Magellan Maestro 3140 Review

Product Overview

The Magellan Maestro 3140 features preloaded maps from the American NAVTEQ service along with 4.5 million points of interest, and AAA points of interest. The unit also features the quick spell technology common to a lot of Magellan products, and a text to speech technology. Small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, the unit is entirely touch screen based, with exception to the power button.

Magellan Maestro 3140 GPS Navigator

Review Highlights

Simplicity dictates the overall design of the Magellan Maestro 3140 unit. Power button, ports for USB and power on one side, reset button and SD slot on the other. The speaker is of a rear firing design which is more than adequate for the needs of the driver. The mount for the unit is not the best or easiest to use. If you are not paying attention then you will remove the entire thing when you go to mount or dismount the device. The side access to power is definitely a plus given the design, and the battery will last 3 hours at max. The battery is a bit disappointing given its slow charging speed.

The Text-to-Speech functionality will read off street names and other information handy for the driver trying to navigate around an unfamiliar area. The trend is being featured in many entry level units, and it benefits the driver greatly to be able to have the street names read aloud when they are trying to find their way. The over all performance of the speech engine Is great, except for one tiny little detail that does not remove from the functionality of the device. The street names are interjected at the end of commands with a second voice, much like those bad made for the individual kid movies, where in the middle of one line, a completely different voice says the name.

Actual user review:
• "As a 1st time user of a GPS I was pleasantly suprised when I opened it up turned it on and it started working. Little set-up, learning curve, or jargon to deal with. The software update off of Magellan's website went smoothly as well. I've used the unit on many occations making customer calls and it gets me to where I want to go - everytime. The extra features such as AAA & POI are fairly reliable and complete, I have not engaged the Bluetooth feature. Good product - Good price." - P.Fasoli (MN,USA)

Navigation

Navigation is done through entering an address, marking a point of interest, or a special command such as home. Addresses are entered via city, zip, previous searches, etc. A negative point is that while looking up an address by city, there is not a single place to enter in a state, so the driver is looking at a potential 50 states worth of cities to scroll through. Other manufacturers have already solved this issue, it is time for Magellan to do the same.

The quick spell technology will mark out the letters that will come next in a word, letting the driver type out their data much more quickly and efficiently. This works better for street names than for cities, because you can again find yourself trying to pick out a single entry among many more. All of the list issues go away by entering the zip code, which is especially useful for those who stick to a specific region.

Once the unit knows where you need to go, it will provide you options as to the fastest, shortest, and freeway specified routes. You can try and take nothing but back roads or try and stick to the highways. One of the problems with the routing capabilities is that it can be difficult to look up the recent destinations tab, which is a few levels into the overall user interface. A plus is the split screen that occurs when a complicated turn is about to occur, where one screen will show you how the lanes are organized while the other will maintain a map view.

When it comes to navigation, the unit also features multi-point routing. This allows the driver to program in a series of stops, and the unit provides the most effective routes which connect the points of interest. The Maestro 3140 features as many as 4.5 million entries regarding points of interest. The sad bit is that this is not linked in any way to the AAA data, so a search in both listings is required in order to cross correlate AAA data among other alternatives. The AAA data is in several categories that make menu navigation simpler, and the information provided is complete, providing general costs, reputations, addresses, phone numbers, etc. The best application of the service is in finding food places to go to, and be informed as to their Zagat reviews, and much more. This is the sort of information that should be present in all devices.

The Magellan Maestro 3140, when compared to earlier models, is a device that has improved and is offering more when it comes to features, such as text to speech and quick spell. The device has not quite caught up to Garmin or Tom Tom, but the pricing reflects this and makes the device a good compromise on price versus features.

More user reviews:
"After much research, I found this unit to be superior to the TomTom Edition 3, which was my other option. My friend has the TomTom and the Maestro 3140 is a better choice. I especially like the way it automatically re-routes, without having to touch the screen, unlike the TomTom. The text to speech was a big factor in my decision to purchase this unit. I found the GPS especially useful during my travels, and I take it with me on vacation. The 3140 flawlessly navigated me around San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and more recently Miami. The unit seemed confused routing us from the airport to Ocean Boulevard in Miami, but it wasn't anything that the auto re-router couldn't handle. I would definitely recommend this, especially if directions aren't your stronghold, as is the case with me. Before, I was hesitant to venture out past where I was familiar, but the Magellan has totally liberated me! As I said, I was all over San Francisco, L.A. and Miami and felt confident. I'm going to New York next month and will be driving (with the 3140) instead of taking the train. If it can take me around N.Y.C. without me plunging over the G.W.B, I'll know it was money well spent! " - W.Musco (Connecticut,USA)

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"I have been using the unit for a week now in the LA area. I am pleasantly surprised by it's usefulness and much improved experience over a Garmin unit I was familiar with.

Features I liked the most:
• Detects when your going really slow in traffic and automatically gives you an indicator on the side to take a detour.
• Bluetooth speakerphone works well although not perfect. Everyone could here me fine but they all said I sounded like I was talking through a pipe.
• Very accurate in properly detecting what I'm typing in.
• Easy to learn and I've found that after using it for only a week, I can quickly enter an address and be on my way.
• Reroutes within 1/2 to a full block after missing a turn.
• Screen size is plenty and gets the job done.
• Text to Speech works really well. Sure some street names sound robotic...but I found it to be very helpful and eliminated the need to look at the unit as much. The more your eyes stay on the road the better.
• Points of Interest seemed to work much better than a Garmin that my parents paid twice as much for.
• Allows you to decide traffic rules easily every time you select a new destination. Example: Avoid Freeways, Prefer Freeways...etc.
• You can click on any part of the route and choose to exclude it. This is HUGE!!!! for me. Sometimes these devices just pick a freeway or road that you know better than to take...but would still like some help from the device. The Magellan allows you to click on a road or freeway and exclude it and then it will re-route using a different option." - J.Morales (CA,USA)

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