Magellan Maestro 4250 4 3 Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

Magellan Maestro 4250 4 3 Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

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.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Some good features
I put a lot of miles on a class B RV and am enough of a geek to travel with 4 GPS’s including a Garmin 780 and this Magellan 4250. I have over 10,000 miles using the pair and have definite preferences between them. The Garmin is much better for navigating and bluetooth with superior graphics and much easier search and route features. Sound is better on Bluetooth and communication with the phone to return calls, etc is easy to use.

The Magellan has a better POI’s because of the AAA database but is frustrating because you have to cancel the current route to search. Neither lets you search along the route as does the DeLorme PC GPS so many of the POI’s are behind you. Neither will show rest stops which are important in an RV (the DeLorme does). I like Magellan’s allowing you to choose whether it displays arrival time, time to go or distance to go on the main screen. It also shows compass direction. When on a trip you may want to know the distance to the next town and Magellan auto-enters town names based on distance from current position while the Garmin makes you enter the entire name and then puts them in some arbitrary order making you go through several screens for a common name like Centerville. Magellan however does not let you search for the city center as does the Garmin. You have to enter an address or intersection. Magellan routing is not as good as it may take you a long way out of the way on a long trip. A recent trip from Texas to Colorado showed 1018 miles on Magellan and 804 miles (correct) on Garmin. The MOST IMPORTANT problem I have had on the Magellan is that it will not find “Lee’s Summit” Missouri. I had to look up the zip code and then Lee’s Summit was listed as a choice.

The other GPS’s I use both require a laptop but have several important features. The DeLorme Street Atlas is good for trip planning and alternate routing distances as well as rest stops. The Good Sam software shows campsites but is poor for routing and hard to sync.

5 Stars A great investment!
This was a great investment purchasing this item! We have used it numerous times since purchasing it and it has paid for itself..literally. LOVE the way it auto reroutes if you can’t make the required turn for some reason. It gives you the quickest way back to where you needed to be.

It gives you ample time to know when to switch lanes for your upcoming turn, actually ‘beeps’ when you are at the actual place to turn and so forth.

Definately give this a 5 star rating and recommend it for anyone. Easy to program as well so that is a BIG plus too.

1 Star Maestro frozen
I was impressed with Magellan service when I needed help to sync phone and get map updates. They responded quickly, courteously and solved my problem. However the first time I tried to use the Maestro 4250 to navigate, it froze and would not “unfreeze”. I tried rebooting, updated the software, but nothing helped. I ended up returning the unit, which Amazon and Electronica processed promptly

1 Star magellan maestro series and roadmate series
For the Love of God …please stay away from Magellan. Non speaking English customer support is a nightmare. I am not prejudice but appalled at how sorry a company can be.

I have sunk over 500 for the maestro 4250 and around 300 for the roadmate 2750 I think it was. Both worked about a year. I am so upset all I can say is stay away from them.

4 Stars Bought a second one after the first was stolen!
I love my magellan. I prefer the wide screen to some of the units my friends have, I like that it announces several times before you get to your turn, and does a bell sound well in time for you to make the turn. It announces the street, and it re-routes you well if you actually blow a turn. The only thing that is a little bit of a hassle is when it doesn’t get a satellite hit right away when you were traveling a different route – turned the unit off before you got there – and are now starting from a different location. I think that happens with all of them though.

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