First Review Look On Magellan Maestro 4250

24. Pros
Ultra-bright 4.3-inch display
Touch screen is very sensitive, requiring only a light touch to register commands
Excellent address input system (As you type, Maestro dims out letters that don’t spell valid city names)
Lots of control over route calculation preferences
Ability to exclude specific roads/highways from the route
Good Points of Interest (POI) database (the 4250 only has 4.5 million POIs compared to 6 million on Garmin’s nuvi models. Yet I found the Maestro did a better job finding local businesses in all the areas I tested)
Newly updated 2007 (NAVTEQ) maps
Includes everything needed to receive traffic data
Traffic receiver integrated into the 12v adapter
Fast, responsive interface
Split-screen view is excellent for understanding upcoming maneuvers
Magellan’s QuickSpell text-entry system makes spelling street names a breeze - even from the driver’s seat
Four routing methods to choose from: Fastest Time, Shortest Distance, Least Use of Freeways, Most Use of Freeways (Although it would be nice if the GPS would display estimated drive times for each of the four methods so you could make a more educated choice about which method to select).
Current Location screen allows one-click viewing of your current location, time of day, speed, direction of travel, and also is an easy way to save your current location into the address book for future use (even if your current location doesn’t have a valid street address)
Magellan’s unique “Exit POIs” feature lets you see what’s available at each approaching exit on the highway.
AAA TourBook data included
Nice looking device
SiRF’s high performance StarIII GPS receiver
Supports multi-destination routing with route optimization (ability to sort a list of addresses by distance)
6 hour (average) battery life
25. Cons
Poor customer support
Underpowered speaker isn’t loud enough, even at the highest volume.
Night Mode only darkens the map screen. All other menus remain in the (blindingly bright) blue theme used in regular daytime mode
Voice Recognition only works in a quiet car with little or no background noise, and you still have to speak clearly and close to the GPS unit
Can’t enter a street address using Voice Recognition
No way to get back to the map screen using Voice Recognition
Maps not as smooth looking as other GPS units (probably because of fewer “shape points” being used to render the map)
Poor documentation
Tapping the back icon doesn’t always back out to the previous menu; sometimes it returns you back several menus and you have to start all over again
Address Book of saved locations hidden under the “Enter Address” menu
No way to search for a POI near your destination address
Can’t search for a POI while en route to a destination; Other than the Exit POI feature, the only way to search for a POI is to cancel the current route
Irritatingly long delay when accessing the bluetooth menu
Weak Bluetooth compatibility. I was unable to fully pair an Apple iPhone, and completely unable to use a Blackberry 8700 with the Maestro 4250
Announces full street names rather than truncated names, making for a very chatty GPS at some intersections
Traffic data still fairly useless, as coverage is spotty and accuracy of data is inconsistent
Text-to-speech quality, though improved over previous Magellan units, still lags behind Garmin and TomTom
Street names are sometimes word-wrapped in a strange way, making it hard to read the upcoming maneuver
Text entry system for POI lookups doesn’t use Magellan’s QuickSpell
No linkage between Magellan’s 4.5 million POI database and the AAA TourBook information (so you have to search in two places to get a complete list, as both may contain different POIs)
Poor Bluetooth compatibility
Announcing of full street names can be overly verbose
Although you can create and store multi-destination routes, you cannot insert a single stop along a route you are already driving. For example, Garmin’s GPS units allow you to add a single stop along the current route.
Occasional bugs (unit froze up on me once and I had to reset it)
26. Conclusion

Magellan has been in the GPS business for a long time, and the years of experience show with the Maestro 4250, Magellan’s top of the line GPS. The new slimmer design makes the 4250 one of the best looking GPS units Magellan has ever produced. The ultra-bright 4.3-inch display is easy to read, even in bright sunlight, and the system is easy to use. The 4250 supports some very useful features unique to Magellan. For example, the Exit POI feature shows you what restaurants and gas stations are located at each approaching highway exit.

The split-screen (”TrueView”) is very useful for understanding an upcoming turn, and the Maestro 4250 is one of the few GPS units to support multi-destination routing with route optimization (the ability to sort a list of addresses by distance). I also came to appreciate having AAA TourBook information on the GPS, and appreciated the 4250’s fast, responsive interface.

I also appreciated Magellan’s well thought-out system of notifying the driver of upcoming turns, visually and audibly warning you at several intervals before the turn with enough notice that you’re not making sudden maneuvers.

Magellan’s routing engine isn’t quite as competent as Garmin’s, but it’s a close second and is decidedly better than TomTom’s. The windshield mount isn’t the most elegant, and traffic data is still of little value to most drivers thank to limited coverage and spotty accuracy.

Bluetooth compatibility was poor on the 4250, and I was unable to correctly pair a Blackberry 8700 or an Apple iPhone.

Magellan’s Maestro 4250 offers a lot of advanced features in an easy to use interface at a price that’s hard to beat. If money is no object, I still prefer Garmin’s pricey nuvi 760 over the Maestro 4250. But at almost half the price, the Maestro 4250 is a better bargain and delivers a lot of features for the money. The Maestro is a better GPS than the similarly priced TomTom GO 720, and a much better GPS than Navigon’s 7100. There’s still room for some tweaking and minor usability improvements on the 4250, but overall this is a very good GPS and I feel comfortable recommending it to you.