S90i Disappointing?

Townfield · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:47 pm Post subject: S90i Disappointing?

I was really happy to have received a NM S90i for Christmas from the family... they've been on at me for months "what do you want for Christmas?". Well when you've got most of gadgets ever made, there's not much choice that does not cost a pretty packet!! Last year I bought our son a cheap NM (??330 or something) and I confess to being very impressed (it takes a lot to impress me) with the product and especially the Navman "solution". It did all of the basics very very well and very accurately - much better than my previous encounter with SatNav - the Acer N35. Naturally when it came to buying a unit for myself I did not look further than Navman's latest range... (well you just might as well get the best you can) so I asked for the S90i, after all its got everything - hasn't it? Razz

Well, having had it out of the box for 2 days (though not yet in the car), I have to confess to being somewhat disappointed!! Crying or Very sad

Though the S90i has all the bells and whistles, it lacks fineness in certain aspects for "a top of the range" model...

1. The TMC aerial needs to be plugged into the side of the unit, thus one has to mount the unit and plug in a lead (and do the reverse to remove the unit) - note this is not made explicit in the user manual. Whilst on other models to which one adds TMC, there is a very tidy arrangement where both the power lead and the TMC aerial plug into the mount. A most tidy affair, which one might reasonably have expected NM to have engineered into their top-of-the-range model.

2. The post code search is quite poor. A full post code typically only covers about 50 addresses; according to the Royal Mail website, my post code covers just 20 properties: 2-14 excl. 13 & 15-29 (odds). Put my home post code (ending 4UT) in to the S90i and it returns 13 street references, including 3 for my street 1-25, 3, 15-23 (odd).

- Selecting 1-15 returns the address for #13 (which does not exist) with a post code ending 4LJ and on the map shows the location of the start of the 4UT post walk
- Selecting 3 gives the right address / post code and the right location on the map (as one would expect)
- Selecting 15-23 (Odd) gives the address / post code for #19 but the location on the map for #3

There appears to be no means of getting the details of my home (#7) with the correct post code in the right location on the map as entering "7" puts me in the 1-15 selection which has the wrong post code. Evil or Very Mad

Further if your house (front door) / post code is not on a road (many estates have roads to the back of the property, the front doors being on a pedestrian area) you'll not be able to locate it in the post code or "street" data base. My parents live in such a location; their post code only covers the “walk”, entering that post code into the S90i delivers many surrounding addresses and links the post codes to the “back” streets, which has nothing to do with the postal address data base provided by the Royal Mail. So if you are thinking about using this device to support a delivery service – think again!! Again this is very disappointing for a "top-of-the-range" model.

3. To add final insult to injury, the protective bag for this £250+ device is a tatty velor draw string bag - even the cheapest of sat navs do better than this. I recall the Acer N35 PDA / GPS Sat Nav included a leather pouch at a considerably lower price.

It is such a shame that an otherwise great product is marred by such stupid penny pinching corner cutting.

Any how, I need to get this into the car and see how it performs on the road and against the cheap NM the son has and my trusty BTST road-side revenue collection unit (AKA speed cameras) warning device. (No they are not "safety" cameras.) If there's anything else worth noting, I'll be back here with some updates.

snowwolf · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 58

Hi Townfield.... I got the s90 for xmas too, and the more I use it the more I like it, when I put in for example "ME19 6DF" it will come up quite a few roads in that area with house numbers, lets say I want house number 45 so I put in 45 it will then show 45 elm cres and 45 lime cres, I would assume it would think that you would know what house and road you will be trying to go to, so you would click on the appropriate one.

I just assumed that would be normal, but I am no expert on sat navs :-)

As for the TMC lead/aerial I don't think you really need to use it, I live in a very bad FM signal area and I get a good TMC signal and not even put the lead in.

The bag is crap, worst protective bag I have ever come across, but I have never used any of the pouches I get with any of the things I have purchased, I always buy an aftermarket pouch, they are always better.

I have tried the S90i out in the car today, and have found it excellent and perfect everytime, it will probably send me one day down a road that was not really the best option to take, but I think they all will do that at some point in time, but it will get you to the right place, even if it was not the roads you would normally take, I have not found this with the S90 as yet.

The hands free mobile link, is great, I like the way it pops up a text message on the screen when one is sent to the phone, the only thing I have noticed is the mic is a bit low on sound at the other end of the conversation, but crystal clear at my end, I would assume that popping a mic in the mic socket will improve this, has anyone else tried it?

I did find on a route today that if you tried to take a photo while it was in a 3D routing, it would turn off the navman and go into the restart mode, you have to switch to map mode before taking the photo, it would then be ok.

I will be calling navman on Saturday to have a chat about this, just to see what they say, I have heard they are putting out a firmware update very soon, perhaps it will iron out a very nice bit of kit.

Townfield · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject:

Hi Snowwolf,

You illustrate the post code issue quite well...

DaveMatthews · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 25, 2004 Posts: 221

MaFt · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:07 am Post subject:

Postcode data is part of the mapping and a postcode does NOT point directly to a house. house numbers are usually calculated approximately - they note the 1st house number on a road/junction and note the house number at the end of the road / next junction. the numbers are then averaged out for an approximate position on the road. remember, a postcode can cover say 50 houses (20 in the OP's case) so when a device says it can find your destination by postcode it means just that - it will find the postcode and have a guess at the actual final destination. this is all down to the mapping though.

as for why it gives you suggestions that have a different postcode then this is just daft really! if i get someones postcode for the satnav i expect to just have to ask for postcode and house number, tap it in and i'm away. it makes a phonecall/text message longer and involves more work to also have to ask for the road name as well to make sure i pick the right one from the satnav...!!! every other device i've used (garmin, tomtom, copilot, via michelin, fujitsu/navigon) will give you the single road associated with the postcode - no second guessing required... that SHOULD be fixable with firmware so it may be worth contacting navman about it!

MaFt

M8TJT · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:46 am Post subject:

My Miomap 3.2 shows ME19 6DF as being on the right hand side of the road on the first slight right hand bend when going up Elm Cres from the West end. No ambiguity. It seems to me that the NM device is possibly not doing a full 7 digit search. Having said that I have just checked out a few full codes in ME19 6D, and it covers quite a large area.
Having said that, the postcode search for my address gives the approximate location of the lowest housenumber in the code. My house is the highest number, so the search is about 250yds out, but at least on the right road. The Mio does not appear to have a facility for further adding a house number to fine tune the postcode search.

xtraseller · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:03 pm Post subject: Fuzzy Logic

Basically the Navman's postcode data is as good as any up to date Teleatlas postcode data. I find it excellent, even in very rural areas, with no road names let alone street names!

The idea behind it returning several streets is that - AS WELL AS THE EXACT STREET - it brings up nearby streets, so if you've been given an incorrect postcode (ie. close but not 100%) it may bring up the one you want. A kind of "fuzzy logic" in address finding

If your house number isn't listed (or its house name) - or it is a rural address, click the GO TO CENTRE OF POSTCODE option, it is very accurate in these circumstances

snowwolf · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 58

I have had mine now since xmas day and I just love it, it has once rebooted for no reason, but on the whole, I have found it a great device, it also has a cool camera, great for spotting new speed camera, if you see a new camera, just click on the camera button and it saves it as a coordinate, as well as a photo.

The bluetooth hands free works really good, good clear reception, also the radio info works well without having the supplied aerial lead plugged in.

Screen is very clear, and only have mine set on half brightness, I like the idea of easily adding POI's which show on the map very well.

The only thing I dislike, is the shabby bag that you store the navman in, they would have been better off putting an old sock in the box.

Come on Navman, get your bottom into gear with silly things like that.

Townfield · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:05 pm Post subject:

@xtraseller

DaveMatthews · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 25, 2004 Posts: 221

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