The Navman GPS 3450 for handhelds is a convenient, powerful and easy-to-use personal navigation solution. Whether driving across country, walking around town or anything in between, the Navman GPS 3450 includes everything needed to turn a HP iPAQ Pocket PC into a complete navigation system. Works with the iPAQ H3600, H3700, H3800, H3900, H5400 and H5500 series. Includes a windshield mounting bracket and a vehicle power adapter.
1 An unqualified product
I am going to return this item. I was even inclided to mark the product as defective when choosing the return reasons. This product is really bad at:
1) The GPS continues to lose signal. Even if I have updated the GPS firmware accordingly to the company's website. In many open places, it took more than 3-5 minutes to get a satellite fix and then it lost soon.
2) I am in New Jersey, however, the address of my doctor can't be found in the map.
3) Most amazingly, the car cigratte ligher adaptor cannot be fit into the GPS backpack. After contacting the NAVMAN support, the guy asked me to buy another IPAQ accessary separately. I just wonder, had they tried it before they made this product?
4) The customer support of NAVMAN is really bad. I sent email to them and wait for almst a week and couldn't get a response. Calling their phone get me an answer, though the guy was not very patient.
Wang
2 bad routing, not trustworthy
good:
1)the interface looks good, fancy looking
that's it!
bad:
1)DUMB software: keep tell me to "perform illegal U-turn" when I am on i-5 going from SF to LA. It won't re-route until midpoint on I5
2)Exit: most of the time it will not tell you where to exit from the highway, no street name, no exit# (it will only say "exit in 1500 feet"). So if there's multiple exits (especially in LA!) within couple hundred feet, it will get very confused and make the user confused too! 99% of the time the user will end up getting out on the wrong exit!
3)when the highway splits, it won't know which highway it's on if you chose the middle lane. or, it thinks you are on the highway when it's really on the service road.
4)frequent reboot/freeze up.
5)it will take non-necessary shortcut, get people lost
6)won't let you choose the route. Stubborn piece of junk.
my wife doesn't want to use it, my friends who had used it don't trust it. makes me look like an idiot.
should never get this.
3 Good...only when it works
In general, this is kind of a "you've got what you paid for" result. I tried a NAVMAN ICN630 (with no battery and no touch screen) before I purchased this so the comments are mainly based on my comparison of the two.
The major issues I had with this unit are:
1) Poor signal reception -- the ICN 630 can be placed at almost any place in the car and still with a good enough reception, which is not the case for the 3450 sleeve. I'm thinking about getting an external antenna and see if it'll help since I prefer to mount it at the dash board near the radio.
2) Unstable software -- sometime the application got stuck right at the "agreement" page after the splash screen and it frequently requires resetting. Sometimes it shuts the unit off for no reason.
3) Slow map, re-routing and position update -- Well, it could be my iPaq 3870 that is too slow
However, the $142 price tag is pretty attractive and the user interface was pretty neat (such as the 3D navigation), once you overcome the awkwardness and get used to it. Be able to use stylus to enter the address is another plus. The voice guide is audible at the max setting when there is no radio or music. Battery consumption is hefty, so it's not really practical to be used as a handheld unit without attaching to a power source. It comes with maps that cover the full U.S. and Canada. Software installation involves too many steps and user inputs. Map installation is extremely slow but fortunately you only need to to it once if you have a large enough memory card. The accuracy is OK with plenty obsolete information in the SF Bay Area due to many recent developments.
4 For the money--this thing is fantastic.
I wanted a GPS for occasional trips (especially when traveling in new cities) but I didn't want to spend hundreds to get one. I was thrilled to stumble across this, which also offered the chance to get some use out of my dusty Ipaq 3670. As GPS's go, it's definitely at the low-end, but it works just fine. And for the money it's unbeatable. Even if you have to buy a used Ipaq off Ebay, it's still a great value. The suction-cup mount that comes with it is excellent, and the car charger works great. There are a few minor downsides: (a) It's running off however much RAM is in your Ipaq (mine is 64mb), so it starts a little slow. (b) It can hang if you try to move around menus while it's calculating a route. (c) You really need CF memory if you're going to load more than 1 state into it. 256mb will get you half of the US. All in all, an excellent value and a solid product.
5 Buggy software and poor sat reception
I purchased this unit about a year ago for my IPAQ 5455 PDA, which is a pretty decked out and powerful unit. I had installed no other programs, so there was nothing else that should have conflicted.
The GPS continuously froze and I called tech support. They informed me of a known issue with the software and told me to download a patch. I did so and it helped none. On a 12 hour drive from CT to NC, it froze at least 10 times. I wanted this unit because it was supposed to increase my security by keeping me from taking the wrong turn into the bronx off of 287 in NY that I have often mistakenly taken. Instead, I risked my personal saftey by hard rebooting my PDA at Interstate cruising speed and trying to get this thing working. After it crashed twice, I switched driving positions so I could play with it from the passenger seat while my significant other drove, but to no avail.
This unit is supposed to offer great improvements over the 3420 (which was notorious for such problems), but I did not find this to be the case.
In order to maintain full navigation functionality, 3 satelites must be within signal range for accurate triangulation of the position, and as many as 12 may be accessed at one time. It took a long time to acquire signal, then it was lost quickly. I have used other (more antiquated) GPS systems that were able to obtain reliable sat signals much more quickly, so I was very disappointed.
The software functionality is decent, but that doesn't matter because it crashes so much that it is available only for a limited time.
I have since returned the GPS and sold my PDA because the main intended purpose had been for use as a GPS unit. Go with a dedicated GPS such as the Magellan Meridian Color if you want to get into GPS.
6 Navman for HP
I am not a big fan of using Pocket PC for GPS, as you are very limited in drive space, and trying to use the various functions with the GPS simultaneously is asking for trouble. I have been researching GPS'in great DETAIL; I am not sure about cost diffs,but when you can buy the Garmin Quest for ~$475 ($650 list) and get the LARGEST number of POI's at 5 Million where as most only have a million or two. The absolute best unit for a car only is the Pioneer car stereo and GPS system, at around $2,500 with 12 million POI's,voice activation and the BEST overall car technology period! The Garmin Quest is my choice as it gets better reviews the the 2620 that has the same exact mapping and POI's for twice the cost and uses a physical Hard Drive whereas the Quest uses Flash memory which will not crash (I need to double check this but am confident! This also is so small it is easy to carry anywhere you go for driving and walking as it has both, so one way streets are shown etc when walking. It is also a good ground GPS that has Marine capabilities for boating. The only thing I wish for is a model that handles aviation as well as Marine, or a new model ofering the choice of Marine or Aviation! I am buying mine today from Amazon for $475 brand New in Box unless an aviation unit is in the offering,which I will not hold my breath on short term!
7 Good GPS system but some slight issues
I purchased this about 6 months ago. I have had mixed feelings about it. When it works it's great (which is most of the time). Others when it fails to function is most always around loosing GPS connections. The software has improved drastically. When I purchased it initially it came with the old software which has the same version # as the new software so it was a bit confusing. If you purchase this unit verify that you do have the latest version of software. It's maps are more up to date and you can tilt the viewing angle of the map. But it hangs more often than the previous version.
8 Good product - Could be improved
I'm just coming back from vacations in Europe where I used the GPS a lot with my old iPaq H3660.
It worked quite well with the European maps I bough on the web.
Routing is Ok but not always perfect. The so-called fastest route in not always the one suggested by the system.
The addition of way-points would be great for long trips.
Conclusion: Good, affordable and complete (12v power cable + mounting bracket) navigation system. Let's hope the next software upgrade will fix the current routing problems.
9 BAD BUY!
Routing - very poor. It told me to get off a major toll road in the middle of my jouney. What because there was some dirt track which was shorter? Another thing it did was tell me to turn right, make a u-turn and turn right again instead of just continuing on the same road. That's just mad!
No way points - It would make sense to plan a long journey in advance on a PC and put in a few way points. No chance with this Navman.
Unstable software. - requires frequent rebooting.
Destinations - Ahhh this makes me mad. I even struggled to find Miami International airport. If you don't know the zip code finding a street is very difficult and frustrating.
10 Not so good
Positive - its cheap
Negatives-
-Bad at routing-so far it has told me (1) to turn from a bridge onto a road 20 feet below me; (2) turn the wrong way onto a 1-way street; (3) make a u-turn on a 1-way street
-On winding roads, it tells me to make turns when I actuall just staying on the road
11 It's OK given the relatively low price
Just got back from my vacation using the GPS. The software required reboot frequently. The map in some area are not accurate. The routing didn't give the fastest route sometimes. You need a real map as a backup in case the software fails on you - it happened to me on my return trip.
12 Confusing docs, software oddities, missing parts
The docs for the 3450 are confusing. The box says iPaq 36xx and PocketPC 2000 (aka Windows CE 3.0). The internal paperwork says iPaq 37xx and above, PocketPC 2002 minimum.
Application itself is odd. Click on "Exit Application" does not shut the app down, I have to kill it via Task Switcher. It attempts to be smart about taking the street/area you're typing in and auto-completing...which usually results in the cursor moving and you have to retype or delete letters.
The 3450 does not support WAAS, so accuracy suffers. I find that on freeways which have frontage roads or long parallel interchange ramps the location jumps back and forth; I'm on the freeway, I'm not on the freeway...
For some unknown reason when I put the iPaq 3630 into the GPS sled it drops the volume way down. This was not the way it operated when I first setup and tried the unit, it just started today. I do a soft reset on the iPaq, sound is maxed and *loud*. iPaq into sled, sound goes way down. Sound *stays* down if I remove the sled, and until I soft reset.
Finally, injury to insult: the box claims that the kit comes with a 12v lighter adaptor for power. Not. Navman customer service is apparently split across two different divisions. The one that handles the 3450 has a phone number that's always busy.
13 Outside the USA
It works fantastic. I live outside the USA, so the supplied software is not usefull for me here (Caribbean), however I have the GPS Tuner for pocket pc installed and they work perfectly together.
14 navman gps 3450 sucks
their register program prevent you from activate and install the software onto you ipaq. so you are prevented from the first step. it is a terrible product with terrible software.
15 Excellent Product, easy to use
I have a iPAQ 3800 that I no longer use and ordered the Navman with a little bit of concern based on the reviews. I found the software easy to use and install. The device works as well as the GPS I've used on rental cars. I live in a remote area with a private driveway that is about 900 feet long and even my driveway was on the provided maps. The GPS takes about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes to acquire. Once active, I put in an address and so far have been directed precisely where I want to go.
A couple of tips - each one of the maps takes 20 to 40 meg depending on the size of the state. If you have an older iPAQ, you'll probably need some SD memory. You won't be able to load the maps without the extra memory. It took about four minutes to load a 20 meg map on my iPAQ. There are some tips about increasing performance in the manual that are worth the read. When you install the software on your computer, check the website for updates before downloading to your iPAQ, they have corrected a couple of minor error messages that came up.
If you have a basic understanding of how to install software, you should not have any problem with Navman. I found the device easy to use and install. I am very satisfied with the performance.
16 Routing issues with Navman
I have the Navman 3450 for the IPAQ and I agree with the other reviewers who habed questioned the application's routing abilities.
One major flaw I found is that the Navman mapping software has confused a major thoroughfare with the wrong US highway number. Since this thoroughfare MUST be taken in order to get to my neighborhood, anyone using Navman's routing would never get there.
I also noticed that the Navman routing seems to avoid highways when they are both the fastest and shortest way to get there. I inputted a local airport as my destination from my point of departure, and Navman on either "quickest" or "shortest" settings, always maps through a maze of local streets, when anyone would know the quickest route is a particular local highway.
I have used Hertz Neverlost GPS when I have rented cars, and I never had this problem with whatever mapping system they use.
17 Navman GPS 3450 Comments
I have wanted a color GPS handheld for a while. I saw a special on the Navman GPS 3450 and bought. I updated the sleeve's firmware and installed the provided software. I was unable to copy the maps to my 3670 Ipaq directly (the provided software would not see it), so I copied them directly to a flash card. I am impressed with the location finding (usually at least five satellites in about 45 seconds). The direction finding has been good and the voice directions are great, but finding a location entering the address has failed several times leading me to manually find it on the map. The GPS sleeve also works with Microsoft Streets and Trip for PocketPC, but with a slower update speed. Both map programs don't work at the same time, but it is nice to have a confirming map. I use the suction cup to hold a 3670 Ipaq and GPS sleeve on the car window with no problem. I was first afraid that the suction cup and with the weight of the Ipaq would fall off over hard bumps such as railroad tracks, but no problems so far. The power drain form the GPS sleeve is enough that I leave mine plugged into the cigarette lighter when driving.
18 AWESOME
I have been using this product for 3 months already. I love the way it tells me to drive through my neighbors lawn as a shortcut to get to my house. It saves me a couple of seconds, and after a couple of weeks, I simply follow my treadmarks, to have a smooth ride through the lawn.
Another unique ride, took me through the turnstyle at disney, ran through 2 tolls on Floridas turnpike, and paid a toll at my local burger king drive thru. I then proceeded to rent a movie at the local church, visited an aunt at a funeral parlor, grocery shopped at a Best Buy, and went fishing for lobster. They eventually kicked me out of the supermarket.
The final draw, was when the air force base showed up as a local family park. I am now serving 20 years at the local prison, and wish my family had one of these, so they could eventually find me.
19 Buy Anything But
One of my worst buying decisions.
The map loading software that loads on the PC for transferring maps to the iPAQ is unstable. Freezes regularly. Often fails to recognize the iPAQ. Even when it does, after each map is loaded to a memory card it only "sees" it until the next map is loaded.
Once, I successfully loaded a series of maps to the card and the iPAQ could see them initially, but once the sleeve was removed and replaced it lost them. Had to delete and reload them all.
I could go on and on about the problems with the flaky software, but let's move on to experiences once the unit in use. Firstly the ability to obtain a fix once on the move is very poor. It's virtually incapable of doing so in fact and you need to stop the car for around one minute to establish a fix. I have an old Magellan which is far superior in this respect.
Next, the route planning is poor. It seems to want to take you up major roads only, even when the traffic on these roads is so bad they are virtual car parks. It has no waypoint facility, so you can't enter waypoints to force the unit to take you on a better route. Once it tried to take me up a one way street the wrong way. Sometimes though it thinks it is cleaver enough to figure out a shortcut. Coming into my suburb is a big, wide sweeping bend in the road. There is a minor road which looks like it cuts out part of this bend, and the Navman routes me through it. But once you have slowed to take the 90 degree turn required to get onto this road and then merged back into heavy traffic back on the main road again the "shortcut" has cost rather than saved time.
Even worse, the program is unstable. It regularly freezes, and of course this happens at the worst possible time. This requires restarting the iPAQ, rebooting the software, re-establishing the fix, re-entering the route etc!!
I detailed some of these problems to Navman support by email. After two follow ups and one week they finally replied. They suggested updating the ROM image on the iPAQ, a process which promptly destroyed it. I contacted support again and am still waiting on a reply. I have now binned the iPAQ and returned the Navman for a full refund.
DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!
20 Great for the cost.
The functionality is great. Shows you exactly how many satellites you're locked into. You need atleast 4 for a 3-d signal. Easy 1-touch switch over between map modes, shows ETA and other trip information.
Only problem is that its hard to manipulate while driving if your typing in your friends name on the PDA.
Also, cold starts seem to take forever but I don't think its ever gone over 2-3 mins. Most of the time it takes about 20-30sec.
21 A Disappointment
The sleeve looks great, the car holder is solid and well made, but when it comes to accurate directions . . . Navman is often WAY off. I live in Miami, where major road building stopped years ago. The mapping software is about 3 years behind! The software crashes often, requiring reset after reset. Also, the directions don't tell what side of the street the destination address is on! I'm switching to CoPilot. Although CoPilot doesn't have the awesome 3-D mapping that Navman does, I'd rather know where to look for an entrance and not have so many crashes (PocketPC crashes that is).
22 Great way to make use of an older iPaq
I had shelved my iPaq since buying a Smartphone. For $175.00 I turned my dusty old H3835 PDA into a great GPS. Navman 2.0 will direct me to where I'm going right from my contact list. There are a few "tweaks" that had to be made to my contact addresses so that they read the same as the mapping software's stored data. But like most other electronic devices, if you read the documentation you can easily learn to operate this little gem. I really like it! I did make one call to Navman tech support. They answered promptly and were very helpful. (...)
23 Junk stuff!
Stay away form Navman. Ratings as follows:
Product: Rank 1 - junk - crashes often. Need PDA reboots.(...)
Product - want to get back to this one again - JUNK! Plan a reboot at least once daily.
Map - 1 - junk - my house is 600+ ft off the road. Actually - my house is on the wrong street. At least I am in the same state. OUtdated software on web site that rarely gets upgraded.
Navman - JUNK!
24 GPS 3450
I've been using this GPS about 1 week now, and I find that it works splendidly. I've been able to program it with different maps and it always get me to my location without trouble. The re-routing feature is very helpful whenever you wish to avoid traffic jams and deviate from the current GPS route.
I gave it only 4 stars because it does not have the 3D map feature as the more expensive units have. All in all I find this to be a very good buy for the price.
25 Average product
I decided to buy this Navman product despite reading many negative reviews about the product, because of two reasons. Firstly, this was the only product, I could use with my HP IPAQ and secondly because of the rebate that was promised while purchasing the product. I feel really cheated because I bought the product in March and the rebate form I printed after buying the product said it was good for February purchases only. The product itself is really average too, but I am more disappointed about not getting the rebate I thought I deserved.
26 Hardware is great, software is bad.
I have been using Navman 3450 since they came out. I upgraded my software to SP2, but the maps have major issues. Finding addresses that are located on routes is almost impossible. The problem is that most stores/shopping centers have a route address. There is no option of avoiding a specific road or highway. The worst part (possibly fixed now) is that this unit will tell me to do two u-turns one right after the other for no apparent reason. It made me do two u-turns while going from NYC to Boston on 95... I like the hardware, and if I could get it to work with other software - I would be fine with it. But the Navman software is the weak point. I understand that a new version is being releases... except they want to charge $150 for the upgrade.
27 Navman GPS 3450... It is full of xxit.
While you are driving it suddenly stops and the screen becomes frozen. My iPAQ was H5500 which I ordered together with this Navman. Besides, it sometimes gave me wrong direction. I really don't want to recommand this item unless it fixes the problems.
28 BAD STUFF
Arrived broken. Horrible suppport fomr Navman Co.
The product often looses position, maps in my neighborhoob are off by more then 800ft.
BAD BAD BAD STUFF.
29 Works Great!
I bought this thing after it finally dropped down in price to two hundred fifty dollars. Plus i got another fifty rebate and a free 128 CF card to boot! This thing works wonderfully and quickly locks on to several satellites. i live in San Francisco and the only time it ever loses satellite contact is when I go thru the nearby tunnels but when I get out of it within 5 seconds it quickly locks back on! It tells you your speed, distance to go and will reroute you if you go off course from your desired destination! My only beef is that it doesn't tell you elevation which it could if the software allowed and if it locks on to at least 4 satellites (which it always does). I plan on calling navman and ask them if they plan on updating the software for elevation.
This this is so fun and is very accurate and its unbelieve about that i can put every public road in California, Nevada, Michigan and Minnesota onto a 128 Meg CF card! To fit the entire US on a CF card you will need a 1 Gigabyte CF which currently is about two hundred bucks at Costco.
Highly recommended for your Ipac. You will have lots of fun!
30 Best Gift I've Ever Received
I'm a pharmaceutical salesman and I depend on maps to get me around during the day to various physician offices. I just started with a new company in a new territory which means I have no idea where anyone is and up until I got the Navman, I spent 20 minutes each morning on Mapquest routing my sales calls. Now I just finish any needed paperwork and I'm out the door. The GPS knows where you are, so you just tell it where you want to go and it gives you verbal turn by turn instructions to get to your destination. It also has another cool feature as well that you are able to navigate to different points of interest such as a gas station, restaurant (separated by type) entertainment, etc. So around noontime, I just tell it to find the nearest sandwich shop and I don't burn up lunch hour minutes searching for something to eat. It does a respectable job with residence addresses as well, but there have been one or two I had to double back on. Overall it has been a godsend. I would highly recommend picking one up.
31 Superior product, but what's with the packaging?
Received a seemingly 'open box' (damaged box, sticker broken) product from Amazon but discovered all parts were included and had not been tampered with.
The product itself is FANTASTIC. Once a signal is acquired (Just over 1 min from power-off), a polite voice is guiding you to your destination. If you're on foot or have a chance to look away from the road, the interface is simple and easy to navigate.
Make sure to go to the Navman website (www.navman.com) to update the firmware on the sleeve and download the latest service pack for the included software.
32 Keeping in mind what it is, this thing is GREAT
For a multifunctional device like the iPAQ, this adds so much to an already useful device. There are some minor issues with adding a complex program to a complex device (I've had to re-boot my device to get the maps back on the screen...and be sure to allow the GPS to set up for the first time before loading your maps because you will get a stupid ActiveSync error otherwise), but it makes much more sense than buying a whole new device for close to a grand! And you need to spend that much to get a GPS unit with this type of capability.
I have had an instance of address mis-direction that makes no sense to me...Mapquest got it right and NavTech provides their mapping...but it did get me to the right street. I guess this doesn't totally negate back-checking if you're making a job interview or the birth of your first-born, but it is EXCEPTIONAL in the case of your general, every day sight-seeing and getting around.
I look at it this way: If I use my coupon book 8 more times during the course of the year than I normally would because I have no clue where the restaurant is, then I have nearly paid for it already.
I would have paid twice this for the thing and still been pretty happy.
33 Dangerous Device
This unit is being sold by a company that refuses to honor the rebate that they are using to push their product. In addition to the poor customer service, some components of the unit are poorly made and frequently arrive broken in shipping.
The maps that come with the unit are poor at best, and the device itself often causes the PDA to which it is connected to reboot sponataneously.
While not fully documented at this time (investigations are ongoing), the Navman has been purported to cause cancer in small animals and as such can be considered a danger to our precious environment.
For the sake of all that is good in this world - Do not buy the Navman!
34 It's okay but I have nothing to compare.
When it works it is fabulous and accurate. It does take some time to warm up so be patient. I did not need the antenna on a 2000 BMW...and on a 2003. Navman tells you that in some cars (BMW being one) the windows do not allow good reception. Mine went fine. For some reason the first one stopped and I had to get a replacement. Navman USA was okay with the exchange and it went smoothly.
I would recommend it because it has a good screen and is very much on target... it also corrects if you make the wrong turn.
35 For UNder [money amount]it does the same Job as a [money amount]ones.
Ok, drivers...This is a great item. If you don't want to get lost while you drive, or if you need to find an area,...this is the item you need. I got this baby because I hated to not know where I was going or using the MAP. This little thing does it all. It finds the area, tells you where to go, takes usually about 5-10 seconds to reroute. I personally love it. You can view the map on it and then point to where you want to go and it'll take you there. This is probably one of the purchases that I don't feel bad about making.
Yes, if you compare it to the [money amount]navigation systems...this one is not that good, but for some [money amount]it's awsome. By the way, the maps and directions that it gives you are very easy to follow. And the routes it gives you are very fast and not known to many people when they drive.
Take my word for it, if you travel and hate to get lost or/and if you want to feel like a king in the new area or another city, this thing will take you wherever you want to go.
P.S. By the way, Navman's support is great. Very nice guy's and they help you with everything.
36 For $300 this is GREAT!
Ok, I got this baby and bought 256mb SD CARD. On that card I was able to have downloaded enough maps to go from New York to Florida (about 24 hours) Are you planning to travel more ??? get a 512 sd card. That card cost me [money amount], so no biggy.
I love this thing. Now I don't worry if I get lost. If I come to any city, I feel like a king since I know this GPS system won't let me get lost. It takes about 5-15 seconds to reroute. Directions are pretty clear and easy to understand.
The only downside of this item is that it takes some time to input the address where you want to go, and I'd also want it to understand my voice and go where I tell it to go.
Anyway, [money amount]? What else do you want. I would easily pay [money amount] for this item.
37 DO NOT BUY THIS!
I bought one of these. The rebate is no good in that we sent out the form a couple days after receiving the product. MOtnhs later I got a letter that they are not fullfilling the rebate due to it not being received within 15 days.
Also, the product does not hold a position. The maps are way off and it causes my PDA to have to reboot most of the time when I start the Smart St. app.
I WILL NEVER BUY FROM NAVMAN AGAIN!
Oh - yea - I just called them.... the customer service and operator mailboxes were both full! No one to talk to and no way to leave a message.
38 Defective out of the box
I just returned my Navman 3450 because it was defective out of the box. I strictly followed their instructions and sat happily outside for about 45 mins. as the Navman waited for GPS, which of course never happened. So I called Navman Support and they e-mailed a small program to me that was suppose to resolve the problem. Question number 1, why is there a separate fix program available - why not fix the problem within the installation software? Anyway...I installed the fix and received a communications error. After another call to Navman, they determine the unit was defective. Having it in my possession for all of 24 hours and the best Navman could offer was a RMA # and a promise to repair the defective unit. I thought they might just send me a new one while I shipped the defective one back to them. No such luck. So I don't trust Navman reliability, support, or service. I think I'll try the Garmin iQUE.
39 Not as useful as you might think
I can't disagree with any of the reviews here regarding the quality and usability of the navigation software. However, there is a significant limitation to this device that should be brought to light.
You have to choose geographic regions to import map data to your IPAQ before this system will work. So far so good. The down side is that each map region is in the 30 to 40 MB range. So in reality, you have to have a CF card just to start using this system. No problem you say, I'll get a CF card. This will allow you to install 1 or 2 map regions onto your IPAQ, but no more. Because this software needs "7 to 9 percent" of the size of your map files in main memory, you will still not be able to run more than about 2 map files.
If you're going to use this device to navigate around a single city, that won't be a problem. If you don't live close to a region boundary, you'll probably be fine. But don't plan on using this device for a cross-country trip, and find out if you're close to a border (Kansas City is) because if you are, you will have problems.
40 Impressive at times, and disappointing at others
could be a good alternative for the expensive built in systems that come with the more fancy cars. I've driven both a Lexus and an Accurra with a GPS system and this unit seems to deliver the basic needs of a GPS navigation system you would experiecne with the built in systems .
Installation did take me more then 4 hours, I had some bugs with the CD, which I was able to eventually go around. Maybee my computer is at fault here.
GPS typically takes about 40 to 60 seconds to get a fix. (could take as much as 2-3 minutes in bad weather, it is better not to move during the acquisition period. This will avoid getting a fix and loosing it) It does take less then 30 seconds if you've used the unit just a couple of hours prior. Once I get a fix, I don't seem to loose it. If you go under a bridge and loose the fix for for a few minutes, it will get a fix back after you are under clear sky in about 10 seconds.
Routing is OK but quite dissapointing. There is no reason for not being able routes at a level of most on line map planners like mapquest.com. Why did the software people at NAVMAN think that Americans would rather drive in urban areas then on highways. Routing is very fast, which could be the problem. There seems to be a lack of effort to get better routes and to use freeways and highways. If NAVMAN wants not to compromise the speed then they should expand the setup for routing. There are occasionaly some map errors, which may confuse you but this seems to be more of a map update issue which I understand is a problem with all of the GPS systems. Most of the time the unit precise and accurate.
Some imporovents could be made when routing involves interstate highways and parkways. The routes are OK but better insturctions could be given when driving higways. Most highways I've driven in the area: Garden State, I-87, and more.. Exits are referenced as turns. This is not right and it is confusing. Taking and Exit is not a right turn!! Also taking proper lanes during interchanges could be better instructed. Bear Right/Left or Turn Right/Left is not sufficient information sometimes. It does seem that the route on the map (higlighted coure of action during turns and interchanges) has all of the information availble for the softare to give better instructions.
Rerouting is not as impressive as I thought in the beginning. It is quite faster then I thought It would be. It varies from under 5 seconds to about 25 seconds max. Rerouting is usually very logical if you make a wrong turn or miss an exit, but not if you are heading on a totally different direction. It will insist on getting you back to at least part of the original route. This starts to be rediculous at some point when you reach are about 15 minutes away from you destination but if you really listened to the unit and got back on its track it will take you more then 45 minutes to reach your destination. Tthe unit will not always adapt to your route preference when you go off route. If you canceled the route and plan a new one, then you are likely to get a much better route from your current position after you go off route. A quick Suggestion for the NAVMAN Software people: Just start the rerouting from the start, it almost takes the same amount of time any way so whats the deal, you can gaurantee a better route every time. And one more suggestion, you don't really have to tell us users that you are starting all over again, Just play with the softare and get the job done.
Navman gets 3 starst, It still a an OK GPS system. I dought if if any of the other vendors are much better. Graphics are OK and GPS hardware is OK. I would just get some better softare people and get this unit closer to perfection.
41 Great accessory for the Ipaq
Works quite well. Comes with a suction cup for your windshield, power cable to work with car lighter, map software. Easy to install. You can set up favorite destinations or go to the map, click on map and select any spot as destination. Can include or exclude restaurants, hotels, etc. Turn on/off the verbal instructions. Tracks dead-on on the map. Can scale map up or down for details or big picture of where you are going. Pretty fast, usually only has to think 5 to 10 seconds to figure out new route. Will auto reroute if you don't follow directions exactly. Only downside is that the screen is a little on the small side, and not quite bright enough in sunlight. Takes about 15-20 seconds to acquire satellite signals. Sometimes I have to soft reboot to get it to work. Better than buying a new car to get navigation.
