This is Magellan new, updated map view. Let's take a closer look at the information displayed on this screen:

Figure 47: Magellan Maestro's New Map Screen

1. Direction of travel - tapping this icon displays Magellan's Locate screen
2. Zoom out
3. Turn instruction for next maneuver - Tapping this icon displays the maneuvering list (when routing to a destination)
4. Current time - when routing to a destination, this area changes from the current time to display the distance to next maneuver. Tapping this area repeats the last maneuver instruction.
5. Access the Main Menu
6. Present speed - when routing to a destination, this area changes from displaying the current speed to display distance to destination. Every few seconds this cycles from distance to destination and time to destination.
7. Street name for next maneuver
8. Volume control
9. Zoom in
10. Satellite status - tap to display additional satellite information
12. Car icon - represents your car on the map
13. Current street name

Figure 48: Magellan's Older Map Screen vs. Maestro's New Map Screen

Although the Maestro has a much larger, wide-screen display, the information is actually more difficult to read on the new Maestro than the old RoadMate's map screen.

Let's take a detailed look at the problems with Maestro's new map screen:

Figure 49: The Trouble with Magellan's Updated Map Screen

1. The "Direction of Travel" indicator in the upper left corner is displayed in white on a light orange background, making it hard to read. Additionally, older Magellan GPS devices showed the "Direction of Travel" in red when there was no GPS signal. Thus, out of habit I kept looking at the map thinking I wasn't getting signal.
2. The zoom in/out and volume icons are so transparent that they're hard to see, especially on the "night mode" view.
3. This area displays the street name of the next maneuver. The font is so small that it is hard to read from the driver's seat. The same problem is true of the "Current Street Name" bar on the top of the map. If you look at the font used in most highway/street signs, great care has been taken to make sure these signs are easily readable just by glancing at them for a second or two. Magellan's decision to use small, serif fonts on top of a transparent background makes the text difficult to read.
4. Take a look at how small the "arrival" text - it's virtually impossible to read while driving.

My single biggest complaint about the new map view is that arrival time is not displayed. Instead, Maestro cycles the display (in area #4 in the figure above) between showing the miles to destination and remaining drive time. But it does not tell you what time you will arrive, so you are constantly doing the math in your head to figure out what time you'll arrive. This is such a huge flaw that it's hard to believe Magellan made an intentional choice not to include it. What could possibly be more important than knowing your arrival time?

Readability issues the lack of an arrival time displayed are major issues, but could be easily fixed via a software update from Magellan. Let's hope common sense prevails and Magellan updates the map screen..

Figure 50: Magellan's Excellent TrueView Split Screen View

Like previous Magellan GPS units, the Maestro does a great job notifying you of an upcoming maneuver. 2 miles before a turn the Maestro gives an audio prompt of the pending maneuver. 0.5 miles before the turn, Magellan's innovative "split screen" view is displayed, shown in the figure above. A chime or bell sounds, along with the verbal navigation instruction, just before you need to make the turn.

Split screen is a fantastic feature that really makes it clear what the next maneuver will be. Magellan has had the split screen view for a long time, and I'm very happy to see it remains even in the new "improved" interface.

12. Night Mode

Figure 51: Magellan's Updated "Night Mode" Map Screen

By default the Maestro automatically switches to "Night Mode" after sunset. Note that switching to night mode is based on the time of day and not on the ambient light. Night Mode uses a darker palette on the map view to make night viewing easier on the eyes.

Figure 52: Magellan's Updated "Night Mode" TrueView Split Screen

Night mode looks good on the Maestro 4040. However, for some strange reason only the map view gets the "Night Mode" treatment. All the other menus remain in the regular bright blue theme, making them blinding at night.

I also noticed that once the GPS enters Night Mode, there is no way to get it back to regular day mode until the internal clock thinks it's daytime again. Even disabling Night Mode in the preferences page won't get you back to regular day mode.

13. Viewing the Maneuvering List

Figure 53: Accessing the Maneuver List From the Map Screen

When navigating to a destination with the Maestro 4040, the "Maneuver List", or text list of all upcoming turns, can be viewed at any time by pressing on the turn icon in the lower-left corner, shown above.

Figure 54: The Maneuver List

The Maneuver List screen displays a text list of all upcoming turns. Each line in the maneuver list provides details about the maneuver in the order they are to be made, with the next maneuver at the top of the list. The bottom bar displays the distance and time to the next maneuver, as well as the total distance to the destination.

To exclude a particular road and force the Maestro to find an alternate route not using that street, simply tap on the street you want to exclude from this list, and then tap "Exclude".

14. Canceling the Route

Figure 55: Canceling a Route

The Maestro makes it easy to cancel navigating%2