Thanks for the review. Can you install custom POI's? If not, the 4700 is not for me.

Thanks for the review. Can you install custom POI's? If not, the 4700 is not for me.

Is speed limit info available on Roadmate 1470? I don't think I see it.

Thank you for taking time to review the 4700. I've been looking at the device since it was announced and hoping it would live up to the hype. Although it seems like a decent unit it seems to have some flaws that might be resolved by a firmware upgrade. I guess the question is do you buy the 4700 and pray there is a firware upgrade or find a different device?

Do you recommend a different device? I prefer Magellan due to the AAA Guide book and several friends recommending them. Was also looking at the 4350, 4250 and the Roadmate 1475T (which is essentually the 1470 w/traffic).

Any advice you can provide would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Thanks for an excellent and objective review.

I have a different point of view than yours.

I have been using the bluetooth without any problems, I have a Moto Q and a Nokia N95 and both of them work really well and really easy.
I have had no problems with the voice commands or any difficulty with instructions I live in the LA area and boy the roads are complex. The voice recognition is limited but it works fine, I mean you can do previous destinations, nearest coffee, gas, etc...

I know that the product can get better but I have been using it for the last 30 days and I have no complaints. I have used several other GPS and I is the first one I feel strong enough to recommend.

I just received a 4700 today from Amazon and here is the latest product info:

SW version: 1.27
HW version: 21
AAA: 8

A few comments regarding your review ...

I agree completely, the Bluetooth is awful. Callers
say I sound like I'm at the end of a tunnel and can't
understand me.

The power mount for the windshield is just plain stupid. I
bought a 1220 first that had the same issue. I trimmed off the
right tab on the mount so I could remove the GPS with the cable
on. I bought the 4700 and returned the 1220 with the 4700 mount
but now the left tab is blocking the connector. DUMB !

The TTS sounds fine to me.

I think there's a software glitch with the Hotel POI. When
you scroll down you don't see it but when you scroll back up
to the top of the page it magically appears. It is definitely
there.

I haven't had a problem with the color scheme but I admit
it could be better.

I think this is a great GPS for the money. I returned my
Nuvi 255 because it's an absolute POS. Takes forever to
calculate routes and is totally useless in Manhattan. I
never had that problem with my Street Pilot C530.

I still think Magellan needs to do a little better on the
routing engine, I think the Garmin's still beat out the rest
for choosing the best route however I'm very happy with this
unit even if they don't make any updates.

Does the Traffic Link work with the Magellian 4700. I have read reviews for other Magellian devices and it doesn't work at all with them. I was hoping the 4700 had a update and it worked better

I used the 4700 all weekend on a trip downstate. Noticed a few quirks:

- Exit POIs screen icon was absent when traveling southbound I-95 from Bangor to Augusta Maine, yet the icon was almost constantly displayed while traveling same stretch of interstate northbound.

- After touching the exit POI screen icon and selecting either food, lodging, gas etc. from the exit POI list, sometimes my final destination appears as the exit POI destination. Strange... Some type of bug I presume. It's hard to exit out of the screen when this happens. It want's me to reconfirm my final destination.

- After the following happens above, and I back out of it, for some reason I'll have a multi-destination trip when I started with a single destination. The other destinations are various exit POIs (specific gas station or food stop) that I did not select. I have to cancel trip and start over or remove the extra destinations one by one.

Why there is no GPS mag rating?
based on the verdict it might be 2.5 or 3

Today received one I purchased through AAA (because of extended warranty, 30-day preview), and I've not had a chance to take it on the road yet.

I was surprised that the battery was charged and that I could get a signal inside my house as I explored its features.

The windshield mount that came in the box does not have the long tabs that have annoyed various reviewers. The mount does not interfere with the power cord.

I drive a tractor trailer for a living and do about 2,000 miles a week so Im pretty sure I can provide a good review for just about any GPS. I did just that.
I have always been a Garmin fan. I started with the C5xx series and it was nice and loud and just plain worked. Nothing fancy just damn good directions. Then I upgraded to the Nuvi 200W. Decent unit but started losing the ability to get satellite signal so after a few returns I got fed up. Which leads me to my latest units. The Magellan Maestro 4700 and the Garmin 765T
.
The Magellan overall is MUCH more feature packed for your money than the Garmin. I used the Roadmate first and hated it. Too base and annoying. But the Maestro is much better. The routing is identical to the Garmin. The Garmin Traffic didn't work at all. I was sitting IN TRAFFIC just outside NYC and when I pressed the traffic button it told me "no traffic on route". The lane guidance worked only 3 times between New Jersey and Maine. The Garmin routing worked well as always. the Bluetooth stinks. No voice recognition. My first impression of the Garmin765T was simple. $500 for a GPS that is no different than the 200W for less than 200. So, what about the Magellan?
First thing I noticed is that the screen is much bigger and easier to use. I also like the volume which is much louder than the Garmin. The routing matched the Garmin. The Bluetooth works fine. The voice recognition is a waste of time. The Lane guidance worked every time i came up to a highway split. Every time. The traffic works pretty good too. The AAA is awesome once you get into it. Eventually after the first thousand miles I quickly realized that Magellan was providing me with what Garmin could not deliver on for more than HALF the price. At 249 at Best Buy it was a no brainer. If you can forgo the ability to change your arrow into a car on the screen and a few other unnecessary frills then this unit is a solid performer and well worth the money.

I just bought this unit from amazon.com and the sw # is 1.27 and the mount does not interfere with the power cord. It seems they have fixed it.

Fletch,

I have the 4700 as well. They must have changed the power cord as the mount does not interfere when connecting the power cord. I was able to attach the power cord BEFORE or AFTER installing it on the mount. I tried it both ways based on your review and found that there was no issue.

I only found a few issues with the 4700. I could not charge the battery. I received it Friday night and attempted to charge it but it didn't work. I attempted to charge it again on Saturday but it would not charge. It worked fine while it was plugged in to the cig lighter and showed that it was charging but it wasn't holding the charge. I will return it for a replacement.

The other issue is my wife and I are planning a trip to Savannah, Georgia. I typed in a address there and after mapping out the trip the 4700 had to power down to improve performance.

I drove around with it for a little while on Saturday and it was nice. I purposely missed a few turns and the 4700 rerouted us almost immediately.

Unfortunately due to the battery issue I wasn't able to test it more than a few hours on saturday.

Another note: I was able to get the 4700's Bluetooth to connect on the first try with my Sony W580i cell phone. The 580i is not on the 4700's compatibility list.

As others mentioned the software is listed as 1.27.

I added some pics on the product page on Amazon.com that show the newer version of the mount.

You can connect power to the unit and then slide it onto the mount. It really does look like they fixed the issue.

I did notice another issue (posted here by bkstyl and another reviewer on Amazon): the "device needs to power down" message, followed by a reboot of the device.

It seems this is a problem with some RoadMates as well, but Im unsure if Magellan has fixed it on those. They are probably just now starting to hear about the issue being present in the 4700 (I called them yesterday and today, their only suggestion is a replacement unit but my guess is the issue will still occur). Not sure what the problem is but I hope they have a fix.....I love everything else about this GPS (and even this issue isnt huge, right now it happens to certain states that I wouldnt be driving to anyway)

Info for Canadian buyers: please note there is a bug, lane assist feature does not work on Canadian roads, Magellan technical support guy said that we will have to wait for an update... If interested, see discussion “Magellan Maestro 4700 in Canada“ at gpsreview forum for more details.

Info for Canadian buyers: please note there is a bug, lane assist feature does not work on Canadian roads, Magellan technical support guy said that we will have to wait for an update... If interested, see discussion “Magellan Maestro 4700 in Canada“ at gpsreview forum for more details.

Returned last night from a 2 week, 4,000 mile trip in the U.S. and Canada. A few more observations on the 4700:

Exit POI is full of bugs. This caused more headaches by adding additional destinations to the trip that I did not select, just by going into the exit POI screen and then exiting.

Voice recognition is more of a gimmick than a useful feature. After you use it a dozen or so times, you'll see what I mean.

When the monitor is in auto night mode, it sometimes changes to night mode before sunset. Sometimes it changed to night mode and then back to day mode. I've only seen this happen in the late afternoon, early evening.

As the review states, if you have a destination programmed in and are in-route, you cannot read any of the information for the POIs in the AAA tourbook. This is very inconvenient. I had to cancel the trip to go into AAA tourbook to look at the information for POIs.

Speed limit information for roads would be great.

There now is a HOTEL POI category.

3D mode is slightly different than 2D but not by much.

There were a couple of new highways that were not in the database. The unit tries desparately to get you back on course when this happens as it doesn't know where you are. The unit also had some problems on routing to a couple of POIs. We ended up a couple of miles away on one occasion and within a mile or so on another occasion.

niks1 is correct, lane assist (the visible signs on the GPS screen at least) do not work in Canada. We travelled through Quebec (city), Montreal and Ottawa. The GPS did keep us advised with voice and tones at key intersections on which way to go though, which was nice.

POIs came in handy while traveling through Quebec as we do not read French (signs) and it got us to rest areas when needed.

A tip on POIs, select the near button at the bottom of the screen and then "along route" if you are travelling to a destination so you don't get POIs too far off your traveling route.

I wish there was an easier way to back out of some of the screens and get back to the map screen other than hitting the back arrow at the bottom left of the screen a zillion times...

I bought one of the bean bag mounts and it works great. Easy to pull the GPS off the dash at stops and reduce the temptation for theft.

I tried to log on to the Magellan site but the 4700 is apparently not set up as of yet in their tech support database, so I could not enter a question or tech support request.

All in all, I agree with the points made in the review and hope that Magellan develops and refines the 4700 with upgrades as it is feature packed and a very nice unit with a lot of potential for the money. I'm keeping it.

Can anyone tell me how to use the "find my car" feature on the 4700?

Thanks

Are there any choices for vehicle type or pedestrian mode? Past Meastros' had car bus etc.

The maestro 4700 (canadian version) is horrible and full of bugs. (DO NOT BUY!!!)

Upon booting the device my wife and i noticed that if you switch from english to french the unit becomes half-english & half french !!!
Some spoken words i.e: "Please confirm destination" will remain in english even if the unit is set for french.

For your information, this is not our first experience with GPS. This was the fifth GPS... and i though latest means better..obviously it aint true with Magellan.

The Maestro 4700 is slow responding like hell. most of the time the turn voice was wayyyy too late. The 4700 doesn't tell in advance to keep left and turn soon enough or not at all (could be a bug).

And when it does tell you (from time to time) when it does work it doesn't repeat the warning enough which force you to listen c..a..r..e..f..u..l..l..y. If you don't then too late my friend you missed the turn! lol

If you're talking to someone or a little distracted you may not hear the unit so tough luck.

Garmin on the other hand will speakup the turn message several times before and long before the turn happens. (I know it could be annoying to some people) but i beleive you get use to it.

The big difference between Garmin and Magellan is how often the units speak.. The Magellan 4700 is so quiet that it makes you think you don't have a GPS lol.
The Garmin is repeating the instructions so much that sometime you may need to close the GPS...

The third MAJOR and i mean MAJOR issue about the Maestro 4700 (canadian unit) is the "reboot for better performance" very well known bug.
From time to time (once every 10 or 15 minutes) the unit will ask you to reboot/shutdown (off/on) the GPS device to increase its performance. And you can not avoid that popup message.
We tested 3 units at bestbuy and they had the same issues.

The only good thing about the Magellan Maestro is the POI category interface.
Magellan are known for their well set POI. The 4700 will show Campgrounds/camping sites as part of Lodging which is good for those who just want camping sites and phone numbers without the motels.
On the 4700 you can also look for Campgrounds near destination.
On lower end Magellan you have to change your current location to a different location to see nearby campgrounds, but on the 4700 you can choose the city and the campgrounds without changing your current location. You can be in "say" new york city and look for campgrounds in "Florida"

In conclusion. Do not buy the 4700 until Magellan fix all the major issues. And do not expect them to answer your call or email because it appears they do not have any tech support.

Unfortunately there is no perfect GPS. But out of the unperfect GPS i beleive Garmin higher end models (785T or 1300 series) are the best right now... just too expensive i know

Does anyone have any comparison information between the 4700 and the 1475T? I have read elsewhere that the main differences are the 4700 has bluetooth, voice commands and 3d POIs, non of which are important to me, and the 1475T includes the traffic adapter. Id rather have the traffic adapter and slightly less price if everything else is basically the same.

Magellan updated the 4700 software! It is now 2.06, from 1.27. Wow! They fixed the night mode not being on all screens. They moved the (admittedly useless) voice recognition option to the main menu. They fixed 3D so it's really 3D. Yeah! Nice job! The software looks finished, unlike the last release which looked half-baked.

They also claim faster acquisition and responsiveness. We will see.

Now if only they would bring back the ability to reduce the backlight intensity at night. AND the ability to shut the bloody thing up. It talks too much. You should be able to tell it to read exit names and that's it. You used to be able to do that - my 4040 does that.

I am really REALLY happy there is an option to disallow u-turns.

Thanks, Magellan. The update was very badly needed.

I'm looking at both the Magellan 4700 and Garmin 765T. Both have pros and cons.
The Magellan seems to have some software issues with ver 1.x.
I noticed on the Magellan website they're up to ver 2.06. Has anyone downloaded the current update and have the issues been resolved?

I really like the features, size and price of the Magellan over Garmin, but don't want to purchase until the software issue have been resolved.

Thanks in advace

David

Just noticed the post from october 31 about the new verseion. Has anyone else had a good experience with ver 2.06?

David

any recent/new info about canandian usage of Megellan4700?

Just bought 4700, but thinking of exchanging it for a Garmin Nuvi 265WT. It came with software version 1.27. I guess before making my final decision I will try upgrading it to 2.06. Interestingly, the upgrade instructions say that the battery has to be fully charged before attempting an upgrade. It is stupid because it should be able to draw all the power it needs from USB, but OK, fine... However for the life of me I can't find a battery charge status in any of the menus! And they say it may take up to 3-4 hours to charge it fully! So, now I need to drive for 3 hours just to make sure the battery is charged. Great, isn't it? I had difficulty pairing my cell phone (Motorola KRZR)to it, it worked after a few attempts (I did it at home), but when I first tried it in my car it wouldn't connect to the phone... The windshield mount seems a little flimsy, although I just noticed that there is a tightening nut, which I need to try to tighten. One thing I am missing in this comparing to my old Nuvi 250, which got stolen, is a screen with all the trip information. Another nice feature Nuvi had was the ability to give voice directions in many different languages and it could switch from one to another without rebooting. I would sometimes put it to my native tongue, and sometimes just tried other languages for fun. 4700 can only speak in English, French, and Spanish, and it will reboot every time you try to change the language. OK, I understand with text-to-speech it would be difficult to support many languages. Don't know if newer Garmin units still can do it... So, that's just first impression... On the positive side it seems to be acquiring signal pretty quickly, and I like the display... I guess I will post again soon when I have a little more to say...

My 4700 seems to be off about 40 feet. I am typically through the intersection and has yet to show that on the screen. I've taken the next turn and it still shows prior to turn. Is there a fix for this?

In addition to what I said earlier today. The Bluetooth actually works with my phone. I had to change a setting on the phone itself. I made one test call home while driving and left a message for myself. This all worked fine except for I couldn't hang up! I had to do it by pressing a button on my phone! The button on the 4700 disappeared as soon as I started talking and all I saw was the map... I can't navigate through menus while driving to hang up the call! Another annoyance is that phone numbers cannot be entered in the format starting with + sign. Neither can they be imported with + sign from your phone. I imported my whole phone book and it simply dropped the pluses... Great! All my international numbers became totally useless.

I have also upgraded the software to 2.06. The process wasn't too difficult, but the instructions are of course not quite correct. I haven't driven with this update yet, but otherwise it hasn't changed anything that I could notice.

The mount IS flimsy compared to what I had with my Nuvi 250 even when it is tight. When you tap on the screen the unit is shaking. It is not too bad, but certainly annoying after I saw better. The suction cap on the other hand seems to be of a better quality than Garmin's, but that's just a guess. It has to be tested in summer heat.

The cancel trip icon is too easy to hit accidentally when e.g. accessing trip options (You need to hit Menu in the right bottom corner if you are in the Map mode and then the cancel trip icon appears in the bottom right as well). I hit it a few times and was forced to answer whether I really wanted to cancel the trip.

The routing algorithm seems weird. Even when I chose the most freeways mode I couldn't force it to take a freeway. To reroute around a particular street it strongly preferred I had to sequentially ask it to avoid 3 turns as it would try exit the freeway early and return me on that street. Perhaps I don't know how to do it properly. Also, when I chose to drive a different road at some point it would insist on making a U-turn for way too long to make any sense in my view...

Again, there is no battery status indicator that I could find... There is no a trip info screen as Nuvi has, which I found useful. It displayed average speed, stopped time, max speed, current speed, distance traveled so far, and the distance left to go and something else...

The software is not too responsive, and the touch screen is not very forgiving if you don't tap at exactly right spot...

Finally, the user manual is useless when it comes to explaining
anything, which is not obvious. There is an Add Feature button in Settings, but no explanation what and how you can add. No explanation on how to use the unit with a phone beyond pairing. And so on and so forth...

A few more notes after I had a chance to compare my 4700 with a Nuvi 265WT.

The Bluetooth operation is cleaner, connecting to the phone is faster, and the interface is more convenient with Garmin, but the sound quality is better with Magellan. Also, Garmin has no problem with international phone number format starting with the + sign. Nuvi doesn't store a phone book but extracts it every time from your phone assuming the phone is configured to allow for it. This has its advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that less of your personal information is stored in the unit which is more likely to get stolen than your phone. Also, if you give it to someone he/she will be able to use their own phone book.

Nuvi 265WT uses a 4.3" screen and it does feel quite a bit smaller than the 4.7" of the 4700. I like that on the 4700 map you can see all the street names as you drive, not the case with the Nuvi even when its map is set to maximum detail.

When you drive with no particular destination a 4700 will always show the name of the street you are driving on on the top of screen, while Nuvi will also show the name of the street you are about to cross.

The voice driving instructions are a little different on the units and I have a feeling that the Garmin ones are a little bit more precise. In particular I noticed that Magellan uses the expression "slight turn" in cases where it is not appropriate at all.

As I said earlier its routing algorithm could be better. My trip from work to home is about 27 km. If I use mostly freeways it is 30 km, but it refuses to route it that way, I guess because of these extra 3 kms, but in reality it is a faster route. And why would you have a special routing mode, which doesn't do what is expected anyways?...

The Nuvi is not loud enough. It is actually not as loud as my old Nuvi 250 was!.. And I thought 4700 wasn't loud...

Finally, one thing I am really missing in 4700 is a security PIN lock. After my old unit got stolen with quite a bit of personal info I became conscious about this... Unfortunately, my 4700 doesn't have this feature.., But this is something they could easily add I assume... Although how secure it really is in Garmin?... Who knows... Still better than nothing I suppose...

So, overall, there is no clean winner. I will probably keep my 4700 hoping that they will improve on some of the issues in their software upgrades...