Magellan Maestro 4040 Review (GPSmagazine.com)

Figure 37: Entering A Street Address, Step 2

The Maestro 4040 provides a nice range of methods for entering a destination street address:

Enter City - This is probably the method you'll most often use. Tapping this option brings up a virtual keyboard that lets you spell the city name.
Enter Zip Code - allows you to use a U.S. Postal code to set the destination city.
Previous City - allows you to view a list of recently used cities
my addresses - allows you to pick an address from the address book (saved addresses)
intersection - allows you to enter two cross streets and route to that intersection (rather than a particular house / building number)

I like this screen and I found it easy to use, although I would have preferred to see the address book ("my addresses") in the larger top three icons instead of "Enter Zip Code". The ability to search by zip code is a handy feature, and I'm glad Magellan provides this option.

However you'll likely use the address book far more often than the zip code search, so I feel the address book should be placed right up top with the other most commonly used buttons, and the zip code icon moved to the bottom next to "intersection".

Tapping on "Enter City" brings up the virtual keyboard, shown below.

Figure 38: Entering the City Name

I've long been a fan of Magellan's QuickSpell technology, and I'm happy to report the Maestro has maintained Magellan's excellent text entry system, known as QuickSpell. As you type out the city name (or street name), the Maestro uses information in its database to only permit letters that would spell a valid city name to be pressed.

I found this feature a huge time-saver when entering city or street names (and greatly reduces the likelihood of accidentally tapping an adjacent letter). While spelling out a city/street name, you can press the OK button at any time to view all the cities that match the letters you have entered. Or you can wait until enough letters have been entered that only a few choices remain, and the Maestro will automatically show the list of cities to choose from.

For some strange reason the space bar on the virtual keyboard no longer says "space". Instead it is completely blank. The first time I looked for the space key, my eyes glossed over the blank icon and I found myself searching for the space button. Magellan should put the "space" writing back on this key - it's easier to see that way.

Figure 39: Choosing A City Name From the Results List

Once enough letters have been entered that only a few possible cities remain, the Maestro automatically presents a list of matching cities for you to choose from. In this case I'll select "New York, NY" and continue.

Figure 40: Entering the Street Name

Next we'll need to tell the Maestro what street our destination is on. Spelling the street name is identical to the process for spelling the city name: as you type, Magellan's QuickSpell feature only allows you to select letters that spell valid street names. Again, this feature may not sounds like a big deal, but it greatly speeds up the text entry process and make it much less likely your finger will accidentally tap an adjacent letter by mistake.

Figure 41: Choosing the Street From the Results List

Once enough of the street name has been entered that the Maestro can product a short list of possible matches, the above screen is automatically displayed. Note that you can force the Magellan to show you all the matches at any time by tapping on the OK button (although this list will be quite long if you haven't spelled out enough of the street name).

I'm trying to route to an address of Central Park West in NY, so I'll tap on "Central Park W" and continue.

Figure 42: Entering the House / Building Number

Next we'll need to enter the house/building number of our destination address. Notice that the Maestro displays several pieces of useful information on this page: the street and city names are displayed in the blue box on the right side of the screen, and the valid range of house/building numbers are displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen. In this case, the valid range of house numbers along Central Park West in New York is 1-499.

This feature can be very useful if you don't know the exact house number of your destination but you know the street name. Knowing the valid range of house numbers allows you to pick an address on the street, even if you're unsure exactly which house number you're looking for.

Figure 43: Entering the House / Building Number

Unlike the city and street address entry pages, you must press "Done" after entering the house number. I suppose this makes sense, since the Maestro might not know if you're entering #1, #10, or #100. However, if you've entered in the maximum number if digits, the unit should probably jump to the next screen without requiring you to press "done"..

Figure 44: Choosing A Routing Method

With the city, street name, and house number successfully entered, Maestro asks how we want it to calculate the "best" route. Like previous Magellan GPS units, there are four options for route calculation:

Fastest Time - On previous Magellan GPS devices, this option was called "Shortest Time", and is the default selected method. I almost always use "Fastest Time", which chooses the route that will be fastest, even if it's not actually the shortest distance. For example, a winding series of back roads with lots of stop signs and traffic lights might be the shortest distance for a given journey, but definitely not the fastest way to go. Selecting Fastest Time in this case would take you a slightly longer distance (i.e. on a highway instead of the back roads), but would be a shorter drive time.
Shortest Distance - forces the Maestro to calculate the shortest physical route, even if it's not the quickest way to go.
Least Use of Freeways - forces the Maestro to avoid highways as much as possible
Most Use of Freeways - forces the Maestro to choose highways over surface streets whenever possible

Additionally, there's an option to check the "Avoid Toll Roads" if you want to avoid tolls (note that this can add considerable drive time to the journey).

Once you've selected the desired routing preference, tap on the large red circle and the Maestro starts navigating you to your destination address.

While I love the fact that Magellan presents four different choices for calculating the route, I really wish the estimated drive time was displayed next to each of the four options. Without the estimated travel time displayed, it's virtually impossible to know how much longer/shorter a route each of the four options will produce.

Figure 45: Calculating Route

After selecting a routing preference and pressing the red "go" button, Maestro calculates the route and starts navigating. Route calculation on the Maestro 4040 is speedy: in my testing the average route calculation time was about 5 seconds.

In fact, the entire Maestro interface is extremely fast and responsive -- you can literally enter street names as fast as you can type. I'm pleased to report that the sluggishness that has plagued Magellan's GPS devices for years is finally gone with the Maestro.