Magellan Maestro Loses the Clutter

A bigger screen and better-quality maps put the new Maestro 4040 head and shoulders above Magellan's previous GPS models

by Arik Hesseldahl

Editor's Rating:

The Good: Bright, wide screen; vastly improved maps; trip information from AAA included

The Bad: A few midtrip resets needed; touch screen could have been more responsive

The Bottom Line: A navigation device that shows real improvement over previous Magellan models

Reader Reviews

Depending on whom you ask, the future of personal navigation systems may or may not lie with the mobile phone. The cellular industry argues that increasingly sophisticated phones with ever-faster wireless data networks will be just as good at steering you around as any standalone device using global positioning system (GPS) satellite technology.

The problem with using a phone as an in-car navigation aid is that the screen displaying the map is so small. As if to emphasize this deficiency, the top makers of personal navigation devices (PNDs), including Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin (GRMN), have all been boosting screen sizes on their products. It's a sentiment I can understand. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for squinting. Given the choice of a "big" phone with a 2.5-in. screen, vs. a dedicated PND with a 4.3-in. display, the decision is pretty simple: Go with the bigger screen.

The display on Magellan's latest PND, the $500 Maestro 4040, was not only big, but plenty bright in the glare of a very sunny weekend spent running various errands. I was happy, mostly, with the results.

Off the Beaten Path

The entire Maestro line, launched in March, boasts larger screens measuring about 4 in. wide and 2.25 in. high, a ratio that gives the devices that fashionable wide-screen look so popular in consumer electronics these days.

The new Maestro's GPS chipset, a Star III made by SIRF (SIRF), proved to be exceptionally sensitive. In densely wooded and urban spots where other GPS units lose the satellite signals on which they depend, this unit appeared to maintain a near constant fix. It was easy to monitor the signal strength by looking at three bars in the upper right corner of the screen, similar to the network indicators on cell phones.

In keeping with the other popular trend in PNDs, the device has a touch-sensitive screen. TomTom was early to eliminate physical buttons on its devices, and Garmin was quick to follow. However, the Maestro's display left something to be desired in the way of touch-screen sensitivity. I found myself hitting on-screen buttons more than once, and it seemed to respond better when I used the edge of my fingernail than the tip of my finger.

Thin Is In

The device itself is thin, another big trend in PNDs. What two or three years ago was usually a brick-sized contraption that you needed to mount atop your dashboard is now light enough to hang from a suction-mount on the inside of the windshield.

Power it up and you're greeted with three icons. One labeled "show map" displays your current location on a map. A second called "enter address" gives you the option of navigating to an address you enter. The third, "points of interest," can show you what's nearby.

The map displays were a vast improvement compared with the cluttered look on previous Magellans such as the Roadmate 2000 (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/29/06, "Mapping Your Route, Magellan Style"). This Maestro's text is easier to read, and the color schemes are less intrusive. Information is simply easier to pick out at a glance than it had been on previous models.

AAA Data a Plus

I also liked the fairly simple feature of entering an address. After hitting "enter address," I typed "Manhattan" with an on-screen keyboard. When giving the street, I was glad to see the database differentiated between Manhattan's East Side and the West Side, crucial for getting addresses right. Outside the city, I was surprised to see that the data had been updated so recently that it included a new roundabout that only a year ago was a three-way intersection.

But at one point, in midroute, the device reset itself not once but twice. While it restarted quickly, and asked if I'd like to resume from where it left off, these hiccups were annoying. Magellan says I was using a device without the final version of the software, and so I likely ran into a lingering bug.

One interesting new addition is the inclusion of data from the American Automobile Association. If you've ever used AAA's detailed maps and guidebooks for a long road trip, you know how useful that information can be. Although I didn't take the unit on a long journey, I can easily see the attraction of dispensing with cumbersome paper guides in favor of the same information on-screen.

This Way to Barbecue

The AAA info also made the "points of interest" option far more useful. Had I been driving near Richmond, Va., with a hankering for barbecue, I might have been directed to Willard's Real Pit BBQ, which is described as "reminiscent of barbecue joints found throughout the South."

Tabbed screens accompanying that short review tell you the hours of operation, whether there's parking, and which credit cards are accepted. That's all highly useful information that I could probably get from the guidebook, but why bother when it's all right there on the screen? And on a nice big screen, to boot. Let's see a cell phone do that.

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.