 | Magellan Maestro 3210 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Brand : Magellan Model : Magellan Maestro 3210 Overall Rating :  From : 63 Reviews Color : / Size : |
Technical Details
- 3.5-InchQVGA full-color, anti-glare, touch-screen display
- 6 Million Searchable Points of Interest:
- AAA TourBook guide travel information
- SmartDetour prompts drivers to route around heavy or stopped freeway traffic
- Newly designed, intuitive user interface makes the Maestro series the easiest to use
Product Description
The Magellan Maestro 3210 delivers a feature-rich navigation experience at a highly affordable price. Its new industrial design is ultra thin and elegant, while its intuitive user interface guides drivers to their destination via voice and on-screen prompts. Essential features include 6 million searchable points of interest, pre-loaded maps of North America and Puerto Rico, multiple look-up options, and more. [...]
Customer Reviews (see all-reviews)
Vinod K. Byreddy The product is working fine and very easy to use. I has problem in connecting the unit to PC using USB. Magellan support team asked me to send the unit to them for repair. Except USB issue, i have no other issues with the unit.
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Ethan A. Winning ( Walnut Creek, CA ) I bought this for my wife because (a) she can get lost just leaving the driveway, and (b) it was "only" $87. (I hate the word "only," especially when it's in a TV ad for a Mercedes that's "only" $54,000!) Still, if it didn't work, it wouldn't break the bank, and I could have returned it.
Now, it is true that my wife had no sense of direction. When she points, her pointer can go in any direction, and it's usually wrong by at least 90°. Further, when she gets lost or misses a freeway off-ramp to another freeway, she panics. The cell phone was invented because of her.
Since neither of us is getting rid of our cars, we needed something that was portable, and when the 3210 came up for only $87, I bit the bullet - after reading the reviews.
It came last week, and I set it up and downloaded what are supposedly up to date maps and information. And I tested it by making four trips longer than 15 miles, and about six trips in town. The woman's voice (we call the Magellan "She") is clear and easily understood.
The 3210, and I have a hunch all GPS navigators, had some idiosyncrasies, and it has some flaws:
1. The new information isn't new. After downloading new POI (and nowhere does the .pdf manual say what "POI" is), changes in the last 3 years simply do not show up. Banks, which have been changing names faster most actresses, only show up as their old selves. For example, Wachovia is still Wachovia and not Wells Fargo. That can be very disconcerting when you're looking for a particular bank ... or restaurant or gas station or ATM. A restaurant that changed hands and names 2 years ago was still under the old name.
2. I'll save some of you some trouble right now. "Exit POI" is not a "button" to exit the Points of Interest "program." It's what the points of interest are at the next Exit on a freeway or toll road. You won't find that anywhere in the instructions. Small point unless you really need a gas station or rest stop and haven't read the manual.
3. The route that She chooses - no matter whether you've told here you want the fastest, no freeways, or shortest - is almost always different than the route that you know to be the shortest or fastest. Freeways are fine, but city streets are not, and She always tells you to take city streets that have more stop lights or is well out of the way. If you tell the GPS to cancel a particular street, it takes you waaaay out of your way to get you near where She wanted you in e first place. As soon as you've taken a different route, She will say, "Recalculating route" or something like that. And then, you're in for an E Ride.
4. There is a beep, bong, or chime (your choice) just before you're supposed to turn. Invariably, the chime is too late on city streets. If She says, "Left turn in .3 miles," the chime will go off about 100 feet from the turn. Not enough time. Then, on freeways, the chime may go off with time to spare, but not always. At least on freeways, She will say to get off at Truxell in .7 miles. You do have time and usually a sign. (Btw, don't EVER take Truxell.)
On a short trip to the hardware store, which is 2.6 miles from home, She gave us a route that when followed ended up at 3.9 miles and made one complete square for some odd reason. Further, I knew I was at the hardware store (Weird Al was there), but the Magellan chimed five stores away.
5. It is extremely hard to see the map, let alone read it, and it can be very distracting. Even a 7" Magellan would be hard to see if there is any sun coming in the windows of your car. So, you will tend to listen more than look, and that brings up
6. The fact that the speaker is so small that it can't be heard when the radio is on. Well, we really didn't think the speaker would be large, but since we're not trying to read the map, we have to listen to instructions, and that means leaving the voice on all the time or muting it until we're about to get off the freeway or we need information about the exit or where we are etc.
7. When you're on a freeway, She either won't shut up and keeps saying "Stay in the left lane" or "Stay on this road" or She doesn't say anything for miles. In other words, if nothing else, this is consistently inconsistent.
8. When there is a detour, She doesn't always know about it, and you have to change two screens to get to the "Detour." Next week the Bay Bridge to San Francisco will be closed for four days. It is doubtful that She will know about that, and if you're from out of town, and there are no signs for that until you're just about to the bridge, you'll need Magellan the way around it, and that a LONG way around. No one in their right mind will go into the city from the east or leave the city to go east next weekend, and the question is whether Magellan will find another route that is "reasonable" if not terribly out of the way.
9. Even if it had text to speech, if you can't trust the instructions, what good is that?
10. The mount is long and intrusive, and the 3" disc that attaches to the windshield shouldn't really be used. Other than obscuring the view, you won't be able to use the same mount in another car. You shouldn't anyway. I think the best "mount" is a beanbag which would be stable enough and could be on the console or the dash if need be. Not only is the mount intrusive, but, for trips over 3 hours, it has to be plugged in and the power cord is 3 feet long and will get in the way no matter where you put it.
11. For best results, use two people; one to drive, and one to fiddle with the Magellan.
We know two people with built-in GPS systems in their relatively new cars. They all seem to have the same problems or idiosyncrasies regardless of whether we're talking $35k or $85k. And, all three have said that even a 7 inch screen is at time difficult to read. The difference is that one person said her GPS cuts into the radio to tell you what to do next which she said can be helpful or annoying depending.
Will I return this? Probably not. Why? Because, it will always get you where you're going one way or another in due time, maybe not today, but sometime soon. Besides, once you get to a place, the Magellan seems to know how to get you back home or back to your starting point even if it makes the same mistakes.
NOTE: Five hours later - This is an addendum to the review. I have decided to return it. When I went over my list, I couldn't justify keeping it. My wife will just have to download maps as she has for the last 5 years, and make do with the older, less tech solutions to finding one's way. And, having done a lot of reviewing of other GPSses, I see that none are totally satisfactory "on average," but on average is like the guy with his feet in the fridge and his head in the oven, and on average he's fairly comfortable.
Why 3 stars? Because I didn't correct it to w stars before I originally posted this review. It's a nice toy that we'll learn to live without very quickly.
Now, it is true that my wife had no sense of direction. When she points, her pointer can go in any direction, and it's usually wrong by at least 90°. Further, when she gets lost or misses a freeway off-ramp to another freeway, she panics. The cell phone was invented because of her.
Since neither of us is getting rid of our cars, we needed something that was portable, and when the 3210 came up for only $87, I bit the bullet - after reading the reviews.
It came last week, and I set it up and downloaded what are supposedly up to date maps and information. And I tested it by making four trips longer than 15 miles, and about six trips in town. The woman's voice (we call the Magellan "She") is clear and easily understood.
The 3210, and I have a hunch all GPS navigators, had some idiosyncrasies, and it has some flaws:
1. The new information isn't new. After downloading new POI (and nowhere does the .pdf manual say what "POI" is), changes in the last 3 years simply do not show up. Banks, which have been changing names faster most actresses, only show up as their old selves. For example, Wachovia is still Wachovia and not Wells Fargo. That can be very disconcerting when you're looking for a particular bank ... or restaurant or gas station or ATM. A restaurant that changed hands and names 2 years ago was still under the old name.
2. I'll save some of you some trouble right now. "Exit POI" is not a "button" to exit the Points of Interest "program." It's what the points of interest are at the next Exit on a freeway or toll road. You won't find that anywhere in the instructions. Small point unless you really need a gas station or rest stop and haven't read the manual.
3. The route that She chooses - no matter whether you've told here you want the fastest, no freeways, or shortest - is almost always different than the route that you know to be the shortest or fastest. Freeways are fine, but city streets are not, and She always tells you to take city streets that have more stop lights or is well out of the way. If you tell the GPS to cancel a particular street, it takes you waaaay out of your way to get you near where She wanted you in e first place. As soon as you've taken a different route, She will say, "Recalculating route" or something like that. And then, you're in for an E Ride.
4. There is a beep, bong, or chime (your choice) just before you're supposed to turn. Invariably, the chime is too late on city streets. If She says, "Left turn in .3 miles," the chime will go off about 100 feet from the turn. Not enough time. Then, on freeways, the chime may go off with time to spare, but not always. At least on freeways, She will say to get off at Truxell in .7 miles. You do have time and usually a sign. (Btw, don't EVER take Truxell.)
On a short trip to the hardware store, which is 2.6 miles from home, She gave us a route that when followed ended up at 3.9 miles and made one complete square for some odd reason. Further, I knew I was at the hardware store (Weird Al was there), but the Magellan chimed five stores away.
5. It is extremely hard to see the map, let alone read it, and it can be very distracting. Even a 7" Magellan would be hard to see if there is any sun coming in the windows of your car. So, you will tend to listen more than look, and that brings up
6. The fact that the speaker is so small that it can't be heard when the radio is on. Well, we really didn't think the speaker would be large, but since we're not trying to read the map, we have to listen to instructions, and that means leaving the voice on all the time or muting it until we're about to get off the freeway or we need information about the exit or where we are etc.
7. When you're on a freeway, She either won't shut up and keeps saying "Stay in the left lane" or "Stay on this road" or She doesn't say anything for miles. In other words, if nothing else, this is consistently inconsistent.
8. When there is a detour, She doesn't always know about it, and you have to change two screens to get to the "Detour." Next week the Bay Bridge to San Francisco will be closed for four days. It is doubtful that She will know about that, and if you're from out of town, and there are no signs for that until you're just about to the bridge, you'll need Magellan the way around it, and that a LONG way around. No one in their right mind will go into the city from the east or leave the city to go east next weekend, and the question is whether Magellan will find another route that is "reasonable" if not terribly out of the way.
9. Even if it had text to speech, if you can't trust the instructions, what good is that?
10. The mount is long and intrusive, and the 3" disc that attaches to the windshield shouldn't really be used. Other than obscuring the view, you won't be able to use the same mount in another car. You shouldn't anyway. I think the best "mount" is a beanbag which would be stable enough and could be on the console or the dash if need be. Not only is the mount intrusive, but, for trips over 3 hours, it has to be plugged in and the power cord is 3 feet long and will get in the way no matter where you put it.
11. For best results, use two people; one to drive, and one to fiddle with the Magellan.
We know two people with built-in GPS systems in their relatively new cars. They all seem to have the same problems or idiosyncrasies regardless of whether we're talking $35k or $85k. And, all three have said that even a 7 inch screen is at time difficult to read. The difference is that one person said her GPS cuts into the radio to tell you what to do next which she said can be helpful or annoying depending.
Will I return this? Probably not. Why? Because, it will always get you where you're going one way or another in due time, maybe not today, but sometime soon. Besides, once you get to a place, the Magellan seems to know how to get you back home or back to your starting point even if it makes the same mistakes.
NOTE: Five hours later - This is an addendum to the review. I have decided to return it. When I went over my list, I couldn't justify keeping it. My wife will just have to download maps as she has for the last 5 years, and make do with the older, less tech solutions to finding one's way. And, having done a lot of reviewing of other GPSses, I see that none are totally satisfactory "on average," but on average is like the guy with his feet in the fridge and his head in the oven, and on average he's fairly comfortable.
Why 3 stars? Because I didn't correct it to w stars before I originally posted this review. It's a nice toy that we'll learn to live without very quickly.
......................................................
S. chhin This unit is so inaccurate in Atlanta Georgia that we don't even use it anymore. We pulled it out again to go to the GA Aquarium, biggest aquarium in the States. It put us on the wrong roads, told us we were on a road we weren't on, etc. When we finally got to the aquarium it mapped us around the building (all 4 sides) even though we were right there near the front. It shows roads and angles that do not exist in real life.
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John Mccann I have had the unit for less than a year and find it very convenient, but its maps are outdated and Magellan wants $79.95 for an update. Also, online support is not what I would call helpful, as it fails to give simple instructions on how to update maps. I don't know whether it was a mistake or not, but I didn't receive the usb cable you need to download the updates when I purchased the unit.
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Old Crabby Guy ( Michigan ) I bought this product and found out the map and POI list was out of date. So I ordered the map update from Magellan for $80. It took Magellan 20 days to get it to me.
I tried ordering the update on the web. The web ordering process for the map update failed in the middle I could not tell if the order had gone through or not -- so I had to call customer service - terrbile language & terrible service.
I got the map update and followed the instructions to a tee. After 15 minutes of an apparantly smooth update, I got an "update failure" warning on my computer screen and the GPS Unit just went dead (blue screen).
Usually a failure would result in a roll back - in this case it just resulted in destruction of the operating system on the unit as far as I can tell.
I tried to get a return/repair number from the Magellan web site and could not obtain a number. Instead I was put into an endless loop. The web support is pretty much useless.
So now I am out $230 and have a useless piece of electronics junk on my hands that I will undoubtley have to fight to return.
This has been one of the worst web purchasing/support experiece I have ever had.
Save yourself the trouble and go to a brick and morter store, and walk away with something you know will work.
I tried ordering the update on the web. The web ordering process for the map update failed in the middle I could not tell if the order had gone through or not -- so I had to call customer service - terrbile language & terrible service.
I got the map update and followed the instructions to a tee. After 15 minutes of an apparantly smooth update, I got an "update failure" warning on my computer screen and the GPS Unit just went dead (blue screen).
Usually a failure would result in a roll back - in this case it just resulted in destruction of the operating system on the unit as far as I can tell.
I tried to get a return/repair number from the Magellan web site and could not obtain a number. Instead I was put into an endless loop. The web support is pretty much useless.
So now I am out $230 and have a useless piece of electronics junk on my hands that I will undoubtley have to fight to return.
This has been one of the worst web purchasing/support experiece I have ever had.
Save yourself the trouble and go to a brick and morter store, and walk away with something you know will work.
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