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| Magellan Maestro 3250 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Magellan
Category: CE
List Price: $449.99
Buy New: $189.99
You Save: $260.00 (58%)
New (78) Refurbished (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 234
Color: Black/Silver
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Tracks: Unknown
Batteries Included: No
Native Resolution: Unknown
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 5.1 x 9.8 x 2.1
nv:Type: Receiver
Waypoints: 6 million
Display: Color
Touch Screen: Yes
Antenna: SIRF-GPS antenna
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: Magellan Maestro 3250
Model: Magellan Maestro 3250
UPC: 763357117950
EAN: 0763357117950
ASIN: B000V4PZBY
Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Great little navigator! July 24, 2008
I purchased the Maestro 3250 as a replacement for the Road Mate 300 I've had for a few years. The RM300 worked fine but it's obsolete - no new maps. The 3250 has the same size screen but does not require SD cards for maps. All maps are internal. There IS an SD card slot which is used to backup user settings and the address book.
The screen is very bright and quite readable on a bright sunny day. The suction cup base works great on the provided disk that I put on the top of the dash. It is much easier (than the RM300) to set up a location to route to and/or enter the location in the address book. Text to speech works real well. Some names may be harder for the unit to pronounce than others but all were understandable. Although limited, I really like the voice response capability. It worked quite well while driving. The built in battery is a nice touch and makes the unit portable with about 3 hours battery time. All in all, this is a very good device for the cost.
I did run into a problem during set up. It locked up and wouldn't clear using the reset. After using Ask Maggie on the Magellan website I was able to correct the problem by pressing and holding the power switch for several seconds. There was a firmware upgrade that I later installed that addressed some problems, including this one hopefully. Hasn't locked up since.
 Great unit; traffic registration is a pain July 23, 2008
The other reviews discuss the unit in some depth. I will give a few observations, but then move on to the part that is a pain.
First, I chose Magellan because when I looked at a broad variety of units, it was the fastest. It boots quickly, syncs to satellites quickly, and the POI locator is really fast. You can very quickly find the nearest gas station, grocery store, park, or whatever else it is that you need. It is an easy to use unit, with all the features you could want.
I bought this one instead of the wider screen 4250 because of the incredible price on amazon. At the price I paid for this unit, it was impossible to resist. Plus, it will be very easy to carry with me when I am walking through cities and don't want to get lost.
Another thing that is great about the unit, and like any GPS, is that people with guy genes don't like to ask directions. I will hardly ever stop to do so. But, I am very happy to ask a gadget for directions. Thus, if you are a man, you can get great directions all the time and not have to fight against millions of years of genetics. Instead, you get to use a guy-toy. If you are a woman, this makes a great present for a guy. He will love it, and not realize that you are simply saying you are sick of him being lost and not stopping for directions. Everyone wins.
Now to the annoying part.
The first thing I wanted to do was install the live traffic reports. I live in Seattle. Our traffic is terrible and the roads are constantly under construction, so I figure the unit will pay for itself if it helps me avoid traffic from two ballgames.
First you need to register to get a code. This involves signing up on the website and then typing in the long annoying registration code. Which then gives you the access code. I didn't check if they are the same, but I have a feeling that they aren't.
In order to register you need to type in the unit serial code. This is printed in microscopic print on the back of the unit. You have to type it in twice (copy and paste works...). For me, figuring out which numbers were 8's and 6's almost required a magnifying glass. You might need to find someone who is too young to drive in order to read the digits. Wouldn't hurt if they printed it just a little bit larger.
Next, you get the code, but there is a warning saying you need firmware 4.6 to use traffic reports. My unit came with 2.3. Believe them. Being a guy, I tried the code anyway and it gives a nice message "invalid code". This doesn't mean you typed it incorrectly. It means you have to upgrade your firmware to the latest version.
This might be why the units were at such a great price... In short, if you want traffic, you need to upgrade the firmware.
To do so, you need to go to the Magellan site and download the firmware. They tell you the unit has to be fully charged and this can take 4 hours using the car charger. Wow. That is about $50 of gasoline these days... Since it doesn't come with a wall charger, you can charge it from your USB port. In my case I used a phone charger ... it takes the same miniUSB connector that Blackberry's, Motorola's, and many other phones use. Maybe the gps charger you pay for works much faster... for me, after charging overnight, the battery still wasn't fully charged.
Next, you need to download the software. This is easy enough to do. Note that the software says XP or 32 bit Vista only. I figured maybe they were being overly cautious. Since I mostly run Vista/64 I thought I'd try that. Nope. They mean it. The installer hangs Vista/64 nicely, tying up the machine until it finally decides your hard drive is full. On XP, however, it runs quickly. (It is a 75M download... make sure you have a broadband connection to download it)
Once that is done, upgrading the firmware is a snap. It said it could take 20 minutes or so, which is why they want the battery fully charged. For me it took about 3 minutes.
Now it is time to type the magic code in again. This is a 24 character alphanumeric string. On a keyboard, these strings are annoying enough. But on the GPS, typing MJ2PQ4 isn't 6 keystrokes. It is M J [123] 2 [ABC] P Q [123] 4. Thus, 24 characters to type is closer to 36 characters to type. That is a pain.
Using mixed alphanumeric rather than just alpha adds a lot more security to a password. For example, for a two character password it is 1296 choices rather than 676. But note that a three character alpha only password would give 17576 choices. Thus, if instead of making us type in 36 characters going back and forth between the alpha and numeric keys, Magellan made the magic code alpha only and a few characters longer, they could have the broader security they want and we could type in far fewer keystrokes. Also, it isn't as if anyone is going to try to crack the code with the GPS keypad. The security is a bit overblown, and again, could be more secure and easier for users at the same time.
In short. I really like this unit and it is a great deal for the price. Getting traffic reports to work will take effort.
Magellan Maestro 3250 July 21, 2008
I've been using it for a month and love it. I've done a lot of research about GPS'in general, and this model really stands out. Very intuitive, great POI selection, and for me being an AAA member is a great way to communicate in case of an emergency. I really love that the next turn announcement spells out the street name to make a turn on(so many other GPS'don't).So far I didn't have to use the dreaded customer service support, so I can't tell hoew this works. Overall very satisfied.
Worth trusting July 21, 2008
When I relocated to Ohio ,Magellan GPS really came in handy. It rerouted me when I needed to be. And I swear it never failed me. It may have problems with turning the unit on at times but other than that, Magellan 3250 knocks out all its competitors.
Great little GPS July 15, 2008
I like the GPS a lot. The voice recognition needs some refining, but I dont use that option often. Has gotten me everywhere I need to go, and can recompute the route quickly if I choose to ignore the original directions.
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