MY BLUETOOTH IS EASY TO CONNECT NOW THAT I DOWNLOADED THE NEWEST FIRMWARE 4.6 THAT JUST CAME OUT. WHICH I DOWNLOADED 7/9/08

THE MANUAL REALLY IS LOUSY YOU MUST MUST MUST PLAY WITH IT AND TOUCH EVERY ICON BUTTON ECT TO FIND OUT ALL IT WILL DO.

THIS ONE HAS NOT FROZEN UP AND NEVER HAD TO RESET IT.
COMES WITH THE HOUSE CHARGER CAR CHARGER AND USB CABLE, ALSO THE SUCTION CUP,I PURCHASED THE BEAN BAG WORKS GREAT. I HAVE HEARD FROM EVERYONE DONT LEAVE ANY EVEDENCE IN THE CAR OF A GPS OR IT WILL BE BROKEN INTO.

I AM GLAD THAT I BOUGHT THE 4250. I WOULD GLADLY RECOMMEND IT.

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Buyer's feedback: - Magellan 4250
This is a great system. I like it better than the in car system I had in another vehicle. A wealth of information for trips.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Magellan Maestro 4250 ...
I really like this GPS. I have had a Garmin (never could figure it out) and used a Tom Tom. The 4250 is by far the easiest to use. I like the AAA feature. The screen is big enough that even a 50 something can read it easily. It gives you plenty of warning for turns coming up. I like the little icons on the screen that let you see where banks, fuel, eateries, etc are on your route. Altho we have have not had to use it, the traffic alerts are cool. I'd get another one.

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Buyer's feedback: - So far so good
So far I have only two complaints, and I will hold them for the end. My 4250 was packaged very well, the shipping was fast. It was simple to take out of the package and get up and running, and with the "Points Of Interest" and addresses that are already in the thing, you really don't have to do anything else. I elected not to use the adhesive disk because I stick nothing to the interior of my car, so it is mounted on the windshield, and it holds securely. It is very simple to use either through touching the screen or voice commands, although sometimes it does not respond to my voice commands, but that can be expected with the inherent background noises that exist in a moving or running vehicle. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find and address/street, but I have found if you type as far as it will let you, and then start backing up one letter at a time, you will eventually find the address/street you are looking for. They are not always in there the way you expect. A good example is people here refer to some streets as RR but they are really Roosevelt Road, you have to actually enter "Rooseve..." to get on the right page. It's not a problem just one of the little things you have to learn. If you put in your destination, and then examine you route by using the simulate mode, you can figure out which of the 4 routes you want to take, and you can fast forward or reverse through the simulation to look at specific areas of your trip, which is a very nice feature. Sometimes it just will not calculate the route the way I want to go, and when that happens I just go the way I want, turn off the volume and it will continue to recalculate my route until it gets to the one I want. So far it has not gotten me lost, although for some reason it did have me exit the interstate and then get back on the interstate at the next on ramp. I'm not sure why we did that, but I have learned to follow directions and you won't get lost. The POI software is great, I installed it and thought it was a joke at first, but then I discovered that between Mapquest and Google Earth, I can locate anything, then I can get the Lat. and Long. and convert that to the decimal lat. and long. and I can enter my own POIs. Then using this system I can create trips using the POI editor, you can just name POIs stop 1, stop 2, etc. Ok now for the complaints; To use a voice command you have to say the word "Magellan" and the unit responds with "Say a command." Sometimes it will respond with "Say a command" while you are talking to someone in your vehicle. I am sure it hears something that sounds like someone said "Magellan" and it is doing what it is programmed to do, but sometimes is gets a little annoying. The other problem is sometimes the unit seems to lock up. On several occasions I have had to wait several minutes for my 4250 to respond and allow me to enter an address or intersection. It has never happened at a critical time while I was driving, each time it has happened I was sitting still. This is a computer, and sometimes computers get conflicting instructions. I have not had to turn the unit off yet to clear a problem, but I think it gets confused sometimes. Over all, I like my 4250 a lot, and if I had it to do all over again, I would definitely buy another 4250.

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Buyer's feedback: - * I upgraded, and regret it, read this! ...
I had the lower model Maestro 3250 and Loved it. I gave it to my daughter as she will be moving out soon, and I upgraded to the 4250 for the bluetooth capability as well as the voice recognition which would be great. Well, it's NOT!

The bluetooth volume is so low you cannot hear the caller. The volume is set all the way up and it is completely unusable! Worthless bluetooth!

The voice command is also very bothersome! You cannot insert an address by voice which is the most cumbersome thing you have to do with the GPS. Plus it often asks for a voice command while I am talking to a passenger. There are no voice command instructions in the manual so you have to try about a thousand words to try to access the voice command mode. Once you learn that the access word is "Magellan" it is more usable, however while carrying on a conversation with other people in the car, the dang GPS recognizes some word as "Magellan"! and asks for a voice command! Very Irritating!!!!!!!

It does have many more points of interest than the 3250 had and it also announces the street name of your next turn which is very helpful versus simply turn left.

I would recommend another model with many points of interest, but avoid the bluetooth and voice commands.