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| Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Magellan
Category: CE
List Price: $599.99
Buy New: $241.00
You Save: $358.99 (60%)
New (37) Used (1) Refurbished (2)
Avg. Customer Rating:  254 reviews
Sales Rank: 93
Color: Silver/Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Tracks: Unknown
Batteries Included: No
Native Resolution: Unknown
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Clothing Size: 2GB
Size: 2GB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 5.1 x 9.8 x 2.1
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: Magellan Maestro 425
Model: Magellan Maestro 425
UPC: 763357118032
EAN: 0763357118032
ASIN: B000V4PZCI
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Handy, but could be better January 30, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the first GPS that I've owned. We purchased it at the end of December and have been using it fairly regularly for about a month. Since they have been around for several years now, I was disappointed with some of the quirks and other issues I've discovered with this unit:
The screen is way too bright at night, even on the lowest brightness setting. It's nice that the screen turns to a black background automatically, but it's still too bright.
We've found that the GPS sometimes takes odd routes. Ex: We took a trip from Illinois to Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago. The drive from Illinois to Madison was new to us, so we utilized the GPS to get there. However, once we were in Madison, we knew the best route to use to get to our destination (in Appleton). The GPS was trying to route us another way, which would have taken an additional 2 hours to get to the destination! (This was using the "Fastest Route" option on the route planner). The GPS kept trying to recalculate the route, but instead of grasping what we were doing, it wanted us to turn around, drive back to Madison, then continue on the route it had originally planned. This lasted for about an hour before it FINALLY figured out the route we were taking. Before it adjusted the route, it wanted us to backtrack 40 miles to get on the other route. This was ridiculous.
When exiting to eat, fill up with fuel, stop at a rest stop etc., it would be nice to have a way to pause the navigation so it does not constantly try to recalculate the route while you're at the exit. If there is a way to do this, I haven't discovered it yet.
A QWERTY keyboard would be a definite improvement. Since the letters are just on a touchscreen, I don't see why this isn't the standard format? When entering a city to route to, it automatically highlights the possible letters for you so it's easier to work with this keyboard format. Ex: If you want to travel to Chicago, IL, you would type the C, then the GPS eliminates (darkens) any letter that isn't going to be the next letter in the city name. The H would be highlighted, but something like the X would not (assuming there is no city in the US that starts with Cx). I just don't understand why they went through the effort of doing this instead of designing a QWERTY keyboard from the start. Now, the highlighting trick with a QWERTY keyboard would be quite cool.
I have been using the system on batteries some and the system does not give any warning that the batteries are about to run out. It just dies. This is NOT good when you're relying on the GPS to get you somewhere. It happened to me last night and I nearly got lost. I would think they could add a battery monitor and let you know when you've only got a certain amount of time left on the batteries. (Laptops have it, why can't these?)
Things that I like about the unit:
Having the street names called out while giving directions is VERY nice. I have been with people using other GPS systems that just say "Turn right in .5 miles" and the driver is left guessing exactly which street to turn on. Having the GPS say "Turn right in .5 miles on 1st Avenue" is great. There are some issues with the text to speech, however. A couple examples come to mind: Instead of saying Illinois 84 as the road name, it says I L 84 (pronouncing the letters instead of the state name). Also, if a road has multiple names, like a highway reference and local street name, it announces them both but without pausing between them. It sounds like one big, long name. If you're listening to the directions and not looking at the screen it can be difficult to discern what road it's talking about.
Another feature that we've utilized, and was handy, was the ability to have directions to an intersection. Recently, we had to find a FedEx location and all we were given was the intersection that the building was located at. I had noticed that there was a way to have the system provide guidance to an intersection and decided to try it. It worked great!
We recently relocated from another area and did not have a phonebook for a couple of weeks, to find things like Hardware stores, etc. We were able to use some of the addresses in the GPS to help us find the store we were looking for, and use it to guide us there. I find using the POI database to be a little tricky (i.e. using the lookup method by category can be difficult), but if you want to just search for something by name it seems to be easier. Ex: We were trying to locate a Home Depot store. I couldn't find it using the category search, but I typed in the name Home Depot and found a store. This system kind of served as a mini phonebook for us until we got a real one. Obviously, every address is not stored in this system. There have been times that we wanted to find a McDonalds or something, knowing that there would be one close to us, but the unit didn't know anything about that specific location.
The product is a good size. It's quite thin, fitting easily into a purse or pocket, and the widescreen is nice. I like being able to click on the arrow in the lower left corner to see the route that the system has planned. I also enjoy the compass located in the upper left corner, and the ability to touch that button to find out fun information like rate of speed, elevation, distance to the next exit, distance to the previous exit, etc.
Overall, I like having something to help navigate for me and the unit has come in handy already, but for the price I paid I was expecting more.
 Many features - many flaws as well January 30, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I bought this and the Garmin Nuvi 650 and took them both for a long trip from Dallas - Atlanta - Destin, FL - Back to Dallas. It was a very good test of both systems and I actually returned the Magellan 4250 because of the following:
1. It gave me a weird route from Atlanta to Destin, FL that was 3 hours longer than Google, Yahoo and the Garmin. I had selected Quickest route when it did that. I then selected shortest route and it gave me another route that would take 6.5 hours. Isn't that the quicker as well? A friend of mine also said that the Magellan unit he had gave him a route that was 8 hours long from Houston to Dallas, instead of the regualar 5 hours.
2. I wanted to search for all Rest Areas that were coming up on my route. The exit POIs only show you the next 20 miles in your route. When you are on a long trip and want to get the next exit, you have to cancel the existing route and do a search. This will show you what you are looking for that is completely out of your way. The Garmin shows you the POIs you are looking for while navigating your current route and also shows the direction the POI is in. In the Garmin you can also ask it to show only POIs on your route.
3. The unit froze up at least a dozen times in 2 weeks and rebooted itself.
4. This unit wants to say out loud every darn thing you do on it. Example: 'Back', 'Cancel' etc. Would I not know what I just selected or what button I pressed on?
5. The voice prompts are very limited and the prompts available are even more restricted when you are in a route. Example: 'Nearest gas' command is not available when you are in a route. You have to cancel the route to get it. When you are in a route you only get the Exit POIs. When you r route is not on a freeway what good is the Exit POIs feature?
On the positive side:
1. I liked that you could select a segment in your route (say a particular freeway) and ask the unit to avoid that segment. This comes in handy when you know that there is construction or heavy traffic on a part of your route.
2. The FM traffic feature, though it is limited to only the big metro areas, is still a nice one to have.
3. I liked how the keyboard will automatically grey out the letters that are not applicable. Example: When you are entering 'Dal' for Dallas Ave, it might see from its database that the next character could only be 'l' and a couple of other characters and grey out the rest. Believe me, this helps when you enter street names and the keyboard is not QWERTY.
 Disappointed, Re-ordered and Disappointed Again January 29, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
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 January 28, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
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 January 27, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Great gps bought two and had to return one for an exchange wich i've had to wait now a long time for and as yet not received.
Only feature that is not to my likeing is that for the phone numbers to be intered you need to also put address and names. Some phone numbers I don't have address's for. Other then that minner thing it's great.
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