What is the best Sat Nav for....

[crzbean]

Having done a bit of research, looking though comparison websites and reading through forums, I'm still confused over the best device to fit my requirements. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have a Navman PIN 570 at the moment and due to its inability to quickly lock onto satellites, and that the in-car charger connector is now no longer reliable, I am looking for an upgrade to a suitable unit that fits the following requirements:

1) Fast and stable satellite locking
2) UK + European mapping
3) Itinerary Planning - multiple stop routes. Note not looking for optimised traveling salesman routing, just ability to specify a list of way points and for it to plot continuous route between these points.
4) Price around 100-150 pounds

I have been currently focused on the following units, but none of them fit the full set of requirements:

TomTom One EU / TomTOM One v4
Garmin Nuvi 255W
Navman S70

Based on current research and previous experience with Navman:

TomTom -
pros - satellite locking, windscreen mount, unit form factor, mid range cost
cons - no itinerary planning (?) and cartoony maps

Garmin -
pros - sat locking, Full european mapping, widescreen, windscreen mount, unit form factor, cheapest
cons - no itinerary planning, semi cartoony, not great voice

Navman -
pros - itinerary planning, great clean maps voice and turn directions
cons - sat locking and system instability (crashes and hangs), bulkier (albiet lighter) form factor, most expensive

I notice that some TomTom units can be "re-programmed" so that the present but invisible Itnerary planning menu can be retrieved, but also read that the functionality has been permanently removed from TomTom ONE v4. Is this possible for all new TomTom One units?


I seem to be focusing on the brands that I know of, so any comments or suggestion of other suitable devices would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[mikealder]

Welcome to the forum, set you sights a little higher for features and for the lower end of your budget you can get a TomTom Go-720 - these were £330 when released and are still a very capable device - see Here and you still get a 12 month warranty from TomTom at £115 its well worth considering, but you will have to order quickly as once this stock disappears there probably won't be any more at this price - Mike

[Tomo]

I wasnt aware that any TT had itinarary planning removed but you learn something every day!!

Maybe try one of the other One versions, my One V2 UK had it on there.

Maybe have a play with them all in Halfords and see.

Steve

[crzbean]

Hi All,

Sorry that I haven't really given people the chance to really respond to this post. I went into Hallfords to have a play with the SatNavs, also had a look at the TomTom Go 730 (they didn't have a 720). Found out that the TomTom Go & Tomtom XL series have itinerary planning.

However...my bf and I decided to go back to the Navman, and have purchased the Navman s80.

Main Reason: It locked on to gps-satellites inside the two storey Hallfords building, where the tomtom & garmin did not.

so:
We now have a Navman s80 deluxe Europe satnav which features:

- (Apparently) good gps-satellite locking
- Itinerary planning
- nice clean maps
- Light-weight
- UK & Western European Maps
- Wide Screen
- Live Traffic Updates
- Hands-free calling via Blue Tooth
- Navigate via pictures
- Safety/Speed Cameras preloaded

All for £98.00 (including VAT). Hallfords had a sale on - down from £149.00.
Navman are also currently running a promotion for free-2009-maps updates with any Navman s-series satnav.

It comes with a 2 year warranty ( 1st year with Halfords, 2nd year with Navman). This is good so if the system constantly crashes, we can take it back (which was one of the key reasons why we were hesitant to buy a navman)


Immediate con: it feels rather plastically-toy-like. (it doesn't come with a user-manual,you have to download the user manual from the navman website - which we don't really mind doing).

So thanks for the quick feedback! I'll keep you posted with what happens and if it does end up crashing.

Thanks!

[mikealder]

Just a word of caution though with the S series from Navman, it can only support up to 12,000 custom POI locations - this might sound alot but it means the device cannot use the full Speed Camera Database from this web site - Mike

[crzbean]

Just a quick update to let you know how my new Navman s80 is doing. It's pretty good, hasn't crashed at all.

Only down side I would say is that the 'Traffic updates' feature...it takes ages to lock on to the TMC frequency to pick these updates up. (I'm talking 20-30min?)...so we've given up trying to use this feature.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this purchase - great value for money !

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