I had never used a GPS before, and last week I used this item on a trip up north. It is was the first time I travelled without lots of maps and directions from Mapquest or Rand McNally - and when I changed my plans at the last minute - there was my GPS to direct me how togo. If I made a wrong turn, it instantly put me back on track - It is easy to use, efficient and saved my husband and I a lot of time trying to find out how not to get lost when we made a wrong turn! Great item. Everyone should have one.

I'm new in this GPS fad, but I have this and tried another brand( tom tom). What I like about this then the Tom tom is that this will give me a tone just as you are suppose to turn as the TT don't tell you. In the POI in this gps I put my finger on it on the map and up comes info on what I pressed, while the TT gives me a menu for me to keep searching for info about the POI. When I get to my destination, this gps tell me at the place where I suppose to be and on which side of the road while the TT tells me after I pass the house by 10 houses. I really wanted a TT from all the great reviews that I'd read, but on Black Friday it was all sold out and decided on this. I'm glad I made this choice. Also TT known for the different languages, but the TT is made in the UK, so most if not all except the US voice will tell you in meters and not miles, and yards instead of feet. It will get some use to on the TT, but no thanks. This unit is also small can be slipped into your pocket, just like the TT one. If you don't need mp3, bluetooth or text to speech (tells you the name of the street), then this would be perfect for you. I live in New York City and the map is pretty good accurate for me, not sure about the rest of the country, so I would highly recommend this.

UPDATE review 1/08

Reason.

1) No updates, even if you wanna pay to get it. Its already programed for 2007. I live in NYC and 1/3 of the POI has moved and new stores had taken its place. So some of the POI are not there anymore.

2)Some address I put in doesn't except (out of range numbers) or when I put it in I arrive at a wrong location. 3 out of 12 address I entered so far has given me trouble.

Thats the bad, the good:

When everything is right its awesome.

1)gives me a warning beep telling me to turn when I am at the corner or exit. Alot of other GPS warns you only ahead of time then its up to you to know when to turn/exit. this will warn you twice at least.

2)Very portable. You can put this in your pocket, it so small.

3)price, its cheap, but then again its only for today. it maybe obsolete next year unless you live in the suburbs where nothing really change. My city changes every month.

This GPS is not for everyone,but if the minuses I describe don't bother you then this is the BEST.

Me personally, I love it for its portability. I live in NYC all my life, so I know where I am going, but sometimes I need to go to a new place and this would help me alot... most of the time.

Definately alot of GPS functionality for the money. I've been holding off buying one until the prices came down, and happened to pick mine up on a "day after Thanksgiving" sale at Radio Shack for about 129. I've seen complaints about sluggish performance, but every route I have attempted so far comes up in less than a minute, typically 20 to 40 seconds. The touch screen is great, easy to navigate. Features like a "Home" button, an Instant locator which tells your exact location at any given moment-excellent for emergency situations. Address book, Trip planner with multiple stops.

Battery life seems acceptable, I would however recommend that after the intial full charge you fully expend the battery before recharging as recommended for most re-chargable devices. The size is great, easily fits into a shirt pocket, Will be excellent of site seeing etc. The Traffic re-route is awesome, it gives you options for how far to re-route so you can avoid being dumped back into traffic.

POIs are great, has an "In the area" option which quickly gets you to gas, food etc. I've heard other more expensive units have more POIs, but I've yet to be disappointed.

Bottom line - An excellent product for the money. There are more expensive units out there, but if you are on a budget, and don't want to spend three to seven hundred on a GPS unit, pick one of these babies up for less than $150, Great Bang for the Buck.

Bought mine on Black Friday special what a deal $139.00. Just happy to pay so little that I didn't care that it was a basic model. Overall, I am very happy with the unit. One problem I had is it seemed prone to lockup or resets without warning it happened a couple of times to me otherwise I would have given it a 5 star instead of 3. Seems to happen mainly in a low battery situation so it might be just an operational problem rather then a software/hardware problem. I will have to watch this. Entering addresses is a breeze. Unit is very intuitive. Maps are pretty new. The newer streets were picked up. Gave accurate directions and I have no problems with sat signals either. POI's could have been better but it is decent.

If you want a very basic unit I would recommend it. Accuracy of turn by turn directions and signal strength were two very positive things and this is mostly what I needed anyway.

I bought this unit on a Black Friday sale for $150 after extensive research and I was actually going to return it based on a review which said the 3100's maps cannot be updated. I contacted Magellan support and found out that this is false. The maps can be updated to a current version, and the device comes with a USB cord. This is not a throw-away unit. If you're looking for Canada, Mexico, HI, AK, etc. and if text-to-speech is a must, then avoid this unit. If you're looking for a basic value-priced GPS for the contiguous 48 states, look no further. It does what it's supposed to do....navigate you from point A to point B; provide detours and directions.

I saw Magellans in action in a Staples store and they were the only units that would get a signal; while the TomToms and Garmins couldn't. No external antennae to break and a rock-solid mount. For what this unit does and the price point, I think a top ranking is warranted. The only other GPS I would consider other than this one is a Garmin Nuvi -- 260 or higher so as to get the text-to-speech and more maps (which themselves can cost almost as much as this 3100 GPS!).

The 3100 got full signal strength even inside my house. I already programmed almost 20 addresses into it. The POI database is a little light at 750,000, but for most purposes, it's good enough.

This past Black Friday, I picked up this navigation at Staples in Queens. I had driven to the Staples using Tom Tom on my PocketPC, but decided to test out the Maestro 3100 driving back. What transpired driving back from the Staples to the city would ultimately lead me to return the Maestro 3100 later that day.

At first glance all appears well. It turns on quickly, and receives the satellite information, and then problems arise. Entering an address becomes a painful, and slow process. Rather than showing partial results, it waits until it thinks there are few enough partial results, or a specific confirmation from the user, make any mistake and you're punished with several dialogs. I was able to look past this problem. But, I was not able to look past the following three major problems.

1. Navigation System will block out screen with Loading route information when it needs to reroute. I can't tell you how terrible this is. Every other navigation system out there will display this progress bar on the bottom of the screen while your map is still being displayed with a route. It's quite terrible when this navigation decided it needs to reroute while you're in the middle of a highway, or an important upcoming turn.

2. It will need to reroute periodically for what appears to be no reason whatsoever. This coupled with 1 leads to terrible things.

3. There's NO estimated time the trip will take, or estimated time you will arrive. This is an integral feature, as you definitely want to know how long your trip will take, or how long a miscalculated detour will take. This is especially frustrating when coupled with a misdirection due to 1.

I got to my destination very frustrated, and immediately returned it to the closest staples. The entry level Tom Tom for the same price is LEAPS and BOUNDS better. I'm truly sorry I wasted my time with this unit, and advise you to avoid it.

I love this item. For the map-reading challenged, this product can prevent many arguments between driver and navigator. The portability is a real plus since you can use it in any car. It is very easy to program and use. The voice directions are great.

Although my car has a built in GPS, I have had difficulty with it because of the need for discs. I decided to purchase the Magellan Maestro because of its simplicity of operation and the fact that it is completely self contained. It has proven its worth to me, many times over. It is easy to use and compact enough, that it can be stored easily. A great product and an asset to modern motoring.

I purchased a Maestro 3100 3 weeks ago from a reseller. I had the unit for less than a day and then it would not charge. I walked thru all of the steps as mandated by your tech support representative, but we could not get the unit to work. This was on Monday July 23, 2007. I called and talked to Lisa the support center. I told her that as I had just purchased the product brand new I did not want it repaired, and wanted her to send me a new product. She told me that she would do that and I gave her a credit card number, that was to be credited when the old unit was received. She also stated that she would expedite the unit out to me. I was leaving that Friday on a trip, where I needed the unit, so I thought everything would be good. The unit did not get there in time, but I thought you would still honor your commitment and send me the unit. 10 days later no unit, I called into your support organization again and this time I talked to Andrew. He stated that the reason the unit had not shipped as there were not any in stock. I asked why I was not contacted and he did not have an answer. I asked multiple times to speak to a manager and was never successful in getting to one. He stated that one would call me back within 24 hours. Based upon previous history, not sure I can expect that call to be returned. In summary, I bought a brand new unit, it did not work, Magellan promised to replace it, but I have received nothing and they have my original unit. I have since called and talked with support who refuses to let me speak to manager, will not give me a tracking number for the replacement unit, but continues to make promises that they will ship one. I am out my original unit that I shipped back, along with not receiving a replacement unit....Filed a complaint with BBB

I bought this Maestro 3100 due to a really reasonable price, took it on a trip and returned it to Amazon the next day. We could get used to it not telling us street names (after all the price certainly is just entry level), but the real problem was that we couldn't hear what she had to say and with the a/c and radio on, we missed several turns. The volume was up to the max and we still had trouble hearing the instructions. Broke down and bought the Garmin Nuvi and absolutely love her. If you just need an inexpensive GPS, the Magellan is ok. But if you can spend a bit more, you will love the added features of the Nuvi such as street named turns and excellent volume control. The Nuvi gets an A+++