Magellan Maestro 3225 Portable GPS System w/ Preloaded Maps

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letters as you type them. Entering an address starts with the city (and any letters that can't possibly be your next choice are blocked out--making it even faster). Then the street, then the number. It takes about 20 seconds to enter an address.

There's a button to see a map of where you're going--just to make sure it's where you want to go--very handy.

Then you can choose the fastest route, shortest route, most use of freeways, least use of freeways. I find that the fastest route is inevitably the best one.

Once you press GO, it calculates the route in a couple of seconds and you're ready to go.

There are some fancy features, such as one that lets you enter several addresses and have it calculate the most efficient ORDER as well as route--this is great if you are flexible and want to save time--and gas!

There's an address book that's easy to update and use, over a million points of interest including restaurants, gas stations, banks, libraries, and more. And an "exit POI" button to use when on the freeway--this will tell you what wonders await you off the next offramp.

While there are many features--the basics are so easy that if all you want to do is go from point A to point B, this is all you need.

POCKET SIZE DEVICE
rst--this is so small you can easily fit it in your pocket. That means you can carry it with you from car to car--even to the cars of friends with GPS units no one can get to work. It takes no space to pack when you travel so you can use it in rental cars.

EASY TO HEAR:
The voice in this unit can be turned up so loud I can hear it in a convertible with the top down. The voice is pleasant and never gets annoyed when it says "calculating route." When I'm driving I rarely look at the map (I think it's helfpul to keep my eyes on the road), so the voice being clear--and reading street names is very important to me, and this delivers.

This unit doesn't have bluetooth or traffic reports, but it also costs half of what those units do, and the GPS part is great.

FAST:
I especially appreciate how fast it calculates a route, because if you do manage to take the wrong highway offramp (still possible, even with the device telling you where to go!), this will calculate a way back on track in just a couple of seconds, so you don't have to stop and wait as you do with some other units.

PEEVE:
I have one peeve with this--if you don't listen to its directions and take another route, sometimes it says, "When possible, make a legal U-turn." Well, I don't want to pull a uey, I want you to look at the next street and tell me where to turn." And if you continue on, it finally will do that. I just don't think it should ever tell you to make a u-turn unless you're on a dead-end street.

BUT--This applies to basically all GPS systems. Sometimes they just give you screwy directions. You always get there, but not always in the simplest most direct route. That's how these things work. If you don't like it, don't buy any GPS, because they all use similar routing systems. If you know where you're going--don't use your GPS "just for fun" as you'll think it has chosen an idotic route. Just remember--it will get you there.

SUGGESTIONS:
Two recommendations: 1) don't mount it in your car--thieves look for these mounts--or suction cup marks on your windows, and even if you take the unit out of the car when you park (as you should do), this tells them you have one. 2) Buy one of those "non-slip" silicone pads for your dash. They cost around $5 and will keep your GPS firmly in place when you corner--and they make the speaker sound even louder.

A correction on someone else's post--you CAN update the maps using an SD card. The trouble is the maps cost $80, basically half the price of the unit (of course, this is still cheaper than the $300 to update the $2K built-in systems!).

As for map accuracy--I've only seen two times when it wasn't accurate, and in both cases it had to do with current road construction. One was a moved onramp to the 580 going to Richmond, the other is the mess of construction that's moved several offramps from the bay bridge going into San Francisco.

But remember, in both cases, even if you miss an offramp, it will quickly figure out where you need to go to get where you're going--and the bottom line is--IT WILL GET YOU THERE.

I highly recommend this GPS.

Magellan Maestro 3225 Portable GPS System w/ Preloaded Maps

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is nearly useless. Instead of showing streets, it shows the US and you must enter a latitude and longitude for each POI, manually.

In addition, the speaker inside the unit is too quiet. Even at its loudest setting, I couldn't clearly hear it over highway noise and background music. Since there is no Bluetooth support, there is no way I could clearly hear the unit at highway speeds.

In my case, several key areas I will visit on my trip had out of date maps. Since they cannot be updated, I returned the unit.

I recommend checking this unit to make sure it has streets you need in the areas you plan to visit, before buying it. If it has the streets you need, it is a good value. Otherwise, look at the TomTom GPS units (even their cheapest one can be updated).

Magellan Maestro 3225 Portable GPS System w/ Preloaded Maps

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arrival, showing on the bottom of the route map. The unit comes with 1.3 M POI, but I was able to download 6 M POI from the Internet. I connected the GPS to my computer, renamed the original POI file and copied the downloaded file to the same folder on the GPS and I was able to see more points of interest than before. The unit comes with software to allow you to add your own POI by entering the coordinates. I am wondering if I could use them overseas where maps do not exist...just curious how the unit will behave! I like the ease of removing the unit from the cradle so that I do not leave it visible in the car and get my car broken into again. Finally, I bought it from Amazon for $150 and I am glad I did it at the right time because the price went up just after I bought it. Someone on the Internet said it can't be used in NJ, but I live in NJ and it's working great. I used my 3100 in NJ and CA and it worked great too. The only thing I had to do when I was in CA was to click the Reset and enter the address of the hotel...after that I was able to use it without problems. Same with this one, out of the box, it thought it was in the factory in California so I had to Reset and enter the address of my current location.