Any unbiased views on this one greatly appreciated.

Faust · Regular Visitor Joined: May 02, 2005 Posts: 210

Can anyone provide me with an honest unbiased assessment of the iCN510. My reason for asking is that a neighbour and good friend of mine was going to purchase a TT GO300 after looking at mine. However, he is going on holiday to Germany and Holland in nine days time and as yet there are no continental maps available for the TT GO. He then went to look at the iCN 510 NavMan in Halfords and considered buying the Premium Edition. He finally decided to get some advice before purchasing and these are the questions he as asked me about. 1. Is the volume level pretty decent on this unit? (he has listened to my TT GO and thinks its brilliant, however, in Halfords the units are enclosed behind a perspex screen with just a small hole cut into the perspex. My friend said the NavMan audio sounded pretty weak, and the staff in store would not get a 510 out of a box for him to try and could not remove the one from behind the perspex. 2. Is the 510 user friendly, reliable, and good at what it does. All unbiased responses would be greatly appreciated as I do not feel comfortable giving advice to a friend on a piece of kit that I have little knowledge of, especially when its going to set him back £500.

djmek · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 23, 2004 Posts: 126

Personally mine is fantastic for the money, I can't comment on the euro maps but i have read that some roads and even countries are not covered.
I bought the UK version at 399 from halfords, and the salesman took it out of the box and went into detail with me on the unit.
Try going in a a quiet time, or call customer services and ask why thay would'nt take one out of the box to show.
My speaker volume is great, I sometimes turn "her" Laughing

down a bit.
I got shown Tom Tom's Garmin's and units with sat/nav that you added to etc (PDA's) the 510 won everytime.
I would recommend the 510 with only one line of warning, some units are faulty, although some poeple just take tham back and claim there faulty cos they messed up in installation of SP1 etc.
I took a perfectly good unit back to halfords and claimed it was faulty (as stated on this forum a few months ago) but they had taken 100 pounds of the price i paid 3 days earlier. would'nt anyone have done that? Laughing

As for the premium edition, check a few posts and you'll see about the maps and lack of coverage for some countries in the union.

hope this input helps :D
_________________
2 x ICN-510 units now, 1 USA Unit and 1 UK Unit. Both working great and set up to perfection.
..............Route Type
Quickest.......Maximum Left.
Preference for Motorways & Freeways...More Often......Maximum Right.
Preference for Urban Roads

ShirleyTemple · Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 1:55 pm Post subject:

I'll second that djmek.

An unbiased opinion is going to be hard to locate. No one wants to admit that they bought the wrong model or that they didn't do their research thoroughly.

I don't think anyone would have a problem with the volume level. Hard of hearing excluded. I use mine in a Mazda 232 with no problems, radio on included. I also use it in a convertible kit car and it's fine, even with an after market exhaust hanging out the back. I also use it on a bike, motorbike that is. But I use a wired FM Modulator which transfers the voice prompts through the radio system. I believe you can also use extension speakers if need be.

I went for the 510 because .........

It had one of the highest ratings in the review section of this web site.
It is a dedicated unit (I don't own a PDA)
It has it's own power supply. Handy when walking up mountains or round strange towns.
It has 2D & 3D. I only use 3D because it makes more sense to my brian and with the horizon removed it's virtually 2D anyway.
It slips into my pocket so I didn't need to buy a handbag (Despite my signature)!
It has a speaker jack (for my bike).
The screen size is 3.5" but it isn't waterproof so I just stick a sandwich bag over it when it p..... down on the bike.

I've just spent a couple of weeks touring around Spain the the French Pyrenees Mountains and it performed perfectly. Yes it thinks a tight hairpin is a "U" Turn and tells you to "Perform a U Turn" to go back again but it sorts itself out very quickly and the speed of the rerouting is excellent.

At the end of the day what ever you get has to satisfy your needs, always bearing in mind that nothing in this world is perfect, especially if it contains software.

Hope this helps.
_________________
Navman iCN 520

Simon1 · Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 5:19 pm Post subject:

The volume is a little 'thin' out of that speaker - not a patch on the TTGo, but perfectly alright for a mechanised voice. The software is very flexible in what it can do, but the TTGo is probably a little quicker at accessing menus you may want. Remember too, that the current 510 only does a postcode search up to the first 5 digits, whereas the TTGo300 has full postcode search which can be very useful.

Navman's customer service can be very hit and miss, but I've read much the same on the TTom forum so it seems they are both letting customers down.

Overall, I think most people would be happy with either unit. The Navman does allow far more flexible route planning due to the way you can set the routing algorithms and the other bonus is that it is lighter and smaller than the go.

Synth · Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 9:59 pm Post subject:

where can you buy these wired FM Modulators?

ShirleyTemple · Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 10:03 am Post subject:

At any Maplins, you can order online at..

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?Criteria=fm%20modulators&doy=31m5

The unit is 12/24v powered, with two legal FM frequencies to choose from. The vehicle ariel is disconnected from the radio and plugged into the modulator which is then plugged into the radio. You simply tune the radio to the chosen frequency turn the 510 volume down to minimum and control the volume from the radio. This does mean that you can't use the radio for anything else but I only use this system for my bike.

"Audia X" do a battery powered wireless FM Modulator which has all the frequencys but is illegal from.....

http://www.digiana.net/product/dg101.php
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Navman iCN 520

Withome · Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 5:04 pm Post subject: Unbiased View

I agree that you will find it difficult to get an unbiased view in this forum.

I did an awful lot of research before buying my iCN 510 and can verify that there is little to choose between it and the TTGo. I was swayed by the size of the unit, as it really does easily fit in your pocket and is not bulky like TTGo. This is worth considering as you leave it in the car at your peril. Various reviews that I read prior to buying seemed to indicate that the maps were more upto date on the Navman but I cannot verify if that is really the case. I can, however, say that I have found the maps to be pretty accurate, with only a couple of recently built roads missing on my fairly extensive travels so far.

It is also worth adding that the Navman unit is really user friendly and is a well made and fairly robust product. I have seen some comments about faulty units on this forum but mine has been first class from the moment I opened the box. There was no messing about, it just worked straight away. Even adding the speed camera database (free on this site) was a doddle and I am no computer expert.

I guess it is all down to personal preference - good luck with the big decision.

Toni896 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 26, 2003 Posts: 6

used the TT with PDA and icn510

TT on the PDA was slow and often hung but had better postcode and rerouting seemed faster. - wasn't impressed hence the change over !!

icn510 - once I got used to the menu options - not a bad unit - although if you got a noisy motor ( series 3 landie etc ) then speaker is a little quiet - in me motor it's fine - even with the radio on.
last of full post code is a little disspointing.
the little 4 wqay button is also a bit flimsy and very hard to select the right option.

maps seem fine - although only covered the north west so far.

me mrs who is the least techy savvy person in the world was confy with the ICN more than TT !

robertn · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 564

If you've got a series 3 landy - why would you want on road navigation :D .
I comes down to size for me. TT is bigger, but gives better sound. 510 - smaller but speaker volume suffers a little. They both use the same map data provider - so there should be no difference there. If full postcode lookup is really important then you may want to sway towards the TT.

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