Review: Magellan vs. Garmin GPS for Cars | Magellan Maestro 4350 | Garmin Nuvi 760

We recently had the opportunity to review the Magellan Maestro 4350 and the Garmin Nuvi 760. These are two of the best selling GPS for cars. The prices on both models have come down a bit and you can find both for in the $200 range. The Garmin tends to be more expensive across the board. While the two units share many of the same features there are some significant differences between them.

First off, here's a bit about the Magellan Maestro 4350. It has a 4.3" color touch pad with crisp graphics. It also provides 3D landmarks which is helpful while driving. The screen is a touch screen and is very sensitive. I love the display screen.

You can easily plan your route with the Magellan Maestro 4350. It even allows you to add interim stops along your route. After loading your starting point and destination, you can choose from four different routes: Fastest, Shortest, Most Economical, and Simplest. You can also designate if you are driving a car, bus, emergency vehicle, or if you are on foot or on a bicycle. And if you select pedestrian mode, the GPS will ask you if you'd like for it to remember where you parked your vehicle.

The Magellan Maestro 4350 has six million Points Of Interest loaded into its database. This includes AAA listings and certified garages. You can also import your own Points Of Interest.

One of the things I hope they improve is the battery life, sure most of the time you'll be using the GPS system while it is hooked into your car’s power, sometimes you won't. While I love the idea of the "Pedestrian Mode" option, I have two concerns: 1) I don't think 4 hours of battery life is sufficient, and 2) The map doesn't necessarily advise you of "bad" neighborhoods, so you might wind up someplace you'd rather avoid.

The guidance system is one of the best I've tried, and I love the lane guidance feature. It advises the user well in advance of any upcoming turns. Most of the GPS systems I've had the opportunity to try, have not given that information in a timely enough manner, and I've wound up having to adjust my route. The Magellan Maestro 4350 lets you know what lane you need to be in well in advance of you having to be there. The Magellan Maestro 4350 is one of two GPS systems to offer this functionality at this price point.

Personally, I don't see the need for this unit to function as an MP3 player, but it does. However, since it has no jack you are limited to listening to your music through the unit’s speaker, or configuring it to run through your car stereo. Not a huge issue, but still, a minor annoyance.

Overall, the Magellan Maestro 4350 is an excellent GPS unit, and I highly recommend it.

The Garmin Nuvi 760, in my opinion, is not as useful as the Magellan Maestro 4350. The touch screen is not nearly as responsive as the Maestro. However, the screen is the same 4.3" and the graphic quality is on par with the Magellan Maestro 4350.

As with the Magellan Maestro 4350, the Garmin Nuvi 760 also has pedestrian mode and multi-point destination routing. I can't imagine getting a GPS system that doesn't offer these functions. The overall routing offers fastest and shortest routes. The unit is very user friendly. You almost don't need a manual.

The battery life is around four hours, so my concerns about lack of battery life for Pedestrian mode apply to this unit as well. I know it's a trade off with the larger screen, but I would be much happier with an 8 hour battery.

The Garmin also offers over 6 million Points Of Interest. However, we noticed a significant lag when trying to use the POIs, much longer than when using the Magellan Maestro 4350. Also the Garmin Nuvi 760 does not allow you to create a favorites list which would be very useful.

The MP3 player doesn't work that well here either. I'm waiting for the day when all my electronic gadgets will be in one unit. Until then, I won't be looking to a GPS unit for my music.

Initially, I had some difficulties using the Bluetooth feature with my Blackberry. However, the customer support was great and I was able to download software to fix the issue.

The Garmin does not alert you to an upcoming navigation change, so while you're on the phone; it's easy to miss a direction or two. I like the alert chime for this reason. It’s less easy to miss when you are talking on the phone.

If you're considering buying the Garmin, and it is a good unit, bear in mind that the unit does not come with an AC charger. This can actually be a bit problematic as you cannot use some of the unit's features if you are plugged into a USB port which you may need to do occasionally if you haven't purchased the charger.

Both of these GPS for cars units, the Magellan Maestro 4350, and the Garmin Nuvi 760, do a more than adequate job of offering directions to get you from point “A” to point “B”. However, as you can clearly determine from the review, given the choice, we would prefer to the Magellan Maestro 4350 over the Garmin Nuvi 760.