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Basic level GPS
I baught this product 2 weeks back. so far I did not have any issues. recently had a long trip to maryland from New Jersey. was very good and handy in night times on country roads where the street names are not visible. pros. simple to use, immediate sattelite reception. route profile options good.reliable in most cases.3d vision with reality view is awseome.night vision is good. cons. no mp3, bad pronounciation of street names, does not have latest maps.occasionally hangs,touch screen somtimes very slow.difficult to use, wish I could return unit.
The unit is much more difficult to use in every aspect than most all of the major brands which I have used. Most problematic is it is very hard to read the screen because of the gray color and very small type used for the street names. Also, it lists only half of the streets on the screen no matter what zoom level you are using and never lists the street that you are approaching. Most of the other street names that you are approaching are so far to the left and right placement on the screen that it cuts off most of the name. It has a small number of POI compared to other brands. Forget about entering a POI if you don't have the address, unbelievably difficult using the menus. Routing to entered destinations is often illogical. I wish I could return it and apply the $ towards a better brand. At this point I only use it in case I get hopelessly lost.Poor Performance
Based on Amazon Reviews, I was convinced that the Navigon 2100 would be a great GPS choice. I was also convinced that Text To Speech would really be a helpful Navigation Tool. I liked Navigon's reputation. When I received the unit I found it very difficult to set or program my destination. It was also very poor in recalculating a route change. Almost to the point of being riduculous--being told repeatedly to take a U-Turn for several miles when I chose an alternate route. I really wanted this unit to work and gave it every chance to function as it should. The inability to set the destination was a most major problem. Perhaps there was a malfunction or a keyboard hanging poroblem with just this unit. We returned the unit to Staples and got a Garmin Nuvi 200. There is no comparison in the two. The Garmin is so simple to set the destination and recalculates instantly. By far the Garmin simply works and does so easily. I don't miss the Text To Speech that much as I am now familiar with the Garmin Navigation Screen and do just fine without it. At least the Garmin gets me there with exactness and ease of operation. The Garmin is so easy to program and works flawlessly. Unfortunately for me the Navigon 2100 was not acceptble in these two functions.A bit of a disappointment....
I have had this product (Navigon 2100) for about 6 months now, after needing a new GPS unit for a vacation. I had sold my Garmin 2610 in the hopes of finding a better unit in the future. Well, the navigon was not the better unit. The majority of it's use was during a 2200 mile round trip to Florida. During that trip, it did it's job satisfactorily, but not exceptionally. On the plus side, the reality view is a very nice addition to such a cheap unit (even though it's just a picture of the exchange you're about to encounter). The 3D was a step above my old Garmin unit and I was pleased to have such a feature. With such a feature, it was easy to see what streets, merges, exits and POIs were coming up in the next mile or two. Up to date maps, crisp voice guidance and sharp picture rounds out the positive feelings I have for the 2100. On the negative side, the color scheme used for 'daylight' mapping is very plain and hard to see while going down the round (I found this to be the worst part of this GPS). The cheap mount keeps falling off of everything I attach it to (window, smooth parts of the dashboard, etc). It seems that the suction cup is just not strong enough to hold the unit and resist the handling you do to the unit. Crazy route planning at times (going through a town instead of the road that runs outside of it). Crazy "time to destination" readouts (5 hours to drive 150 miles on a highway?? I don't think so). Last, but not least, all of the numbers, letters, etc are just too small to be usable (ex. speed, elevation, direction, etc). I, for one, liked my Garmin's large numbers to see how fast it thought I was going and the elevations. It's safe to say that Navigon tried to put a quality product out on the market, but fell short in my eyes. I might be comparing this unit to an originally $1200 Garmin, but some things on the Navigon shouldn't be the way they are. It's best to keep looking for a low-cost quality GPS unit than to decide on a Navigon 2100. I found it wanting of more....A very good value!
Ok, after wading through these negative Navigon reviews, I bought the 2100 to see for myself and put it side-by-side on the dashboard with the TomTom 130-S and the Garmin Nuvi 200. Each was in the $150 range, so price is not a factor here. Each has a 3.5" screen. 1. The voiced street names in the TomTom and Navigon beats the Garmin 200 which lacks text-to-speech in this price class. 2. Each of the three gives you one free software/map update right out of the box. 3. The Navigon fee-based updated POI's is not as user-friendly as the TomTom, which has a web site with many free databases. Garmin has the capability to add databases too, but most of them are also fee-based. 4. The complaint of a "gray land" basemap on the Navigon is only a personal opinion of reviewers here. The gray basemap, in my opinion, is far less distracting than the multicolor eye candy of the TomTom and Garmin. It's a map people, not a Disney cartoon. 5. Battery life is comparable in all three. 6. Only TomTom gives you the USB cable in the box, though it's necessary for all three to interface with your computer and the companies' Web sites. How cheap of Navigon and Garmin! 7. It would have been nice to have the sexy, modernistic car mount of the Navigon 5100 and 7100 packed with the 2100 instead of the clunky Erector set version. But the new TomTom fold-flat, low-profile mount beats all GPS mounts on the market today. 8. Only the Garmin handles "pedestrian mode" well. TomTom doesn't have that option, and Navigon gets totally confused traveling at a slow walk. But really, use breadcrumbs if you can't find your way back home jogging. None of these three GPS units guide me with the best possible route. NONE! But, until you can program your own desired route and save it for future use, we'll have to settle for each of their quirky route calculations. Conclusion: Of the three, Navigon's "traffic report" capability puts it ahead of TomTom and Garmin in terms of features. But that costs an additional $99 list. Using all three, I rank the TomTom #1, the Navigon #2, and the over-rated Garmin #3. Obviously, Garmin has a good reputation, but it's also obvious that Navigon and TomTom are working harder to bring the GPS buyer more features at better price points. As far as the Navigon being difficult to operate: figuring out how to program -each- of these GPS units takes a little time, but folks, it's not rocket surgery.Keyword : tomtom
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