Snooper Syrius

[nuttynurse]

Anyone bought a Snooper Syrius or do you any experience of one? How good is the speed camera database, (states in blur most camera sites updated in 48hrs) the mapping and the customer support particularly? I know TT's are seemingly the favourite but I don't want to pay for bells and wistles, i.e. ipod control as I would rather have a tool that does its main function well. Have been waiting for the promised "Mercury" from Drive-Smart which was to be a combination of Sat Nav and their drive-smart camera detector, but doesn't appear like it's going to happen now so need to look for an alternative. 8)

Thanks for any feedback

[alix776]

the syrius is as good as any navigation unit but the camera database is more expensive

how about a ttone v2 and our camera batabase or even a garmin i3 or the nuvi
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

[nuttynurse]

Hi and thanks for the reply,

I have been looking at the Nuvi 660. A good sat nav is important but the speed camera side is of greater importance. I was reading earlier on your forum that overlaying POI can be problematic on the Nuvi and it doesn't always clearly show POI clearly. Also its can be sluggish updating! Thats if I understood what I read clearly. With TT I don't really just want to follow the market leader, its not always the best. There doesn't appear to be any independent reviews on the Snooper Syrius but it does seem to have the two most essential requirements i.e. Navteg maps and its own Enigma database. I read somewhere that as long as you send them an old detector when you purchase one you get free updates for life (offer to June) I know your own database is excellent and would use this in conjunction with a satnav system other than the snooper if I go a different course. I currently own a Drive-smart camera detector but unfortunately they seem to be going bottom's up at the moment so looking to combine a replacement for this with a satnav. The Becker Assist looks different. Do you know if you can install your database onto this machine? If so what's your view of this. I also like the look of Navigon TS 7000 t, particularly its lane assist feature but again not sure whether you can install your database onto this model as yet so if you know I would appreciate your insight.

Regards, Nuttynurse 8)

[rantipole]

I've had a Syrius for about 5 weeks. In the past I've had a GO, a Drivesmart, a Morpheus Road Pilot, and I currently have a Road Angel 6000, as well as the Syrius. The Enigma database is as good as anything out there, at least for the places I've been to. I have had the Road pilot for several years now. Its a great piece of kit, but a bit over the hill now. Everyone knows about the Go, good machine, but dont use it when the sun shines. Drivesmart promised a lot but delivered nothing. It hardly got one camera right in my part of the world, takes forever to do an update, has terrible sound quality, and looks like a taxi meter. I have never understood how it got a decent review on this site. People go on about the quality of the Drivesmart forum, but they are quick to remove anything they dont like. Its quite annoying that you can buy them new for roughly half price on Ebay too. Road Angel 6000 has had a bad press, but I quite like it. Against it is the following: It has rougher graphics than some competitors, and as it runs on Windows, its inclined to need the odd reboot. I believe there has been a bit of trouble with power adaptors for the car, but mines OK. The sound quality is mediocre, but is OK considering a tiny speaker. In its favour, it has a very bright screen, a good mounting system, is easy to update, looks good and is conveniently small. All in, its a decent device that does a reasonable job considering the price you can get it for now. The Syrius gets my vote as the best overall. It has a big screen, and looks really well made. The Enigma database hasnt missed a camera yet, and is really easy to update. It connects to the PC via USB, and you dont have to do anything other than plug it in. Its detected, the software starts an update on its own, tell you when it finishes, and closes when you remove the cable, taking about 30 seconds. It lack some of the GO's options, but nothing you need. On the road its very good, with clear instructions, given in very good time. Its the easiest I have used to enter a route. It has good volume and brightness, but could do with more colour scheme options. The biggest omission is a "SAFETY SCREEN" over a certain speed. It has Navteq maps, and they are better in my part of the world, although still not perfect. As its runs on Linux, I would think some one will come up with some additions before long. The mounting is pretty much like all the others where it attaches to the screen, but it does have a good range of adjustment. Nothing's perfect, but I would not hesitate to buy another one of these. I paid £275 for this one

[dav_dump]

Fantastic post rantipole. Thank you for that.

I too am considering the syrius, for me its either that or the Garmin 310D from Halfords.

Someones probably already said this, but I found it really helpful. If you go on You Tube and search for syrius (or most other Sat Navs) they are loads of home made and professional video reviews.
I found these brilliant, as you get to see the thing in action and hear the prompts etc.

Thanks David.

P.S. how would you compare the Garmin to the Snooper? thanks.

[nuttynurse]

Thanks for the feedback rantipole, the best reviews are always the hands-on ownership ones. I only ever seem able to find the sales pitch blurb when searching the net which is the same where ever you go and to date you have been the only one to describe the Syrius in use.. Do I take it that by a "SAFETY SCREEN" you mean a warning or some such thing?

Also thanks to dav_dump, I will look on "You Tube" is it? as I have'nt come across this before. 8)

[rantipole]

Hello folks, to answer your questions, I've only seen the Garmin in the shop, it looks good, but the Syrius seems to have more of what I need. Less options, but really easy to use. They seem to have put some effort into making menu navigation easy, which is important when you want to put a new route in at the traffic light, for example. Also the speed camera integration is good. It can tell you when you are going too fast when approaching a camera, using beeps that get faster as you get closer, while just telling you there is a camera coming up without the beeps when you are under the limit. What I called the safety screen is the setting you can make on most nav devices to change the screen to a large graphic of your next manouever when you go over a speed that you specify, instead of the normal map view. The idea is to have something you can interperet with a quick glance when you get a bit of speed up. I guess I miss it because I got used to it on the GO.
Good luck

[rantipole]

I had a look on youtube at the satnav videos. If you look at the Snooper Sapphire video, and imagine that screen added to the left hand side of the Syrius screen, you will have a good idea of what the Syrius does when there is a camera around. All the voices and noises seem to be the same.

Rantipole

[nuttynurse]

Thanks again rantipole for your excellent feedback. One more thing, which area do you live in as you comment maps are good there?

Best Regards, Nuttynurse. 8)

[rantipole]

I'm in Southend, Essex, which has more speed cameras than you can shake a stick at

[nuttynurse]

My brother does a milk run down to and around Essex for Robert Wiseman Dairies, Worcestershire been down there with him once or twice and live by Cheltenham racecourse. Like me he bought a Drive-Smart to help alert him to the bloody things. By the way if you know any Drive-Smart owners warn them that they seem to have closed their forum down. This may of course could just be a technical hiccup but considering the high level of criticism they have been receiving and their failed attempts to censor it over many months I guess this action is their response. We wait and see. 8)

[GJF]

I think your right NuttyNurse they have shut down the forum at DS although their web site is still open.

I did say when we last spoke that you would get us censored.

Ps somebody already had GF so had to add my middle name.

[nuttynurse]

Good to hear from you GF. O.K. hands up, I take the blame someone has to and Drive-Smart won't. Look on the bright side we are opening up our horizons and will have a wider field of knowledge to draw from.

Tim's been in touch also so I guess this will be our new home for now. Lets hope RedSquirrel, mobile hacker and the rest find us here also.

My email is: nuttynurse@fsmail.net for anyone legit trying to get hold of me. I am at present receiving emails but for some strange reason I can't post/send emails. 8)

[GJF]

Hi Nuttynurse, I was just kidding it wasn't anything to do with you just DS stupidity, nothing offensive was said.

Hope the forum re-appears, in the meantime good luck with your search for the "true" GPS.

Subject to info i'm hunting for on the Nuvi660 being adequate, this will be my most likely choice - thanks to redsquirrel i didn't rush into buying the TT910.

[nuttynurse]

Hi GF,

I took your comment as intended and did not think you were really blaming me. Yep I have dropped the idea of the TT910 also and would definitely buy the Nuvi in preference to it. My dilemma remains however. Though I will keep the DS and update it as long as they are forthcoming, what is its best replacement? As a stand-alone speed camera device giving accurate visual warnings with regular updates the "Snooper Saphire" seems to fit the bill. I don't know if you have looked at this model? if not you can see a home video of it on "YouTube" type it name into the search engine. This model is without the Navigation of the Snooper Syrius model. I don't travel for a living and mostly do mundane daily trips to and from work in Worcester covering a 50 mile round trip. The DS was great for keeping me alert to any camera on route, don't know about you but my concentration often strays and the DS would bring me back into focus. The only true combination of speed camera and satnav seems to be the Snooper Syrius. And you no doubt have read "rantipole's" feedback. The only downside is the cost of updates, £99 on top making the outlay getting on for £400. Of course the snooper doesn't have the frills of either the TT or Garmin products but then again we have debated this before. I could of course use the Nuvi with pocketgps own database which I believe is excellent and Tim (who has been in contact with me also) is experimenting with this at the moment on his TT510 and I'm sure will add his views to this site in time. But how well the pocketgps database compares with the snooper one, both in visually representing a camera site, distance, etc, etc, I don't know and so I think I would like to hear from Tim and others on their views on this before deciding.

So for Nuvi Good all round product, well made and well liked, with good feature set, though needing pocketgps database. Cost around £350 + annual cost of database £19.

Snooper Syrius. Dedicated speed camera database and good satnav too. Less frills Cost £269 + life database £99.

Snooper Saphire £199 + I assume the cost of updating the database i.e. life £99. And do I then get a smaller cheaper Garmin satnav product for the occasional journey?


Well that's where I'm at. I could of course just make up my mind and stop thinking but perhaps other experienced users on this site will add to my dilemma and add their comments to confuse me more. I feel a CRISIS coming on. 8)

Karlos from the DS forum contacted me also, I hope he got my reply and will look in here.

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