Customer Reviews

Magellan Maestro 4210 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I got a 4210 2 weeks ago. Used to have a Roadmate 760 before. 4210 is very quick to run on and get satellite reception. Extremely easy user interface - my 10 year old daughter got it without any instructions. Display is wide, bright and excellent in day light as well as at night. Very compact and easy to carry in a pocket. Will work in pedestrian mode as well - really neat and a nice feature over my previous bulky unit. It has AAA assistance but not detailed information on AAA sites. Does not announce street names like Roadmate 760 did (but I don't care for that feature - it is annoying). Lacks bluetooth connectivity. I have not found any accuracy problems. Bottomline - a pretty good unit.

I just purchased the unit in Aug. 08. The unit is easy to use but the maps are outdated. The maps are the whole key to a GPS system. Of course, new maps come out 2 weeks after purchase and they want me to pay $80 to get them. This will not happen. Garmin offers a 1 time download to upgrade to new maps after purchase of a new unit. I will take my $80 and use it to invest in a garmin. I cannot believe Magellan is allowed to sell a product with old maps and charge you to make current on a new product. I will NEVER buy another Magellan product.

I've been using various types of GPS units over the last nine years and the Magellan 4210 is my latest model. I first purchased the 3250 but only used it for about a week before switching to the 4210. The major differences between the two are the voice recognition commands, the bluetooth connectivity, and live traffic compatibility. The voice recognition on the 3250 did not work very well as it was very finicky in recognizing any commands. The car had to be as quiet as possible, no radio. The bluetooth feature worked well enough but callers on the other end said calls sounded strange. Traffic is not an issue in my locale so this feature wasn't going to be used. Once I saw the 4210 was on sale locally for less, I made the switch and I'm very satisfied with the 4210. All the features function very well and I don't miss anything from the 3250. The larger screen is a must-have.

I also spent some time with a TomTom XL One recently and prefer the 4210. I like the flow of the menus better and find the Magellan easier to use. I especially like the ability to find a restaurant by type of cuisine, something you can't do with all other GPS units.

Another plus for the 4210 is its size. Very compact and easy to carry around if you don't want to leave it in the car.

I didn't use to be a fan of Magellan products but this unit has swayed me. I've even bought the same model for a gift to a family member.

This is my Tomtom review:

I brought this as an upgrade to my Magellan 2200t, and even through it had more features than my 2200t the directions were terrible. I know that any GPS device is not 100 percent on the money and in a lot of cases it is off a little. The Tomtom was often trying to make me take turns onto roads that I didn't have to take to get to my destination. One time I followed the directions to see where it would take me. I made a right and then just a little while later it told me to make a left. That left would have put me in a ditch and into the woods. And the deal breaker was the way I had to access the Point of Interests (POI). I now have a Magellan 4210 and while driving if I see a POI on the screen all that I have to do is tap the screen to view a list of all the POI in the area. Now with the Tomtom I would have to work my way to the menu screen to see something or find something of interest. Also in bright sun light forget about looking at the screen. And my Magellan screen changes from a daytime screen to a nighttime screen. But I will give them credit for a few things, free map updates, and you can customize the voices. I'm very happy with my Magellan 4210 and even happier Amazon allowed me to return the item.


Short but sweet Magellan 4210 review:

Brought a Tomtom to replace an old Magellan 2200t big mistake because the Tomtom sucked in my opinion. This 4210 works great and is as accurate as any other, I'm grateful that I was able to return that piece of crap Tomtom. I would highly recommend this GPS to anyone looking for a great toy for the car. Get a Magellan it will not disappoint.

I had a Magellan Roadmate 800, which I really liked. Magellan's Map Upgrade wiped the hard drive clean. After spending several days on the phone with their Indian Tech Support, a supervisor gave me an RA number to ship it to Houston, where they would reinstall the original maps and the upgrade. Needless to say, that went badly as Magellan's Non-existant Customer/Technical support lost the unit. They finally agreed to ship me the new Maestro 4210. The 4210 does connect to the satellites quicker than the 800 but is not as accurate. My home address is about 3 miles away from where the 4210 says it is... The position hops back and forth between the road I'm driving and any parallel roads nearby - and it always tries to reroute me when it thinks I'm on a different road. Problems I did not have with the 800. Only ATMs POI's show up on the map as I am driving. And only the female voice is available. The maps on the 4210 still show streets that have been gone for 7 or 8 years - and I know that Tom Tom's maps are accurate in this regard. I wish I had bought a Garmin or a Tom Tom.

Phew, I'm so glad I didn't listen to the negative customer reviews for the 4210. If you read the item description correctly, you'll see that this system does not have the text to speech capability (the 4250 and other higher end models do), but I'm not willing to pay an extra $70+ to hear the name of the street read aloud. This system has what I wanted: widescreen, thin (0.7"), a lot of Points of Interest (6 million should do), and helpful screen guides (I really like the ETA function). I'm glad I waited for the prices of GPS systems to go down a bit, and I'm very happy with what I got for my money.

I've had this GPS device for awhile and the great thing about it is that it has long battery life and it is very easy to use and manage. I've looked up places by city, zipcode, or just by name. I've asked it to find gas stations nearby and it can do all of that with ease. It also came with free traffic update for 3 months, but the traffic function never turned off and I've been using it for over a year. The function itself is very primitive (it will reroute you around traffic if it can, but it isn't integrated so that your estimated travel time is updated given the traffic), but probably better than not having it at all.

I have only two issues with it, which are big enough that next time I'll probably try another brand. The first is that sometimes the routes it comes up with can be an entire hour longer than what it should be. For instance, I wanted a route from Chicago to Rockford, IL. This trip should take between 1.5 and 2 hours and a single major highway connects the two cities. However, every time I put a Rockford address in from my house, it wants to route me through back roads in Wisconsin for a total trip time of 3.5 hours. If I were someone who didn't know where I was, then you could go very far astray believing in this route. However, if you ignore their directions and start driving the way you know you're supposed to go, it will eventually recalculate and pick up that you should be using that highway. This makes me question its reliability, so I still check Google maps before I get in the car for a long trip, just to make sure the Magellan doesn't come up with something crazy.

The second issue is that when in downtown Chicago, the GPS gets completely messed up and confused and its almost impossible to use if you start a new route while in the downtown area. I'm not sure why this is, but the device will think you are going around in circles and is extremely slow in calculating a route. This is very consistent behavior for my unit. A friend had a Garmin downtown, and it didn't appear to get as confused as the Magellan.

Overall, I'm glad I have a GPS device - its really easy to use - its just that I would feel a lot better if it were more reliable.

The Magellan Maestro 4210 is the perfect GPS if you are looking for one that will just help you find your way around without having to go past the menus for photos, mp3 music or other types of media files. I previously owned another brand of GPS that I had to use a lot of time and effort to get to the menu to just create a new route since I had to bypass all the other options I had no use for.

The Maestro 4210 receives an excellent and strong satellite signal. I live in a very rural area and I always minimum 3 out of the 4 bars for signal strength. The signal is picked up very quickly , so there is no hang time. The 4.3 inch widescreen is crystal crystal and has vivid colors. Touch sensitivity is accurate. I really love the estimated time of arrival feature and it is pretty close to being exact. I sat at a stop sign for several minutes and it automatically re-calculated the ETA for the time I was stuck in traffic. Another handy feature is choosing restaurants by types of food/category instead of just seeing the names of restaurants to pick from like other GPS units. It gives you plenty of audio alerts in advance to making turns or getting off an exit.

The unit is extremely light-weight and thin. Comes with a nice carrying pouch to protect from scratches if you are carrying it in a pocket/purse. If I could change anything about the Magellan Maestro 4210, it would be that the volume was higher. If you have an open window, even though I had to set to the loudest setting, it was still difficult to hear. Other than that - I love this GPS and recommend it highly to anyone who is in need of a simply-to-use GPS unit.

Since I have a large dashboard and the windshield sits far way from me, I purchased the NAVGEAR ME201133 Universal Dash Mount. This allowed me to have the GPS sit securely on my dash and ease in taking it down and storing it after use. If you do mount it on your windshield, verify that your state has no laws against having something mounted on it.

Pros:
Beautiful screen
Easy to use
Big screen
Lots of POI (I like the AAA info that comes with it)

Cons:
Comes with 2007 maps. Even though I purchased it in Aug 2008, Magellan still wanted another $80 to update to 2008/2009 maps.

Does not offer street name announcements (important for me when using it on my motorcycle).

Short battery life of about 3 hours (again, important for motorcycle)

Conclusion:
I returned it to Amazon and got the Magellan 3250 in its place (same product with smaller screen but includes street name announcements)

Magellan Maestro 3140 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator I bought this For $300.00 on special in June 2007. I did not use it untiluntil a road trip in JUNE 2008. It worked fine. Then it went dead. Customer support in India was of no help. They don't speak English well enough to handle a problem. They wanted to charge $99.00 to repair something that now sell for $149. new and I had used 3 times. Finally I got to customer service in the US. I returned the unit as instructed for a replacement and upgrade, for extra money of course. I have not received the new unit, but I got a message a month ago that the were "repairing" the old one, NOT the agreement. I think I am out of $300. and still dont have a gps. I think I will buy a Garmin. Magellan ustomer service is NON existent.