In The Box

Packed in the conventional Black-Blue box, the TomTom Go Live 820 comes with a Top Gear logo with the front of the box featuring images of both the Stig and the Sat Nav. Flipping over the box you find a list of few features together with an image of the Sat Nav in action and the pack contents, which includes the TomTom GO Live 820 Sat Nav, USB Cable, Car Charger and the instruction booklet. The good news here would be TomTom has been magnanimous enough to provide buyers with the Go Live 820 Top Gear Edition with a whole year of LIVE services for free that includes the Speed Cameras, HD Traffic and Google Local Search (UK and Ireland only). So, having had enough of the boxing let us get on to the unit itself.

Top Gear Content

• Entertainment by the Man himself, Jeremy Clarkson
• Unique Top Gear icons/POI
• Stig Mode
• Top Gear Startup/Shut down screens

Features at a Glance

• UK and ROI map coverage
• Latest maps guarantee that you start with the latest maps available
• 180-degree flip screen integrated mount
• Affluent maps with additional roadside details
• Spoken street names
• Free 1 year subscription includes HD Traffic and LIVE services
• 4.3-inch resistive touchscreen for legible route display
• Bluetooth Hands-free calling
• Voice command and control for better navigation
• IQ routes calculating precise journey times
• Advanced lance guidance
• Quick GPSFix, which promises a fix on the GPS within 30 secs
• Eco Routes allow for calculation and planning of routes with less impact on the environment thereby saving fuel and reducing costs
• Speech recognition technology
• Map Share technology
• Mobile Speed Cameras
• Easy Click magnetic/car charger with USB cable which can be interfaced with a MAC or PC
• Weather Forecast Service

Design

While most of us are of the opinion that what best can be done to a plastic box that stays glued to your windshield, guess TomTom begs to differ here with the 820’s design. The attractive etch finish on the front with the silver band lining the bezel looks to be a proof of the same breaking the monotonous black colour scheme All of the GO Live 800 units take their design clues from TomTom’s award-winning IF design where chic looks meets witty functionality. This extremely solid navigator is relatively compact with a weight decidedly less in comparison to a pedestrian unit. Weighing roughly about 203 g it boasts of a generous dimension of 119.1 x 85.1 x 21.7 mm. The resistive touchscreen has a diagonal of 11 cm displaying maps in an optimal way, thanks to the WQVGA resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. We would have appreciated a capacitive touchscreen here as against the resistive, but guess it perfectly justifies the low price tag. Everything comes with a price huh? With an internal memory of 4GB navigation can further be expanded through the SD expansion slot. A small microphone adorns the bottom left of the unit that comes in handy to be used in conjunction with either the Voice Control or the Bluetooth hands free feature. Despite feeling thin and light (pretty much important for something that sticks on the windscreen), the GO Live 820 looks sturdy and well constructed. The integrated mount helps the unit to be tilted in various directions while the circular lock system takes care of attaching and removing the unit easily from the windscreen. With the fastening system being built around a ball, it helps with any kind of installation head up/down (for users who are used to having the GPS on their dashboard). Now the 4.3 inch touchscreen with an 11 cm diagonal wouldn’t seem to be the largest, but has an easy to follow and intelligently laid out icons, with elegant characters may we add, and it is matter of time before you get used to it. Getting to the rear of the unit you find the Power button, a microUSB port for installing software and charging together with a Car Mount that is attached permanently to the unit. This compact and small GPS comes with a suction wheel for windscreen mounting at the back, which is foldable. Also there is a magnet coupling allowing for easy click and release, that is fairly handy and more importantly very fast. A speaker that keeps you entertained for hours can be found on the rear beneath the car mount.

User Interface

Moving on quickly to the 820’s interface, TomTom units are fairly famous for their easy-to-use interface and the GO Live 820 Top Gear Edition Sat Nav is not exception to this school of thought. Taking its clue from its older siblings GO 1000 and GO 1050, it features an amazing on-screen keyboard that aides with text entry, selection boxes with rounded edges and allows you to design your own custom menus on the map display. Menus and icons are fairly legible. The Bluetooth needs to be activated prior to setting off, to have the phone connected and activate the function hands-free kit. It also activates the Services button for mobile radar alerts. With placing the destination address, you are provided with 3 options, you can either pound on the keyboard or just dictate the desired address. The latter seems to be more effective, provided your address is not too very complicated. The third option would be the integrated Internet connection that uses the Google’s local search database of address to locate your POI. The Text-to-Speech voice guidance looks to be accurate with distinct display of routes to follow. There is a variety of information on display in the lower section of the screen namely, your speed limit, distance to go prior to your next maneuver, option to toggle from 3D to 2D mode and shortcuts for the route summary. While the left side is filled with the above info, there is traffic information towards the right.

Navigation

Having punched your destination, the GO Live 820 Satellite Navigation System suggests the fastest available route, thanks to the IQ Routes, allowing for alteration, if need be. Thus you can avoid roadblocks, travel through a waypoint or work out an alternate route. TomTom’s IQ Routes uses real-life user data as against the conventional maximum speed technique. A route is determined by IQ Routes by taking into consideration all possible routes and opting the one that apparently takes the least of time and aims at avoiding main roads all along. Again, it is fairly rapid when it comes to route recalculation taking roughly about 5 or 6 seconds. There is also a Text-to-Speech technology onboard and can call out the names of approaching streets. As a part of the GO Live 820’s service suite, the red-light camera warnings and fixed speed are also included. Then there is this Advanced Lane Guidance which comes in handy with multi-lane routes, wherein there is an icon towards the left bottom corner of the screen that indicates the lane that you need to be in, based on your destination. The same is enhanced by arrow signs on Busy Highway Junctions that indicates the direction of the lane together with static road sign icons. Note that the signs are of the same colour as what you see displayed on the road.

Navigation on the TomTom GO Live 820 is also possible by way of voice control with more than 140 commands on offer. Besides navigating an address, you are also allowed to avert roadblocks, increase volume, zoom in or out maps and include new locations to your favourites. Tapping the microphone button from the Homescreen activates the voice command function. Just tap the button and utter a command and watch the GO Live 820 obediently oblige. Then again, any voice recognition technology is far from perfect these days and we often witness gadgets having a tough time deciphering our commands despite speaking coherently and close to the gadget. The same is the case here too. So you are better off keying in your destination manually for quicker and efficient experience. The incredibly rapid and easy to use Google Local Search is also here which pops out a whole load of suggestions upon keying in a place that you are on the lookout. For instance, Searching Restaurants brings a whole host of restaurants around your current location.

HD Traffic and Live Services

This Latest GPS System from TomTom’s features something called HD Traffic. Well, this isn’t exactly traffic at 1080p as one would assume, instead live updates of traffic that supposedly refreshes once every 2 minutes. TomTom claims this service of theirs to be both “the most detailed and accurate” as it is a blend of both live data and real time traffic flow via various sources. The coverage is provided via a data connection that is LIVE (the GO Live 820 has a non-removable SIM card on board) and it is through this connection the unit receives info from the traffic authorities along with data being collected by default from other TomTom patrons.

There is provision for onscreen indication of delays along your route owing to jams together with intelligent rerouting based on the information it has and info given by TomTom’s very own IQ Routes that has been on their units for quite sometime now. Slowdowns appear on the screen colour coded (Orange, Red and Dark Red) depending on the severity. While the traffic delay gets displayed on the top right corner of the screen, congestion/individual events get prompted on a bar towards the right side of the screen. With an alternate route being available, the service clarifies if you wish to re-route, though the same can be set to happen by default too – looks to be a fairly effective and comprehensive solution in comparison to the SUNA traffic update used by Navman and Garmin. Upon approaching a destination, there is a menu on display that finds you a parking nearby close to sidewalks and helps avoid parking in the streets.

Again, there are a whole load of settings within the GO Live 820 Sat Nav Unit to fiddle around and change that ranges from voice used for navigation all the way down to correcting the map. However, the unit supposedly requires some double tapping and hard pressing of the touchscreen before you realize that it has registered your command. Well, guess this shouldn’t pose much of an issue as you would set the unit prior to commencing your journey and wouldn’t really require much of fiddling along your course. But for that, everything seems to work just fine with brilliant audio and video quality. Also with the volume being set at 60% you shouldn’t be having any issues hearing Jeremy Clarkson’s instructions while motoring. Of course, there is always the option to switch to the Stig mode for those of you who are not great fans of Jeremy as there is nothing much happening in the Stig mode with just silence for the most part (particularly for those who would like to drive in peace).

Well, you might want to know that it is a subscription service after the 1st year, something that you might want to take into consideration while assessing the unit’s cost.

Safety Features

Alerts on Speeding: The GO Live 820 is smart enough to warn you to keep you speeding under control, despite you not being in the navigation mode.

4.3-inch Touchscreen: Helps you with a wider view and drive easily along with the touchscreen technology making operations simple making it a real pleasure to use your GPS.

Hands-free Calling: The GPS doubles up as a car kit for your mobile phones ensuring you have a safe drive even as you attend calls, keeping you in both control and in touch.

Voice Control: Simply Talk! Using the Voice address input and Voice command would be the easiest and quickest way to handle your unit. That way you get to navigate better without taking the eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.

Help Me! Emergency Menu: Getting help is a shout away with info on the Local Emergency Service at your fingertips. Right from roadside assistances to hospitals, the info comes in fairly handy in just about any area.

Smart Extras

Frequent Destinations: You are allowed to choose icons for the places that you frequent along with adding your own text making your navigation experience rapid and easy and truly your own.

Integrated Mounting: Check out this handy foldaway mount that can be easily glued to your windscreen, so it is all set and ready whenever you need it. There is also an optional mounting disk on offer, which is helpful in turning the unit upside down and have it positioned in your dashboard too while the screen flips the right way up, by default.

Google Local Search: Google’s local listing is just a tap away in the GO Live and locates anything from florists to entertainment options wherever you are. Just key in your requirement and your Sat Nav gets you close to that.

Weather: With your TomTom receiving five-day local weather forecasts, planning your day is now all the more easy.

Top Gear Extras: This is available only in the limited edition version of the GO Live 820 with Top Gear POIs that is prompted by an icon on the display with the area of interest fast approaching (for Top Gear and Car fans, ideally), Top Gear’s test track, for instance.

Battery Life
With battery life rated up to 3 hours, it is disappointing to note that TomTom has not included a AC charger, which would mean that you will have to charge the unit either via the USB cable that comes in the box or the cigarette lighter adaptor.

Pros

• Clear and easy-to-use interface
• Neat finish
• Compact mount, that is in-built
• LIVE services fairly handy to those who are a lot into driving, like speed cameras and traffic info
• General responsiveness, decent

Cons

• Erratic voice recognition
• Couple of map errors (not something new in Sat Nav’s with TeleAtlas)
• Just one stage allowed for journey planning
• Touchscreen turns unresponsive at times

Verdict

Connected navigation gets even better with enhanced access as TomTom unveils their GO Live 820 Sat Nav System, proving to be a complete refresh of their product lineup. The 820 has been designed with the intent to help users break free of jams and benefit from connected navigation to the maximum possible extent via its smart design and value for money package like the HD Traffic. It offers intelligent routing options and re-routes promptly with users making a wrong turn. Again, traffic updates flows smooth and gets users out of slowdowns and blocks with its wise re-routing ability, thanks to IQ Routes. While all gadgets have their own flip side, the GO Live 820 too has by way of the touchscreen turning unresponsive at times and the Voice Commands prove to be a hit and miss periodically. Again, the Top Gear Edition costs an extra £30 from the standard version, but guess it is worth the money, particularly if you are a Top Gear Fan with a Flair for Cars and Driving, ain’t it?

TomTom GO Live 820 Top Gear GPS System – Technical Specification Table

It was only sometime back Mio amazed us with the Spirit 685 with its incredible price. It was kind of hard to believe £100 for a 5-inch screen equipped with RDS-TMC traffic and European maps. But the Spirit 687 Satellite Navigation System, in contrast looks to be more believable at a £150 loaded with a whole host of juicy features and even looks to be more stable than its cheaper mate. Looking fairly identical to its younger brother, there is just one physical difference that sets the Spirit 687 apart, its AV input jack at the bottom, which is intended primarily to connect a rear-facing camera, thus making your reversing task easier. Also, the supplied cable proves to be a double purpose accessory as it sports a regular stereo RCA audio and composite video inputs making it easy for hooking this up with any video source like a DVD player (portable) if you are looking at entertaining people once have reached your destination. Akin to the 685, the 5-inch screen comes with a resolution of 480 x 272, which though adequate, cannot be matched with the high-end models, fairly limiting it for video purpose. Also the 687’s memory is twice the capacity– 4GB as against the 2GB of the 685’s. While both pack around 44 European countries maps, the 685 has just 23 maps preinstalled and if you are looking at installing extra from the DVD then you might have to delete the existing ones to make way for the new ones. On the contrary, the 687 has all 44 countries maps stored right out of the box. So having had enough insight on the Spirit lineup, let us move on to see what the Spirit 687 has in store for us.

In The Box

• Mio Spirit 687
• AV Lead
• Windscreen mount
• Power lead
• Quick start guide
• MioMore software
• DVD for Maps installation (Windows only)

Mio Spirit 687 Sat Nav Features

• 5-inch resistive widescreen
• IQ Routes
• Choice of Routes
• LearnMe Pro
• Voice Entry
• MioMore Services
• Stay Ahead of Traffic
• Hands-free calling with Incorporated Bluetooth
• A Novel approach to junctions and lanes
• Parking Assistance
• Go that Extra Mile even on Foot
• Ease of use
• Trip Planner
• Go With A Guide
• AV-in Port
• Find Stuff More Easily
• Know Your Limits
• QuickSpell Keyboard
• Latest Map Guarantee
• Rental Maps

Getting Started/First Impressions

Upon turning the device on first, you will have to activate the relevant maps, which is plain and straightforward – simply key in the code at the side of the box for it to reboot along with activating relevant maps. First things first, upon turning On the Mio Spirit 687 GPS Sat Nav System, the first thing that catches your eye is its huge 5-inch resistive touchscreen. Evidently a large screen would mean it requires a lot of real estate.  While the device sure does seem fairly solid, it also unfortunately gives out a plastic-y feel, though not cheap. Being 14 cm wide, the Spirit 687 isn’t the kind of device that is going to easily slide out, irrespective of its weight of 185 g and 17-mm thin.  The exterior looks great, but for the glossy finish of the dubious plastic, as already mentioned. Well, if it makes you feel any better, the matte finish of the 5-inch screen comes to your rescue in diverting your attention. It looks bright and boasts of a decent contrast together with good viewing angles. The quality of the display is brilliant too with a neat touch-sensitive performance.  Then again, owing to its resistive touchscreen, it can register taps one at a time and at a single area only; yes you guessed it right – Adios multitouch.

Moving on to the suction mount, it is a conventional mount that clings well to the windscreen, but there seems to be a problem when it comes to the connection between the stand and the device, particularly when you attempt gliding the unit out. Adjusting the angle gets painful with jerky movements and removing the unit from its mount is nothing far from impossible and you might have to fully remove the unit and the mount from the windscreen if you wish to do so. Setting up the unit also can really get tiresome owing to the poor quality of the mount. Though there is a neat little hook attached to the mount that keeps the cables nice and tidy, attaching the unit to the mount is kind of tricky. Nevertheless, once you have it fixed, it is a real joy to be used as a Sat Nav with bright chunky menus and the settings easy to both understand and navigate. Again, getting your mobile connected via the Bluetooth is a literal cakewalk. Having done that you can download your phonebook to aide in quick calling too. Of note, the Spirit 687 lacks a microSD card slot and Mio seems to have confirmed this, so all of the European maps come stored in the 4GB internal memory.

There seems to be issues with the power lead too, which though gives an angled look gives an impression that it might plug out any minute. The connector that is attached with a heavy cable is quite huge and looks to exert quite a strain on the connector. The cable hook does alleviate a bit. The power adaptor is massive too and might pose a problem to the power supplies adjacent to it in case you plan on using a multi-socket adaptor.  The connection to the cigarette lighter is fairly big too.

Coming to the touchscreen, there is a physical power button on the crest together with two hardware buttons in the front. While the button at the top gets you to the main menu, the one at the bottom helps with adding POIs and favourites. On the front, there are two buttons detached from the touchscreen which pops up the main menu or identifies your current location. Quite a nice touch actually, making the unit more user-friendly than the ones that rely solely on the touchscreen for navigating the menu.  Interestingly, the power switch has 3 positions – On, Off and Reset.

Getting to the speakers, well it is just matter of time before the speaker starts sounding saturated and unfortunately there seems to be no sign of an FM transmitter that could have alleviated the problem by channeling the audio via the vehicle’s radio.

User Interface: Simple and Smart

It is the same old QuickStart Software that is ticking below this Mio Spirit 687 Sat Nav Device that has helped Mio’s Sat Nav’s for quite sometime now. The Menus are legible and incredibly kept simple. Towards the left of the screen are two shortcut keys, one taking users to the main menu and the other adds the current location to the list of POIs, as mentioned above. The main menu takes the form of blocks with the two main menus being Find and Map and then there is My Places, Settings, Phone as well as an icon that directs you to the subsequent menu options.

Then you have the second screen featuring Traffic, Explore, Route Simulation, Trip Planner, Travel Book, Roadside Assistant and Voice Command. The last and the final screen featuring MioMore, Google Local Search, Home, AV and Near Me. While typing out an address, the characters eventually turn grey if there is no potential match found. You are also allowed to lookup for POIs or identify locations in a map. Regardless of the fact that the Mio Spirit 687 is devoid of any online services, googling is still an option, provided you have a mobile with an internet connection that can be connected via Bluetooth to get it to work.

Selecting a Destination (Standard)

Well, when it comes to choosing a destination, it is pretty much straightforward, press Find from the main menu wherein you are offered the following choice: By Address, Keyword, Area/City, Intersection, Coordinates, POIs, Postcode and Recent Locations. Mio utilizes a smart system when it comes to entering postcodes and addresses, for instance, you cannot press a letter on the keyboard if it is not available. In other words, if you are looking at typing Chester or Carlisle then you will not be allowed to press characters such as X or Y since both are not there in the above cities. Now entering postcodes seem to be kind of annoying owing to the following issue. Generally we find the address by either googling for the postcode of the house’s number or get it from a friend and not really be bothered with the entire address. Because generally postcodes should be more than enough as they always refer to a particular road. Well, Mio begs to differ here. Upon entering a postcode, the unit displays 3 other street names, which makes you think it might be the adjacent streets, just in case you decide to change your destination. But guess that is not the case, the street names get displayed in an alphabetical order. This is rather bizarre as it makes the feature useless. Why would someone have to choose from 3 or 5 street listings when they have clearly stated the street that they are looking for by keying in the 7-digit postcode. Highly ridiculous Mio! So moving further, guess you might have to find the house number from the inmates of the house so that it can be entered confirming the final destination. Again, the destination screen comes up with the options of Explore/Save/Go. Explore pops up a map, just in case you want to try another location, all you need to do is simply tap on it. Save includes the address to the My Locations folder and upon pressing the same it moves on to the Edit screen allowing you to Save/Rename or Delete the same.

If you wish to have routing options simply press ‘Go’. A strong positive of the Spirit 687 is the incorporation of IQ Routes, that aids with Fastest route. The rest of the route options would include Easiest, Economical and Shortest. Tap on one of the above options and watch the screen show an overlay of the selected route and just press Go from there. Again, if you had chosen Easiest for a particular trip, then that becomes you pre-selected option for your next trip on the routing screen.

Entering Coordinates are a real fab in this Spirit 687. While other Sat Nav’s require you to choose the format that you are going to be utilising either in the Settings Menu or prior to keying in the coordinates, the Spirit 687 just requires you to start typing while it uses its smart keyboard. For instance, if you start keying in ‘42.’ then just the number option is available. Whereas if you commence with a ‘42o’ and type another number, then together with numbers being available you see both the minutes {‘} and the seconds {“} being available. If you are wondering about the negative sign, well negatives have to be keyed in by hitting the E/W or the N/S button. It sure is a fairly user-friendly input for coordinate seen till date.

Here comes the most tricky feature ‘Points of Interes’t, as the data’s accuracy is always a chief bone of contention. It has generally been bad with majority of the Sat Nav’s. But then, looks like the Mio has handled this well too. After you have decided on the POI, you can select from In City/Area, Nearby, Near Destination or Along Route (with the last two being inactive unless you have a route set). After which you get to choose By Type, By Name or any one of the 6 shortcuts that is preset – Parking, Food, Hotels & Motels, Petrol, SOS and Cash. Sadly, the database filter happens at a painful slow pace and oh yeah, don’t bother pressing the back arrow key often, as nothing really happens until the unit is done with its current search. Again, “By Type” gives you a listing of all Places of Interest including the ones added by you (More on this later). Upon choosing a POI, you get prompted to the same screen of Explore, Save and Go, but now with an extra option called the POI, which indeed requires that you connect your phone through the Bluetooth. The option shows up regardless of you being connected to a phone, but then pressing it prompts you that you are not connected to a phone and takes you through a setup, if need be. A neat touch, isn’t it, saves you the trouble of canceling whatever you are up to, to get to the main setting. Finally, with the Near Me option on the third menu page you are allowed to use the same set of preset POI list as mentioned above (Parking, Food etc).

Selecting a Destination (Advanced)

There are two additional Advanced options that the Spirit 687 Sat Nav System offers in terms of selecting a destination. You might not find it in the standard Find menu though and in fact are located on the second menu screen. Trip Planner comes in handy with multipoint routing and works fairly well. It uses your current location as the default start point, note this cannot be changed, you will have simply choose “Add” to add all points that you require. Edit allows optimization of the route, while retaining the same final destination, delete or renaming the route. Yet another handy option would be the “Return to start” that generally seems to miss from majority of multipoint routing setup.

The second ‘advanced’ option would be the Voice Command, which works alright, but nothing in comparison to Garmin. You get to the hands-free input method with three key presses Menu-Down-Voice Command. But beware it has to be done in a really quiet backdrop as any slight noise can throw it off. Again, there real are no confirmations when you attempt voicing out addresses until the very end, meaning you have absolutely no idea if the unit registered your command correctly or not.

Navigation/Map Screen

The default colour scheme of the map is primarily white and grey with your route being highlighted in green. Though it might seem kind of weird initially, eventually you get used to this colour scheme, particularly when you need to take a quick glance at where you are being taken. On the flip side, it is kind of hard to take a quick glance at side roads that you are supposed to turn or drive past. Also the selection of map themes from Mio looks to be a real fab, more typically British-like that you get to see on paper maps.

The bar at the top prompts your next manoeuvre as well as the distance to it and the road that you might have to turn into. The user selectable area is on the top right and tapping it exhibits the Time to Go (TTG), Distance To Go (DTG), ETA, Speed & Direction with the current time. Selecting one of the above shuts down the list, displaying just the selected option in a corner and the full list can obviously be left on the display.

Towards the bottom left of the screen is where you get to see your current speed, which is fairly large and cannot really be missed. It remains semi-transparent so far as you respect it and gets opaque and fairly visible if you cross the limit – a nice constant reminder to keep a tab on your speed limit. It doesn’t really prove disturbing while you still get to view the map through it. Routing is fairly sensible with rational ETA’s.

You are allowed to access the zoom controls on the screen in two possible ways. One would be to run your fingers on the map with the +/- symbols appearing towards the right side. Well, this would practically stop tracking your location and doesn’t really do any good with navigation isn’t it? Again tapping the map instead of moving around it directs you to a screen called Map Options with a button to turn the zoom level On. Tapping twice just to access the zoom controls doesn’t sound to be feasible idea, particularly when you are looking at doing stuff in a jiffy, especially while driving. Well, on the flip side having a permanent button for zoom in/out is no less dangerous than having an AM/FM in the car stereo for the radio to be switched.

So moving on to the rest of options in the Map’s screen, which would include Detour, Volume, Add/Skip Waypoint, Route, Cancel Route and Routing Options. As the above options are pretty much self-explanatory, lets make this short and sweet. Route further branches out into three sub-views: the information screen with distance traveled and ETA etc, the route’s map overview along with a turn-by-turn info. Detour lets you to hop 1, 2, 5, 10 or even 20 miles of your route, with the exception of specific roads. While you use the Up/Down arrow keys in the information screen for scrolling up and down the screen, you will have to Push/Pull the screen when it comes to turn-by-turn option for scrolling up and down, akin to the latest Smartphones or even use the arrows. Something not many users might approve of owing to the inconsistency. Route Options comes in handy with choosing the road types together with toggling couple of other settings like Landmark Guidance, Mileage Recorder and Custom POI alerts. There is also this V-Traffic TMC system that comes in handy with detecting mess traffic jams on busy roads and motorways.  Well, though not really as accurate as TomTom’s HD Traffic, it sure does prove to be of big help on busy weekends, despite you being dubious about finding other roads that give you the pleasure of smoother rides. Last but not least would be the Truck Mode, which is a boon is disguise for with people with caravans or HGV drivers. Though the manufacturer doesn’t really promise a 100% guarantee, they sure do try and stay away from routes banned to HGVs or that has low bridges. While the service is offered free up to a month, you might have to paying an annual subscription for continuing with the same.

Extras

The Spirit 687 Sat Nav System allows using your mobile’s data connection via Bluetooth thus giving access to MioMore and Google’s Local Search. Needless to say Bluetooth comes in handy with hands-free calling too. Audio quality also seems fairly adequate with no evident dropouts. During a call there is a green status bar flashing beside the screen top, which upon being tapped directs you back to the full information screen. Also on board is a 3.5-mm AV input jack, if in case you are looking at adding video feeds to the unit. You can choose to either watch videos or get realistic and have a reversing camera fed into the Spirit 687. Well, this isn’t really user-friendly anyways as you will have to navigate the menu for this to be displayed, by which time you would have parked and long gone. On the flip side, a better and useful option would be to swap to the AV input upon receiving a signal, for example turning on the reverse camera’s feed with the reverse gear being engaged.

MioMore

So, that is it about the device and now let us get on with some miscellaneous stuff like the MioMore Software etc. To begin with, it is a Windows only software. Secondly, it has to be connected through an USB, that doesn’t come as a part of the package. It would have much helpful if Mio had included an USB lead in place of the AV lead, which we feel is of not much use to many of us out there!

It becomes easier managing your subscriptions within MioMore, like for instance Mio’s very own database for speed camera, manage the existing maps, procure additional maps, search/upload geotagged photos, manage trips, upload custom POIs, manage trips or rearrange menus.

Trip management comes in handy with business drivers or for someone who is simply keen on knowing routes they have driven. Trips can both be exported and viewed for chosen dates along with calculating rough fuel usage too.

Yet another interesting feature of MioMore is the Application Gallery. Though not very self-explanatory, each menu options have been grouped as an App. The gallery allows for removing, rearranging and adding menu items.

Verdict

By and large, the Mio Spirit 687 doesn’t really prove to be an impressive device. While it boasts of some plus points like ease of use, multipoint routing, big screen with customisable menu etc., we cannot deny the fact that it has too many downsides to be ignored. For instance, the map freezing every now and then making it unfeasible, not so impressive text-to-speech and the voice input that needs more refinement. On the flip side, it might be appropriate for users who are not keen on comparing it with the looks and feel of Navigon and are more keen on treating it as a simple value for money unit. It would suit a novice who doesn’t really care about sophisticated looks or features and treats it just as a pocket-friendly Sat Nav, which is good at doing what it is designed to do – Navigate!

We Liked

• Ease of use
• Clear-Cut Interface
• Attractive 5-inch Widescreen display
• Truck Mode
• Choice of 4 different routes for each itinerary

We Disliked

• The ordinary design
• Map freezing sporadically

Mio Spirit 687 Sat Nav – Technical Specification Table

Design

Standing apart from the routine designs we have been seeing all these days, the Via Live 120 looks a bit different. But having said that, it still retains the style and sleekness that a latest electronic gadget possesses. This is what we have liked about the design part of the device. It is certainly one elegant gadget you would want to have in your car. Of course one must get used to the cuteness of the device since otherwise they would keep staring at it while on the road, which is not advisable. Don’t be under the impression that we are exaggerating on the design here. Now let us remind you of the fact that the device measures about 119 mm wide, 80 mm high and, and most importantly just about 25 mm deep. These measurements are pretty tight and the device fits your hand without any problems at all. And with the weight of the device being just about 183 grams, you wouldn’t mind carrying it either. Yes, it certainly looks like one of those latest mobile phones. It also has got that glossy black look which does make it even more attractive. Seriously there is no choice for you if you have decided to buy a GPS device from TomTom. There is no better one than this one.

Display

Large 11cm (4.3″) high quality touch screen

Perhaps the display is the most important aspect of a GPS device since people try to purchase things by their very look. And if they find that the pictures seem pretty good on the device, they will surely be going for it. And there is no second thought if you are staring at the high quality Touch screen of the Via Live 120 GPS device. With the gigantic size of it, which happens to be 4.3 inches, measured diagonally, one would love to view the pictures on it. Since the device deals with maps and directions, one would love to have a nice clear view of it. And there is nothing better and at the same time bigger than a 11 cm screen displayed by the Via Live 120. While many GPS devices still are not sporting a touch responsive device and still come with buttons to deal with the screen options and features, providing a touch screen is always welcome since user interface will then be very much easier. You can select the maps, choose your options, zoom in and zoom out, pan the maps and do a whole lot of other stuff with ease when you have a touch responsive screen, since all you will have to give is a mere touch. This sort of newly implemented technology is a welcome approach taken by TomTom and we are already starting to like this.

Features

Now there are plenty of features on the Via Live 120 GPS Sat Nav System. It had left us wondering how one could fit in so many features in such a small device. While we were left unanswered, we thought we could decipher it by ourselves and explain them to you so that things will be as easy as ABC for you. Now hold on to your hats as we have got to start our campaign. We repeat; this is going to be such a long list of features and hence you are requested to go through each and every aspect as everything see on the device is certainly of great importance. Here we go!

T omTom HD Traffic

First up, we have got some good news for you. You can now watch live traffic in real high definition quality. Maybe you are left wondering why would one love to watch traffic, which is already disgusting, in high definition quality. Well, as we can say is that HD has now become a household name and whichever electronic device people intend to purchase, the one thing they are looking out for is whether or not the device has a HD tag to it. Though some of you may thing it doesn’t matter if it is HD or SD since it is all about graphical representation of traffic, the rest of us have got our own arguments. Being able to display traffic in High Definition is really cool, and everybody would love it once they come across it. And then you have such HD traffic updates in real quick time for every two minutes. This means every two minutes you will receive the latest updates regarding all the traffic in all the lanes in your vicinity. Is that not cool enough? Now this is almost seven times faster than any other GPS device on earth today. With such features in your arsenal, you can steer with merry since you will not be having any delays and you also know your destination and the best route to it, far before than anyone else. This device can show you maps from every nook and corner of Europe, with complete clarity.

Latest Map Guarantee

Now before you actually drive towards your destination, it is well advised that you have the latest map with you. Well, sometimes things do really turn bad and there might be some problems with the route which you are going to take. You will therefore need some updated view of the maps. The developers at TomTom regularly post newer maps and directions and these maps will be posted on their website. These are guaranteed latest maps from the website and you can definitely count on them.  You can keep checking the website from time to time and if there is a new map ready for your device and more importantly, if it is available within 90 days of your first use, you can then download that map once for free from the official website please. Make no mistake, you are allowed to download only once for free and the rest, you will need to pay for them. And sometimes, due to never ending developments which take place in the maps and map quality, some of the latest maps may not fit on the TomTom Via Live 120 GPS device. In such cases, one can view and download the detailed versions of the Map Zones which are on the website, offered for download. Then again, one will be able to use only one Map Zone on the device at a time.

Map Share™ technology

Map Share is a new kind of technology introduced by TomTom and it allows you to make changes to your own maps. There may be some changes in the directions of the road or maybe there is some new construction which you noticed isn’t there in the map. You can hence edit your own maps and also add all such developments so that you yourself will make the map more accurate and up to date. Though the maps will be verified by TomTom and newer maps are put up on to the website every day, if you think you could make some changes to the maps and directions, you certainly can, since TomTom gives you such an option.

Advanced Lane Guidance

The Via Live 120 Satellite Navigation System has gone one step further when it comes to showing you the way to your destinations. It not only shows you the overall map and the direction in which you are going, but it also very vividly displays all the lanes which are near your route. The lane in which you are going will be shown clearly marked with all the directions you need. The device also shows, on its pretty large display, all the junctions at the lanes, and clearly marks the junction at which you will have to take a turn. This makes sure that you will not miss the route you should drive in order to reach your destination. You can also view the realistic three dimensional pictures off that brilliant display and this helps you while you are amidst difficult highway intersections, or stuck in traffic. Sometimes, it also shows you some shortcut paths, if available, to your destination, and this also helps you in reaching your place faster than you planned to reach, at the start.

Plug & Go

The Via Live 120 has got one of the quickest start-up times ever. All you have to in order to start the device is give a mere touch on the screen after you plug it in. Once you plug it in your car and then caress the screen lightly, the user interface opens up for you instantaneously, making the Via Live 120 a pretty quick device. It will be helpful to you all kinds of traffic and the moment you need it, it will be ready for you showing all the details of the traffic, lanes, and stuff. This is way better than many other similar GPS devices and we too are happy about this since a lot of high end GPS devices today take quite a time to load themselves and the user interface also appears after considerable amount of time.

Spoken street names

In order to keep your focus on the road and not to take your eyes off it, TomTom has come up with a new idea. From now on, you can hear spoken instructions off your GPS device and while you drive, you can listen to what the Via Live 120 is saying to you and hence follow the instructions in order to reach your destination. Though this feature is already known to many and is also seen in many devices previously, for the first time ever, a GPS device could utter even the names of streets and junctions. This makes you turn, and steer properly and hence it also, in a way, avoids road accidents. The device does not always speak, but it can, whenever you need. There is an option to choose to switch on or off the speaker and when it is the speaker mode, one would certainly enjoy the ride with the instructions being given continuously.

IQ Routes™ technology

Along with knowing how to reach your destination, it is equally important to know when you will actually be reaching there. The TomTom Via Live 120 GPS System is very useful regarding this aspect. TomTom takes the data from many GPS devices used by many travelers in order to calculate the approximate time taken by millions of its users to travel from one place to another. TomTom uses actual speed data in order to give you all the information needed regarding the time of travel and the speed required to reach in different times. It also takes into account all conditions like traffic lights, rush hour, shopping crowds, and even weather conditions in order to try and give almost accurate numbers. Hence, given the solidity of information, you can rely on these numbers provided by TomTom and thereby make your trip pleasurable and planned too.

Mobile Speed cameras

The unit gets updates like camera locations for real-time mobile Speed with the inclusion of reports from various other users. There are also alerts provided for average speed check for the route ahead along with fixed safety cameras helping you drive in a relaxed manner and more safely thus helping you save on your speeding tickets.

QuickGPSfix

QuickGPSfix is that feature which enables the device to refresh itself whenever the signal from satellites is poor or cut off. This feature bridges the connection faster and hence the time to fix the position of your GPS is reduced drastically. This also results in faster loading of maps and directions, which is again a very welcome aspect, regarding the TomTom Via Live 120 GPS device.

Hands-free calling

The Tom Tom Via Live 120 GPS device works now as a car-kit too for your hand phone. The facility is provided such that people would enjoy a hands free talk while driving. Now answering and making phone calls as you drive can be done with complete safety making you drive with complete control over the road and the situation. Since you will be able to handle phone calls through the Via Live 120 GPS device, one would expect there is support for Bluetooth. And yes, the device supports Bluetooth and hence also allows you to perform hands free calling while you are busy on the road driving. But one needs to purchase the hands free kit separately as it is not included in the bag that contains the Via Live 120. Now, you can drive and speak on the phone simultaneously, although this is not an advisable act. Users are advised to attempt only emergency calls since speaking on the phone while driving is considered unsafe. Happy Driving!

Help Me! Emergency menu

There is always a need for an emergency while you are driving. You don’t know what may happen while travelling. Hence, as a precautionary measure, an emergency menu is provided on the Via Live 120 Sat Nav Unit. You can thus find considerable help in the form of local emergency service information. It is like an SOS service. You call either the police, or the hospitals or the fire brigade using the information available in the emergency menu. This information will be at your fingertips always and hence it will look after the safety measures to be taken in case something unwanted happens. Since the device also support phone calling services, you can call any one of the above services and seek help immediately. This certainly is a commendable effort put in by the people at TomTom.

Voice control

And finally there came the feature we are longing for since quite some time now. From now onwards, you can talk to your device and it automatically understand what you are speaking. More than twenty different languages from all parts of the globe are included in the memory of the Via Live 120 and it can record and detect voices too. When you speak, it understands it and if the speech refers to any function, then the device follows it suit. This is perhaps the quickest, and the easiest possible way to use the device. All you got to do is simply talk to the device as if it was a person. Direct it, and tell it what you want, it provides you with it. You can hence open, browse through, change and close maps and directions using your voice commands. Hence, without the use of hands, and simply with the help of voice commands and control, you can steer both the car and the device in an efficient manner.

Speeding alert

Speeding Alert on a GPS device? Yes, you have read it right. The Via Live 120 GPS device comes with a very special feature which alerts with speeding, or if the recommended speed limit in that particular area is exceeded. This feature works regardless of the On/off status of the navigation mode. There is a small alarm sounds that is produced when the speed is exceeded and there is also a voice command that warns you regarding it. It is a cool feature at the end of the day, making the device very amusing to have in the car.

Integrated mounting

Now when you use the GPS while you are in your car, you will need to mount the device somewhere. For this you need a mounting. No, you don’t need to purchase it separately since TomTom is providing you with one already. The Via Live 120 has come with a convenient foldaway mount which is already integrated into your device. Thus this means that it is always there stuck on to your device and it can help make the device stand, when you need it. It is so well designed that it can also be easily attached to your windscreen. And there is an option for you to purchase an optional mounting disk, which is so flexible that you can mount your device even on the dashboard of your car. It hence makes the device flexible to place and hence comfortable to view.

Weather

Knowing about the weather is very essential; in fact it is the most important factor one needs to check properly before planning for a trip, especially a long one. The TomTom Via Live 120 GPS device hence receives the local weather forecast for you and shows you on the screen, the conditions which may affect your driving. It also shows you a five-day weather forecast beforehand so that you can make solid plans of going out on long journeys, if the weather is suitable. Hence, you will not need to switch on the TV and wait for the weather reports in order to go forward with your plans of going on a trip to the countryside.

Frequent destinations

More often than not, people go the same old places, like from office to home, or to your native place, or some favourite restaurant or to the family doctor. One can hence sort out these frequent destinations and put them separately. You can also choose some icons that mark these locations on the maps and also add some text or notes to it. This definitely makes navigation a lot easier and quicker than ever before. You can choose from the select places or destinations and hence enable the GPS device to take you there. The instructions from the device will then follow.

Local Search with Google

There is also a small search engine provided by TomTom in case you will need to search for something. And this small search engine is commonly known as the Google search engine and is capable of searching anything in the world for you. If you want to have a look at the information regarding the local places, monuments, restaurants, malls, etcetera, all you need to do is just tap some words on the search engine and all the latest local Google listings will appear on the screen within no time. You can also type some keywords and the places that match to those keywords are sorted properly and listed so that you can visit them.

That is it. We are now finished with the features part of the device. Now that was a pretty long journey, wasn’t it? Let us now move on to see if the performance levels are as expected or not.

Performance

As we have seen all the features on the Via Live 120 GPS device, all we can say is that the performance of the device can be regarded as top notch, and better than most other similar devices. Though it looks quite simple to the eye, it has got numerous features which can be of pretty good use at any time of the day. And regarding the video performance, the flow is pretty smooth, the speed, and the accuracy are admirable. This makes the Via Live 120 one of the better performing GPS devices available in the market today. The overall performance is better than what we expected in the beginning and hence we are completely satisfied with its performance during our tests.

Battery

With the new battery mechanism adopted by TomTom in the Via Live 120 GPS device, one can expect the device to work without any problems for at least 2 hours after full charge. The battery is rechargeable and hence one is advised to take the charging kit along with them so that it would be useful during long journeys.

Warranty

The TomTom Via Live GPS Device comes with parts and labour warranty for a period of one year from the original date of purchase. Buyers can also alter this warranty period and choose their warranty scheme while purchasing online.

Verdict

Well, we have already expressed everything regarding the Via Live 120 GPS device in the review itself. Now, if you want to put it in one line, we would say we would never ever hesitate to recommend this gem of a piece from TomTom. We have not seen such a nice device with as many positives and as fewer negatives. Hence, we give you a green signal and you can go forward with your decision off purchasing the device. And if you are looking for more devices, you can continue reading the reviews of some of the other competent GPS devices here.

TomTom Via Live 120 Sat Nav – Technical Specification Table

Design:

Nothing contemporary:

First up, we would like to examine the design part of the satellite navigation device from Medion. Medion GoPal P5435 Sat Nav looks pretty rectangular in shape with the edges slightly cut off in an angular fashion. This supposedly gives some extra grip to the device while holding in hand. Since the device is touch responsive, there are no buttons provided on the front panel and the screen occupies most of the real estate. A couple of lights take position on the left hand top corner of the panel and there are no buttons at all anywhere. This is a pretty welcome sign actually, because it would be touch to use the device if there are buttons and switches. Since there are scores of features, which we will be discussing in a while, one would like to access them as quickly as possible. And the quickest possible way is provide a touch responsive screen. The device also comes in standard clothing, glossy black colour. There is only one colour provided by Medion and it is only here that you will not be spoilt for choice.

Display:

The Medion GoPal P5435 GPS System sports a pretty huge display. A screen that is as big as 5 inches, measured diagonally, takes the centre position of the front panel of the device. And since you have such a big and comfortable display, you can view a lot more detail in your maps and directions. A bigger view of the maps is always welcome and this means you can set the device in your car in almost any place you want and still get a comfortable view of the directions and stuff. You will also love watching pictures on the giant display. It might become just a little bit hard to hold the device in one hand, especially for the people from the Far East, but otherwise, everything regarding the design is perfect. Full marks from our side to the guys at Medion, for bringing out such a nice display mechanism!

Connectivity:

Regarding connectivity, we have three options here, on the GoPal P5435. They are respectively Bluetooth, Mini USB, and Micro SD card slot. Let us examine each aspect separately.

Bluetooth:

When it comes to connectivity options, the GoPal P5435 is always one step ahead of its peers. The device, unlike many others, supports Bluetooth technology and also comes with a latest version of Bluetooth. With this option, one can easily go for hands free calling and hence talk over the phone even while driving on the road. This brings multitasking into the equation. Since most people now prefer devices that allow them to multitask, the GoPal P5435 would be a sane choice if you are looking to call your pals even while on the go.

Mini USB:

If you want to connect the device to your computer of phone or whatever, you can do it with the help of the mini USB port supplied to you along with the device. All you need to do is connect the devices and sync them using the mini USB cable. This mini USB cable is also useful when it comes to charging the device. You can either use the charger given to you, or on the other hand you can simply connect it to a running computer and get it fully charged within no time.

Micro SD slot:

Now even though the memory on the device is as big as 1GB, sometimes even that would not be enough to suffice your needs. You might want to save some files, maps, music, or office stuff like documents on your device. Though this is quite rare, Medion always provides you with an option to enhance the memory on the device. There is a micro SD card slot available on the device and it allows you to purchase and use micro SD cards with capacities ranging from 1 GB to 32 GB. Now that is a cool idea and we have found that it could be useful in some circumstances when you are travelling. Yu always will have some extra memory in hand when you are away from home.

Features:

We have now arrived to the most significant part of the Medion GoPal P5435 GPS Sat Nav Unit. But to our surprise, we have found that Medion has come up with gobs of features on this device. No one would expect that. No one would have thought a GPS device could become a collection of so many new exciting features and extra options. Hence, let us have a deep look at each and every main feature seen on the Medion GoPal P5435, and thereby decide if everything regarding the device is right for you or not.

Processor:

The Medion GoPal P5435 is expected to run faster than many other similar GPS devices since it sports a 600 MHz processor. It is, of course, one of the fastest processors seen on a GPS device. Manufactured by SiRF, and named as Titan, the processor is pretty fast and solid and is also capable of running tasks with a brisk pace. There will not be too many issues with the processor and even if you start multitasking, it can withstand the pressure. Some might argue that 600 MHz is somewhat less but, since it is just a GPS device and it will not have any sort of complex tasks to be run, the processing power that is provided will be more than just sufficient.

Platform:

The Medion GoPal P5435 GPS device runs on a WIN CE 5.0 platform. While this might sound a little disturbing since it is quite an old operating system from Windows, older than even Windows XP, it is a fact that there is not much you will have to do with the operating system. One cannot expect the sat nav systems to come with Android operating systems. A lot of other similar high end GPA devices also come with the Windows CE OS. We have tested the operating system of the GoPal P5435 for various tasks and the results came out positive. So, there is obviously nothing to get worried about. We got to say that it is a good enough operating system for such a device.

Memory:

Even though it is just a satellite navigation system or simply, a GPS device, it needs to have some sort of memory in order to store anything. Since there is a possibility of addition of newer maps and directions, or contact numbers, or addresses, the Medion GoPal P5435 Sat Nav System comes with a solid internal memory of about 1GB. With this, one can store a lot of other stuff than just contacts and maps. One can store mp3 songs, files, documents, videos, and podcasts, and a whole lot of other digital stuff so that they can be played while on the go. No if there is somebody who feels this memory is not sufficient at all by any means, there is a provision for you to purchase and insert a micro SD memory card in the slot provided. SD cards with memory of up to 32 GB are supported by the GoPal P5435.

SiRFInstantFixII™ GPS receiver:

The receiver that is used on the Medion GoPal P5435 is known to be the SiRFInstantFixII™ GPS receiver, again manufactured by SiRF. This particular receiver is adept in reducing the start up times for GPS devices and hence the GoPal P5435 starts up pretty quickly and also works with great efficiency. This satellite prediction technology actually improves start up times for most devices which are location centric and it works either with or without internet accessibility. The GPS devices that have the SiRFInstantFixII™ GPS receiver will be fixed within a matter of 5 seconds. Hence, the GoPal P5435 has got to be one of the quickest starting GPS devices in the market today. And this is quite a great start by Medion. Already, there is a lot of liking for the device and now, there is a lot more to come.

Customizable Menu:

Since there are too many features on the device, it would certainly be difficult for one to go to a particular feature, or option or setting. But, unlike many other menu styles seen on other GPS devices, this menu is customisable and is easy to access too. The Medion GoPal P5435 in-car Sat Nav sports the quick selection menu, and things will now seem far easier than under normal circumstances. You can also set short cuts to different programs and applications on the device and hence make your processes faster. One simple click will take you to the application you want and the process will be completed quickly. You can also customise the menu and change the way it looks or performs. Customisation in any form is always welcome and most users will probably be happy of it.

Languages Galore:

There are as many as 17 languages on the device. Since the device is being sold all across the world and since there are many users buying the GoPal P5435 from all corners of the world, these 17 languages come to a very good use. It will also be useful when you travel different countries. Intercontinental travellers will also find it comfortable to use the GoPal P5435 since it has got so many languages in store for them. Most of these languages are of European countries and the rest are some important languages from several other countries.

Maps:

There is a lot of map data loaded on the GoPal P5435 GPS Navigator. It has all kinds of cross border maps and directions for more than 43 countries across the world, with main attention being given to western and eastern European countries. Few other GPS devices in the market today, come with more maps, which is a pretty good sign indeed for Medion. These maps include border maps, country maps, county maps, city maps, and local maps, and hence as you can see, a lot of importance is being given to the detail of these maps. And if one thinks they need new maps for different countries, they can as well download them from the web.

Traffic Master:

The traffic master feature seen on this GPS device shows you what the traffic is like, around different parts of the city and also the traffic densities in the different regions that take you to your destination. This helps you become aware of the traffic and thereby switch to some other direction or route towards your destination. This hence saves a lot of time for you and you can avoid very annoying traffic. In addition to this, the traffic master also shows you the number of alternative lanes or routes available for you, which take you to the same destination, and also notifies you the time that will be taking to reach there. It is hence truly a master of the traffic conditions prevailing en route to your destination.

Lane Guide:

Lane Guide is one of the newer applications seen on the GoPal P5435 GPS device. As the name suggests, it guides you through different lanes and roads across many cities and towns around both Western and Eastern Europe. There are a myriad of lanes across the world, and you will be guided through all of them. The names of lanes, their routes, and the network they create will be notified to you for your easy travel. Almost all the lanes and streets of Europe are pre loaded in the device and if you think you need guidance to more lanes across the world, you will have to visit the web and download some maps. But, on the whole, the lane guide feature will be of great use to you while you travel in between cities and towns.

Text to Speech:

While most of today’s GPS systems are coming with the speech recognition mechanisms, the Medion GoPal P5435 has taken a different route. It has gone the other way round, as it comes with the special feature of text to speech conversion. The very special software used in the device will convert the text you type into speech and this speech is produced off the device, in the form of audio. This means that whenever there is some text seen on the screen of the GoPal P5435, it will automatically be converted to speech by the device. This will be pretty useful at all times since one prefers to listen to their GPS device while driving on the road, instead of looking into it. It makes your driving safer than ever, and hence you can drive better and more efficiently.

Speed Guide:

The Speed Guide is of late one of the most commonly seen applications when it comes to the latest GPS devices. The speedometers in your car and in other vehicles only show you the speed with which you are travelling, but a legend says that most people never look into their speedometers and hence are not warned of their speed on the road. This might turn out to be dangerous at times, since too much of speeding is not advisable. Hence, Medion, like many other manufactures of high end GPS devices today, has come up with an idea to introduce a new application. This immediately warn the driver if there is over speeding and if the speed exceeds the limits recommended for that particular region or city. Hence, it will guide you through your destination safely and within control.

Intelligent Address Input:

For faster entry of your destinations, the GoPal P5435 in-car Sat Nav comes with a nice alternative – The Intelligent Address Input. This is a special feature that allows you to easily enter the addresses where you will be going regularly. They will be stored in the memory of the device and the next time you plan to revisit the same place, the address will be loaded automatically, hence avoiding wastage of time. You will not need to type the same address again and again. It will be stored once and for all and can be loaded again and again. Since there is a lot of internal memory for you, you can store scores of addresses. Addresses can be of places too. Once you visit an interesting place or a tourist spot, you can save it for future correspondence. Contact numbers also can be saved along with the addresses. Hence, the intelligent address input will be of great use to you under any circumstances.

Fingerprint Sensor:

With the advancement of technology there are also many drawbacks along with the gobs of positives that come along. One major drawback we can see today is security. Security is always at stake today since technology has gone beyond its limits in some cases. Hence one needs some protection that avoids the loss of sensitive and confidential data. Since there is an option for you to store addresses of people you know, there is also a possibility of losing them to strangers. Hence, Medion comes with another great idea for the GoPal P5435 GPS device. The device comes with a finger print sensor and thanks to this technology, no one else can start the device, other than the owner. Only one finger print can be saved at a time and this could prove to be a very good idea, and in fact better than the password entering mechanism. Hence, your data is completely safe.

Automatic day and night mode:

The feature is introduced in order to save a lot of battery life for your device. The brightness settings and the contrast, along with the display mechanism will be changed as the day goes on and in accordance with the available light outside. Now when there is need for lots of light, the sensors detect the darkness and thereby brightness is increased automatically. Similarly, lots of light will also reflect on the brightness and the display. Hence, this automatic change of day and night modes will avoid the interference of the user when it comes to altering the brightness and display settings of the device.

Quick Routes:

‘Quick Routes’ is another option which makes your travel very economical. If you are going to visit a new place, then you can decide if you want to take the conventional route to it, or to take the quickest or shortest of the most economical route that takes you to the same destination. One can manually decide if they want to go in such a route, depending upon their journey. You will be notified of all the shortest routes available, if the routes are more than one in number. Then, the choice will be yours. This feature will hence save lots of time and fuel for you.

Various Modes:

There are a few modes of travel that you can select from while you are travelling. The four modes are respectively, by car, by motor bike, by bicycle, and by foot. The device needs to be fed with the details regarding the mode of travel. It can then estimate the distances, times of travel, and such stuff immediately and inform you regarding the details. Along with these four modes, there is another special mode, by the name Cruising mode, which makes the GoPal P5435 stay with you and provide you with constant details and data even when you are not travelling in any route in particular. Hence, these modes may come in handy when you need them most.

Special Destinations:

Along with normal destinations, the Medion GoPal P5435 Satellite Navigation System will also detect special destinations and then will notify you regarding their addresses and positions in the route map. Places which fall into the category of special destinations are; Gas stations, restaurants, automobile service stations, shopping centers, and lodges. And the GoPal P5435 GPS device will save their addresses in the memory for future correspondence such that you can have a look at them when you need them most. Many more of such special destinations and centres can be accessed by searching on the internet and you will then gain access to more and more of them.

Manual Blocking:

If the road in which you are currently travelling is either blocked suddenly due to some reasons, or if you wish to move in another road suddenly, then you can change the route map at the last minute by changing the lane on the device itself. This will send a message to the device that the route of travel is changed and hence GPS will reposition itself again in order to show you a different path to your destination. This, again, is such a cool feature which we liked a lot during our tests.

MP3 player:

Finally, we see a GPS device that comes with an MP3 player. Since you will be having lots of memory on the device, and even more if you use an external SD card, you can hence store lots of music files in MP3 format, and hence play them in your car or while you are walking. This avoids carrying both the mp3 player or an iPod and a GPS device. The GoPal P5435 GPS device is a combination of the two and hence you will reap double the benefits than when compared to a normal GPS device. The player’s interface is also simple to get used to and one can play songs with ease. We especially liked this feature, since it is not that commonly seen on a GPS device.

Picture Viewer:

Looks like you will never get bored during your travel if you have the Medion GoPal P5435 GPS device in your car. Especially when you are on some long trips, you would want more entertainment from your GPS device. Rather than just showing you the same old boring maps and directions, you would rather expect something cool and pleasing to the eye. This is what the GoPal P5435 exactly tries to provide you. You can hence load and later on view some pictures or photos on it. It has got a nice player which automatically plays all the pictures and photos on the device. The picture viewer is hence a nice extra feature seen on the GoPal P5435, as it is not normally seen on similar devices.

Travel Guide:

Whenever you visit a new town or a place, you would want to know more about it. Though most GPS devices give you the details regarding the best places to visit, restaurants, hotels, monuments, banks, and so on, the Travel Guide feature seen on the Medion GoPal P5435 GPS device goes a step further in this aspect too. You are provided with some contact numbers to which you can call and find out more information regarding the local places to visit. Though most information is online on the internet, it is better to quench your thirst by yourselves. GoPal P5435 provides you with such an option.

Miscellaneous:

There are two features under this section. First up, there is an alarm for you on the device, which is of pretty good quality. It resembles the alarm clock seen on an average mobile phone. You can hence set time on the device and also set alarms and some notes regarding the events and their timings. And when you go on a long trip and you feel like taking some rest or getting some sleep, the alarm will be helpful in waking you up when it is time to start again.

Then there is Sudoku, an interesting and a brain teasing game for you to keep yourself entertained while you are not driving. It provides some food for the brain and also some relaxation. The game can be quite interesting to kids and it will keep them busy, so that you can drive peacefully since you are not worried by them.

Performance:

Now that we are done with the features list of the GoPal P5435, and that we’ve liked it way much, we would like to go through the performance details of this wondrous piece from Medion. Basically, when it comes to the performance aspect of performance, we have three sections, namely, Audio, Video and Connectivity. Let us see if all the three are good enough for us.

Audio and Video:

Since there is an MP3 player embedded in the device, the audio must certainly be good. The speakers installed are of excellent quality. Since there is also speech recognition and text to speech services, the speakers, and the built in mike are very good and also deliver some decent quality. And regarding the video performance part, as discussed under display, we really have some cool display mechanism and the processing is also solid, thanks to the processor. Hence the videos on the GoPal P5435 are of fine quality and we are happy about the performance of the device too.

Hence, as you can see, the performance of the device is quite top notch and better, in many aspects, than most similar devices in the market today.

Warranty:

The Medion GoPal P5435 GPS device comes with parts and labour warranty for a period of twelve months starting from the original date of purchase.

Verdict:

Finally, we are going to reach the end of our journey. Let us have a final opinion on the Medion GoPal P5435 GPS device so that it would be easy for the readers. We have gone through extensively on each and every aspect of the device in order to provide you all the details available with us. And we think we came out good. Just to give you a bit of recap, we have seen that the design and the display mechanism of the device are pretty good. There are lots of qualitative features and the performance aspects meet our standards easily. This means if one has to go for a GPS device for their car, then it has to be the Medion GoPal P5435. There is no doubt about that. Given the fact that the pricing g is also not too high and that there are more features and extra options on this one than on any one, we would say, Go for it!

Medion GoPal P5435 Sat Nav – Technical Specification Table

Alternate version:

The Vexia Econav is also available in another flavour, named as the 380, which has a 3.5” screen. The 480 model we are discussing today makes use a little bigger as well as easy on the eyes, 4.3” display. Both of these models can be obtained with either UK and Ireland or, with European maps on a pre-installed SD memory cards.

Slim and Stylish:

The model we are reviewing today, the Econav 480 Sat Nav System has the all-important style factor that today’s consumers are looking for. The GPS is quite slim, weighing almost nothing, which would contribute for its transition into an amazing media player that is portable; unfortunately though, there is no media functionality, however, you do get heaps of navigation-based additions. Its back also sports a glossy black chassis that adds some extra oomph to the style factor. What is more impressive about the design is its cool mounting arm that is a twist-for-suction pattern. It weighs just 154 grams and measures (H x W x D) 117 x 74 x 11.5mm.

User Interface:

The interface of the Vexia EcoNav 480 Sat Nav Unit can be well configured and also offers a range of options to fully customise it and route preferences. It features easy to navigate menus, again only if you have the audible feedback enabled, through which you know if your swipes are registered. Else majority of the time you might have to tap twice as the system is kind of slow to respond. As far as the Eco part of the software is concerned, it comes into play the minute the unit is turned on. We loved the postcode-entry screen that disables the irrelevant buttons on the keyboard, and then automatically switch to the numbers and back to letters as you type; this is a feature that its rivals should take a note of. The company should have also used the same way to get the input of the departure location, when you would like to plan a trip in advance to avoid being bizarrely transferred to some island at one end of the world from where you sadly need to manually navigate back to your chosen location.

Driving view:

The “Driving View” is amazingly clear with it auto zooming with an approaching junction. You get to see the ‘eco’ information in the sidebar or in full screen too. In the full screen mode, the display is mostly occupied by the gear indicator with braking, current speed limit, acceleration warning and safety camera displayed in smaller icons towards the left. In a bar below the gear indicator, it shows how economically you are driving, which turns green if you are quite safe, orange when you are doing just ok and red when you are doing it dangerously. The only concerning issue with the interface is that, there is no easy way to adjust the volume while driving or in EcoNav view. The main navigational software proved to be bit of a hit and miss. This is because; it is based on Sygic mobile apps that include all of the vital ingredients such as lane guidance, pre-planned itinerary and also the ability to include custom POIs. Some features like lane guidance proved to be hard to make out on the display and it also lacked the core features like Bluetooth ad well as live traffic information.

Features:

The device has employed a lot of the recent developments in this industry, including the safety camera alerts, lane assistant for the major roads, a wide range of points of interest, bike and pedestrian modes as well as the text to speech for the road names and junctions. Additionally, there is a unit converter, world clock, calculator together with the ambient light sensor that adjusts the screen brightness by default. The ambient light sensor was unreliable, as it constantly changed the brightness for no apparent reason. Of course, there are some extras, but the gimmicks such as travel aids, TMC alerts, media support, and Bluetooth for mobiles, all of these features are the ones that helped TomTom stay on the top in the recent years are conspicuous by their absence.

EcoNav:

The highlight feature using with Vexia has been advertising its EcoNav 480 is that, it is capable of reducing power consumption by about £400 and even reduces carbon emissions by 30 percent each year. However, looking deeper, we found that the Econav achieves these in rather elementary means, and this can be recognised by anybody who has ever travelled with a kid or irritating back seat driver. A unique feature is that, it asks you to choose the type of vehicle that you are driving, out of its database of about 11000 vehicles and, it also calculates how quickly you are travelling as also in real time, calculates the gear you should be driving for a much more efficient use of the engine, which in turn results in reducing CO2 emissions and also increase fuel economy. With your car being absent in that list, you might have to do a manual configuration of the vehicle’s parameters. There is also additional option to select the number of passengers in the car and even your level of driving expertise can be configured separately.

The EcoNav in practice:

As sound as the idea of the eco mode sounds, it often seems to be proving wrong in practice. At the time of reviewing the unit, the EcoNav 480 actually recommended that we drive our car in 30mph in 3rd gear, when we could have definitely achieved a better fuel economy with lesser wear in engine and less pollution too, by just doing the same speed in 4th or even 5th gear. We also found similar issues with a range of other gear and speed combos. However, when we tried and followed the recommendations of the Econav’s gear, we felt as if we were trying to mimic the drivers who have no sense of economic driving habits whatsoever, and making the engine slog harder than what was necessary.

You need the patience:

We are not trying to say that the recommendations are wrong, but it is just that the gear recommendations are extremely annoying. The prompts seem to come at times when you might not naturally want to change the gear, and the choices do not make you feel as though you are driving more efficiently. You will be able to tolerate the device announcing “one, two, three, four and five”, every time you are driving, only if you are a Yoga master. This becomes particularly annoying if these instructions are not really useful and lead to unnecessary engine torture and additional use of fuel. Of course, there is an option to disable the audible prompts and just rely only on the visual cues. However, if you are going to take your eyes off the road in order to get some reassurance from the GPS as to what gear you have to be in, trust us, you have more issues than just the high petrol bills.

The graphs:

However, what was interesting though was the ability to view the reports on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, annual on the ‘most efficient journey’. Even though it effectively collates the sort of information you would find on a trip computer, it also offers an efficiency percentage that you can use to judge improvement over time. If you are considering the Vexia EcoNav 480 GPS sat nav System only because you find yourself in the wrong gear too often, we just recommend the age old trick; drive your car in the highest gear possible, and go for one gear less, when you get the feeling that you are about to stall.

Less Points Less Fines Technology:

Apart from the claim that it will save you fuel and save the planet some carbon, the Vexia EcoNav has another great, but common feature, known as “Less Points Less Fines Technology”. This comes in real handy with bringing down the speeding tickets that one would procure, by educating you on speeding. But the bad news is that, this feature too has a great deal of shortcomings as in the eco mode. This system is quite basic and also triggers a oral warning of the speed limit you are breaking, the number of points you might lose and the terrifying amount of fine you might get. During the initial few minutes, you might think that this feature is very interesting and useful. But, if you are one of those who does not care to do a 42mph in a 40mph zone, this feature is going to drive you nuts.

The sat nav feature:

Having discussed the gimmicks that the Vexia EcoNav 480 had to offer, we should not forget about the sat nav that is in there. Though this sat nav is quite basic, it is not too bad. The module is easy to use and has a complete 7-digit postcode entry, which does guide you more accurately to your destination and also reduces the hassle of entering long street names. The sat nav module too has got its own set of worries. The maddening voice instructions that haunts the eco mode and ‘less points less fines’ feature also has made its irritating presence in the navigation part too. For instance, if you have to turn left is a roundabout with three or more exits, the device says, “go straight over the roundabout and take the first exit”.  This is the same case irrespective of which exit you take, the unit always asks you to go straight over before announcing the exit road number.

Performance:

Taking to A to B:

The GPS was capable of doing a cold satellite fix in just under a couple of minutes, and setting up the route was very straightforward. Though the voice prompts are irritating, the directions are quite clear, and accurate as expected. The routing is quite sensible, and it took that best routes for the journey we were well aware of. We also liked the option that shows full sign boards, which were capable of accurately replicating the road signs. This will be very handy if you had missed the real thing.

The Issues:

The Vexia EcoNav 480 Satellite Navigation System has a number of issues that we encountered while testing; while none of these issues were major, they are the areas that we would like to see improved. To begin with, the EcoNav does not give any visual or audible warning in case you take a wrong turn, the device silently recalculates the route. If you are quite sharp, you will be able to notice a progress bar while recalculating, but trust us, you will easily miss it, and we are sure everybody would like some indication if they have taken a wrong turn. Another major issue is that, you will not be able to enter the destination until a satellite signal is obtained. This can prove to be extremely annoying if you are looking to check or pre-plan your trip indoors before getting on the road. With the other manufacturers, there is an “offline” mode, which allows you to calculate a route without the need of a satellite signal.

Warranty:

The Vexia EcoNav 480 sat nav comes with three years square trade warranty.

Verdict:

While the bonus bells and whistles of the Econav 480 should be given the device an edge over its rivals, unfortunately, they are either too flawed or too basic or too irritating. All you can expect out of the Vexia EcoNav 480 sat nav is just some guidance to get from A to B.  Weather it does it economically or not, its ability to give the right direction is of utmost importance and it is pleasing that the EcoNav is very much capable of this. Though the idea behind EcoNav is pretty sound, the system did not cut the mustard in practice. Overall, it is a little hard to like this GPS model. It is not as well built as the TomTom and, some Anglicisation is poor. It will not get you any magical extra miles from your car, and you will be able to achieve the optimum fuel efficiency just by accelerating, stepping on your break gently, and also by being on the highest gear possible for road conditions. The Vexia EcoNav 480 is reasonably capable, but not to forget the heaps of great models out there.

Vexia EcoNav 480 Sat Nav – Technical Specification Table

Pros:

• Rugged design
• Bright display
• Ambilight sensor
• Intuitive interface
• 3 axis compass and barometric altimeter
• Selective load of data with the file management system
• Availability of aerial imagery
• Easy to load map
• Internal memory of 3.5GB
• Full sized memory card
• Capability of highway navigation
• Improvised battery life

Cons:

• Proprietary cable
• Tiny display
• Thumb screws on the battery compartment
• Limited track navigation
• Only one file can be opened at a time
• Bad highway navigation
• No advanced geocach filtering

Review:

Following the incredible success of the PN series 20 and 40, DeLorme has upgraded the series with the latest PN-60 and PN-60w. The improvements include an enhanced battery life, additional internal memory and also a set of features and functionalities similar to the one found in Garmin handheld GPS devices. PN 40’s major let down was with the battery life, and with that being taken care of in this new model, we are pretty sure that this DeLorme is here to stay.

The basic features of the PN-60w are same as that of its PN-60 sibling, but the PN-60w has the additional functionality of wireless communication between devices, with a promised firmware update. This device can be paired with the SPOT Satellite Communicator that enables users to send messages from the field through satellite. The DeLorme Earthmate PN-60 promises to be a revolutionary device from the market leaders of handheld GPS.

Design:

Durable as always:

DeLorme has tried not to change the form factor of the PN-60 Handheld GPS System from that of the previous generations. Being designed to be mainly taken on hikes and trekking, the PN-60 has been tested under extreme conditions like biting freezing arctic conditions on the poles, and dust and heat of places such as Afghanistan. Sporting a strong as well as a smart design, the DeLorme Earthmate PN-60 can look good in both day to day and recreational times.

Slots and connectivity:

Nobody is happy with the thumb screws found on the battery compartment, but fortunately, with the improvised battery life, you may not have to deal with that very often. You will also find a full sized memory card slot inside the battery compartment. The data cable connectivity option provided is proprietary, which is not a good thing, but it does get rid of the issue of water-proofing that the mini-USB ports demand.

Power management:

With the improved battery life, comes the changes in management of the available power resources. For instance, now there is an ambient light sensor that can be used to control the backlight of the display and it also allows the accelerometer to sense when the device is not in motion. This even allows GPS tracking to be minimised or switched off temporarily. Both of these features are enabled once the device is set to power saving mode.

Features:

User Interface:

Similar to the design, the user interface too remains to be same as that of its predecessors. However, the main menu seems to have got a minor makeover with the graphics.

Function pages:

With the easy to use, icon based navigation on offer, the user can easily select the desired function in DeLorme Earthmate PN-60 Portable Sat Nav Unit. Just press the menu button twice to get back to the home page from any of the inner pages. You can get access to the second page of the icons by just navigating left or right. The main function pages include Satellite, Compass and WayPoints detail, which can be seen below. The satellite page gives you a review of the signal strength; Compass page, as the name indicates is a three axis digital compass that works while held in any orientation. Waypoints page is nothing but a list of the marked important places and storage of waypoints of interest.

Trips and Activities:

Earthmate PN-60 Sat Nav has information about your trips and activities. In these pages, you get to customise the details about your trip, such as big and small text display options, choosing from about 45 various types of information and just customise the layout with activity.

Utility pages:

DeLorme has also offered a few interesting utility pages, such as information for the nearby tide stations, sun and moon rise and set times along with the moon phase, and also hunting and fishing predictions for any of the date, time and locations.

Activity Profiles:

The other enhancements made with the interface of the PN60 include a set of activity profiles such as Hiking, GeoCaching, Cycling, Boating, Hunting, off-Roading, Fishing, Driving and Custom. With screen rotation, you get to flip the device upside down, but note that it does not work in the landscape mode.

Maps:

The DeLorme Earthmate PN-60 comes in with a set of discs containing the UK maps. The company has made is incredibly simple to pick a region and just install it into the device. If you wish to get the raster imagery such as aerial shots and topos to the PN60, just process them via the TOPO software. With this software, not only do you get the topo maps, but heaps of other stuff such as black and white aerial imagery, colour aerial imagery, high resolution colour aerial imagery, marine charts and SAT 10 imagery.

Performance:

Being adventurous:

We tested the performance of the DeLorme PN60 Portable Satellite Navigation System with some cycling and hiking. Mostly it was going to a point and coming back through the same way; in this way, we get to test the handheld device’s track separation errors, like how far each of the tracks vary on the way back, when compared to the way in. Most of the time, this removes the problems that come up with the satellite constellation variability, as well as aerial photo registration accuracy, etc. This is basically testing the device against itself, which allows you to see how well the track matched with both the trips within a short time slot. Performance of the Earthmate PN-60 is comparable to the other Garmin, Navigon and TomTom devices. At times, the performance of the PN-60 Handheld seemed to be better than that of the other Garmin units. As far as the altimeter accuracy is concerned, the Elevation Climbing data field seems to be recording a total ascent of about 10% higher than what is expected. There were some occasional delays of about a second or so, in response to the controls. Though it was not too often to be very annoying, but just enough to be noticed.

Tracks and profiles:

The tracks and profile pages allows the user to record their trips and have details of elevation. It can record any of the ride, hike, bike or any other type of routing on offer. In the profile page, you get the detailed elevation profile and the in-detail profile stats can be got on the profile stats page.

GeoCaching the pages:

With the GeoCaching Pages, you get complete paperless geocaching with full cache details and logging. The features include Pocket Query Support, See cache description and hint and Compose Field Notes. In order to load caches, you will have to transfer a single geocache directly from the site geocaching.com. Then, make use of the Cache Register Widget from DeLorme or, just transfer a pocket query through Top0. The DeLorme PN-60 GPS Sat Nav System managed to be as accurate as that of Garmin, and it also settles down pretty quick. It is a hassle to scroll down each time to get the logs and, there are also no separate menu items to access them. But the most irritating of them all is that, it does not have the ability to filter the caches based on difficulty, size, terrain etc, which is a very handy feature that was introduced in models of Garmin and Magellan.

Data Management:

As far as Data Management is concerned, the PN60 makes use of a file system, which has its own set of boons and banes. You get to have waypoint files for particular areas and even track files for particular trails, and just load the ones you wish. The bad news is, you will not be able to load a file of waypoints and a pocket query file of geocaches at once. It is not capable of navigating to a particular waypoint and also display the nearby geocaches on the map. There are options to combine data sources and also get all of them in one file of format .gpx, but all of this takes off more out of your precious time. Again, you will be able to add just one track file at a time and if you got trails for a specific area set up as one trail per track file, you do not get to see all of the trails. However, you will be able to get rid of the issue with some data manipulation with the Topo.

Waypoints and Geocaches:

The navigation through the geocaches and waypoints, as well as following the routes is just straightforward.

We fell in love with the Advanced Track Navigation of Garmin and, were left quite disappointed that the PN60 does not have the capability to display the distance to waypoints through the track. As you can see in the image below, the track being navigated is shown. Though the distance to the end of the track is displayed, you cannot get the distance to the waypoints along it. Though DeLorme says that there are a few enhancements to be done on the roadmap regarding this issue, we are not sure on how they are going to be implemented.

On the roads:

One of the biggest advantages of the Earthmate PN-60 is its integrated ability of highway navigation. The small screen comes in as a disadvantage to this boon, as it makes processes such as entering the address, very tough and the database is also limited. Never buy the PN-60 thinking that it can act as your primary GPS, it is not going to give a hand in any urgent situations. However, this is a great option for the geocachers, hikers and other adventurous people, as it is more than just capable of getting them to the local trailhead they wish. You can get the most out of it by using it in combination with the waypoints, POIs as well as geocaches on the PN60, instead of entering the address. Even if you are going to give a specific address to the device, it is never going to take you to the exact spot. When we entered a specific address, the best PN60 was able to do was to give a 10 block range.

Package contents:

The package contents of the DeLorme Earthmate PN60 includes the handheld GPS itself, Regional Discs of PN-Series Maps, Quick Start Guide, two Lithium AA batteries, User Manual, Certificate for free downloads, USB Cable and Neck Lanyard.

Warranty:

DeLorme Earthmate PN60 Handheld GPS comes with one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The DeLorme Earthmate PN-60 Handheld GPS is a great upgrade for those who are looking to upgrade their PN-40 or PN-20. This latest version in the PN Series is quite a capable handheld, sporting plethora of features and functionalities. But its usability is restricted to those adventurous and for consumers looking for anything beyond that will be disappointed and will simply kick themselves. The small screen comes in as one of the major disadvantages of the device. The first time users will find the device to be extremely complicated, though it is nothing more than the first-gen Garmin Handhelds. Overall, the Earthmate PN-60 is an excellent choice as an upgrade from your previous handheld, and that is about it.

DeLorme Earthmate PN-60 Portable Sat Nav – Product Specification Table

Sony is actually not the name that comes to your mind when it comes to GPS. Instead, it is TomTom and we think of Sony only with words such as great displays or attractive PSP like user interfaces. It is good to know that instead of rivalling this brand perception, Sony has embraced it with this XNV-L770BT in-car AV/GPS receiver. Most would think why Sony did not choose Garmin, which is the usual choice of most manufacturers for such products, but TomTom sure has a lot of extras, and Sony would love to prove the sceptical wrong.

Design:

Stunning display:
A little while back, Sony had bought its double-DIN car audio receiver into the market, which managed to provide the company some success. With the XNV-L770BT, Sony has decided to stay with the looks of its established receiver gadget, with a motorised fascia with over 90% of its real estate dominated by a huge 7″ LCD display.  Needless to say that the display is absolutely stunning with a resolution of 800 x 480 WVGA pixels. This resolution is heaps higher than what you will usually see on a car’s dashboard.

Ports and slots:

Most of controlling of the device is done through the touch display, however there are some physical controls too along the bottom edge of the display bezel, they include: source selection/input, volume up/down and a strangely labelled “Top” button that takes you to the main menu. In the rear of this motorised panel, there is a single slot CD/DVD optical drive and unlike most of the all in one GPS units in the market, you will not find any SD card slot for media playback or even updates for GPS maps. We also have to mention here that Sony has got quite an interesting way to provide its consumers with the later of these features.

All in all, at the rear, you will find 2 video and audio inputs, 2 stereo audio outputs, a video output, a single USB connection, a monaural subwoofer output and you will also two other ports for stuff that are not included in the package: one for an external satellite radio tuner and also a dedicated input for a rear-view camera. Note that, these connections can be configured in ample ways to support whatever device you wish to use. For instance, the included 30 pin dock connector allows you to bridge the USB port and even the video input to allow for the iPod video playback.

Remote Control:

There is also a small infra red remote control that comes in the package. In the remote, as always, there is the power button, and the other controls include Monitor off button, Position button which is to switch the listening position (front L, front R, front, all, custom and off), return button to go back to the previous display, a equilizer button to select curve from 7 music types (Xplod, vocal, edge, cruise, space, gravity, custom and off), number buttons, clear button, ATT button, play/pause button, forwards and rewind buttons, DVD playback settings buttons, zap button, enter buttons, source buttons, mode button and volume buttons.

Installation and Set-up:

At the time of installation, the external TomTom GPS module and cradle has to be installed in a used accessible place; for instance, the rear of glove compartment or footwell. This unit is actually the heart of the processing of Sony module’s navigation functions. It displays an interface that is same as that of TomTom’s PNDs on the touch screen display of the XNV-L770BT. You can just remove this GPS module from the cradle and connected to a PC with the help of a USB connection for updating with TomTom’s famous Home suite. After the updates are done, the GPS can be put right back into the cradle and the device resumes navigation. It is just that the XNV-L770BT will be functioning even without the GPS unit in its location, but the navigation features is not available until that module is connected. Depending on how you do the installation, an external magnetic GPS antenna might be able to provide you with some superior positioning sensitivity. And, the vehicle speed sensor connectivity aids the car tracking while the satellite signal goes unpredictable. At the time of installation, there is a sun visor-mounted microphone that can be even placed on the external dashboard. With the help of this microphone, you will also be able to make hands-free calls. This mic is connected to the rear panel of the L770BT, that comes with a great deal of connectivity points for the sake of audiovisual inputs, outputs, pig tails and wire bind.

Being one of the do it yourself installations, we would rate the difficulty level of this installation to be moderate. You may have to put in some effort to mount the external GPS module’s cradle, tap the car’s speedometer and route connections for the external mic, parking brake sensors, and GPS antenna and also make some standard connections for ground, power, speakers and external amplification, that is, if it is available.

Features:

Both XNV-L770BT and its sibling have rear USB ports for the sake of iDevice connections, with support for multi-channel audio playback and, what is to be noted is, about 45 European countries maps, thanks to the TeleAtals Maps. You will also be treated with the familiar extras of TomTom such as about six million POIs, IQ Routes, Advanced Lane Guidance and MapShare.

Interface:
As far as the User Interface is concerned, the menus and audio source information comes on very crisply. However, considering the fact that you will be able to input only standard definition videos, the ultra high resolution display simply seems to be a gimmick or simply needless. Anyways, this resolution of 800 x 480 pixels seems just great for the 480p encoded DVD video and we would have complained even more if the pixels were too little too. Since the screen is of the resistive touch sensitive type, you have to press really firm to register you input and we also have to mention here that the display is responsive enough for you to get through with finger swipes. The main menu of the unit has three main options including Navigation, AV Source and BT Phone.

The only thing that we were left wishing for on the Sony XNV-L770BT  integrated Sat Nav Unit and in-dash A/V Receiver is its menu control and structure that needs some tweaking. For instance, while enjoying music, if you liked to make a call, you have to go back to the main menu and enter the phone menu. Same is the case when you wish to change audio tracks at the time of navigation. Hence, it is a whole lot of button pressing to be done for a gadget that is to be used on car on motion.

AV sources:

When you get on to the AV sources menu, then you will find a nice bird’s-eye view of the video and audio entertainment sources available. The sources available include USB/iPod connectivity, auxiliary analog audio, Bluetooth audio streaming, CD/DVD playback,  and video input and AM/FM radio. Out of these, the iPod connectivity is the most fun. When attached properly with the help of a dock connector, you will be able to playback video on Sony’s display while the car is parked. However, we did not know why it did not coax playbaxk out of the iPod Nano and Classic sans issues, and the iPhone 4 came up with a “Device not compatible” message. In spite of getting this message, you will be able to get the Sony XNV-L770BT playback audio from the unit.

BT Phone:

The entire hands-free calling functionalities are handled with the BT Phone option. Once you have paired the phone, with the help of a four digit PIN number, you will be able to sync your GPS’s phonebook. As soon as this is over, you will be able to manually search with the help of touchscreen interface. You will also find an option to browse the phonebook residing on the device that is not capable of syncing and also that of the latest calls along with a physical numerical dialler. You also get to save the frequently accesses contacts to one of the 6 available predetermined buttons on the menu screen of the phone. In the main display of the BT Phone menu, you will find a button for voice dialling that provides commands to the paired handset’s voice dialling processor. We were left wishing that this control was not left deep inside two levels in the main menu. As with everyone, we are not so keen on having to do multiple presses to access the voice command; a simpler access to this voice command will be appreciated in the next version of the device, even a small physical button on the bezel of the device will be great.

Navigation:

As far as the Navigation option is concerned, that is produced by the exterior TomTom GPS module which actually mirrors the TomTom PND of akin vintage, like that of the TomTom XL 550. The main menu of navigation has two major options for selecting destinations using either an array of menus and searches or by just browsing a map with the graphic Point of Interest icons. In the second row, you will find smaller icons that allow you to adjust and fine tune the options that have things to do with navigation.

A separate interface:
Since Sony seems to be importing the navigation interface of TomTom on wholesale, the GPS functionality seems to be completely separated from the other functions of Sony. This will be odd when you wish to do other stuff except for navigation, like changing radio stations at the time of navigation or just selecting a different song in the playlist of iPod. Hence, if you wish to access any of these functions, then you will have to go back to the main menu and back to the audio source menu, which seems to be a little clunky. You can even overlay an optional audio source window onto the navigational display in any of the screen’s 4 corners. However, this solution too is clunky because the new window always seems to be in the way of some part of the map or the onscreen address entry keypad. We also found that, TomTom’s navigational interface runs at a lower resolution than the native resolution of the 7″ display of Sony. The difference is visible and would not have been noticeable if not for the contrast with Sony’s stunningly crisp interface graphics. Though this is not a big deal, it is just worth noting.

Zappin:
Having Sony’s Zappin technology, it allows you to easily select your music and can also be connected to a wide range of digital music players such as iPod, Walkman, USB Memory drives and iPhone.

SensMe:
There is also a feature known as SensMe which will help you in choosing the songs to be played that is based on the places you drive on. For instance, the XNV-L770BTwill play you a few upbeat songs if you are driving on a highway and slow songs when you are driving slow in hectic traffic. This feature is fun and useful too, keeping you entertained during the entire trip. SensMe has to be set up before it starts to work. Connect the registered USB device to your computer and drag and drop tracks from Windows Explorer or iTunes, etc to “content transfer”. The SencMe has a list of channels options which includes three main channels list: Recommended/ Shuffle All, Basic Channels and In-Car Channels.

The Recommended or Shuffle All option plays tracks that are recommended for each time of the day. The options include Morning (5:00 – 9:59), DayTime (10:00 – 15:59), Evening (16:00 – 18:59), Night (19:00 – 23:59) and MidNight (24:00 – 4:59). The Shuffle All option plays all of the analysed tracks in a random order.

The Basic Channels option plays tracks according to the music type. “Energetic” option plays high spirit tracks, “Relax” plays calm tracks, “Mellow” means melancholy tracks, “UpBeat” as you can imagine plays happy tracks to enhance your mood, “Emotional” plays Ballad tracks, “Lounge” plays Lounge tracks, “Dance” plays rhythm and rap, rhythm and blues tracks and the “Extreme” option plays you the intense rock tracks.

Finally, there is the In-Car Channels that plays tracks that are suitable while driving. The “Freeway” option plays speedy and high sprit tracks, “Chillout Drive” option plays intoned, healing ballad tracks, “Weekend Trips” plays delightful, bright and happy tracks, “Midnight Cruise” plays jazz or piano-featured tracks with a mature mood, “Party Ride” plays up-tempo and lively, “Morning Commute” plays bright and breezy tracks and there is even “Goin Home” playing you warm and relaxing tracks.

Local Search:
Having been built on the same platform as that of Sony’s popular XAV-70BT, the XNV-L770BT too enjoys the Local Search with Google that allows you to look for restaurants, local shops and other businesses with the Google Map option. The best part is, with the BT Call function, you will be able to make a call to book a table or whatever, right from the search page.

HD Traffic:
The HD Traffic information is updated every three minutes, so that the drivers are kept updated about the incidents on road and delays.

MapShare:
As always, the TomTom MapShare means that you will be able keep the maps up to date, with corrections made from other drivers through your system and TomTom’s free Home software.

Safety Alerts:
The Safety Alerts on the GPS provides advance warning of safety cameras and dangerous places.

Performance:

Irrespective of how good the design and features might me, the performance is what is essential, especially if the device has the job of driving you around. In that case, Sony XNV-L770BT all-in-one GPS catches the satellite immediately and drives you properly even through the most complicated junctions. The Audio is very important for such as device. Being able to playback all types of formats, it produces some powerful sound with its built-in amplifier and seven band equaliser. You will be able to experience a 5.1 surround sound experience by the centre stage optimiser as well as the advanced sound engine.

Warranty:

The Sony XNV-L770BT all-in-one GPS comes with one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

Overall, XNV-L770BT Satellite Navigation System does a great job in playing to its strengths and also outsources its alleged weaknesses with the external TomTom GPS module that engulfs the dazzling seven inch display with the complete TomTom navigational experience. It can be said that it is quite a novel approach that manages to keep Sony from going through the trouble of reinvent the wheel with its own navigational software and put it into test with its valuable consumers.

The display of the GPS is a real treasure. If you are one of those who like watching video inside your car while being parked, you will not find a better GPS than this. In addition to this the device has a great deal of inputs and outputs that make it an amazing starting point for, say, a video game. The external GPS module of the device does add some complexity to the installation of the device. Yet, you do get an established interface that is familiar as well as functional. It also takes advantage of TomTom technologies like IQ Routes as well as Map Share, which is a great additional effort. Though there is a minor quibble with the menu, there is a lot to love about Sony’s latest all-in-one GPS. It is a high performer on features, design and performance, hence, it gets a “highly recommended” from us.

Sony XNV-L770BT Sat Nav System – Product Specification Details

Design:

Seriously thin:

For most part of their existence, the stand alone navigators have retained their same form factor; each one looked like the other, with the major differences being just a fold-out or an integrated antenna and just a big or small display. With some intense competition from the smartphone space, the biggies of the GPS market like Garmin and TomTom keep coming up with ways and means of innovation to retain their stakes in the consumer PND battle. The Garmin Nuvi 3790T has its looks very similar to that of the iPhone 4 (but with better reception), and it is seriously thin. Here are its dimensions to give you an idea on how seriously thin the GPS is; (H x W x D) 75mm x 122mm x 8.7mm. being thin does not mean that it compromises on the build quality by any means; it feels quite sturdy and well made when held in hand.

Display:

So, what is new with the display? To begin with, it is a capacitive multi-touch display. While Garmin’s “older” Nuvi screens came with some of the finest resistive displays that we have laid hands upon, this one surpasses its predecessors. The 10.9cm glass WVGA display of the Nuvi 3790T is quite bright and easy to see even at bright sunlight. The fact that the glass is reflective will not cause any issues while at the road.

Buttons, slots and ports:

The rear of the Nuvi 3790T GPS device has a mixture of black brushed aluminium and plastic finishing. This is where the speaker has been placed and the edge of the unit has been given shiny chrome covering with a power switch placed over it. As with all the traditional PND devices, the bottom edge houses all the ports, such as a USB 2.0 port for syncing to your PC or Mac using the supplied software, along with a proprietary windscreen mount. For additional storage, there is also a microSD card slot at the right edge.

User Interface:

Once you get over with amazing hardware of the device, Garmin blows you all over again with its incredible user interface which is simple, smart and jam packed with features; each better than ever before. From the start-up menu to the sub menus, Garmin has offered you with huge, bold buttons and beautiful graphics that makes the user interface an absolute breeze to find your way around. We think that the whole interface had been designed by somebody with a strong fetish for iPhone; the difference notable is that, the results seem to be simply spectacular. And it all gets only better when combined with the high resolution display. For instance, you get details of the terrain in 3D namely the valleys and hills, Photo Realistic illustration of Junctions depicting what the road ahead looks like along with loads of eye-candy buttons.

It is a fairly smart move from Garmin to have taken advantage of the extra pixels – the 800 x 480 pixels WVGA resolution allows for placement of 4 information boxes alongside the map, both during navigation and with just plainly browsing through the map with no route plugged in. Things like driving direction, elevation, current speed, time and speed limit, time and distance to destination all of which can be arranged and selected with the option to priorities info as per your choice, all with a single press.

Features:

Features wise, you are offered with free lifetime traffic alerts, which is appreciable but not a new concept, text-to-speech for spoken street names, lane guidance, junction view, Bluetooth hands-free, speed and red-light camera alerts, lane guidance, speed limit display, and map. It does not have MP3 playback or internet connectivity.

Accelerometer:

The insides of the Garmin Nuvi 3790T Satellite Navigation System is equipped with all the usual suspects, along with a few unusual ones too, including an accelerometer to be used with a full capacitive touchscreen that we had mentioned earlier. This accelerometer helps you to use the device on the windscreen mount on either portrait or landscape mode and works like a real charm with the orientation changes in the screen occur in mere seconds upon being tilted.

nuRoute:

But, Garmin Nuvi 3790T is not all bells and whistles. Going deeper into the user interface, you will find the nuRoute with Traffic Trends and myTrends, which are nothing but Garmin’s version of IQ Routes and HD Traffic. The nuRoutes option will work out the best route for you depending on the destination and time of the day, and in fact, it also takes in to consideration your preferred driving style. The good news does not end here, as the route calculation is pretty quick and the system is actually intelligent enough to adapt in case you had chosen to go off-route. And as soon as it realises that you are actually ignoring all its nagging requests to get back on the route it had chose for your previously, it then plots another based on the current route that you had decided to pick; not many sat nav systems are actually as quick as this one on the uptake. There is also two specific ways to route; you can select automobile or pedestrian, and then customise options within each.

Address entering:

When entering a destination, you can search for an address by street only across an entire country without needing to know the town, and you can search for a Point Of Interest by keyword across an entire country. Nevertheless both of these are separate entities wherein certain Satnav’s allows search of both the databases concurrently like the Mio Navman Spirit devices.

Point Of Interest:

The Garmin Nuvi 3790T Sat Nav Unit excels at Point Of Interest too and scores really high. While the low-end Sat Navs are quite happy to just serve you with a list of fast food establishments when you ask for the local restaurants, the Nuvi 3790T actually goes to the extent of asking you what kinds of food you would like to eat; from American, Indian, Italian to Mexican. The POIs have also been presented in logical categories; for instance, the Transit one is very handy if you are in search of a train station or airport. And, since you are subjected to switch between being a car driver and pedestrian at times, the device will continue to plot your route on foot. It can even assist you find your car again using what Garmin calls as ‘Park Position Recall’.

Voice Command:

Coming to the Voice Command feature if the 3790T we have to admit, it is fairly robust. With Microsoft’s SYNC system having left us with sore disappointment Garmin sure did come to our rescue with their markedly superior implementations. You will have to be fairly slow in your speech and it just proves to be handy only with locating nearby address/places that is already saved; meaning you cannot voice out a full address if you are doing so for the first time, but well it sure does seem to be a nice addition. So long as you are clear and audible, you get to control majority of aspects like POIs, postcodes and addresses. There will barely be instances where the system misinterprets your instructions and even by chance if it does so, backtracking is fairly easy. To such an extent entering the address manually would begin to feel clunky.

Extras:

There are heaps of other goodies too. One of the license saving feature is that, they way the Nuvi 3790T Portable & in-car Sat Nav pulls out Cyclops safety camera alerts on the display. They are actually a black dialogue box if you are on the speed limit and it pops up again in red if you are overdoing the limit. These dialogue boxes are actually very informative, it tells you whether the camera is a red light one, mobile camera or fixed camera that you have to be worried about.

Performance:

Garmin Nuvi 3790T’s exceptional design and features is very well complimented by its performance, which impressed us the most. Both the 3D and 2D maps are striking with impressive load times when compared to the slower and older versions. Likewise the street and town names auto-populate at phenomenal speed. We were actually surprised at the route that it took to the destination, going through roads we had never dreamed of travelling on before. The best part was that, it was actually right and the route it picked was pretty clever as they were practically empty and hence, managed to miss most of the jams. The PhotoReal representations of some of the most complex junctions are very clear and easy to understand. The entire gadget is such a doodle to use and anybody will fall in love with it so easily. If you are an existing Nuvi user, then you might find the navigation functionality pretty much familiar, but having said that apart from the on-board EcoRoute function, enhanced pedestrian options and lifetime alerts on traffic, there is nothing much software-wise to encourage an upgrade.

The Garmin Nuvi 3790T Sat Nav is absolutely a gorgeous gadget loaded with features that goes on to include a capacitive touchscreen, a display boasting a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and a UI that seems pretty much akin to Apple’s playbook; just a thousand times better. The TomTom Go 950 Live sure is one of the best satnavs around, but the Garmin Nuvi 3790T has managed to surpass it by a great deal.

The speaker and voice:

The only real complaint that we have with the Nuvi 3790T is that, it has the same curse as that of the Mio Navman 575. It has the horrible robot lady voice that comes out through a really poor speaker that seems to distort easily if you turn up the volume even a little bit. Even weird is the accent used, it is part west country, part German and part Geordie.

Battery:

The battery life of the Nuvi 3790T is hugely impressive with its lack of space for a bulky cell and also the very fact that it remains On for the entire span of navigation. Also we would be glad to support Garmin’s claims that it can run up to 4 solid hours with a full charge.

Package:

The box contents of the Garmin Nuvi 3790T includes the device itself, a 12v power adaptor, a USB 2.0 cable and an FM antenna that can be attached to the windscreen to receive all the traffic information and these updates are absolutely subscription free. But, it is on you to locate a screen protector of some sort if you think this will end up in your pocket, backpack or purse on a semi-regular basis.

Verdict:

You are asking us for a verdict after all of this? Well, we do not mind saying it all again. Garmin has done it again with the Nuvi 3790T. It is already renowned as the maker of some of the best known GPS devices, now it has completely wrong-footed its competitors by coming up with something that is in shouting distance of the iPhone 4, both for its touchscreen and its interface’s ease of use too. What else can we say? Its design is brilliant, looks fantastic, excellent ease of use, an awesome set of features and absolute performance. What really stands out is just how amazingly simple, well thought out, insightful and hassle-free the entire thing is. Features such as PhotoReal Junctions, swooping, swiping and the finger-pinch zooming has a geniuses’ touch to them. As we had mentioned earlier, if there is anything at all to be grumpy about this magnificent state of art Sat Nav, it would be the quality of the speaker and the iffy accent of the lousy robot. Overall, the 3790T is possibly the best in the current GPS arena.

If you ask us that if it is worth its hefty price tag, well! In case you are looking for a standalone navigator, the answer is a big yes. Then again, if you are an existing owner of an Android that successfully gets you from point A to D, then the 3790T could be a tougher sell really. Is it worth an upgrade? If you are using a TomTom unit, the answer is an emphatic “yes.” Then again if you are an existing user of a fairly new version of the nuvi, then the answer would be a no because there are no bells and whistles in terms of mapping changes  here and you are still stuck with the familiar robotic gal who just gets you ready for an approaching turn.

Check other Latest GPS Sat Nav Systems, TomTom Sat Nav Reviews in this website.

Garmin Nuvi 3790T Sat Nav – Technical Specification Table

Sleek with large display:

Design wise, the Navigon 8410 is larger in comparison to the conventional widescreen Sat Navs, since it makes use of a 5” display. With a sleek profile and brushed aluminium bezel, the 8410 looks at home in the interior of your precious car. The metal finishing gives it a very high end look. The screen is vivid and clear with wide viewing angles. Additionally, the screen size gives ample room for the Real City picture-in-picture 3D mapping. The display screen has glossy finishing which is a big nod to the media player functionalities. This gives more reflections than one with matte finishing, but at the same time it is bright enough to cope with most driving functions. You will find a single power button lying discretely on the top. An almost invisible mic port can be found in the front that aides with linking the Bluetooth to your phone, and towards the bottom edge is the mini USB charging socket together with the microSD card slot and the 3.5mm headphone jack. The micro SD card that was shipped in the 8140 was 2GB and had a little bit over 490MB of free space. Right next to the MicroSD Card slot there is a reset button.

Overall, it has been excruciatingly well designed making the curvy plastics of the market leader TomTom look like a toy. The device is industrial and sophisticated by its simplicity.

Mount:

The mount design has been well executed too and the clip also incorporates all the necessary electrical contacts with the added bonus of also including a mini USB, and you plug the car power adapter into the mount and easy to remove. Navigon devices used to have a beast of a window mount with some previous versions, but this mount is a solid one that is easy to attach and secure. This set up means, you can just attach the 8410 and go with one action.

Interface:

The company is positioning the device as something more than a SatNav. Diving into the controls, you get greeted initially by a resistive touchscreen with fairly chunky icons. Likewise the initial responses from the control menu looks to be fairly prompt and good. Only occasionally will be the second presses required. Though the layout is relatively simple, it will take some time to drill down into all the options that are on offer.

You can save destinations, including those that you can import from Outlook or mobile phone connected through Bluetooth. Be warned, there addresses should be in the right format, including country in order to get the right result. Keying in a destination is made easy thanks to the smart recognition keyboard and with keying a destination the whole keyboard gets displayed. Simply key in the town, postcode, number, town or crossing and the 8410 promptly calculates the route, sketching the map offering you as many as 3 route options to choose from along with providing the time estimates and distance. The difference in these routes is normally the length of the route in kilometers compared to the length of the route in Minutes of Hours. When you select a route the Navigon 8410 gives you directions of the selected route.

Media player:

When the Navigon 8410 GPS Sat Nav System is switched on for the first time, instead of going straight into the navigational software, the device presents you with a menu having a few other options. The options include a media player, supporting video, music and still images. But, do not be overjoyed, because if you wish to watch MPEG-4 based formats like DivX, you will have to get a £15 Digital Codec Package. Navigon has also provided you with a hands free interface for your phone, which can be connected through the usual Bluetooth mode. However, all is not as rosy as it seems. In fact it is kind of basic and you might have to delve into the internal memory or the microSD card in the files/folders in order to fish the files that you wish to play. Again, it really doesn’t scan cards, get the library updated or offer you video, audio or photo options that is a default option with others. And finally, the third option for you is the TV, which will be greyed out until you install an optional TV module. This is fitted on to a dedicated slot at the side of the device.

Real City 3D:

The navigation feature of the Navigon 8410 Sat Nav gives you a complete 40 country Europe mapping. The navigation is not just a two tone map. While the 7210 has 3D landmarks which includes realistic models of only the key buildings, the City View 3D in 7310 managed to approximate the dimensions of city blocks, the Real City 3D attempts to give life to its title by mimicking what you are likely to be seeing via your car’s windshield as believably as possible. The detail level and quality is similar to an early first person shooter video game, and graphics wise, it is somewhat similar Doom 2. However, your route will still get projected in front of you as a line, and since the tall buildings on the street will be blocking your view around the corners, there is also a small top down 2D map too, which will be superimposed over the bottom right hand corner of your display. It is not surprising to find that the screen updates are quite jerky than what you can get out of usual map. But do not worry, as it is not as bad as you might have expected it to be. Since you will not be usually travelling over 30Mph within most cites of UK; whatever the case might be, we are pleased to inform you that the maps keep up with your real positions quite well.

That is all the boons of the Real City 3D, now, let us move on to its banes. Even though the building models might look real, they are nothing like the ones you will be actually seeing. One of the main reasons for this is that, most of these textures applied are generic, with very few matching with the true building facades, which might have a very distinctive colour. Though there seems to be duplication of unusual buildings, like that of concave fascias, there seems to be some negligence of couple of eye catching features. This in turn makes, Real City 3D more of a distraction than hindrance. It is like, it sounds amazing on paper, but it requires being even closer to reality to be of any true use, and only the central parts of the major cities have been covered too.

Voice Recognition:

Though all the buzz is about the Real City 3D, the Navigon 8410 has a few other new features too. Another major area of enhancement is the Voice Recognition capability of the device, which has been extended quite a deal and the company calls it as the Voice Interaction Pro. When this option is enabled, you are supposed to be talking in normal sentences and find your intended destination. The main difference was found to be the Voice Command option in the main menu that gets activated with a finger swipe across the display. Well, it seems kind of inconsistent and it is up to you to get it up and running because from what we saw it just doesn’t care to recognise couple of words, regardless of the pronunciation or volume. When voice control is offered, a green icon appears in the corner accompanied by a sound.

A correction procedure is available for this when it makes a mistake, so it will ask you if the town is correct, etc and you say “no” to change a part. Try talking again and it offers you yet another set of options that sound similar in the correct area and you will have to pin down the right option by just picking a number in the provided list. It is not a perfect system, but it is pretty clever. You can also use voice commands to dial a number or answer a call too. It lets you speak numbers in phrases and waits for you to say “call” before you go; If that person is in your address book, it displays the contact name too, which is tidy. The same is applicable to incoming calls and all you need to say is “accept” before taking a call. Smart huh!

With a complete European mapping and the default language as English, you might find the spoken interpretation of names of foreign places getting kind of Anglicised. Depending on your interest in European languages, you will either love or hate this.

Points of Interest:

The Voice Command now allows you to search for the POIs and then select from your saved MyDestinations too. Both POI and address options get drilled down via conventional routes of cities, streets, numbers for addresses, and via categories for Point Of Interests. The POIs in particular just offers a list of nearby options. As you can see, both of these options are quite limited, but that also makes their recognition abilities more dependable. You can add POIs on your route as you go too. There is a possibility to include interim destinations en route, thanks to the the Destination tab. With fewer choices, there are fewer options for the recognition system to look out for. We still give Garmin’s nuvi 860 the crown for voice functionality. POIs like Banks, restaurants, parking and shopping is richly displayed and seems comprehensive.

Panaroma View 3D:

Panaroma View 3D is also one of our favourite features as it is more like driving over a topographical map. You will be able to see the ridges of mountain ranges and have a sense of perspective. The whole navigating experience feels kind of visceral. Well, if you are not a great fan of this, just go ahead and turn it off.

MyRoutes:

Apart from this, the 8410 has all of the other new features of the last generation Navigon. These features include MyRoutes, which is nothing but Navigon’s version of TomTom’s IQ Routes. In MyRoutes, once you choose your destination, you will be given a selection of three routing options calculated based on the real traffic speeds for that specific time of the day and day of the week. Additionally, there are other useful functions such as the real signs, lane guidance indicators along with a couple of questionable inclusions like sharp bend notifications. Commands for turn-by-turn navigation is pretty much timely and accurate with the map providing every single detail needed especially for junctions that are complicate. Route recalculation is very fast too. Overall, navigating with the Navigon 8410 is a real pleasure.

The General tab shows options to change the view from 2D to 3D, change the day and night view and go to the general device settings.

TMC:

Traffic takes the form of TMC in this system and sports spoken delay notifications too helping you with your route alterations. The 12V charging cable has the built-in TMC antenna and when the charging cable is connected to the windscreen mount you will receive current traffic information. The TMC-antenna is not really perfect. The TMC reception sadly was not stable all the time and we got the feeling that the fact that there is not a separate antenna is the cause of the lack of the quality of the TMC reception.

Clever Parking:

The Clever Parking feature in Navigon 8410 allows you to find somewhere to park off your car near your destination. You will find a P icon popping up on the map screen as and when you approach, listing a number of car parks available nearby. Instead, you can even choose to reroute to a nearby parking instead when you first find your location.

Other features:

Apart from this, you also get the usual widgets. The safety camera warnings keep you informed as to when you are approaching a speed trap, with a year’s updates that costs you about £25. The polite announcements of the Navigon inform you to be beware when you are speeding over the limit and also when a sharp curve is soon to be encountered. You are offered with full screen graphics on the complex multi lane junctions. The device also includes a radio receiver for RDS-TMC traffic updates.

Overall, when it comes to the features, the Navigon 8410 GPS Sat Nav System keeps up with the fierce competition for the latest and everyday navigational needs.

Speaker:

The speaker on the device is pretty loud and clear. The volume can also be adjusted using voice control, even though you might have to touch the speaker icon to get this to go. The voice quality is also very acceptable.

Box contents:

The package of the Navigon includes the 8410 SatNav device itself, screen protector, pouch, windscreen mount, wall connector, USB cable, the 12V charging cable comes with an in-built TMC antenna, a 2GB microSD card with about 490 MB free space.

Battery Life:

Battery life is not the best unfortunately given the large screen, so you will only get a couple of hours from it. Try using the standby mode instead of shutting down, but then again watch out or you might get back to a drained device with being careless.

Warranty:

The Navigon 8410 Sat Nav comes with one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The Navigon 8410 Sat Nav is a well designed premium device. In case it had been released a few years back, it would have been extremely competitive. But now, unfortunately the war zone has moved onto the mobile data enabled features. The device that is offering these is the 8450. Even though this one is a 5” widescreen device, the cost of the gadget looks too steep next to the cheaper Garmin 1690 that includes one year’s live enabled services. Navigation seems to be top-notch with timely and audible instructions along with rerouting, which is blazing fast. The voice commands wouldn’t seem everyone’s cup of tea, but once you realise how to make the most of it, you cannot keep yourself far from it. It comes in near the top of Navgon’s range of satnavs, that is topped only by the 8450 Live that brings the high end features such as Live Traffic, Weather and Local Google search to the mix, pitching it against the top of the range TomTom HD Sat Nav. Though the Navigon 8410 is a very capable Sat Nav with two years of map update as standard, we still have the feeling that it is quite overpriced.

Navigon 8410 Car Sat Nav System – Technical Specification Table

Beyond doubts, TomTom has been a prevelant name in the SatNav arena for quite sometime now and have grown to such an extent that consumers, for that matter, have started taking this name to mean any GPS system. Despite having a full range of options, none of TomTom’s products have ever been the cheapest available. Well, now TomTom has decided to conquer that part of the market too with their new Start. Following suit the famous ONE, this new model sports a 3.5” display (non-widescreen) with lesser features. But, you have to know that the “Start” has all the basic features you will really need and very less that you will not. Yeah, we can see the grin on your face.

Design:

Sleek and Simple:

TomTom Start puts you in a pleasant mood from the minute you see it. It is quite sleek and tiny, with a 4:3 colour display. Just like the ONE and XL, the Start has a mount, which is integrated into the device itself, and you can fit the whole thing into the carry pouch. We found this mount rather hard to be mounted on a windscreen, especially with the weather being cold. Again, this mount can entirely be detached and be reversed. It has quite a clean casing, sporting  rounded edges and sans any LEDs or hardware buttons except for the power button.

Not only does TomTom look to enter the budget consumer market, but it is all set to target and pamper the high-end crowd as well and offers the Start in a wide range colours allowing users to choose between blue, black, yellow, red, green, orange and purple. Each comes in an elegantly finished grey coloured carry pouch that is touched up with a colour coded to the system. Then again, the wrap that is a wrap around model used to secure this shut was kind of tricky.

USB Enabled:

At the back of the device, there is a power button and beneath a USB port which does multiple jobs of recharging the built-in battery and syncing the device with the TomTom Home app on your Mac or PC. Well, there is also a mains charger included in the box.

Interface:

Icons:

Tapping the map pops out two chunky icons along with a string of smaller ones towards the bottom that give you more choices; Sound, Night, Help and Options. The Sound icon is to switch the volume on and off, the night mode switches the display from day to night mode and Help provides you a map along with a list of emergency options that you can either drive to or call; like breakdown or the nearest police station, doctor, hospital, dentist and so on.

Options:

As you can guess, the Options icon goes deep into the Start’s settings from where you are allowed to choose a language, set your clock, make your pick from a variety of in-built voices, colour schemes, and so on, as well as set your ‘home’ base and favourite destinations. There is yet another Advanced mode within this that helps unleashing this SatNav geek by tweaking keyboard preferences, switching maps, enabling/disabling safety alerts, so on and so forth. But this doesn’t really seem overwhelming as the menus that are further divided into sub-menus are neatly laid out for your convenience with chunky text labels and colourful icons. TomTom’s Map Corrections is also included under Options giving you the option to make note of areas on the map that differs from reality. These get uploaded into the TomTom servers and the same gets verified upon being updated using TomTom’s very own software – the Home desktop PC.

That is all we have with what you will be able to do with the TomTom Start. It doesn’t allow you to watch movies, listen to music, get immersed in your photos or for that matter do any other gimmicks that engulfs the other Sat Nav’s of today. And, trust us, that is really a good thing.

Maps:

This being an entry-level unit, it does not come with any overseas maps that is found by default in TomTom’s high-end models; all you get are the local UK and Ireland maps. Nevertheless, there is the option to buy them through TomTom Home, that is if you have a fetish for driving down on a holiday abroad.

Navigation:

We had mentioned that it was simple, and sure it is. For starters, the Start’s homescreen offers two options namely Browse Map and Plan Route and these icons do exactly what their names suggest – helps you plan a route or return to map view.

Planning a route calls up a more familiar TomTom menu.  Just hit the touchscreen and pick your route, and as always, type in the city, then the postcode, a physical address or a Point of Interest (POI).  You can also pick from the list of recent locations, something that is very useful indeed in a SatNav. Even as you are done choosing your option, TomTom’s Start manages to find a lock and clings on to a satellite’s network whooshing above your head in the planet. This simply means that you are very nearly good to go.

Multiple Route Planning:

One thing that this TomTom will not be able to do is that, you cannot set up and save multiple way points, which is a common feature in a lot of other brands. But that is not the end of the world, because, once as soon as you had set up the main route, you can add additional destinations through which you can route to the place you want to reach. As soon as the route is running, the Plan Route icon will change into a Change Route button, hence, the ability to add the way points. You also get the roadblock avoidance feature accompanying the alternate route calculation option. There is TomTom IQ Routes which has a route that is based on real road speeds, taking into consideration the traffic history in that place.

TomTom Map Share:

TomTom Map Share is not a new feature, but it sure is worthy.. This feature makes sure that you do not commit the same kind of mistakes that the other consumers had made earlier. With the help of this feature, TomTom is informed of the errors on the maps and after it verifies the fault is that the map is updated and these changes are made available to its users to TomTom Home. This is not just another gimmick as in the twenty weeks since the device was last updated, TomTom has made a mammoth 32500+ corrections.

QuickGPSfix:

The QuickGPSfix is quite a standard feature in TomTom’s lineup. This feature actually quickens the process of searching for a satellite signal while booting. Hence, suppresses the amount of time you have to wait for the device to calculate your route.

Postcode Entry:

As far as the postcode entry, you do get the complete seven digit entry. You can also enter the house number. Hence, if the postcode indicates a complete street, you will be automatically taken to the right point. But the Start does not support keyword search for addresses.

Point Of Interest:

Search facility is essential in Point Of Interest database and TomTom has got it. But the issue with it is that, you will not be able to use it across the country. Instead of this, you will have to search only near to your current location in the city. However, it does save you the scrolling time through the range of POI categories to find the right one even though this is still on board if you wish to make use of it.

2D and 3D map views:

The Start also facilitates switching between 2D and 3D views in the Map. While voice prompts sure does help, they at times seem kind of tinny and distorted. The map view is very much identical to that of the previous TomTom sat navs that came before the GO x50 LIVE. The latest updates are just cosmetic, which has every piece of information in the bottom strip, you will ever want to know about your route. The data include your current speed, the speed limit of the road, next turn, time and distance to destination along with estimated time of arrival.

Performance:

We did note that the Start gets a little bit confused, particularly with roundabouts. While the voice instructs to turn left, the map shows a right on roundabouts and gets into a momentary haze forgetting how to count. This will dawn on you when the voice instructs to take the 4th exit on a roundabout while there are just three and you will be going in circles for sometime.

Then again, in the middle of all this confusion if you decide to pullover reaching for the handbrakes to take a different route, you hear the TomTom prompting “Do you want to leave where you are? Yes/No? God you wish it could read your mind, don’t you?.

Guarantee:

The Tom Tom Start comes with one year manufacturer’s Guarantee.

Verdict:

TomTom has trimmed down the features list to a bare minimum in an effort to design the Start; nevertheless it still manages to do the job seamlessly well that it was designed for – help with getting from point A to point B. There is yet another thing that keeps your worry wrinkles at bay now – the stripped back interface along with the feature count makes it a literal joy to use the Start. Well, there is also the option to choose from colourful swappable colours, if you fancy that! Now for some cons – it sure does get kind of annoying to put up with the Start’s confused state of mind making it go whipping around the streets, well the bright side – you really can’t blame the hardware for it, can you?. Again, we would appreciate better quality loudspeakers in the Start. Given the price tag and its features that has been kept amazingly simple, the Start sure seems does seem to be an achievement. Frankly, you are better off being a proud owner of the Start as against some other complex and geeky unit. If you are new to the GPS world and looking for a decent product, the TomTom Start and you will make a match made in heaven.

Check other TomTom Sat Nav Reviews in this website.

TomTom Start Sat Nav System (UK and Ireland Maps) – Technical Specification Table