I’m biased towards the Magellan Maestro 4040 4.3-inch widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator. As a matter of fact, I’m biased towards virtually all of Magellan’s products. I know they’re not the industry leader—Garmin is. I know that Magellan’s not coming out with cutting edge GPS devices every other day like Garmin is. I also know that Magellan builds a really quality product and has some features that Garmin will never have, like the AAA Tour Book right on the device. I’m not saying that I don’t like Garmin. And I’m definitely not some sort of Garmin hater—you know how certain people are Bill Gates haters? Nothing like that. I actually prefer Garmin, in general, over Magellan. But I’m just pointing out that Magellan’s GPS’s have a lot going for them. Including the Maestro 4040. So, with all of that said, let’s look at the Magellan Maestro 4040 4.3-inch widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator in some more detail.

First off, if you’re a member of AAA, then you’ve got a good argument to buy a Magellan over anyone else. With your membership, you get access to AAA’s Tour Book right on your device and also to their road side assistance. In addition to AAA, the Magellan Maestro 4040 4.3-inch widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator also has Bluetooth capability. This means you can use your GPS for hands free calling. I don’t do a lot of cell phoning while driving, so frankly, this feature doesn’t mean as much to me as it does to others. What does float my boat is text-t-speech.

Text-to-speech means your GPS actually tells you the names of the streets you need to turn on as opposed to just saying “Turn Right.” That particular capability means a lot more to me than Bluetooth does. Not that there’s anything wrong with Bluetooth. Just that it’s a personal preference.

The Magellan Maestro 4040 4.3-inch widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator relies on a SiRFstar III chip to do its actual work. The SiRFstar III is a fast chip, and in my experience, Magellan’s devices which use this chip perform very well.

There are a couple of other features that I like. 3D maps and traffic updates. I drive a lot in a congested area and having reliable traffic updates really helps.

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One is price. Click here to find how much the Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-inch Widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator is selling for on Amazon, today.

The other reasons are the features.

One thing that really turns customers on about this device is its ultra-slim design. It almost makes Garmin’s units look fat! It’s also got multiple point routing, which lets you program in more than one destination at a time. That’s rare for this price range, at the moment.

The Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-inch Widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator has spoken street names. It’s Bluetooth compatible. And has voice commands. (This really helps while driving!) It includes maps of the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

Not only does it tell you which direction to take, but when you’re approaching a highway or an expressway with an interchange, it will tell you which lane to be in so you don’t miss the entrance ramp! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this while traveling in unfamiliar territory.

Another feature I really like are 3D landmarks. Instead of just having streets, it has 3D representations of notable building.

In terms of consumer reviews that we read, there were two problems with the Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-inch Widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator. Bluetooth does not work equally well with all cell phones, and also the voice commands don’t seem to work perfectly right out of the box. That’s not unusual for voice commands, however. It’s a learning process for most machines.

On the plus side, other people say they really like the “closest gas station” button and also that the distances are extremely accurate.

Every GPS has it’s pros and cons. All in all, the Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-inch Widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS navigator is a very good unit for the price.