Help and Advice Needed Please!!

Rick1486 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 17, 2004 Posts: 22

Hi - I'm after an all in one satnav and would appreciate your advice/opinions please.

Basically I'm not too bothered about dearest/cheapest etc. etc. I just want it to work and do the things I want of it which are as follows;

1. Be well made, good looking and not too bulky.

2. Have a touchscreen, colour display and good interface.

3. Be easily upgradeable via p.c./internet.

4. Have the latest maps either supplied on dvd or preinstalled on card.

5. Have street level mapping of the UK & Europe particularly Spain/Majorca.

6. Comes supplied with charger & mounts & hopefully case or have one available to buy at a reasonable price.

7. Is quick to update screens/quick to reroute should I go wrong/change the route of my own accord.

8. Comes from a company with good customer service who don't take the p**s pricewise charging customers for upgrades.

9. Has or has the ability to have poi's, cameras etc. loaded onto it.

10. Has an itinerary function with ability to route to multiple poi's (will find this useful when abroad methinks).

11. Has detailed street level mapping not only of UK but also Europe, particularly Spain & Majorca as we're planning a trip there.

I was thinking of one of the following and would appreciate your help/advice;

MIO C710.

TOMTOM ONE/TOMTOM ONE NEW EDITION.

TOMTOM 910.

NUVI 360/660 whenever we get it here.

NAVMAN 750.

Or anything else you can think to recommend. The problems I have picked up on so far are as follows - can anyone tell me differently?

TomTom seem to charge for everything most of which is mediocre & the 910 seems to have mixed reviews from users.
Garmin seem to have poor customer service.
Navman seem to be behind in technology compared to the others and it's apparently difficult to update their wares.
MIO support is apparently non existent.

Coupled with this maps seem to be out of date, software can be buggy.

Is there anything which really stands out from the crowd? I really don't want a pda based solution, just an all in one (especially like widescreens but this isn't the be all and end all).

Hope you can help.

Cheers
Rick

mikealder · Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:09 am Post subject:

Have you looked at the TomTom Go-710 this is less costly than the 910 but includes street level maps for Europe, it doesn't carry the mp3 player and Text To Speech the 910 has, but do you need the extras the 910 includes?

I have had my 910 from day one and its still on the original mount, which has been the single most complaint from users - mine is still going strong, bulk is a slight issue, but it does fit in the pocket (don't leave it in the car - too easy for the low life to steal) - the 710 is the same size.

Otherwise the 710 would appear to fit the bill, as for out of date maps, there is no upto date map for any sat nav unit or paper map for that matter, they all take time to process/ print or supply so there is a degree of delay in the data - so long as the device is supported and you have the opertunity to load / upgrade the device with new maps (when they arrive) you should be OK - Mike

Rick1486 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 17, 2004 Posts: 22

Thanks Mike, you're probably right - do I need the extras the 910 has over the 710 - well to be brutally honest "No" I don't but it doesn't hurt to have them does it?!!

Do you have knowledge of the other units on my not so short shortlist? I know some people don't like what they describe as the cartoony interface of the Mio, and I must confess I don't like the idea of non - existent post sales support, but it does look like it's got the potential to be a very good unit. I also like the look of the new tomtom one and it may be a serious contender, the only thing that is potentially putting me off of it is the reduction in speed of the new processor compared to the old tt one and is it going to be very slow in processing routes.

The garmin nuvi seem to get good reviews from users, but the map/route looks very simplistic and certainly not as polished as some others.

The navman also looks good but there's something niggling with me about it and I just can't put my finger on what it is - perhaps real world users can give some feedback.

Thanks

Rick

Scarecrow · Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:21 am Post subject:

The Nuvi won't do multiple waypoint routing, but ticks just about every other box on your wish list. Presentation of map/route can be selected from 3D view, 2D view north upwards or 2D view track upwards. Personally I feel the 3D view on most sat navs looks a bit cartoonish. Being quite an experienced map reader, I tend to use the 2D view North upwards option. Each to their own though.

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