Navman icn 530

santababe · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 28, 2005 Posts: 5

At the moment I have the icn 610 but thinking about upgrading to the new icn 530 I have tried looking for reviews but cannot find any. Any thoughts on this product?
Thank you.

Stanley_Tweedle · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 10, 2005 Posts: 207

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/review.php?reviewId=1526
The only one I could find and I think someone here posted this link already.
There are a few comments here in the other threads.
I've just got one myself but it's too early to draw conclusions. I like the size of it, speaker is loud enough to hear above the radio, Screen is very bright.
Menus are quite fiddly as is the mounting bracket. Voice commands are pleasant and seem a little better than the TomTom 700. Loading POIs is a bit of a pain as you need to use their smart desktop prog to convert them.

I've already disabled the auto zoom as it seems to zoom out too far on the 3d map so you can't see detail ahead. Also the 2d map is strange since it lets the current position arrow go too near the edge of the screen and even under some of it's own on screen icons so you can't see were you are going! The 2D display also doesn't auto rotate so I'm sticking to 3D!

The real test is to use it on the road and see how reliable and easy to use it is so its too early for me to advise on that yet.

Most Halfords seem to have them working and if you can set the route to demo (not easy unless you read the manual first - download from Navman!). Playing with one for real is probably worth a thousand reviews!
(If you are really lucky Halfords might be able talk you through it - in my case the guy offering help just told me to buy TT or Garmin because TT are really good and Garmin make GPS for submarines. Not the guys fault of course - just not enough training and hands on given!)

The pipeline offer posted in threads here is a really good deal at £240 and quick delivery too!

santababe · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 28, 2005 Posts: 5

Thank you for your reply,I have just signed up to Pipeline last night.

malcolmb1963 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 11

I was on the point of buying a Tom Tom 700 as I'm moving to Holland in a couple of weeks when I got the offer from Pipeline.

So far I'm absolutely delighted. I was going for Tom Tom due to brand recognition, I used to work for Garmin about 10 years ago (I think I was employee number 14 in their UK office - who knows how many there are now!) but have thought for a while they got complacent and other companies were able to outmanoeuvre them (especially in UK/Europe).

Finding out that Navman was part of Brunswick New Technologies (who also encompass Northstar) added further to their credibility.

Very impressed so far - so long as you apply a bit of common sense when using it (as you should with any system) I think it's great.

PS you wouldn't believe some of the tech support calls I took when I was at Garmin - the ability of some people to do crazy, even dangerous things whilst trusting in a little black box they knew nothing about never ceased to amaze me.

Stanley_Tweedle · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 10, 2005 Posts: 207

I've just discovered something by accident concerning the 3D map, and is actually of interest to those wanting a 2D map that will rotate to the direction of travel.

On the 3D map view you can change the viewing perspective (i.e. viewing height) by dragging either up or down on the bottom 1/2 inch of the 3D map area. Setting at an extreme height has the effect of a 2D map.

No doubt many others have been doing this for ages but it's really got around a major niggle I had with the 530 (that the 2D map is only north up). Extreme 3D maps look pretty but I find it's just too difficult to see the way ahead.

I've actually set it so it's not quite a 2D map, maybe a just a hint of perspective.

santababe · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 28, 2005 Posts: 5

Thank you for your replies and advise.

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