| | | |  - Voice Command; AAA TourBook reviews and ratings
- 4.3-inch WQVGA full-color, anti-glare, touch-screen display
- Bluetooth for hands-free calling
- SmartDetour prompts drivers to route around traffic and delays
- Simple, intuitive interface; Utlra-thin design, only .7 inches deep.
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| | | |  Product Description:
The Magellan Maestro 4250 portable navigation system boasts a 4.3" widescreen for easy viewing and includes an FM-TMC receiver for instant traffic updates. You'll be alerted to approaching congestion, and the Maestro 4250 will recalculate your route immediately. Traffic-info service is available in most metropolitan areas. Just enter your destination through the convenient Touchscreen using an address or local search and the Maestro 4250 contains preloaded maps of the entire U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Choose from 6 million points of interest (POI) including many hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and phone number info so you can call ahead for reservations or help. Text-to-speech voice prompts announce actual road names at turns, so you can concentrate on your driving. Included Bluetooth wireless technology lets you dial and receive calls safely with a compatible phone, and access your phone's address book while leaving your phone in your bag or pocket. The built-in microphone and speaker make communication easy. Just tap the screen for a quick connection to AAA Roadside Assistance and access service details along with recommended destinations from the leading travel resource. You can program the Maestro 4250 to understand basic voice commands in a few simple steps. You'll be able to advance through menus and receive guidance without even touching the screen. This GPS satellite navigation unit has a built-in antenna, suction-cup windshield mount, dashboard disk headphone jack, car/home power adapters, USB cable, carrying case and built-in rechargeable battery with up to 4 hours of life. Weight - 6.9 ounces Includes 3-Months Free Trial of FM-TMC Traffic-Info, subscription required after 3-Months Amazon.com Product Description -- 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 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?
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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. | | | | |
Average Rating : 
Rating :  - Touch screen cracked at 3 months old
I had always thought GPS systems were a complete waste of money. Why not just use a street map, or print out MapQuest directions?
As I found myself taking more long road trips and driving on unfamiliar roads, all of which looked the same, I realized that a GPS system that could take me directly to where I was going and route me around road construction and traffic congestion was a smart purchase.
The price I paid last June was $260.00 for a Magellan Maestro 4250. It had an excellent reputation for reliability, and being a AAA member, the AAA Tourbook Information feature was a selling point right there. I paid extra for a yearly subscription to the traffic monitoring service (congestion shows up as yellow lines on the on-screen route map.)
On my first trip with it, it really proved its worth, talking me through turns at intersections, expressway entrances, and interstate names. "Left turn in two --- miles on ---- Boughton Rd" An acid-green line defines the unit's pre-programmed route to the destination you've chosen. If you accidentally go past its determined turn, or you veer off from its assigned course, it automatically recalculates your route for you and gets you back on track. "When possible, make a legal U-turn in Point --- One --- Miles!)
It got me into Canada through Detroit and Windsor to the Josiah Henson settlement "Uncle Tom's Cabin" with no problem. Coming back was another story. For some reason, even though I had programmed a hotel in a the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, it wanted to route me north through Sarnia, ON and Port Huron, MI instead of back through Windsor. Weird.
But overall, things went swimmingly until Sunday, August 3, 2008. I pressed the bottom of the screen to switch menus, and it cracked! Not a little one, either, but a star-shaped crack that went all the way across the bottom of the screen. I called Magellan customer support that Monday, and they would accept it for repairs, but it turns out that the touch-screen is the only part of the unit not covered under warranty. $85.12, please. (Really, Magellan. If you can price touch-screen replacement to the penny, this cracking must be an ongoing and pervasive problem with these units.)
I sent my unit to Magellan repair, and got it back three weeks later, seemingly working fine. My next long road trip, in which I was led straight into a road construction traffic jam, revealed that during the repair, my traffic subscription had been wiped clean (I thought). After a call to Magellan customer support, I found that the touch-screen was apparently unrepairable, and Magellan had sent me an entirely new unit, with a different serial number. She was very helpful in transferring my subscription to the new unit, and it's been working like a charm for the last 5 months.
A plane trip to Orlando in October revealed a feature I hadn't known about. I had to set "home" to be Orlando International Airport or someplace in Orlando; otherwise, the unit assumed I was actually at my home, and was going to route me to the Orlando Vans Outlet Store all the way from Chicago.
But, Magellan! Give us poor schlubs a warranty for that touch-screen! It's the Achilles' heel of the whole unit.
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