GPS Sat Nav Systems

Mio Navman F45 Widescreen Satellite Navigation System

Mio augmented its Spirit flagship satellite navigation systems with a selection of mid range and entry level models, with their names being M series and F series. The M series is the mid range series with 3.5″ and 4.5″ displays, featuring fast GPS chips, local search, photo navigation, lane guidance and spoken motorway exit instructions. But, the F series ones are the entry level ones which are of the budget type. In this series, there are two models available; the 3.5″ F35 and the 4.3″ widescreen F45. This series too possess the fast GPS chips, day and night display modes, spoken motorway exit instructions, notification of local points of interest and also a free trial for speed camera info.

In the following review, we will be discussing in detail about Mio’s Navman F45 which belongs to the entry level F series.

Design:

No change with design features:
Having got the tag of “Entry level model”, it does not mean that Navman has cut the edges with the design factor. Basically, the looks of the F45 is same as its costlier M series sibling. The device’s minimal weight of just 155 grams is favoured by its compact dimensions of just (H x W x D) 80 x 137 x 18.5 mm. Navman F45 Sat NavSystem sports a widescreen 4.3 inch touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. The F45 features 2D and 3D moving map displays that get smoother a transition, thanks to the device’s powerful 2450/400 MHz CPU.

The ports and controls in F45:
On top of the device is the power switch and in the bottom, you will find the socket for in car charger, USB cable, home charger and TMC accessory kit. The latter three has to be sold separately. In the rear, there is the speaker and just beneath that, you will find the cradle socket. There may be occasional needs when you may have to perform a hardware reset if your Navman stops responding or appears to be frozen or locked up. In order to do that, the Navman has to be shutdown, for which you have to slide the power switch to the RESET position and then just slide to ON; the device will recover.

The keyboard:
The keyboard pops up whenever you are requested to enter a text, such as when searching for a street name. It displays various layouts depending on the information you need to enter, including alphabet, number, alternate characters and a combination of these.

Set up and Installation of Navman F45:
Set up and installation of the Mio Navman F45 GPS Navigator is simple and intuitive. As soon as you switch on the device, you will be taken to the language screen, where you can tap on your preferred language. Make sure that you un check the Show on start-up check box to prevent the Select Language screen from being displayed on each start-up. Then you have to tap over the safety agreement message and once that is done, you will be presented with the tutorial. This will have clear description on the usage of the device and once you complete reading the tutorial, a 3D map screen will display and if you possess a GPS fix, your current location will be displayed on the map.

In order to alert and inform the driver as required for fast and safe driving, the system sports the usual voice spoken turn by turn instructions and seamless maps and pre loaded database.

The User Interface:

The main menu:
Mio has offered a number of customisation options available to enhance your navigation experience. The main menu can be accessed either via the main menu button or by tapping the status bar at the bottom of any screen. There are three pages of the main menu which includes Home, Favourites, Resents, Map, Address, POIs, Food, SOS, Fuel, Preferences, Parking, Tripmeter,
Tourist and Cash.

The All Important Map Menu:
There are four map screens that are used to view the route to your destination: 3D map, 2D map, Route view and Turn by Turn and these map screens can be accessed from the main menu (Each of which will be discussed in detail further in the review). The map menu has a lot of options available which include Navigate to, Show details, Nearest POI, Avoid area, Un-Avoid area, Add to trip and Route.

Features of Navman F45:

Enhance your Navigation with Route recalculation:
The Mio/Navman F45 satellite Navigation system has the basic sat-nav feature requirement that recommends multiple routes to the input destination that are analysed and presented for your choice. You will be redirected immediately if you make a wrong turn. The Route Options offered by Mio allow you to enhance your navigation experience by modifying aspects of your route and route calculation. The route type can be set according to your priority like faster time or the shortest distance. You will also be able to change the preference for motorways as less often or more often. Preferences can be set to road types too, you get to either avoid or be warned of Toll roads, Unsurfaced roads and Ferry roads. The Special Zone is the restricted area where you can set to avoid when calculating a route. For instance, in Greece, you are not allowed to drive in the pollution zone when the air pollution reaches a certain level. The driver alert features allow you to set the Navman to warn you not to operate the device while driving and also to enable speed warning. Select your preferred speed from the speed box.

Ways of Navigation:
There are basically four ways by which you can go from point A to B. First, if you know the address of the destination, then make use of the address entry wizard, else if you wish to make multiple stops, make use of the multi stop trip planner screen to enter the multiple way points. In case you need to find a named site, feature, landmark or public venue, search for the point of interest and if you wish to navigate to a NavPix location, go to the NavPix screen to navigate to a pre-installed NavPix.

Point Of Interest:
Point Of Interest is a named site, feature, landmark or public venue which can be displayed as an icon on the map. The POIs are grouped by type such as petrol stations, parking, beaches and museums. In order to search for a POI, either tap search by name to search in all the POI categories or select a category from the list.

The Multi Stop Trip Planner:
As we had mentioned earlier, make use of the Multi Stop Trip Planner screen to set multiple stops or way points for your trip and your route will be calculated to go via each of these points in a specified order. The waypoints can be added by selecting     Location and then Add to trip from the pop up map menu on the 2D map or the 3D map screen. With this, you will be able to save up to 198 multi stop trip, each with up to 14 way points. In order to change the order of your waypoints, tap a destination point to move you can move up or down with the preview screen.

Search Functionality in F45:
In order to search for a destination, open the Destination Search screen and select Country, City/ area, search for street, search the house number and there you are. The search results will be listed in matching order with the closest matches appearing at the top of the list and a maximum of 99 results will be displayed. Once the search is complete you can decide to navigate to your selected destination, view the position of the map screen and even save the destination as My Home or Favourite. If you wish to know more information about your destination, tap over More button and the destination details will be displayed and If you intend to add the destination to a multistep trip, tap over Add.

Recent Locations:
In order to make navigating to an address easier, the Navman F45 GPS Navigator automatically saves all the start locations and destinations in a list of recent locations. You will find the Recent Locations option in the main menu. Tap on the address which is your destination and this will initiate the device to calculate the route and open the 3D map screen.

Favourites and My Home:
With the Mio Navman F45 Widescreen Sat nav system, you will be able to save up to 200 destinations as favourites, one of which can be saves as My Home. You will be able to save a favourite from the preview screen after searching for an address, or from the map menu on the 3D or 2D map screens. NavPix can even be saved to any of your existing favourites. The Favourites can be renamed using the edit tab and there are options to delete the unwanted ones too.

The various map views:
Once the route of the destination is calculated, the 3D map screen is displayed and you will be directed to your destination by spoken and visual instructions. The map button cycles you through the 3D map, 2D map, Traffic Overview, Route Overview and Turn by Turn screens. The 3D map screen displays your current location and follows your direction of travel. 2D map shows your current position if a GPS fix is active and the surrounding street names. If the route has been calculated, the route and turns are highlighted. The 2D map screen follows your direction of travel unless the Map display preference is set to north. The Traffic Overview screen displays a general overview of the traffic situation on your route, including all the events in the immediate vicinity. With the Turn by Turn screen, you get to know the next four turns of your route, the turn direction, street name and distance to turn.
Just tap and drag the screen to move across the map and just tap over the map to view the map menu. There are number of shortcut buttons available on the display to help you with various requirements. These information include, next instruction, direction and distance of the next turn, route, current position, final destination, traffic system status, speed indicator, status bar, main menu, distance and time information, upcoming turns, cancel route, zoom, map and the miscellaneous information like Mute/unmute volume, TMC, battery and GPS.

Avoid and Unavoid area:
You can choose to avoid an area with the help of “Avoid area” button in the map menu. The Navman can calculate a route that avoids a specified area on the map and this avoids the areas that are displayed as the shaded area. However, if no alternative route around an Avoid Area exists, the route calculation will fail completely. In order to delete an Avoid Area, just use the Un-Avoid Area option.

Tripmeter:
The Tripmeter of Current Route screen will give you the statistical information for your current trip. And the Global screen gives the statistical information for all the trips to date or since the tripmeter was last reset. With the Trip Recorder, you can record trip logs of your current trip and the trip recorder only records trip logs if you have chosen to record the logs.

NavPix:
We had used the term NavPix in a lot of places in this review, and some of you might just be wondering what it is all about. The Pictures with a GPS fix are called NavPix and they can be used to navigate to the photographed location. The albums contain all the NavPix and display them as thumbnails. The NavPix can be stored in customisable albums on the Navman internal memory. The details screen gives information about the NavPix. The screen also has options like show on map and time, date and location coordinates. A description can be added or an existing description can be edited and it can be a maximum of 34 characters.

Day and Night Display:
The intelligent feature of the day and night display is great as the F45 Sat Nav Unit  automatically adjusts  the screen brightness in order to make it less distractive to the driver when mounted on the dashboard or windscreen.

The TMC:
The TMC information feature is not available in the device as standard, which is absolutely disappointing. If you are really very keen on the traffic management channel access, you can get the Traffic Cradle Module that is sold separately. The TMC information is usually monitored by the navigation on software and once the data is received, it will be available for you on the device and the traffic icons will appear in the map view. The roads with reported traffic will be highlighted and you can choose to avoid those roads, for with the alternate route will be calculated automatically.

Camera Instructions:
Yet another very useful feature of the Navman F45 is that, it comes with a preinstalled safety camera data to wan you of the upcoming camera locations along the road or highway. This service is provided on a 12 month free trial period from the date of purchase, but you would still need a paid subscription that allows you to download the latest safety camera updates. Navman’s on-site iUpData service enables the motorists to correct the inaccurate safety camera location to make the database up to date.

Performance:

We were genuinely surprised by the swift connectivity made by the Mio F45, especially considering the price tag at which this particular model is available. And we were not in surprise with the speed when we referred the specification table to find the GPS receiver of F45 as the SiRFstarIII. The connectivity established was found to be more reliable than ever, which was made possible with the InstantFixII. The SiRFstar III together with the InstantFix II offers five times quicker and reliable connection than what is average.

The Maps Supported:

The F45 GPS system comes pre loaded with regional and street level European map options for twenty three Western European nations which the Nanman updated in conjunction with the Tele Atlas. If you decide to subscribe for the service, you will be getting regular updates to the maps and also over two million points of interest that will further help out the motorists in getting to the locations even if they do not possess the address.

Battery:

The Mio F45 sat nav is powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery that powers it up for three hours on a single charge. We would suggest that this device is best left as an in car GPS as its short lifespan lessens its appeal for extended sightseeing trips on your feet or bike, unless you possess an additional battery in your back pack.

Package:

The package of Mio Navman 45 has the GPS device itself, in vehicle charger, USB data cables, dashboard or windscreen mounting bracket and documentation in CD format.

Warranty:

Navman f45 comes with 1 year warranty.

Verdict:

The Mio Navman F45 sat-nav is a fully featured system that takes you from A to B in a fast and safe manner with minimal hassle. With the device’s fast GPS connectivity and the brilliantly crisp touch screen, it makes reading the maps a delightful experience. By cutting down the frills that most of the expensive models feature, such as the geo tagging camera, access to the traffic management channels, WiFi, Bluetooth and Multimedia player, it delivers the set that really matters to the drivers, except perhaps the TMC. The result is a compact device with a wallet friendly price tag.

Navman F45 GPS Sat Nav System – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Mio
Model Name	Mio Navman F45 sat nav
Navigator Type	Portable
Dimensions	80 (H) x 137 (W) x 18.5 (D)
Weight	155g
Display	Touch screen
Display screen size	4.3 inch
Display resolution	480 x 272 pixels
Memory type	Internal memory
Map provider	Tele Atlas map data 2009.02
Maps included	Regional: Street-level regional maps Europe: Street-level European maps (23 countries)
Navigation Views	Turn–by–Turn Route Summary 3D moving map 2D map
Ability to add additional maps	No
Voice	Voice commands
Connector type	USB
Compatibility	Windows and Mac OS X 10.4 and above
Processor	Samsung 2450/400 MHz
GPS Module	SiRFstarIII with InstantFixII
Water Proof	No
Additional features	High-sensitivity receiver Auto re-route Choice of route setup Route avoidance Speed limit indicator Custom POIs Photo navigation Spoken motorway exit instructions
Included GPS Software	SmartS ™ 2009 navigation software
Included accessories	Navman F45 In-vehicle charger In-vehicle mounting bracket Documentation Pack (CD)
Battery type	Rechargeable integrated Li-ION battery
Battery life	Up to 3 hours, depends on usage and settings
Warranty	One year