Magellan

Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
$299.99
11/19/09 - I received my unit today so my review is limited to the just out of the box experience. Of course the first thing I did was to turn it on while sitting inside my house and follow the first time use setup. I was not able to complete this, because the battery was not fully charged and the unit shut down so this had to wait until I could plug in a power source. I had to go outside to my car and plug in the power cord in the lighter socket to test out the unit. Online FAQ indicates a full charge may take 6 hours.

What is in the box differs from what Amazon's description says; there is no "user manual on CD-ROM" in the package. What the labeling on the box says and what I did receive is the receiver with pre-loaded maps, windshield mount (suction cup base), adhesive disk if you prefer to mount on the dashboard (the suction cup grabs the this disk instead of the windshield glass), vehicle power adaptor (standard lighter plug), USB cable, a protective pouch (a thin sleave type), and an user handbook (in English, French and Spanish). The English instructions are 17 pages long in a 5 by 6 inch format.

Register your product online at Magellan's web site and then visit the support page and download an English User Manual in .pdf format.

No information is given in the handbook, manual or online FAQ about the micro SD card slot. However, the Ask Maggie automated interactive agent says the product supports micro SD cards up to 2 GB, but do not use high speed or 4 GB and higher cards.

The software in the received unit is version 1.27. The support page has version 2.06 for download as a .zip file. An IBM compatible with MS Windows XP or Vista is needed to do the software update.

I recommend that when you buy this unit, you also buy an AC adaptor so you can charge your battery outside the car. You may also want a better case than the sleave.

This is my first GPS unit. I'll be using this unit for holiday travel and may have more to say at a later date.

Magellan Maestro 4210 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
$449.99
No brainer. plug in , answer a few questions and go
Its that simple

Magellan RoadMate 1440 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
$199.99
I picked this Roadmate 1440 up used from ebay so this review is NOT on Amazon. As it turns out the unit I got it is new and works great. I had been looking at GPS units that I could afford for the past few weeks and decided to try Magellan in spite of some of the reviews,,,,, and I'm glad I did at this point as this unit has worked great so far. It did "get lost " over the weekend in Knoxville Tenn BUT it and one other "lost moment" came from the fact that the roads and or interchanges where too new for the 2009 maps, as I understand it the maps are always a couple of years old when they first come out. and this is the same with ALL brands of GPS units. This units found more than enough Satellites very very fast,,,,,,,,,, 15 seconds or so after booting for the first time when I got it and has not been slower than 10 seconds since. recalculates within a 200-500 of "missing" a turn. I've seen some people complain of the screen (map) turning very quickly for now reason BUT mine does not do this, what I did notice it that when your car travels UNDER an overpass or bridge it does turn very slightly but it is very minor and quickly readjusts. It did need to "restart in order to improve performance" but this was only one time and it was when I was "playing" with it , basically moving very VERY quickly from one function to another for a prolonged period of time, however the unit NEVER did this in what I would term "Normal use". I am extremely pleased with this unit so far. Sure, it does NOT have Blue-tooth , or some other high end features" BUT it does get from "point A to Point B" The "lane guidance", does great, even the small town I live in is shown, and Nashville Tenn, Knoxville Tenn and other towns and cities between me and Gatlinburg Tenn......... we where ALWAYS in the correct lane because of this unit......My unit has Firmware version 1.12,,,,,, I am aware of "updates" in the firmware but I'm not sure at this point if I will update mine to the newest because so have "bricked" their units when doing so BUT I think they may have had this problem because of NOT waiting till the entire process of downloading the update was completed before trying to stop in the process..................... I understand the process does take a LONG time and people have thought that something was wrong, when they stop before the process is complete then the files get "corrupted" This is my first GPS but I have used my brother-in-laws' Garmin Street-Pilot c340 and both I and he like this unit better.

By the way, IF you don't want to pay a lot for an AC Charger, a HTC 8125 cell phone charger works just fine for the Roadmate 1440, and will work with other Roadmates as well with the 1470 being one.... hope this review helps someone out.

Magellan Maestro 4350 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth & Integrated Traffic
$499.99
I used to have the Magellan Maestro 4040 (S/N: 0726401640231) that I bought from Costco in 2006 and sadly it was stolen from a car break-in.

Magellan 4350 is a great improvement for me and worth the money in compare to its competitors.

Improvement features that impressed me:
1. High-sensitivity GPS street level tracking
2. Quick re-route after missing a turn
3. FM transmitter to play MP3 on my car-radio.
4. Almost accurate Estimate Time of Arrival (ETA)
5. Able to continue GPS navigation from Car-travel to OnFoot-travel
6. Comes with wall-charger to charge the GPS unit in hotel room for next day OnFoot-travel navigation while visiting new cities.

Wish-list feature on this product:
1. Live time traffic.
2. Able to upload street maps for Asia countries for travelling.