14 DAY TRIAL // Although it was announced way back at CES 2008 and it was supposed to hit the shelves at some point in the first quarter of 2008, Magellan's Maestro Elite 4370 has just now popped up on the company's website (just the US version, for the time being), which leads us to believe that it will most likely arrive in stores shortly, or at least in time for this year's Christmas shopping season.
The PND offers a host of very interesting navigation-related functions, one of the most important being the OneTouch menu, which allows users to create shortcuts to one's favorite destinations and points of interest. Furthermore, the detailed navigation maps also include 3D landmarks, for easier visual navigation, plus spoken instructions, lane guidance as well as Live Traffic capability, which provides you with real-time incident reports to the screen with alerts for slowdowns, accidents, road closures, severe weather, and more.
Other interesting navigation-related features include the QuickSpell auto-complete feature, the available pedestrian mode and also the SmartDetour function, which automatically prompts users to route around sudden slow freeway traffic. Moreover, as any modern PND should, the device also packs a Bluetooth module, as well as an MP3 player and an FM tuner, for transmitting either music, navigation instructions or mobile phone calls directly via the audio system of the car.
Of course, we must also pay some well-deserved attention to the technical specs of the PND. The navigator has been fitted with a 4.3-inch VGA display, as well as 2 GB of built-in NAND flash memory, used for storing the navigation maps and software. Magellan has chosen a non-mainstream solution as far as the GPS module is concerned, going with the WAAS/EGNOS enabled Titan 1 module, which provides a level of accuracy between 3 and 5 meters (10 to 16 feet). The battery is also rather standard, since we're dealing with a 2200ma Li-ion rechargeable unit, which provides an estimated functioning life of around 3 hours.
The Maestro 4370 will sell for around 650 US dollars, which might be a little too pricey, especially given the fact that US customers are not exactly ready and willing to throw cash out the window that easily nowadays.
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