Customer Reviews

Magellan Maestro 4050 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (with 3 month free traffic)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Do you really need a GPS device?? If you are reading this review the answer is probably yes.

We have used them for a number of years and I'm now at the point where I wonder how we ever got along without one. No more trips to the computer for confusing Mapquest directions or frantic searches to find the car atlas after a wrong turn. Both facts leading to a significant reduction in "marital moments."

I could give many examples where GPS has "saved the day". Here is a recent one:

This summer my wife and our three small children traveled from Chicago to South Dakota for a wedding (I had to work). Like many rural wedding, each part of the event was in a different place. The church was in one town, the reception in another and their hotel in a third. After the wedding she wanted to visit cousins on their farm in Southern Minnesota, followed a stop in the Twin Cities. Lastly, she was going to travel to Northern Minnesota to spend some R-n-R at a lake cabin.

The night before the big trip I added all of the addresses in our GPS unit. I then labeled them: church, reception, hotel, farm, Twin Cities, cabin. Now all she had to do is press the right address and go. No worries about missing a turn or taking the wrong road, even on a pitch black rural night. If she decided to change her plans the Magellan would take care of it. GPS units figure out the route from where you are to your location, something Mapquest can't do. The peace of mind that the Magellan gave both of us was worth its purchase price alone.

I have to tell you that even a basic GPS unit could have done the above routing task. In fact, for most people, a basic unit is all that they need. However, sometimes you want something more. Does the Magellan Maestro 4050 deliver this "more?" Read on to find out!

Unit Overview

The Magellan Maestro 4050 is really an evolution of the popular Road Mate series. However, there are many significant improvements. First is the fact the 4050 has a large 4.3" screen. Although the typical 3.5" screen would work fine, I like the larger screen as I suffer from FFS or Fat Finger Syndrome. A bigger screen gives me a bigger on-screen keyboard when typing in an address. This results in less error and less growling on my part.

The icons have also changed with this series and now they have a friendlier, more polished look. The Maestro units use the very popular (and highly sensitive) SiRF star III GPS chipset which acquires signals quickly. Like other Magellan units, the underlying OS is Windows CE. The Maestro also has a built in battery that should allow a couple of hours of use. This would make it possible to use the unit outside of the car for a short period.

Routing

In my opinion, routing is the most important function of any GPS unit. Magellan units, in general, have always had excellent routing engines and the Maestro is no different. The maps on my unit are dated from late 2006 and so they are pretty recent.

Adding an address (or intersection) is a snap. Older Magellan units (like the Roadmate 300 series) ask for a street first. When you added a common street name like "River" or "Washington" you were forced to pick from a dozen or more choices ("North River," "River Drive," River Road," etc.). Later models, including the Maestro series ask for the city first eliminating a lot of confusion. It is amazing what a simple change can do to make a product more useable. Thanks Magellan!

I had no problems entering addresses, even difficult ones that have confused other units. I think that this is in part due to the fact that the maps are newer and therefore, more accurate. Magellan units always ask for your route preference ("shortest time," "least use of expressways," etc). Many other units require that you dig into menus and sub-menus to do this which often causes undesirable results. For instance, when traveling in a city during rush hour it may be easier to take regular roads in lieu of expressways. Since the Magellan always asks routing preferences this is easy to accomplish.

Naturally, it is very easy to exclude a particular street or routing direction (perhaps you know that street is under construction). You can also route up to up to 20 different locations using the "trip planner" option. The Maestro will then "optimize" the list for you making the trip more efficient. This option would be great for a delivery driver who has to travel to multiple locations on his route. The Maestro also tells you what side of the street your destination is on. Surprisingly, many other brands do not. Knowing what side of the street your destination is on can be really important, especially if it is on a busy, multi-lane street.

The unit can present map data either as 3D ("bird's eye view") or in a traditional 2D map view. It will automatically switch to a nighttime map at night. I really like the fact that Magellan products always give you a clear indication what direction you are traveling by placing your direction directly on the screen. This is much more convenient than using a "north pointing" arrow which other units have.

The Maestro is very good at giving your multiple, clear, auditory and visual indicators of your next maneuver. I have used other units (the Mio brand) where I couldn't even figure out what the maneuver icon was telling me (it looked like a letter from the Klingon alphabet). This has never happened using Magellan units (and I have used them for years).


A really useful feature on Magellan units is the "locate" key. This function tells you were you are, the closest cross streets and even a computer generated address (when possible). When you are on an expressway it will tell you the last and next exits and their distance. The locate button is really useful if you ever need roadside assistance (or when you just want to know where the heck you are).

The Maestro also has a "detour" function. If you are traveling on highway at lower than expected speeds, the Maestro will ask you if you want to take a detour. If you agree you can choose the length of the detour in miles. The Maestro will then get you off the highway for the designated number of miles and return you back afterwards. Great if an accident is up ahead.

The Maestro features text to speech (or TTS) which will give your specific verbal directions, like street names. Professional reviewers love this feature. I think it is pretty cool, but units that don't have this function are perfectly useable too.

Like other Magellan units, the Maestro is excellent at recalculating your route where you go off course. If it can calculate a route based on the new road that you are on, it will do so. Other brands can sometimes insist that you need to take their original calculated route and they will tell you to "turn around" or "make a U turn" when you don't have to.

POI Data Base

If the heart of a GPS unit is its routing engine, its soul is its POI Data base. Virtually all GPS units have such a data base and virtually all have inaccuracies and omissions. With that said, using a POI data base can really enhance your trip. I think the Maestro has the best POI data base ever. It feels like the programmers were thinking of me when they designed it.

First, you have a standard POI data base, but it is huge at 3.5 million entries. Even more important, it is reasonably current. I didn't find stores that had closed years ago as I have in other systems (including some older Magellans). The data base is very extensive covering tons of categories beyond core POIs (gas stations, auto services, ATMs, hotels, restaurants). There are many categories perfect for people like me, who go on family car trips. Campgrounds, grocery stores, pharmacies and even veterinarians are listed (to name a few). When appropriate, a general category will offer subcategories. For instance, the grocery category includes grocery stores, specialty food stores, convenience stores and Liquor stores. Stores like Target and Wal-Mart are typically under represented on many GPS units, but well listed on the Maestro. I was able to find both when searching locally. The standard POI data base not only gives you distance but also direction from your location (some other brands do not). It may be easier to go to a store that is 20 miles ahead rather than backtracking 10 miles. Naturally, you can not only search from your current location but you can also search around another address/city, like your destination. Perfect if you have to reserve a hotel room.

Many Magellans, including the Maestro have a unique and useful feature called "exit POIs." When you are on an expressway you can search for core POI services at upcoming exits. The Maestro will tell you the distance to the exit and the core services available (like gas). Touching the gas icon will then allow you to look at the various choices for that category (like Shell or Mobile). Since it only gives you services around the exits, the "exit POI" function can be extremely useful when traveling.

The 4050 also has the AAA Tour Book built in. This is a fantastic resource that combines the power of GPS location with tour book data. Now, when you look for a restaurant, you not only get a name but a detailed description, plus a rating. The AAA Tour Book gives information on rated hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, approved auto repair shops and other information like special events that may be happening in a particular area. You also get a phone number so you can make your reservation. The Tour book will also tell you if you can get an AAA discount (for AAA members). It is a really wonderful and unique resource. No other GPS manufacturer has it.

In addition to all of this, you can add custom POI databases that you create or download from the internet (there are hundreds available). For instance, if you like drive-in movies, you can find a POI data base for this. Then when you are on vacation a simple search will tell you the closest one. Custom POI data bases are limited to 5000 entries per data base (although the number of data bases that you can have are unlimited). Custom data bases typically include a name and a computer generated address. In most cases this is enough, but it would be nice to have an additional data field for a phone number. I think Custom POI data bases are very useful. However, the fact that the Maestro has an excellent general POI data base as well as the superb AAA tour book makes it less likely that you will need to use them.

Fluff and Stuff

GPS units are basically computer running an OS (often Windows CE or Linux). Because of this it is very easy to add extras like a calculator or basic MP3 player. The Maestro does not have any of these extras. This is fine with me. If I need a calculator I'll buy one at the dollar store for a buck rather than risking dropping an expensive GPS unit.

Traffic

The 4050 comes with a traffic receiver and a 3 month trial subscription for traffic data. The traffic receiver picks up digital data from local FM broadcasters (broadcast on a "hidden" subcarrier signal). The Maestro can alert you to road problems ahead and then route around them. Pretty cool...but. Traffic information is only available in about 50 cities across the US and only on the major expressways. Don't forget you can get the same information for free by listening to the traffic report on the radio.

If you often travel to the center of major cities you may find this feature helpful. Otherwise, go for one of the Maestro units that have the traffic receiver as an option and save a few bucks.

Bluetooth

OK I admit it, Bluetooth is a pretty cool and useful feature. It allows me to connect my Treo 700 series phone to the Maestro wirelessly. With this connection I can answer and place calls directly from the Maestro, using it like a speaker phone. If I find a hotel in the POI data base I can directly phone for a reservation by pressing a single button on the Maestro without ever having to take my phone out of its holster, excellent!

Although there is a Bluetooth standard, Bluetooth is not standardized. Therefore, make sure your phone is listed on the Magellan website to make sure that it will work with the Maestro.

Voice Command

Cool, but not ready for prime time. With voice command you can actually give verbal commands to the Maestro. My unit is kind of deaf and requires multiple attempts before it asks me for "my command". Although the list of commands is limited, some are quite useful. Unfortunately, you can sometimes get ridiculous results. Once when asking the Maestro to find me "fast food" it said, "did you say Jewish food?"

Conclusion

I think the Maestro 4050 is a fantastic unit with features that are unique and that definitely set it apart from other competing brands. The programmers that designed the Maestro seem to have read my mind. Excellent, easy to use routing combined with a really superior and unique set of POI data bases. Near perfection for the traveler!

PS...If you want to save some cash you could also consider the Maestro 3140. It has a smaller screen and it is absent of some features like Voice command but it still has all of the great stuff for hundreds less.

June 12, 2007

I have used portable GPS units for some time, namely my old Garmin 2720, which has been a trouper over the years. The biggest problem was when we updated the software, and Garmin stopped getting satelite reception whenever it was turned off. This could be quite annoying, with the only solution being to tell Garmin that you were not in the state you were actually in, so it would use a wider search pattern. Because of this bad experience, and noticing prices were much cheaper now, I went with a different brand, and tried what I thought was top of the line.

The Maestro met all my initial expectations. It linked up with satelites quickly even when I was surrounded by tall buildings. The maps seemed more updated than the updated Garmin map I was using. The map style was improved over Garmin, and the detail level better. You could have POI's show up on the map, even if you were not routing to them. The voice prompting was much better, and had more customization (not voice but what information is communicated) than Garmin. The turns were described better (not everything is left and right some you keep on the highway you are on)and pictures described the turns as well. All the basic things were better.

Then there was the voice recognition.

The voice recognition comes on all the time, even though it is only supposed to come when you say Magellan. When it does, you can just say cancel, but the popup is annoying. And if you verbally cancel route, it does not default back to the map. There are not a lot of voice command options either. A lot of time the voice recognition stops responding, and will only start up again when you 'reset' the device. Overall, you just want to stop up the microphone with a wad of bubblegum.

And then I saw an add for this same model (in Smart Home I think) which mentions an mp3 player, which my machine does not have. Which I thought it might, since it has a slot for an SD card.

This machine is fine in the basics, but the rest is just messed up. I am hoping to get a software update to get the kinks ironed out of this one.

July 10, 2007 UPDATE...

Well, thought I might add a few updates to this review, as it takes a while to fully test a GPS unit, especially one that is quite loaded with features. So, let me just say that there is STILL no official update to the software on this unit, which I purchased on memorial day, and I find this a bit surprising. I suppose they are trying to get a fix-all patch, or a combo firmware software update. If they ever do get a fix, I feel I owe it to you to let you know if they have it and how well it works...

Address/POI routing: Most attempts have been pretty close(I usually use the address, not POI's), but the ones that are off might be off MORE than 1 block (happened at least four times to me). One time, when I POI routed to Radio Shack, Magellan told me it was five miles north of Shawnee. I found a natural gas well at the actual location it routed me to. But still, overall, pretty good with address routing.

POI's: Mostly current, but some quite out of date, and it seems to be missing some places I would expect (like Bass Pro Shop, and Abuelo's in OKC).

Traffic updates: Coverage is very sparse (say it limited to interstates in Oklahoma City), but I have not been routed to a major construction delay. I have, however, been routed to a 10 mile stretch of construction on I-35, but it did not prove to be much of a delay. Now, you could call that failure of the system, or you could say that the traffic update was geared towards traffic DELAYS. I don't know what to make of it.

August 1 2007 Update

Miscellaneous Weirdness: Interupting the power while routing can cause catastrophic reboot. Basically what happens is if your DC car outlet switches off with your engine, and you happen to stop for gas while you are routing, it can cause problems. You might expect this, and it was a real problem with my older unit because it took some time to relocate the satelites. In general, relocating the satelites is not a problem this unit, and you can interupt the power on the unit any time and start up again while routing without a problem. In fact, since it has a battery, when the power is interupted it goes into a 30 second countdown if you want it to go into sleep mode. Yet, on at least four occassions, I have had a problem with the unit under power interuption circumstances. Basically, it wont come back on. Normally, when you restart the power, it comes out of sleep mode, but on these occassions, even when I have double checked the power connections on both ends of the cord, the unit does not power up. When the power button is held for a few seconds (the normal method of powering up the unit), the unit does not power up. When the button is held for longer than a few seconds, the unit does not power up. Only after the button is pressed several times for extended periods of time does the unit power up. And then, when it does, it shows a progress bar, which indicates that it has rebooted. The routing is not reset however. I have not tried the reset button, however, although it has occurred to me to try it next time...

August 3rd, 2007

Overall impression: 3/5 Ok. Overall, I still feel this unit is not too bad, but with some problems which seem to ruin my appreciation of it. I thought, since I have owned the unit for so long, I could detail it's performacne rating by category...

Satellite location: 5/5 Great. Satelites are located quickly, even indoors or in poor conditions. If this is your biggest concern, this is one of the best units I have ever seen. Bear in mind my other GPS was the Garmin 2720, so there might be other good ones out there, but the 4050 is great at locking in satellite signals.

Routing: 3/5 Ok. The maps aren't perfect, but neither were Garmins, and incorrect maps makes routing a problem. In fact, even stretches of highway are incorrectly displayed as minor, while the older highways they replaced are displayed as major. The actual time it takes to complete the routing (routing time) is comparable to my old Garmin 2720, which some might consider slow. If you miss a turn in the downtown of a major city, it might have a hard time rerouting before the next block. Still, you can get to where you want to go, but the routing speed seems too slow to be practical in some situations. Not a big problem to me but lots of room for improvement. 1 star off for the inaccurate highway labels, and 1 star for poor speed.

Maps: 3/5 Ok. Like I said in routing, the maps are not perfect. POI's are fewer than Garmin, and some are really current, and some are strangely missing. No GPS unit has perfect POI's, of course, and while I am more or less happy with the POI's I found some of the omissions unacceptable. Street numbers are almost always not correctly located on their respective streets which can lead you astray as much as a few blocks at times. This happens rarely, but when it happens it is really unacceptable. POI's don't help much, if you follow Magellan's instructions, arrive at her destination, and are still unable to spot the place you are trying to find. 1 star off for POI omissions, and 1 star off for incorrect street numbering.

Display: 5/5 Great. I love the display, with the routing helps, and the various others things displayed. The screen is bright and easy to read. The night mode looks great. The level of detail displayed is superior to anything I have seen.

Voice prompting: 4/5 Ok. I love the voice prompts, and the volume level is great, and easy to hear. Four stars for only one voice available.

Vehicle mount: 4/5 Good. The suction cup mount is a little on the flimsy side, but I like the inclusion on the unit. It also contains the traffic module, and the weight of the GPS and traffic module is a little heavy for the hinges, and you have to tighten them up periodically. 1 star off for flimsy.

Menus/Options: 4/5 Good. There are very few things you can adjust with this unit. I mean, you can't change the drive speeds on various roads, which means, Magellan always suggests that I will arrive much later than I actually do. It is not uncommon for me to shave say, 15 to 20 minutes off my arrival time (on an approximately 1+1/2 hour trip). The Garmin 2720 was more customizable. You could choice the voice for voice prompting, and set the speeds for different levels of roads, edit POI's easier, etc. However, on the good side, typing in addresses is easy with this unit as it narrows down the possibilities available in the town you selected with each letter you push. This is a neat feature, and one that makes address entry a lot faster.

Voice Recognition: 2/5. Poor. Or you could say good, while it works. My unit seems eager for you to use the voice recognition as it comes on when no one is talking, or if people are talking and not saying 'Magellan' and sometimes, it will not come on at all no matter if you are parked and carefully enunciating 'Magellan.' Usually, you can get it to respond again by resetting the unit, but since you need to pull over to perform this operation, this nullifys any value you might get from voice recognition. Actually, one of the bigs perks of voice recognition would be impressing your friends if you use it on a trip with them in the car. I did that, only to be embarrassed as Magellan kept asking me what I wanted to do when the car was silent, or when we were talking, or all the time. I was eventually forced to disable the voice recognition from embarassment.

Other features I haven't had enough experience to comment on. Traffic updates I have commented on, but quite frankly, I have yet to have another experience with routing and construction delays, so I just haven't 'used' it enough yet to rate it. I don't use bluetooth phones, and the rest of the features I don't use much either.

Personally, if you are still interested in this product, I would consider either getting a 4040 without the voice recognition, or waiting a while yet to see if they even address my issues with a firmware patch or a software patch, or whatever it needs. I still like this unit enough to use it every day, but I kick myself for spending money for voice recognition that is just flat out embarassing.

October 31st, 2007

More Miscellaneous Weirdness:

Weird thing that happened to me on the way back from Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City, but first let me tell you what happened on the way up.

On the way up (with Magellan guiding me) I-40 was blocked off to one lane, and traffic was to a crawl. I am scheduled for traffic updates, but it did not automatically reroute me. It did show up as a road with construction, but you have to touch the screen and tell it how many miles you want to reroute, which I don't understand. Why do you have to choose something when you want to be routed around traffic? Doesn't make sense [to me], but this isn't the point of this story.

Point is, I wanted to return to Ada south through Norman to avoid the creeping traffic east of Oklahoma City. To do so, I did what I normally do with GPS units, I did my own thing and I expected the Maestro to catch up with me. It is definitely quicker to Ada south on I-35 when you get past I-240 than to turn around and leave OKC east on I-40, but the Maestro seemed determined to keep me on her initial routing. She wanted me to return to I-40 for at least 20 miles past the point that was feasable, even when I was south of Norman.

When it finally did suggest I stay on I-35 south (just 3 or 4 miles south of Norman), my ETA suggested 2 hours of trip left when it should only take 1 hour to get home. Later, I found out the reason was that it had routed me south to Pauls Valley, when there were two earlier exits which would have been faster. Never have I been routed to Pauls Valley when traveling south on I-35 going to Ada, since it takes 30 to 45 minutes longer to go that route. Misrouting continued until I was 15 minutes outside of Ada. I shaved 53 minutes off the ETA it had considered in Norman, driving slower (close to the speed limit) than I normally do, and running into contstruction south on I-35. What caused this wackiness? Maybe some one can explain it to me, but I have no idea. I hope it doesn't happen again.

And, by the way, the guys at Magellan still don't have an update for this unit at all, which I find really disappointing.

Till later then...

Since the maps and GPS chip in this model are the same as the Garmin NUVI 660 what sets them apart feature wise is the 4050s AAA database, and its' voice control (which isn't as useful as you'd think) --and the Nuvi's MP3/Picture player/Calculator/etc. Since the unit is likely destined to sit on your dash and serve as a GPS, the Garmin's features don't strike me as real incentives either.

What you get here is a robust, and solidly built unit with a strong mount, loud and clear voice, and responsive touch screen. by contrast the Garmin voice seemed quiter, and the overall build quality left me wanting more. The Garmin feels flimsy. the Magellan is built like a tank.

The unit gets strong signals even indoors, and the routing engine is very fast. It re-routes off course in only a few seconds, and the POI database paired with the AAA database is a HUGE plus. The traffic feature is actually pretty neat, and useful if you drive at different times of the day.

Also, everything is self contained in the <agellan, whereas the NUVI puts the blu-tooth reciever, and traffic receiver in the lighter power cord. THat's great for making the unit smaller, but what if you run off the battery or want a permanent installation? You lose the traffic and Blue-tooth. The Magellan has these in the unit itself (the traffic receiver is part of the mount).

I had no trouble connecting my Motorola SLVR to the Blue Tooth receiver, and the POIs have phone number attached that can automatically be dialed. If you are a AAA member th choice is a no brainer. to be able to search for restaurants, car rentals, hotels, etc. that give AAA members discounts is awesome. just search your area and select your favorite to route too.

There is no perfect GPS though. A couple of times the voice sounded gurgly (probably a CPU overload) and the voice command feature takes a few trieds to hear you sometimes. Unlike the other reviewer I have never had the voice recognition come on unless I directly addressed it.

After a trip to LA and using Hertz neverlost we were determined to get a GPS. While the Neverlost was bulletproof, this GPS feels the closest to it. The Garmin looks good too, it just feels a little lacking in quality and the blutooth/traffic receiver being in the lighter bothered me. Also, the mount is smaller, so for those of you who drive a truck the GPS might just be out of reach with the Garmin.

EDIT - Just wanted to add that this thing caluclates time almost exactly. I have yet to arrive at any destination more than 5 minutes (more or less) off from the 4050s estimates. Remarkable!

June 12, 2007

I have used portable GPS units for some time, namely my old Garmin 2720, which has been a trouper over the years. The biggest problem was when we updated the software, and Garmin stopped getting satelite reception whenever it was turned off. This could be quite annoying, with the only solution being to tell Garmin that you were not in the state you were actually in, so it would use a wider search pattern. Because of this bad experience, and noticing prices were much cheaper now, I went with a different brand, and tried what I thought was top of the line.

The Maestro met all my initial expectations. It linked up with satelites quickly even when I was surrounded by tall buildings. The maps seemed more updated than the updated Garmin map I was using. The map style was improved over Garmin, and the detail level better. You could have POI's show up on the map, even if you were not routing to them. The voice prompting was much better, and had more customization (not voice but what information is communicated) than Garmin. The turns were described better (not everything is left and right some you keep on the highway you are on)and pictures described the turns as well. All the basic things were better.

Then there was the voice recognition.

The voice recognition comes on all the time, even though it is only supposed to come when you say Magellan. When it does, you can just say cancel, but the popup is annoying. And if you verbally cancel route, it does not default back to the map. There are not a lot of voice command options either. A lot of time the voice recognition stops responding, and will only start up again when you 'reset' the device. Overall, you just want to stop up the microphone with a wad of bubblegum.

And then I saw an add for this same model (in Smart Home I think) which mentions an mp3 player, which my machine does not have. Which I thought it might, since it has a slot for an SD card.

This machine is fine in the basics, but the rest is just messed up. I am hoping to get a software update to get the kinks ironed out of this one.

July 10, 2007 UPDATE...

Well, thought I might add a few updates to this review, as it takes a while to fully test a GPS unit, especially one that is quite loaded with features. So, let me just say that there is STILL no official update to the software on this unit, which I purchased on memorial day, and I find this a bit surprising. I suppose they are trying to get a fix-all patch, or a combo firmware software update. If they ever do get a fix, I feel I owe it to you to let you know if they have it and how well it works...

Address/POI routing: Most attempts have been pretty close(I usually use the address, not POI's), but the ones that are off might be off MORE than 1 block (happened at least four times to me). One time, when I POI routed to Radio Shack, Magellan told me it was five miles north of Shawnee. I found a natural gas well at the actual location it routed me to. But still, overall, pretty good with address routing.

POI's: Mostly current, but some quite out of date, and it seems to be missing some places I would expect (like Bass Pro Shop, and Abuelo's in OKC).

Traffic updates: Coverage is very sparse (say it limited to interstates in Oklahoma City), but I have not been routed to a major construction delay. I have, however, been routed to a 10 mile stretch of construction on I-35, but it did not prove to be much of a delay. Now, you could call that failure of the system, or you could say that the traffic update was geared towards traffic DELAYS. I don't know what to make of it.

08/01/07 Update
Miscellaneous Weirdness: Interupting the power while routing can cause catastrophic reboot. Basically what happens is if your DC car outlet switches off with your engine, and you happen to stop for gas while you are routing, it can cause problems. You might expect this, and it was a real problem with my older unit because it took some time to relocate the satelites. In general, relocating the satelites is not a problem this unit, and you can interupt the power on the unit any time and start up again while routing without a problem. In fact, since it has a battery, when the power is interupted it goes into a 30 second countdown if you want it to go into sleep mode. Yet, on at least four occassions, I have had a problem with the unit under power interuption circumstances. Basically, it wont come back on. Normally, when you restart the power, it comes out of sleep mode, but on these occassions, even when I have double checked the power connections on both ends of the cord, the unit does not power up. When the power button is held for a few seconds (the normal method of powering up the unit), the unit does not power up. When the button is held for longer than a few seconds, the unit does not power up. Only after the button is pressed several times for extended periods of time does the unit power up. And then, when it does, it shows a progress bar, which indicates that it has rebooted. The routing is not reset however. I have not tried the reset button, however, although it has occurred to me to try it next time...

Till later then...

I travel frequently to unfamiliar parts of the country. Although I previously owned a Mio 310, which was a good GPS, I recently purchased a Magellan Maestro 4050 after much research. I found the 4050 to be user friendly, forgiving, dependable, and very accurate. Not only does it talk to me, but it will change the route to a more or less direct one, or divert to the nearest gas station or restaurant, ALL by voice command. It also has built-in blue tooth to communicate with my cell phone. On my last trip alone, this device probably saved me 10 tedious hours of using printed (or Google) maps to find locations, then potentially saved my life by not requiring me to read those maps while driving. My advice on buying a GPS is do the research first--these things can be pricey. Also, the models, capabilities, and prices are constantly changing. I went to a couple of walk-in stores to see several demonstrated, then purchased one online. Saved over $300.

Okay. I got this for my mother for Christmas. She is not the most technical person in the world but I am an Engineer who deals with computers every day. I wanted to check out the unit before I give it to her for Christmas.

Physically it's a nice unit. Navigation using the touch screen menues is okay but you end up doing a LOT of cancelling. Sometimes the on screen keys are hard to get to respond or the wrong one responds but...this might be fat fingers on my part so I'll overlook this.

Biggest problem...Out of date maps. My mother lives in a retirement community that has been there for at least 10 years. But when I put her address in it did not show up....Fine...I went to the Magellan site and contacted them and they indicated I should got to their map provider Navteq...which I did. Navteq indicated the address WAS in their database. Navteq also indicated they update their maps SEVERAL times a year. I then went back and told Magellan this and showed them where their OWN site said that the maps were at least a year old. Here is what they sent me:

Thank you for contacting Magellan. This email is in response to your query
about the Maestro 4050.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by this issue.

I understand that you would like to know when there would be a Map update
release for Maestro 4050.

For your information, currently we do not have any update for Maestro 4050.

We are unable to promise the date for new Update. Therefore, I request that
you wait for the Map update.

If you have registered your unit with our website, you will receive a
notification about the Map update release in future. In addition, you can
check our website periodically to check for the Map update.

However, we will consider your message as a feedback and pass it to the
Department Concerned.

I am confident that the above information would help you in resolving the
issue. If you have further queries, please get back to us.

Well in spite of the poor English...It seems they have NO plans to update these maps??? Hummmm. I would think navigation accuracy would be VERY high on their priority list...Apparently NOT. So, I also bought my wife a unit....a TomTom 920...I'll write about it in the future...

Bottom Line: Nice unit...poor maps. Buy someone elses unit that cares about their map accuracy and updates.

I researched this particular model against the Garmin 660 for a few weeks, and I finally settled on buying the Magellan 4050 instead. I'm glad I did.
I have used a Magellan roadmate 300 in my personal car for years, but the map was old, and there were no free updates for it.

I own stock in Garmin, and the company has done well, so I had figured for years that I would buy a Garmin when I was ready to replace my roadmate.
I travel quite a bit, and I always rent the navigation system when I rent cars. I have used Garmin quite a bit in that context, and I have always been frustrated by the fact that Garmin units do do not tell the driver which direction their upcoming turn is going to be. Sounds simple enough, and I always figured that the rental car models were just using an old version of Garmin software, and the newer Garmin models would have solved this problem.
After reviewing the latest Garmin software, I see the problem still exists where they do not tell the driver the direction of the upcoming turn. I contacted Garmin, and was told they do tell the direction, but they only say it in terms of "North, South, Northwest, etc ..."
In other words, "Turn Northwest of [upcoming road]" is printed on the screen.
That just wasn't good enough for me, as I just don't know north-south-east-west well enough, so I like it to print "left or right", and that is exactly what Magellan does - in addition, Magellan goes into a split-screen display before the turn, and shows the drive the exact drawing of the turn, so if its not a 90 degree turn, the drive will know what to expect before they get to it. No surprises here, and no accidentally being in the wrong lane when the turn comes up either, which has bit me a few times when using Garmin.
That is a feature I have grown to love, and the Magellan having it, and being the cheaper model of the two units really is what made the choice simple for me.

My recommendation is to buy the Magellan GPS, and use the money you save to buy some Garmin stock :)

Also, I have had no problems with the unit, it feels solid, and is much faster than my old Roadmate unit was. I am not disappointed in my decision to purchase this unit at all.

Excellent Graphics. Very Pretty. But that's about all the good I can say. No printed owners manual - it's on a CD. Magellan seems to think it's more practical to haul your laptop or your pc around, which is what you'd have to do if you want to keep your owner manual with you. Unless you want to print it out. But that's not the same.

Terrible Routing. No via points. Each route point is a separate trip.After you reach each point on the route you have to go in and select the next point. The unit doesn't eliminate the address when you get there. You have to go in and take it out manually. Also, when you get to an address, the unit says "you've arrived" and announces the street name, but doesn't announce the house number. And often, it does this blocks ahead of your actual destination.

Voice - What a joke! It seldom works without having to reset the unit. What a pain! I found myself "yelling" at it a few times. My grandson got a kick out of that! One time that actually worked! Make sure your windows are up and your radio is off. It won't work with any background noise at all. And when it does work, There's only about 7 or 8 commands you can give it - most of them you'll never use. And why Magellan seems to think "next turn" isn't important?? Who knows. You can't even get a "next turn" voice prompt manually. The unit will give you a readoout of your next turn. But I expected to be able to either push a button or use a voice command to give me the next few successive turns. But it doesn't work that way.

The most important aspect of a quality GPS is the ability to give you the best route to a specific destination based on "shortest distance" or "fastest route", and also a good "points of interest" locater. Several times these features failed me. On a trip to Oregon coast it gave me a route that is 20 minutes and 25 miles longer, after I requested a "fastest time" route. I complained to magellan about this, and their answer? "there may be an update in the future" or something to that effect. It also gave me a route around rush hour that was totally rediculous route that would have taken me out of the way about 20 minutes longer. Fortunately I was only "playing" with the unit and I know the area. Also, on a differnt trip to the Oregon coast, I asked it to find a Costco warehouse in Astoria, Oregon. This Costco had been there for many years. It couldn't find it. It couldn't find a lot of things. My older garmin ique 3600 found everything I asked of it. The magellan finds what I want about 50 percent of the time. UNNACCEPTABLE!

The highway kit (traffic) is also useless. During the recent windstorm and flooding in the northwest, it wouldn't tell me that I-5 near Chehalis Washington was closed (for a period of several days. Yet, they want me to pay something like $60.00 a year for the service - If I had purchased the highway kit for the $100.00 they want for it as an option, I would have totally wasted my money!

I paid about 100.00 more for this thing to get the the bluetooth, voice activation, and highway kit. A total waste of money. The bluetooth worked well, but really - who needs it in a gps.

Also, this two hour battery, seldom lasted two hours. Count on about an hour. Don't go far from your auto cord and a live battery.

About the only other good thing I can say about this is the fact that it picks up the sattelites very quickly. Even indoors.

For some reason, this thing is getting some positve reviews. That's why I bought it. Who's giving these reviews? Magellan employees? Inexperienced gps users? I don't know. But those reviews, along with this Maestro 4050, just aren't telling the whole story.

This thing isn't totally worhless. It will keep you from getting lost if the battery doesn't go dead first.

Dissatisfied. I returned my new Maestro 4050. I drove 250 thousand miles with a Roadmate 700 and loved it. After 5000 miles in 7 days with the Maestro, I returned it. The new voice is difficult to understand and poorly engineered. For example, it pronounces "S Florida Tpk" as "sssFlorida T-pak."

The new database in nice ... if you only drive to restaurants. There are 55 categories of restaurants ... but the database does not include all the interstate rest areas. Where are their priorities?! And the navigation algorithyms seem to have flown out the window. "Fastest time" is often reported much slower than "shortest distance," sometimes by hours. And both routing results are often incorrect I found while driving known routes.

The voice response system works in a quiet room with no background noise. But on the road it was completely useless. While driving, I could find no volume, pitch or timbre that would make it respond to my usually ordinary speaking voice. The unit would freeze and require a cold boot regularly until I turned off the voice command feature. The only time the voice command feature functioned on the road was at random times apparently in response to the voice of audiobook readers I was listening to. And never following any audiobook text that resembled the unit's intended trigger word "Magellan."

And the process of returning the unit for a refund was excrutiating! All tech support calls to Magellan go to call centers on other sides of the planet and where discernable speech in English is merely a concept, not a hiring prerequisite.
If you need customer service from Magellan, start with the direct lines to California numbers. Hang up & start over when you wonder what language you are hearing - you're talking to India, or Malaysia or who knows where else. Better yet, buy another brand.

Bought this product via AMAZON... came in after a week or so.... tried it immediately and working great BUT the VOICE/SOUND... most of the time.... so hard to understand..... sounds like the speaker is broken... muffling sound... just like a broken speaker... emailed AMAZON SELLER.... was told to CONTACT MAGELLAN.....hmmmm.. a SELLER won't take responsibility for what they are selling......... CALLED MAGELLAN....... was told they will FIX the problem.....NOT REPLACED...... we're talking of less than 2 weeks old product here...bought BRAND NEW and NOT REFURBISHED.... was told they will send me via EMAIL within 2 days the RETURN LABEL AUTHORIZATION so I can mail it and they can fix it... after just OVER a week..NO EMAIL .. NO MAIL either... emailed AMAZON back.NEVER heard from them again.... this experience is making me feel think twice now ... do I ever order via AMAZON again... right now... I DOUBT THAT I WILL... now I need to know how to return this MAGELLAN and just order from a different store most probably since I really like this MAESTRO 4050....SO MY ADVICE... be very careful where you buy this product... THANKS .. REY RODRIGUEZ