GPS Devices Life

Compared 2 units side by side, and to Garmin Nuvi 360 - Magellan Maestro¿ 4040 Car GPS Receiver Magellan 4040 purchased 11/19/07 returned 11/26/07 Advise: If you want something to take you to a specific a...

Magellan is low quality and bad support - Magellan Maestro¿ 4040 Car GPS Receiver Do not purchase a Magellan navigator. I made the mistake of buying. Someone warned me at the time that they had pr...

I just noticed that another reviewer was comparing this unit (unfavorably) to his ThinkPad and GPS “mouse” combination, He decided that he might just as well stick with the ThinkPad on his front seat. Not sure that I see this as a valid comparison…I don’t see any convenience at all in keeping a laptop on the front seat. But he is probably correct in that the HANDHELD Maestro 4040 is not as good as a LAPTOP system with dedicated (and upgradeable) GPS software.

I’ve had my 4040 for about 20 months now and feel pretty comfortable with it. I bought it primarily to use when I’m travelling on business. Land at O’Hare or wherever, whip out the unit and pop it into the rental car, and I’m off. I can honestly say that I’ve always arrived at my destination in a reasonable amount of time. I now KNOW that I’m not necessarily going to get the shortest/fastest/most logical route, but I do get there.

As far as physical layout and size, I have to give the 4040 a big thumbs up. Very nicely done! I wish that it was easier to get a spare cradle (not the mount…the cradle), but it’s otherwise very serviceable, without being too big. Battery life is about 3-4 hours with my usage pattern.

The display is bright enough for most sunny days and the volume is as good as you could want. If you want more volume, run it through your stereo. The text-to-speech feature is much better than some other reviewers have noted. I don’t have any problem at all understanding the female voice, though I do sometimes wish I could change it to a male voice or vary it somehow.

The touchscreen is a little less sensitive than some, but it still works very well with my fingernail. (I touch it with back of my finger.) You’ll rarely have any problems with touching the wrong button or letter (once you’ve calibrated it.)

Now…let’s talk about the Bluetooth feature: Forget it. You don’t need it. Why do you even care? I would have been much happier if they had simply taken the Bluetooth connectivity and speakerphone features out of the unit and reduced the price.

A couple years ago I was in Florida with my boss. He was using a Tom-Tom GPS that would “lose its mind” every so often. I asked him about it and he told me that he was used to it. He would simply go to a nearby parking lot and drive around a couple times in a big circle until the GPS connected again and figured out where he was. (I’m not kidding.) The 4040 has never done such a thing to me. It HAS rebooted a couple times (maybe three times in 20 months), but it never just decides that I’m 200 miles from where I actually am.

In conclusion, I’ll just say that this is “an adequate GPS unit for a troubled age.” It works, it doesn’t give me any problems, and it was fairly inexpensive.

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