Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

Reviews

1. Magellan 4700 Review

   by Peter L. Stein

   I purchased this item because it had all the features I wanted and the price was right. HOWEVER, the colors of the display screen are so washed out, especially when using sun glasses. it was nearly impossible to see. Therefore, I returned this item. I have since purchased a Nuvi and have no problems seeing the display even with sun glasses.

2. Great GPS

   by J. Allen

   This GPS is amazing for it’s price. Simple, easy to learn, and easy to use. The only thing that it is lacking in is it’s voice recognition. Don’t even bother. You’ll just get tired of talking, then yelling at the GPS and getting the same response…”I didn’t get that.” If you get the optional traffic link power cord, you’ll even know what routes to avoid. Overall, I am very satisfied with the 4700. I’d recommend it to anyone.

3. Great GPS for the price.

   by Bruce R. Hunt

   I haven’t given this a comprehensive test, but based on my limited trials I really like it.

4. 4700 as good as 4000

   by Jake

   Last weekend was my first opportunity to use this product. I have a Magellan Maestro 4000 and it’s a very good product with excellent voice announcements/directions. The 4700 uses the same voice but some of the directions/street names were not quite as crystal clear but still recognizable. This unit does relay a lot of information when giving directions. The 4700 is just as good as my 4000 but does take considerably longer to boot up. My cell phone isn’t compatible with this uint but I knew that when I bought it. I mounted the unit on my dash with the available mounting disc and it worked well. I do wish I could angle the bracket down a bit further to reduce the glare. It is a little harder to see when the sun is glaring on it but my 4000 has the same problem. The bracket however is much smaller with the 4700 which I like and the unit is lighter. I do like this unit and am still investigating its features and getting used to it. They could redesign the angled power usb plug, it makes it a bit more cumbersome to plug it in and I also wish they would include a a/c wall adapter. The navigation screens do seem a bit better than the one that the 4000 uses. Overall, I’m pleased with this product.

5. firmware 2.20 is the kiss of death

   by Mr. Robert J. Miller

   I have owned the Maestro 4700 since February 2010. The GPS worked marvelously up until I updated the firmware to 2.20. Little did I know, there is a growing # of people who have also had problems with firmware 2.20. Most people GOOGLE this issue once they realize they have a problem, when you do this you will see a growing community of people with the 2.20 problem.

   The 2.20 firmware essentially mis-places your navigation arrow approximately 150-200 feet away from your actual spot – not very useful when you actually need a GPS to navigate.

   This issue appears to be purely a software problem because I did not have any problems prior to this update. Disappointing because Magellan’s answer is to forward the issue to their engineers. This problem has been around for months and there has not been a fix or a rollback – I don’t think Magellan will address this properly.

   The second issue I had was installing custom Points of Interest (POI) via an upload. The Garmin allows you to add a spreadsheet file full of POI’s (red light cameras … etc), but this particular Maestro does not. Not a complete issue – but something to consider.

   I would stay away from this GPS. I had previously owned a Garmin Nuvi 750, which I regret having to retire – because the user interface was great and there was never a problem with Garmin. Buyer beware.

6. No significant progress since year 2002

   by S. Ding

   I purchased the 4700 because good impression on 760 8 years before (lost in airport), but I was disappointed by new one.

   1. Can’t find famous COSTCO addressed in Dublin, and Santa Clara, California in the 6 million POIs.

   2. Smart Volume not work really.

   3. No “Destination Arrow” which was availabe in Magellean 760, but with a quick access key substitude, which is useless.

   4. Show cross picture too late before turn, should 2 seconds early.

   5. Show picture too big to display high way turn around, can’t see turn around clearly.

   6. Other GPS vendors made progresses in these years, Magenllan not much.

7. Magellan Maestro 4700

   by SewingNana

   Plain and simply – best GPS we have owned so far. Great routing-always most direct route, did 3 difficult location tests-dead on. Good visuals, good clear voice instructions and love the bluetooth with my LG enV3. Take only 15 – 25 seconds to start up, depending on where we are located. Forgot to take address with us so we used points of interest, like having a nationwide phone book! I would prefer not to have predictive traffic-dislike the 1475T traffic advertisments, but it does not a constant. You can not go wrong with this great 4.7 widescreen GPS unit.

8. (‘magellan maestro 4700′)

   by Charles P. Mcevoy

   Nice GPS, great price from Amazon. Its great except the bluetooth connection to my cell in my car. It connects well and I hear a caller on the speaker clearly, but the caller has problems ‘hearing me clearly’. Most callers complain of background noise unless my car is standing still. This is disappointing as I bought this unit to talk in my car on my cell phone. MD law now requires hands free operation of your cell in a car. The GPS is mounted on my windshield glass in my Honda van

9. Easy to use

   by William E. Wade

   Not an expert with using GPS, but easy to use. The maps are not as up to date as some I have seen and private roads not included. Have not used blue tooth or customer support. Overall is a good item.

10. Great GPS for the Price

    by xeno

    I’ll preface my review by saying that I read many of the negative reviews on this GPS before purchasing it, as well as the positives. It seems that many of the problems that were software related have now been corrected by the most recent updates, since I haven’t experienced these problems myself. I think we all know that GPS’s (and other electronics) are pushed to market quickly and then the problems are discovered by the users and fixed through software updates. However, they really have got this to be a fine working system, and I truly enjoy all the features that come with it.

    Pros:
    
    Screen size and clarity
    
    Routing has been great (not perfect, but close)
    
    QWERTY Keyboard
    
    Zip Code Lookup
    
    Lane Assist
    
    Beep alert for turns and exits
    
    Clear voice commands with correct street pronunciations

    Cons:
    
    Traffic alerts aren’t that great (you have to buy the receiver separately, as well)
    
    Bluetooth does not work well while driving (road noise interferes)
    
    Slight delay after selecting route and waiting for first route instruction

    I’ll have to disagree with the reviewer that said the updating process was difficult – I downloaded Magellan’s updater program, plugged in the GPS, and had it done in 5 minutes (By the way, Garmin uses the same process for their GPS updates as well). I’ll agree that they should just send you to the updater program right away on their website, but hopefully they will improve the way they organize their site soon.

    Overall, I feel the GPS is a great value. It’s not perfect, and has some flaws, but it is an effective guidance system.

11. Can’t beat it for the price!!

    by Mijai

    The Magellan 4700 is exactly what I was looking for! Not too big, not to costly, has most of the bells and whistles, but most importantly, it is fast and accurate.

12. Bad Experience

    by stefan king

    I have bought 5 GPS receivers prior to this one.

    I don’t like this device.
    
    I bought it because it was reputed to have superior route
    
    selection. On the contrary, I found it to be quite difficult
    
    to control where it tries to take you. The screen is apparently
    
    resistive, as opposed to the capacitive type found on iPhones etc.
    
    so it responds better to a sharp poke than a fingertip. (use a
    
    fingernail) Once you have gotten it to accept a destination
    
    and display the map, it freezes for about 20 seconds, refusing
    
    all input. I find tactile control of this device difficult, and
    
    alas, there is no other way. In sum, the physical box is annoying
    
    and the software is the same.

    The worst part was trying to upgrade the firmware on this special
    
    purpose computer. I would have withheld my criticisms of the
    
    firmware until I upgraded if I only could! Once I navigate to the
    
    download page at Magellan for this thing and type in many numbers,
    
    I finally get to where it says Download Upgrade 50-odd MB, ZIP.
    
    Well, that does not download the firmware, it takes you to another
    
    page where they try to get you to install a special downloader
    
    program, whose major advantage, so far as I can see, is it gives
    
    Magellan a way to “push” notices to your computer. I finally
    
    relented and installed this annoyance-ware. Well, it won’t run on
    
    my computer. As far as I can tell, there is no way around this
    
    noxious downloader.

    I spent all morning, still don’t have an upgrade, and I’ve had a
    
    rotten customer experience.

13. Good GPS

    by AC

    I’d been looking at different Garmin models but could not decide on one as there were always negative reviews no matter which Garmin model I looked at. Finally, I came across the 4700 and I found the reviews were mostly positive. In addition, the 4700 is also cheaper than comparable units from Garmin. So I finally decided to buy the 4700 and I am still happy with the decision. It seems to work as advertised so far. One thing is that it didn’t come with a wall charger but I found that I can use my MP3 USB charger to charge.

14. great gps

    by Robert E. Matovick

    my first gps was a magellan gps and it wasn’t as easy to use as this one. great product and I would buy a magellan gps again

15. Best GPS

    by S. Wang

    This is the 7th Magellan I purchased for the upgrade. It’s the best and I’m very happy with it.

16. Great GPS, not so great Bluetooth

    by Croz Mom

    I love the Highway assist and that it says the street names. Every time I’ve tried to use the Bluetooth feature the people on the other end say they can barely hear me so I always end up switching it to handset mode – defeats the purpose of paying extra for the Bluetooth capability. I haven’t figured out the voice commands feature yet.

17. A sales rep’s perspective – 50k miles/yr

    by Road Warrior

    I had a Garmin nuvi for several years. It had a software glitch in which the ETA and mileage to destination were always wrong. Not many features and couldn’t locate addresses at times. The Magellan is a HUGE step up. Loaded with features and excellent at locating addresses, and destinations like hotels and restaurants. The screen size is superb. Attaching the unit to the windshield adapter is a bit more difficult than the nuvi. For the price an excellent buy. Consumer Reports magazine was right, as usual.

18. Amazon has amazing service

    by elimin8ter

    Good product went cross country last week from Florida to Los Angeles screwed up once in San Antonio on freeway but there was major road construction going on.Visibility was fine for me even in the sun. The bluetooth is so quiet it is almost useless. Otherwise a good product and also if u have AAA u get a 2 year warranty.

19. Unreliable GPS device do not purchase this

    by Deen E. Entsminger

    I purchased this device (Maestro 4700) and in one month, the battery died. Another device was sent to me from the manufacturer and in less than 24 hours, it, too failed. I have had to send both back to Magellan to receive a replacement device. I would encourage you to look to another company and not order from Magellan. They are unwilling to resolve the defective item to my satisfaction.

20. Magellan Maestro 4700 is good, but some minor flaws keep it from excellent.

    by George B. Emerson

    We tried the Magellan Maestro 4700, and it took us to the destination, but said the destination was on the right when it was clearly on the left. I tried to download the upgrade from Magellan- it works only for Windows computers,an exe data file, I use mac. I took it to a friend’s house to install.The world runs on other formats besides Windows, and Magellan should realize this, and provide a mac friendly version. Other than this, we have found the 4700 to be a good,easy to use, pleasant surprise for finding our way in unfamiliar territory.