Sony NV-U50 Sat Nav

[Doc2000]

Hi
been thinking about getting a sat nav for some time for personal use. I noticed that my local Sainsbury's store is selling off the Sony NV-U50 Sat Nav for £99.99p sale price. Although I notice that the Tom Tom appears to be the prefered choice with the reduced price of the sony would that be the best choice for an 'occasional user'. Your advice would be greatly appriciated.
Dominic

[Dippy]

The Sony has worse speed camera additions - can be done but fiddly and not for the fainthearted. Easy as pie on the TomTom.

It has no avoidance of part of a route, where the TomTom has - just a "road is blocked right in front of me" option.

The TomTom has an easier and more intuitive interface to my mind (I have a Sony, a TomTom and a Garmin).

TomTom can support traffic info - the U50 doesn't have that ability.

BUT - that's a killer price for the Sony and you wouldn't be at all unhappy with it if the other above things don't worry you. The voice is much nicer on the Sony (very refined and polite, although you can't change it) and it looks very nice too. Grapgics are better and I think a bit clearer, and the unit is very nice at recalculating routes when you go wrong - very fast anbd unobtrusive.

At £99 if you accept it's a basic unit that gets you from A to B with the minimum of fuss I'd snap one up.

[Doc2000]

Thanks for taking the trouble of replying. Must confess that whilst the speed camera is not of much interest to me, the info on traffic problems ahead sounds interesting. Though it appears that Tom Tom charge a £40 anual subscription, the Navman does not! As I intend to have the unit for a few years perhaps it would be better to pay a little more rather than buy a basic unit, however much its a good buy at the £99 price. Thanks again

Doc

[Dippy]

For traffic, you have two options. Radio reception or dial up via a COMPATIBLE bluetooth phone.

Garmin offer radio reception only. The more expensive Sony with traffic uses radio. Tomtom offer either method.

The "phone up" method works everytime pretty much without fail.

The radio method used by all three manufacturers (and every other player) is dodgy at best in much of the UK at the minute, largely because the signals are very weak. So if it's important to you, bear that in mind.

All of these makes can involve various forms of extra equipment and or subscriptions, and/or phone charges of course.

The CHEAPEST reliable machine with radio traffic at the minute is probably the Garmin Streetpilot C510D from Halfords. I got mine for £199, and nothing else to pay at all ever - but traffic radio reception is patchy.

The CHEAPEST reliable Tomtom with phone up traffic is probably a TomTom One, with a £40 annual sub and phone charges - but it works everywhere everytime. I have one of those too.

The top end Sony with nothing extra to pay was twice the Garmin money when I bought it, but the traffic radio is no better (and no worse).

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