Magellan Maestro 4040
The Complete Portable Navigation Device
MSRP: $499.99
Magellan has always made high quality, very reliable (if plain) portable nav products, but now with the new Maestro 4040 the company has stepped up its game. This is one of the better portable nav devices on the market. With its large 4.3-inch touchscreen and attractive, easy-to-read map, improved graphics overall and a user-friendly menu, the Maestro 4040 does everything you expect from a higher-end nav product and more. With the 4.5 million points of interest database, plus the built-in AAA TourBook guide the Maestro has one of the more thorough, info-rich POI listings. And it didn't suffer too greatly from the problem of slow satellite acquisitioning, common to a lot of portable navs. We had some delays when we left it off for a few days and restarted the device. But in less than 10 minutes we were locked in again. If you use the Maestro every week you probably won't have a problem; if you use it only occasionally, then you should turn it on some time before you depart for your destination. The navigation itself was very accurate, with rerouting practically instantaneous. In the Southern California area where we used the Maestro it never led us astray. And while touring around town we made good use of the built-in Bluetooth for hands-free talking. The speaker is actually loud enough to overcome cabin noise and the mic picked up speech just as well as the phone itself. This is on par with the Bluetooth on Garmin's StreetPilot unit we reviewed a while ago - except the Maestro is more compact. The 4040 is preloaded with maps covering the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. With the optional TrafficKit you can upgrade this device and get traffic information. By the time you read this review that kit should be available. Check out the Maestro 4040 at a retail outlet or online at www.magellangps.com.
Key Features
4.3-inch touchscreen
QuickSpell for fast address entry
Built-in Bluetooth for hands-free phone use
AAA TourBook
Traffic info (optional)
SD card slot (supports up to 2GB)
Rechargeable battery (2 hours)
Harmon Kardon Guide + Play GPS-500
A Pnd & Pmp All-In-One
MSRP: $399.99
The Guide + Play GPS-500 is one of the best-looking personal navigation devices on the market. Its good looks are matched by the feature set. This unit serves more than adequately as a media player. The GPS-500 supports MP3/AAC/WMA/WAV formats and will play your MP4 and AVI files. You're better off using the headphone jack for music listening than the little built-in speaker; as for video, the 4-inch touchscreen is bigger than your iPod. In today's culture of mini-screen entertainment we would much rather have the GPS-500 for video playback - and then use it for navigation. That's the advantage of the all-in-one approach. However there was a drawback, at least with our test unit. It took over half an hour for the GPS-500 to lock in a satellite when we first turned on the device. Once we had the satellite we were able to navigate with ease. The directions and rerouting worked perfectly fine in our area, even in the rowdy, less-traveled areas of grimey Los Angeles. The menu in terms of look and layout is one of the best we've seen on a PND (we've already drawn the Apple comparison - we wondered if they had a hand in designing this product, it was so well done). But again the problem of acquiring a satellite signal diminished the value of the portable. We took it on a work-related trip to Florida where it never found a satellite. (In all fairness, we did not have the opportunity to test the Maestro in another state.) The worst part is that it failed to quickly lock onto a satellite once we returned home. It took ages. Were it not for that, we might have proclaimed the Guide + Play THE PND/PMP to buy. Its slim, lightweight and can be literally full of entertainment. We can easily overlook its lack of Bluetooth. But we can't overlook the fact that it doesn't fulfill its main function; that is, as a nav device.
Key Features
4-inch touchscreen
Plays MP3/AAC/WAV/WMA and MP4/AVI files
3 million points of interest
128MB internal flash memory stores maps of U.S. & Canada
SD card slot (supports up to 4GB)
Rechargeable battery (4 hours)