Magellan Maestro 4050

You could not be more wrong about Garmin.

But that's just my opinion of course. And I do have a reading list of reviews that supports my opinion.

Garmin is the yardstick by which all other gps's are measured. They didn't become a giant by selling cheap toys that's for sure.

Ray

I've been running Garmin units for about 10 years now and I wouldn't have anything else.

Thank you for your input, but does somebody own Maestro 4050 or had a chance to use to compare it? I don't want to start a brand war - I actually liked my Lowrance gps a lot - the only downside was that it was too bulky. I still can return Maestro to Costco, but I need an advice on what to buy instead.

Thank you.

I own a Garmin 680 and like it very much. I do not own a 4050, but I did try one out at a retail store.

It immediately recogined my voice on the first try and the interface was very easy to use.

You only get a 3 month subscription to the traffic data, (compared to a year with the Garmin 680), and I am not sure if it will play MP3 music or hold Jpeg pictures.

The advantage is the price at Costco (until 8/8) and the voice command. It only accepts commands on the menu display, you cannot name street names or Poi's for instance

A good demo is at: http://site.tigergps.com/VoiceCommand.wmv.

Does anyone own a relatively new model Garmin AND one from Magellan? For comparison purposes? It seems that everyone falls into one camp or the other, I was just looking for an open, unbiased view on the two companies from a previously unbiased source, if such a thing is possible. I currently own a Garmin Foretrex wrist-mounted GPS and a Magellan Roadmate 760 for car use. The Roadmate 760 has been pretty good to me, I have to confess, the only complaints I have are slow acquisition times when powering up after a period of non-use, and after a particularly long stretch of driving down a very rough road, my 760 decided to lose all audio, though it seems to have recovered. I know that Garmin is the company of choice of the US military, that has to mean something.

My very first gps was a magellin, i forgot wha model it was cause i didnt have it very long. i was glad to get rid of it. you need a couple years schooling to be able to use it. after that i have had a garmin gps 12 a ique 3600 a ique m4 ique m5 a gps map 60c and a street pilot 550. I honestly dont have anything bad i could say about any of the garmin units. i am a true garmin fan

As a truck driver, I need a unit that will work under some harsh conditions. The Garmins I have owned proved to be hard-working workhorses. I have (and still own) the GPS V, sp2610, sp2720 and the sp 7200. These units have hundreds of thousands of miles on them and are on 24/7 for as long as I'm on the road. And that could be for over 30 days at a time.

The only other make of gps unit I've worked with that is comparable with Garmin is Trimble. But, Trimble only makes expensive commercial models.

I used my 4050 on several trips now. I am satisfied with the speed it aquires the signal (very fast and in any conditions, I get signal even when I take it inside apartment building) and its routing capabilities. AAA is very nice addition, but I dislike the search options within POIs you can either search by name, category, near location, city or current position, but (the something I always used in my previous gps) the ability to search/filter by name within a category and customize the radius of what it consider to be near is NOT there (or I could not find the way to do it). Also font should be a little larger or use bold letters all the time. I can't customize layout either..

I am a cdl a driver in Seattle WA. I am low on the seniority list. I have no route, and everday i deliver somewhere new. Im called a "shag driver." I deliver different stops everday. I need a navigation system to help address my stops. I looked at the garmin 7200 and 2620. I'm not sure which one to get. I also looked at the garmin nuvi's. Can anyone help me decide which navigation system best fits my driving job. I can travel anywhere on my job from olympia WA to Bellingham WA.

Thankyou,

I own both the 2620 and the 7200 and believe me, the 7200 is pure gold! MUCH bigger screen and easier to read when bouncing in a truck. (I know, I bounce in a truck too!) The 7200 is a bit pricier than the 2620, but well worth the money spent. It even has a built in XM radio. The 2620 is a nice little unit, but awful hard on the eyes as you're going down the road.

Like you, I go to different places all the time, covering all 48 states. My 7200 is the second most important thing in my truck. The first important is the engine!

I do own a C550 Garmin and A 4040 Maestro. I've only had the Maestro a month and haven't traveled a lot since I've had it. I feel they are pretty comparable with neither one having close to the amount of user configurable options the Iway 500 has. I also owned a Lowrance Iway 350c but ended up returning it because of repeated reboots and some pretty glaring routing problems. You will be hard pressed to find a unit as configurable as the Lowrance in an automotive point a to point b unit.

I've owned a set of previous generation Magellan (map something or other) and Garmin (GPS V) units, FWIW, the Magellan unit is long gone and I still have and use the Garmin unit.

My wife currently has a Magellan Maestro 4040 and I have a Garmin Zumo 450. First thing I noticed between the 2 is that the Zumo battery is user replaceable, a big plus in my book. I can't find software or a website for uploading POIs, MP3s or JPGs to the Maestro compareable to this one. I can see that other Magellan units are supported by such things, but nothing for the Maestro. Perhaps they're out there, but I haven't found it yet.

One thing I have noticed about GPS units in general is that it seems the handheld units and older generation units are more user customizable. I would like to be able to choose fields to display on my Zumo like I can my GPS V, etc.

Just my opinion; yours may vary.

I noticed that 4050 gives very accurate time estimate. With other GPS's I tried it was way too optimistic (you would have to speed and run redlights to make it

i own 2 garmin units and the eta on a 300 kilometer trip is within 5 minutes if i dont stop anyplace