Review of Magellan Maestro 4250 GPS (price, reviews, selling, purchase)
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I purchased the Magellan Maestro 4250 GPS system about a month ago because I was in the market for a solid GPS system that offered speech recognition but was competitively priced. The MSRP was $499.99 and I was comfortable paying that much because of the options this system had in comparison with some of the limited options I had seen on other GPS systems. I have to say that the speech recognition was the key selling point for me though because of the convenient hands-free approach. You cannot speak an actual address but most of the Maestro's basic functions can be accessed with your voice.
Some examples of the voice recognition or speech recognition features include saying "Magellan" to activate the unit's recognition function. Once activated, you can say things like, "nearest ATM", "nearest gas", or "nearest restaurant". The recognition is very precise and I have not experienced any problems with this function. You can also ask the system "where am I?" and the GPS screen displays a list of options. I find this feature very handy and useful when driving in unknown areas.
Another great option this system has is that it is integrated with AAA tour books. The preloaded information is a great resource and added convenience when traveling in unfamiliar areas. This is a nice feature to have when on vacation and your itinerary is flexible and unchartered.
So far the only con I can find with this system is an occasional slow performance and once I have actually had the system lock up on me. The lock-up required a restart and afterward the system worked perfectly with no problems or glitches. I also noticed that when the system was performing a little slower than I thought it should have, I restarted the system and it then started to work more efficiently.
The overall performance of the system is solid and I am very happy with my purchase. You can pick up other GPS systems for $100 or even less but if price is not the main factor, I highly recommend the Magellan Maestro 4250. There is a subscription required for live traffic and updated weather reports that I have yet to look into. This is something I don't require, but if you are traveling a distance to work every day I can see that this may be a good feature to have to allow for updated information on road conditions.
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