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: - * 60 day road test - poor performance ...
I'm on the road 16 hours a day with this unit going to 4 to 5 customers a day. First, the recalculation is slow when re-routing. Touch screen is clumbsey. There is a know problem with the sensativity and location of the buttons on the touch screen. Routing is inconsistant. If you use "fastest route" it may take you off and then on to the same highway along a service route. I got this for the large screen, which is great, but the overall performance of the unit is poor. The start up is also very slow and takes a few minuets to locate itself. Mounting bracket also lacks full adjustablity, needs a swival pivot on the mounting head. Overall very dissapointed with this. Also customer service is very poor.When the touch screen performance started to deteriorate and the response became unbearably poor, the LCD cracked under one of the buttons due to too much pressure from my finger, which I know is not a manufacturing problem, but customer service would not help even though this was due to an issue with the touch screen.

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Buyer's feedback: - Great, if it worked
My girlfriend bought me the magellan 4250 as a gift for our 20 day road trip around the east coast. well it seemed great until I turned it on one day and the unit froze on the bootup screen and would not do anything. i could not reset and turning it off did no good either. when the unit worked it worked well and was easy to use but it is useless if it wont boot up. if you are relying on an electronic device to give you directions i cant recomend the 4250.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Bringing it back.... ...
Have used the unit for a week. My old unit would go into "menu" mode when you touched the screen anywhere - this one you have to touch a small box near the bottom. Should be easier. Taking it back because it will not link with my Motorola bluetooth phone, works fine with my wife's Katana. I'd keep it if the bluetooth worked. Maps are clear and readable, only goes down to 0.1 miles prior to turn, my old unit and other car got into yards prior, which I think is more useful

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Buyer's feedback: - Great GPS, but headache for newbies
I just bought this 4250 a week ago and as soon as i received it i had it on a dry run. The first time i opened it, it was amazing...with all the features with the price way beyond best buy and circuit city it felt like a steal (and now i see that it's $10 less than i bought it last week!)! after reading the other reviews and seeing that they almost said everything nice about it, ill just share the bad side of this GPS.

1. after the first time i turned it on, my 4250 began to stop stalling on me on the opening screen. it wouldn't turn off or respond to touch even if i press the reset button. there was no way of shutting or resetting it. it happend to me several times we even thought it was the battery. it was very frustration i almost threw this thing in the air and send it back. i had to study the whole thing on its web site and manual and was later found out that i could simply hold the power button for 10 sec. to restart it. the website explained it as incompatibility issues or something...i hope it wouldn't cause major problems in the future. imagine a newbie solve this problem...

2. software update is too long. i found out that they only release updates of the map yearly. hmmm...that means any changes in the roads will have to wait on my GPS on the following year.

3. after you disconnect the GPS in your computer, the GPS would still think its connected to the computer. you would have to reset the thing to work. hmmm...i wonder how i can upgrade later if i have to keep resetting it?

3. minor case...but i hope they improve the selection of the voice command and make it easier to tell the GPS rather than speaking robotic-like to it.

but overall, i love this GPS because of its price vs. product = a STEAL!

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Buyer's feedback: - * Disappointing mounting system ...
I couldn't believe what I found when I tried to mount this unit in my wife's van. Since it can't be mounted on the windshield (too far from the driver's position, plus a long dashboard), it would have to be mounted on the dash. Well, the dash is curved, with no flat area on it at all. The 4250 mounting bracket only is adjustable with 2 degrees of freedom - up/down, and left/right. There is no way to pivot the unit clockwise or counter-clockwise on the mounting bracket, which is what is needed for this van's dash. If I mount it as it is, the screen would be tilted about 30 degrees off of level horizontal. This seems like a nice unit, but some designer had his head in the sand when designing the bracket. The Garmin units have a great mounting bracket, so that's where I am going next.