The Magellan Maestro 3140 is a full-featured GPS that offers Bluetooth, Text-to-Speech for turn-by-turn voice prompts, and includes AAA's TourBook travel information.

Design

The Maestro 3140 looks identical to the less expensive Maestro 3100. Both units have a 3.5" (measured diagonally) display, and are a little thicker than one-inch (1.14"). The case constructed out of black and silver colored plastic. The Maestro 3140 is lightweight (6.5 oz), and fits easily in the palm of your hand or in a pocket.

Overall the Maestro 3140 is a decent looking GPS, although I'd like to see a thinner border; compared to Garmin's nuvi product line, there's a lot of unused space around the display on the Maestro 3140.

The left side of the Maestro 3140 is home to an SD/MMC card slot (used for loading optional maps) and the reset pin hole (located just below the SD memory card slot).

Maestro has a single internal speaker, located at the rear of the unit. This Magellan is quite a bit louder than previous Magellan RoadMates; the speaker is loud enough that the unit can be clearly heard (distortion-free) even when traveling at highway speeds.

The power on/off button, USB connector, headphone (3.5mm mini jack) jack, and power input are located on the right side of the Maestro 3100.

Magellan's logo adorns the top of the 1.14-inch thick Maestro 3140.

GPS Signal

All Magellan Maestros use SiRF's high performance SiRF Star III 20-channel indoor GPS receiver. This chipset is extremely sensitive and able to maintain solid signal reception even when driving in GPS-challenging situations, such as behind tall buildings, under bridges, through canyons, etc. In fact, during my testing, I was able to get a strong signal even indoors. The signal was so strong that I had to actually go into my basement and cover the top of the Maestro with tin foil before it lost GPS signal.

The integration of SiRF's chipsets into the latest generation of in-car navigation systems has been a watershed event for GPS navigation. Prior to SiRF, line-of-sight to the sky was required to receive GPS signals, resulting in poor GPS performance (or no signal at all) in many cases. SiRF's chipset has ushered in a new era of GPS performance, affording fast signal acquisition and precise positioning that is solidly maintained while driving. Make sure that any new GPS you buy includes SiRF's chipset; I'm always amazed that people buy GPS devices that are old and outdated (and sometimes cost even more than the newer devices with SiRF -- even from the same manufacturer).

I'm pleased to report that Magellan is using the more expensive (and highly effective) SiRF StarIII GPS receiver on the Maestro. Throughout my testing GPS reception was outstanding. The GPS quickly recognized my location, and reception was unflappable, even when driving in midtown Manhattan. I did lose reception when driving through tunnels, but the GPS quickly re-acquired within a few seconds once I emerged from the tunnel

User Interface

Rumor has it Magellan spent $1 million dollars on the new design; the results are mostly positive. When Magellan initially released their updated interface on the Maestro 3100 and 4040, feedback was mixed. Magellan listened to customer feedback, and has made a number of important improvements to the 3140's map screen (Magellan is also planning to release a free software update that will upgrade the 3100 and 4040's Map Screen).

The new menu screens have bright, bold color schemes that are visually pleasing, and sport newly designed icons that clearly indicate their function. Tapping around the menus is intuitive and the 3140 is responsive and fast. Unlike previous Magellan RoadMate devices, Magellan has decided not to include a photo viewer or music player on the Maestro 3140 -- a prudent decision since Magellan has never done a good job integrating either into the navigation application.

The three large icons on the top row are:
Show Map - look at the map and view your current location, much like you would with a paper map
Enter Address - start entering a destination address
Points of Interest - search the POI database for a business

Two smaller icons appear along the bottom of the screen:
Home - this icon is a one-touch button to start routing to your home (the first time you tap on this icon the Maestro prompts you to enter your home address) Tow truck - this icon brings up detailed information about your current location, useful for directing a tow truck (or emergency vehicle) to your current location

Navigating

Magellan fans will be pleased to see that the basic process of entering a destination on the Maestro hasn't changed much from previous Magellan GPS units -- good news, since address entry has always been one of Magellan's strengths.

Most of the time you'll likely be using a street address as the destination address, so let's test that process by trying to route to an address in New York City (135 Central Park West, NY, NY). The first step in entering a street address is tapping on "Enter Address" from the Main Menu, as shown above in figure 19

Maestro 3140 provides a nice range of options for entering a destination street address:
Enter City - This is probably the method you'll most often use. Tapping this option brings up a virtual keyboard that lets you spell the city name.
Enter Zip Code - allows you to use a U.S. Postal code to set the destination city.
Previous City - allows you to view a list of recently used cities
my addresses - allows you to pick an address from the address book (saved addresses)
intersection - allows you to enter two cross streets and route to that intersection (rather than a particular house / building number)

Magellan does a nice job offering a broad range of address entry options while still maintaining an easy-to-use interface. I've always been a fan of Magellan's "QuickSpell" technology, and I'm happy to report the Maestro 3140 maintains Magellan's excellent text entry system; as you type out the city name (or street name), Maestro uses information in its map database to only permit letters that would spell a valid city name, graying out the invalid letters so they cannot be pressed.

This is a great time-saving feature when entering city or street names, and also reduces the likelihood of accidentally tapping an adjacent letter with your finger. When entering a city/street name, you can press the OK button at any time to view all the cities that match the letters you have entered so far. If you continue spelling out the city/street name, Maestro will automatically produce a results list of possible matches once it has enough letters of the name that only a handful of matches exist.

Once enough letters have been entered that only a few possible cities match the letters that have been entered, Maestro automatically produces a list of matching cities to choose from. Next we'll need to tell the Maestro what street our destination is on. Spelling the street name is identical to spelling the city name: as you type, Magellan's QuickSpell feature only allows you to select letters that spell valid street names.  Again, this feature may not sound like a big deal, but it greatly speeds up the text entry process and you're much less likely to accidentally tap an adjacent letter by mistake.

Once enough of the street name has been entered that the Maestro can produce a short list of possible matches, the results screen is automatically displayed. Note that you can force the Magellan to show you all the results at any time by tapping on the OK button (although this list will be quite long if you haven't spelled out enough of the street name). My only complaint about this screen is that the scroll arrows only scroll one line at a time. Scrolling a page at a time instead of one line per tap would make more sense, and be more helpful for viewing longer lists.

Next we'll need to enter the house/building number of our destination address. Notice that Maestro displays several pieces of useful information on this page before we even start entering the house number:
Street and city names are displayed in the blue box on the right side of the screen
The valid range of house/building numbers for the chosen street are displayed across the top of the screen in the white bar (In this case, the valid range of house numbers along Central Park West in New York is 1-499).

This feature can be very useful if you don't know the exact house number of your destination but you know the street name. Knowing the valid range of house numbers allows you to pick an address on the street, even if you're unsure exactly which house number you're looking for. Unlike the city and street address entry pages, you must press "Done" after entering the house number. I suppose this makes sense, since the Maestro might not know whether you're entering house #1, 10, or 100.

With the city, street name, and house number successfully entered, Maestro asks how we would like it to calculate the "best" route. Like previous Magellan GPS units, there are four options for route calculation:
Fastest Time - On previous Magellan GPS devices, this option was called "Shortest Time", and is the default selected method. I almost always use "Fastest Time", which chooses the route that will be fastest, even if it's not actually the shortest distance. For example, a winding series of back roads with lots of stop signs and traffic lights might be the shortest distance for a given journey, but definitely not the fastest way to go. Selecting Fastest Time in this case would take you a slightly longer distance (i.e. on a highway instead of the back roads), but would be a shorter drive time.
Shortest Distance - forces the Maestro to calculate the shortest physical route, even if it's not the quickest way to go.
Least Use of Freeways - forces the Maestro to avoid highways as much as possible
Most Use of Freeways - forces the Maestro to choose highways over surface streets whenever possible .

Additionally, there's an option to check the "Avoid Toll Roads" if you want to avoid tolls (note that this can add considerable drive time to the journey). Once you've selected the desired routing preference, tap on the large red circle and the Maestro starts navigating you to your destination address. While I love the fact that Magellan presents four different choices for calculating the route, I wish the estimated drive time was displayed next to each of the four options so you could make a more informed decision about which method to choose. Without the estimated travel time displayed, it's impossible to know how much longer/shorter a route each of the four options will produce.

After selecting a routing preference and pressing the red "go" button, Maestro calculates the route and starts navigating. Route calculation on the Maestro 3140 is speedy: in my testing the average route calculation time was about 5 seconds. Using the Maestro 3140 is zippy and responsive when navigating the menus.

Multi-Destination Routing & Route Optimization

The Trip Planner is used to create a route with multiple destinations. Magellan calls this type of route a "Trip". To access the Trip Planner, from page 2 of the Main Menu, tap the Trip Planner icon. Select New from the Trip Planner Menu to start creating a new multi-destination trip. Once a trip has been saved, you can start the trip by tapping "Guide Me", delete it by tapping "Delete, Rename", or change the trip by tapping "Edit". You'll need to enter a name for the trip. Like previous Magellans, Maestro only allow a maximum of 11 characters when entering a trip name, a limitation I found...limiting. To add the first destination to the trip tap on "Add".

Stops can be added to the saved trip by one of four methods:
Enter Address - Enter an stop using standard address entry
POIs - Enter a stop by searching the POI database
Address Book - Use a saved address or previous destination from the Address Book
Intersection - Enter two cross streets as a destination.

Stops can be added, removed, and re-ordered until all the desired stops, or destination addresses, have been entered into the "trip".  Many Magellan fans were disappointed when the most recent RoadMate and CrossoverGPS units removed the route optimization feature that was so popular on Magellan's previous GPS units. Thankfully, Magellan has added this powerful feature back to the Maestro 3140.

Optimizing a route re-orders the stops in the most efficient manner, sorting each stop by distance so that you are not driving back and forth in circles. Maestro 3140 allows you to select a stop on the trip itinerary and tap "Optimize" to have Maestro automatically order the destination in the best order. Once all the addresses have been entered and are in the desired order, you can begin navigating by tapping on "Guide Me" from the Trip Planner Menu and choosing the saved trip. Multi-stop routing with optimization capabilities are powerful routing features not typically found on GPS devices in this price class, and Magellan deserves credit for adding this oft-requested feature back into the Magellan offering.

Conclusion

If you ever needed proof that Magellan listens to customer feedback, look no further than the Maestro 3140. Many of the original customer complaints regarding the Maestro 3100 and Maestro 4040 have been corrected in the 3140, and Magellan has delivered a feature-rich GPS that offers solid GPS performance in an easy-to-use package that will please novices and experts alike. Maestro 3140 is the only GPS in it's price class to feature multi-destination routing with route optimization, Bluetooth, and text-to-speech (the GPS speaks actual street names).

Maestro 3140 includes AAA's TourBook data (a resource I found extremely useful for exploring new areas), and supports Magellan's optional TrafficKit for real-time traffic information (sells online for around $75 plus $60 annual subscription fee). I have to admit I found myself using AAA's TourBook data more than I expected; the information AAA provides about local restaurants, lodging, and tourist attractions proved invaluable when exploring new areas, and was much more informative than a typical POI database