Magellan Maestro 4350 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth & Integrated Traffic
Features
- New 4.3-inch wide-screen, full-color, anti-glare touch display
- OneTouch User Interface: The fastest, easiest, and most personalized user interface available saves frequent POI and category searches by personalizing shortcuts to commonly used destinations and favorites such as coffee shops.
- Integrated Live Traffic Functionality: Includes a free 3-month traffic subscription, which provides real-time traffic updates and automatically reroutes drivers when an alternate route is available.
- Pre-loaded with maps of the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, all available in 2D, 3-D, and street-level
- 3D Landmarks: 3D versions of historic landmarks, including stadiums and bridges, in key U.S. metropolitan areas help drivers and pedestrians better orient themselves with their surroundings.
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 10 x 2 x 5 inches
- Weight: 2 pounds
Magellan Maestro 4350 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth & Integrated Traffic3.3120
Strange routing, errors, crashes, avoid the product
I’ve had this for a year now, and it crashes usually every 2 or 3 trips, which is annoying enough, but it has other problems.
For one thing, it warns about curves in the road, but says nothing about some intersections, requiring me to look at the screen when I’d expect some guidance.
It has told me to get on an access road and back on the highway, which makes no sense. (Rt. 128 at the Rt 3 intersection in Mass. It ALWAYS does this; not a fluke. I ignore it, and it tells me to get back on the highway.)
It told me to take Rt. 3 South in NH, when it meant North, and the display showed the correct directions for North.
It won’t let me pick a route that I want, routing me way around to avoid a certain highway. Maybe because it is a toll road, but I need a faster route, not a roundabout one.
And finally, their tech support is broken today, with the server it links to not available or just nonexistent.
Next time, I’ll spend the extra money on a Garmin.
Bugs bugs bugs
The first unit I received was defective right out of the box. Would not turn on. A brand new replacement was sent which I’ve been using for six months…until today. Occasionally it locks up, sometimes in the middle of a routing, and needs to be reset, losing all your customized information (Home, etc.) This past week it did this twice causing me to throw up my hands and buy a Magellan 4700 which is MUCH more user friendly. Street names are much easier to read in the 4700 and the voice is mercifully louder. Granted the 4350 has more customizable features but even when the unit doesn’t completely lock up it frequently loses the customization and you’ll be riding and see no street names at all because the unit has decided to shift into a less close perspective. Ugh.
Other reviewers seem to be having more luck with the 4350 but I wonder if they’ve been using it for any length of time or if this is just an initial reaction. Oh, the first software update I did crashed the unit. The second worked O.K. Now if the unit would just work O.K….
The features I want for cheap
To get the fm transmitter,mp3 player and other comparable options in a Garmin would have cost me $400
Do the job but I trust a GPS at 100%
Before to hit the road I will check with a web map where I need to go or use one the feature of this GPS, look at the map where the GPS direct you and make the correction.
Yes mine froze too because of overheating. This happen if the GPS work on the 12v. too long or as happened, too long in a plastic bag – to protect again the rain – under a full sun on the handlebars of my bike when running on the battery.
To correct the problem : easy. Put the GPS over a vent and let the cool air running to keep the GPS cold.
If the GPS froze: easy too. Just shut down the GPS by pressing the on/off button 2 sec. Let it cold down for 20 sec and more, and turn it on. Work no problem.
Nice GPS
I’ve owned this for a year and a half and overall it’s a nice unit for my 18k so mile of leisure traveling a year. My first GPS was also a Magellan so I’m quite used to Magellan’s GUI interface and prefer it over the Garmin.
Likes:
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* Intuitive GUI – I like the fact that most options are just one touch away with the most essentials like exit POIs, turn list, and trip timing on the main nav screen. The nav screen is well designed, IMO. Also like that it limits the choices of letters on the keyboard as you enter the info.
* Excellent and _fast_ POI search coupled with One-Touch storing. Some of my favorite custom search: nearest rest areas on route, nearest hotels on route. The POI searches, once you get used to, is this unit’s best feature.
* Ability to view the map, select a point, it tells me what it think the point is, and allow me to select as a destination. And if you select a POI icon, it will tell you interesting locations near by. Coupling this with the 3D feature, walk-to-destination mode, I had a lot of fun in Washington DC.
* Nice re-routing and avoidance. It’ll pop up a detour button when you start to crawl on the freeway and allow you to choose how many miles to avoid and show those choices on the map. This feature saved me a lot of times when there are accidents and constructions.
* Nice lane-assist guidance.
* Eye-pleasing color scheme – I’d prefer its earth-tone colors over the cartoony Garmin colors. Also have interesting topology overlay in certain areas.
Don’t like:
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* Freezes – why I gave it 3 stars. Some bad freezes will wipe out all your contacts -> realllly bad when you’re on a trip. So have your contact list on a piece of paper (or cell phone handy). If a freeze happens within a city and there’s no good place to stop to fix it, there will be no joy.
* Routing off the freeway onto an exit ramp, just to get back on an on-ramp to the same freeway. Major annoyance. Happens on I-495 DC area and Atlanta. Same with preferring local lanes over an express lanes (I-270 in DC).
* Default to avoid certain routes like plaque – By default routing avoid toll and carpool roads. If you’re not aware of this and turn them on, you’ll be scratching your head wondering why it’s routing you through inside roads. Happens to me in DC where it avoids I-66 because it’s a carpool road and got me stuck in traffic. I can see avoiding toll, but carpool???
* Enter an address requires entering the city first. I understand the purpose of a tree-like search starting from the root for elimination, but you’re kinda screwed if you only know the street name and don’t know the area well. One time a friend told me to meet at “at 123 blah st” without telling me the city. Would be nice to search street like a POI (ie. nearest street with that name).
On the extras like BT, FM transmitter, MMC … I think they’re garbage add-ons. The hands-free would be nice if the audio wasn’t so terrible on the tiny speaker.
As a GPS, I think it’s a solid GPS if it doesn’t freeze on you.
What a piece of Junk
Takes me off 495 in Washington then tells me to get on again at every exit – taking 95 north it tells me to bare right when I should be baring left
emailed customer service – never even replied
I’m going back to Garmin
awesome gps works to a tee!!!! touchsreen very simple to use
um!!!let me see? i thought lets see if its worth taking a chance on a refurb model,,,guess what? great buy… i purchased 2 of them.1 for me & 1 for wifey…simple setup touchscreen is great,,,,,i highly recommend this product,,,,,no regrets …saved on buying a refurb………………………the prompts are accurate.totally worth the money,take awhie to fully charge bluetooth is good i like it!
Terrible – Never locks on a signal
Gets you where you want to go…..only AFTER it takes 10-15 minutes to acquire a signal. The thing spins and spins and spins and says “acquiring signal” for about 10 minutes each time you want to use it. I have not gotten into the habit of taking it into my house, punching in all the info and then letting it acquire a signal for the 10-15 minutes before I leave the house. Then by the time I am ready to leave, it works. Buy something else.
Lot’s of Features but poorly executed
I purchased this unit approximately 9 months ago and have not been pleased with its performance. More specifically…
(1) Unit is prone to locking up, requires frequent resetting. This is particularly problematic in the middle of a trip.
(2) Trip routing is ok, but you need to review them ahead of time to make sure you know the route. This is because the unit regularly instructs me to exit the highway, inappropriately. For highway exits where there is a parallel access road, the unit will instruct me to get off on the exit then re-enter the highway. On a recent trip on the Capital Beltway near DC this occurred at almost every exit.
(3) Battery life is poor. I realize the large screen and frequent dialogue will put a drain on the battery, but it will only operate for an hour or so without being plugged in.
(4) Slower to synch up with the satellite. My previous Magellan Roadmate was much quicker.
(5) The blue tooth option isn’t useful for more than a couple second conversation (although, I think this is not much different that other models, our Garmin is not either).
Finally, the unit recently stopped powering up and I need to send it back for repair/replacement.
There are legitimate benefits to this unit, including a good display and I love the AAA database.
I wanted to like this unit and specifically sought out a Magellan brand product based on my satisfaction with my previous unit. However, I am very hesitant to recommend this model.
Maegellan Maestro 4350 review
well..this is the 2nd Magellean Maistro I have purchased. This one is OK, but lacks the sound indication like the 4250 that lets you know are ‘exactly’ where you need to turn. The little “be-beep’ sound. It tells you you have say 1/4 mile before left turn onto ‘x’ street exit and stay left but when at the exact spot to turn, does not sound the chime to let you know THAT is where the turn is..right now!
I much prefer the 4250 feature for that chime but other than that and the occasional wrong turn on the map (other one did the same thing) it works great. No worries with the wrong turn…it resets itself to reroute instantly so wasn’t a big deal.
I would definately recommend both the 4250 and 4350 to anyone. Great product for the price!
Terrible Quality Control
Since I received the initial Maestro 4350 a little over six months ago, three of them have failed in quick succession.
After three months, the first simply stopped updating the car’s location in the middle of navigating to an unfamiliar location (that was not a lot of fun, when after 20 minutes, I finally realized that we were nowhere near the location on the screen), and it stopped responding to screen taps. When reset, it lost all the information I’d entered, all previous destinations, home location, everything. It worked for a while and then locked up again. It always had trouble holding a blue tooth connection on the few occasions when it actually made the connection.
The second unit lasted less than a week. It locked up and reported that it couldn’t load a specific file. It then stopped responding to screen taps and had to be reset (but without losing the home location this time).
The third one arrived a couple of days ago, and despite being charged almost the entire time since it arrived, either through the 110V adapter or through the car adapter, it reports “Battery level low” every time it is disconnected from its charger.
Note that in each case, tech support confirmed that the unit had the latest version of the software.
Each return has taken over an hour on the phone to arrange. Magellan requires the defective unit be delivered to a full service FedEx office, not just a local drop box or shipper; Magellan won’t arrange for a pickup. They managed to set up the latest two returns incorrectly, so I’ve had to drive to FedEx repeatedly.
You’d think that if Magellan’s quality control were any good, this situation could simply not occur.
I’ve purchased several different Magellan GPS units over the last several years for myself and my family — I like their features — but my latest GPS purchase was a TomTom. We’ll see…
Improvement from Magellan Maestro 4040
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.
Information for prospective buyers
Like most prospective GPS buyers, I agonized over which brand and model of GPS to buy. After reading pretty much all of the professional and customer reviews on Amazon, GPSMagazine, GPSReviews.net etc., I decided on the Maestro 4350 from Magellan. I just placed the order today with RadioShack (on sale for one hundred and seventy, until 10/31/09) and have not received my navigation unit yet. The reason I am writing this review is because I wanted to share a couple of pieces of information regarding the technical glitches and poor customer service related to Magellan in general and Maestro 4350 in particular, that other reviewers had written. To test the customer service experience prior to purchasing my 4350, I called Magellan Customer Service to inquire about the technical issues and whether they have fixed those now.
Here is what I experienced:
1) My call was answered within 3 minutes after being placed in to the phone queue
2) The Tech Support analyst was very forthright about the issues, and stated there is a firmware upgrade available that had addressed some of the technical issues. Yet, he alluded that most models may still experience lockups occasionally during use once in a while. This is not unlike Windows XP or Vista. His recommendation was to completely power down the Nav unit when not in use (for example, when you have stopped overnight at a way point in your route), thus issuing a cold boot when the unit is powered back up. Your previously created route will be saved and resumed upon bootup. I decided I can live that, heck, I have to reboot my Windows based PC just about as often! And, I appreciated the honesty of the tech support agent.
3) I was informed that the optional media card format is MicroSD, not MicroSDHC. The 4350 cannot read high capacity cards, so the biggest capacity card you can use is 2GB.
Here are my reasons for picking the Maestro over a Garmin or Tomtom:
Built-in Traffic monitoring (although there is an annual service fee)
1) Ease of finding addresses using Quick Spell
2) Ease and flexibility of creating and using multisegment routes
3) Lane guidance that works, unlike the Garmins
4) OneTouch feature
5) Chime announcing the pending turn and text to speech of street names
6) AAA TourBook
7) Speed Limit warning
9) FM transmitter where audio from the 4350 can be sent to vehicle audio system
10) Media Player (MP3, pictures and video)
11) 3D Maps
12) High volume level from built in speaker
13) Much better value than competing brands
I shall update my review after using the new nav in a week or two.
Nice unit BUT
This unit has saved me on a couple of ocassions, but I have been really frustrated with it when you reach your destination. It doesn’t say if it (your destination) is on the right or left side of the street and it doesn’t give you the street number. We had to drive around looking for the address after stopping and looking up the number on my saved address file. The address was in an office complex so we had no idea where to look.
It pronounces very common street names in an unusual way and they are sometimes difficult to understand.
Appreciate that the map tells you how far you have to go to the next turn or direction and the direction (right or left) is noted so you know what lane to be in.
Used the AAA feature but the restaurant we were looking for was not listed, even though it was in other cities.
Magellan Maestro 4350
Magellan Maestro 4350 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth & Integrated Traffic
I like the unit very much, but at time it freezes. Issues with bluetooth with my nokia phone. Over all I like the product.
Much better than Garmin
This GPS system is not as intuitive to use as the Garmin, but the Garmin was infuriating in so many ways. This one has easily adjustable zoom for the maps, and the volume. The picture is very clear. The voice is totally non-offensive (unlike the Garmin). The only real flaw I’ve found so far is that its initial estimates of length of travel seem to be way longer than the trip actually is. But at least you get there before you expected to.
It works as expected and even better!
Pros: I like the hands free bluetooth with caller ID and the SD card slot to view photos and play music through the radio tuner. When driving alone no need to focus so hard on the route – it’s like having a great friend by your side to call out the upcoming turns without forgetting and being distracted. I also have a speed feature which displays a speed limit sign if you are over the posted speed limit, which I found to be extraordinarily accurate even in construction areas (it changes within feet of the posted sign). If you are an AAA member you get real time traffic (which I have not verified as yet)
Cons: In rural areas it can loose the road for a few seconds. Sometimes in traffic you can misinterpret the turn and turn early or too late. Sometimes identifies an address as being on the wrong side of street.
I have looked at these for years and hesitated. Now with this model being highly praised and loaded with features I finally broke down and got one. I 1st used it to navigate to places to I have used map notes to get to, then later to completely unfamiliar addresses. Make a mistake and you will be recalculated to a new route. I have learned to trust it and for the price I fell it is well worth it. It pairs with your bluetooth phone easier than most headsets. It also will play mp3 music files by tuning to the radio at several frequencies. Display is big but not distracting. No issues with understanding how it works or need for customer service as others have reported. Intuitive, easy to use.
froze and keep saying “batteries are critcally low” when it is not
This is acutally my second one. I lost my first one. The first one I have tend to freeze on me. The bad thing was I was driving from MD to NJ to visit my brother for the first time. It froze on me halfway. I have to talk and drive at the same time to get to his place. It also froze couple other times. GPS always keep saying “batteries are critically low” even though I am charging it as I go.
I lost the first GPS. I bought another one (exactly the same model) from Amazon.com. I am still having the same problems with the second one. I thought there was a glitch with the first one but it seems like it is the model problems.
Nice Little Unit
This little unit seems to have it all. Haven’t used the Bluetooth option yet, but just about everything else. Very easy to navigate through the menu’s to get to where you’re going. Maybe the only drawback would be the internal speaker…just meaning that I can only turn the volume up to the 2/3rds level before the sound starts to “crackle.” But its still loud enough to hear the directions. As for the announcers voice, often times it doesn’t come out with the correct pronunciation of the street name, but it fairly close to understand even if your not reading the GPS screen for your next turn. Haven’t heard other units to compare this technology, but I’m still very pleased with this GPS unit.
Good unit, good price
I always used to scorn GPS units, preferring the time tested method of map and compass (often to the dismay of passengers when I’d hand over a map and ask them to find where we were at on it for me). When I needed a better set of directions, I’d just print something off the internet.
Well, the maps still may be in the map pockets on the doors of the truck and the compass in the glovebox, but my Magellan has finally gained a spot on my dash. It came as a result of my brother getting one and being able to see him use it to navigate around… And after despite all of my maps getting mighty confused a couple times trying to find some places I needed to go in the city (without a copilot, it’s kinda tough to use a map in city traffic).
So far, I’m quite impressed with it, it’s helped me out a number of times now with navigating around, but it’s not flawless (at least not yet, hence why I haven’t thrown out my maps yet). Most of the time it’s pretty much right on, but I’ve seen it tell you that you’ve arrived when you still have up to a half mile to go yet (seldom, I’ve only come across three places so far that it was off more than a hundred yards). But if you’re paying attention, it’s no big deal.
Has a ton of features that I haven’t even begun to decipher, but it’s nice because you can take it out of the box, throw it on your dash, and get on your way and learn the extra features later. I’ve recommended it to a number of people I know already.