Magellan Maestro 4350 Automotive GPS Receiver

We have used a TomTom 300 since 2006. We are not sure if the Magellan 4350 is "good", or "excellent", because it has a steep learning curve, which we are far from mastering.

The screen is big, but, like the TomTom, hard to see in daylight. The instructions are clear and generally easy to follow, but voice quality can be a problem--the TomTom was clearer. I think it is slower than my TomTom to find sattelites, but am not sure.

As long term AAA members, we wanted the AAA points of interest, and they are great. Customer service seems good, too--better than Tom Tom's. We have yet to try the traffic information feature.

Keeping in mind that we have not yet traversed the learning curve, here are minor irritations:

1. Screen freezes on rare occasions, requiring a hard boot. A real problem when it happens in heavy traffic on a complicated route, especially if there is no passenger to do the hard boot.

2. Voice quality medium to poor--sometimes difficult to understand. (We have not tried using it with FM, however.)

3. Screen does not show distance to intermediate destinations. On long trip to DC, we told GPS to stop at a hotel en route. Screen showed distance to DC, and we did not know how close we were to hotel. Called customer service, and was told to go to list of directions and add miles to intermediate destination. (E.g 15 mi. to Highway, 62 mi. to exit 49, 12 mi. along route 10, 4 mi, to Smith Rd., 6 mi. to hotel) We found it easier to list the hotel as a final destination and put in a new final destination the next morning.

4. Difficult to plan a trip on the map; hard to manipulate the screen.

5. Huge, but incomplete list, of points of interests categories. For example, we wanted to find seafood restaurants on Cape Cod. Points of interest has huge number of categories by type of food (e.g., German, Dutch) and by chain (e.g., Dunkin Donuts, Outback), but no listing for "seafood" or even "fish". If we asked the GPS for nearby restaurants and looked at the descriptions, it would tell us if one or another was a seafood restaurant. But there was no grouping of them. I had the impression that some engineer was focusing on numbers of categories rather than usefulness of categories.

6. No place on the GPS to hold a stylus. But a stylus is very useful using it, and manual so indicates.

7. Some gimmicks seem silly. The ability to see buildings, for example, works too sporadically to be useful, and is very hard to make sense of when it does work. I hate to think I paid extra for it.

8. Some weird routes. If, going home, I turn onto my street 8 blocks from my house, GPS rebels and has me do a left, a right, go six blocks, a right and a left. All streets are completely straight according to the map and form a grid, so there are no curves that might make the detour make sense. If I turn onto my street seven blocks from home, it sends me down my street. I cannot account for the detour. I cannot tell how often this happens because I usually assume the route I am given is the best--this is one of the few times I know it was silly. But then again, the TomTom sometimes led me into dead ends, or into loops that went nowhere.

Again, these irritations are minor. I lke the Magellan, and make heavy use of the AAA material.

ADDING THIS TO ADDRESS SOME COMPLAINTS: Many people complain about the brightness in daylight. GoTo Settings / System / Brightness / under power management choose "Backlight Always On" adjust "Backlight At Daytime" all the way up+++ This made a big difference for me. And like I said originally, I really like the bluetooth for hands free phone operation.

NOW FOR MY ORIGINAL REVIEW: This is my third gps unit I have owned in my life. My first was a one of the first Magellans made back in 2005. It still worked but was becoming slow in finding itself on the map. My other is an in-dash Pioneer DVD/Nav/Stereo. I have 3 vehicles and the Maestro 4350 is for the other two. The mapping is a great improvement and it can find it's location standing in my home. The bluetooth phone connection works great. The fm transmitter I only tried a little on one channel and didn't sound too clear. I don't believe the fm transmission was good enough to use this device as a mp3 player through your car stereo. The battery is strong and after first bringing it to a full charge, I ran it all day going from place to place with the bluetooth before it needed to recharge. Of course I powered it off when I got someplace. I'd bet I got 3 to 4 hrs out of the charge. My old one was hard to remove from the windshield mount while this one pops in and out of its windshield mount nicely so I can sit back in the car seat holding it like a little video game and once I have it set, I can easily just reach forward, place it in it's mount, and go! I'd buy it again in a heartbeat and for the $189 I spent on ebay for this new and unopened one, the bang for buck can't be beat!

This unit has many useful features.Touchscreen technology makes for easy entry of addresses and other information.It gives voice directions to allow the driver to keep their eyes on the road.It gives street names as you approach your turn.Updates are available through magellan.com.SD cards can be used to display photos or play music or video.Large display makes viewing easy.Overall,this seems to be a quality product that is easy to use.

I travel all 45k miles per year. Throughout TN. and KY. It is accurate even in the "boonies"! My 800 roadmate is good, but this is GREAT!
It is FAST in locating your position, and does not loose the signal! It is EASY to use/work! I looked at the Garmin Nuvi 730 and Tom Tom 930 which are close in price, and features!
2 sources said that they had less problems/complaints with the Magellan 4350.
The Tom Tom has voice input commands, but the technology is just "ok" and it takes some doing to get through the programing.( I used my friends ). This unit has traffic updates that are great at rush our time, and worth the investment! The 3-D feature is nice! The pedestrian mode is also cool! There is a help mode and the AAA can't be beat!

I am glad that I invested a little more for this than some other models with less features. I don't think I could do without the added features.

I have already recommended this to 3 of my customers!

UPDATE

I had my unit stolen on a Friday morning at about 2 am. It only took me a couple of days with out it to realize how much I relied upon it. I quickly purchased another one! I once again looked at the Garmin and Tom Tom, and came back quickly to this one! Enough said?!!!

I had my GPS stolen while in LA and then I purchasd my Maestro 4350. Having already experienced Magellan and being acquainted with thte interface I thought why not another Magellan. I had no idea that I would love this little GPS so much.

In New York, my Maestro was stolen from my car again and I purchased another Magellan, but not a Maestro as they don't offer them in retail anymore and I was so unhappy. When I decided to browse eBay and found the Maestro i immediately purchased it and am so happy that it's in mint condition and works wonderfully...I highly reccomend this product.

I now bring my GPS home with me as I don't ever want to loose it again. It's just that great. It's easy to use, smart and has so many great features. It's a perfect fit for me.