Sony NVU73T 4.3'' Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

Sony NVU73T 4.3'' Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

3.0 Firmware update FAST FAST FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am in LOVE with this unit! the screen is so large and bright compared to my previous garmin nuvi 350. When I fir got it, acquiring signal and recalculating route takes like 5 minutes, but after I got my free firmware 3.0 cd from sony and update my device, BAM it's LIGHTING FAST!!!! It sometimes even beats the speed of my Nuvi 350!!! pros: cheaper than the nuvi 350 and bigger screen. and BEST OF ALL: IT HAS QWERTY keyboard layout!!! I hate nuvi's abcd layout with a passion, and with this, wow it's so comfortable. Also it comes with FREE traffic antenna and updated service, unlike the nuvi which you have to pay $150 for. no mp3 or anything, but I'm sure people use ipods for that... btw:nuvi 350 recently got discontinued.... cons: no photo displaying ability no mp3 player no bluetooth only uses memory stick pro duo

Beautiful to look but lacks in performance

I have had similar experiences of this model with everyone else here who has posted review. This unit is a pleasure to look at, a very big screen and the graphics makes other brands look like cheap toys. The extra functionalities such as split screen and branded POI are nice touches. The maps and POI seem most accurate but was missing a local new highway interchange finished nearly 2 years ago. However, the price seems a little high given its feature set. More importantly, its performance left quite a bit to be desired since everything is just so SLOOOOOW compared to other navigation devices I have tried. From booting up to acquiring satellite signal to searching for POI, everything seems to take forever. I was trying to show this off to my friends in my car, only to have it keep us sitting in the parking lot for a good 5 minutes waiting for it to acquire a signal and find a local Starbucks. The re-route (e.g. after you miss a turn) feature seems a little faster, but is still uncomfortably slow as you are speeding down the road. Bottom line, if these two drawbacks do not bother you and you are more interested in how a GPS looks, this is the right unit for you. To me, it's too much fluff and not enough substance. 2 stars. The nice screen and graphics keep me from giving it only 1 star.

Brilliant Display, Slow Software

Like others have mentioned, this system has a superb display and the user interface is excellent, but the core GPS features such as locking on to signals and making the most efficient route is waaayyyy below par. We have this system in my wife's car and I use a Tom Tom (I am a believer in portable GPS v the inbuilt OEM car systems because I can place the display exactly where I want to - the installed ones are hard to focus on during complex routes (i.e. Washington DC) in mine. We live in the DC area and the Sony invariably finds the really long and most inefficient way of getting anywhere. On the other hand the Tom Tom has never let us down. I give this a three star only because of the great UI and display and probably the nicest looking portable GPS system. Also, it is very easy to use. But if you want a system that locks on fast, for sure this is not your best bet. It can take up to 10 minutes to lock on, whereas the Tom Tom takes less than a minute.

Good concept, BAD implementation

So I am in the market to get a GPS unit for my car, so after reading some mixed reviews about the Sony NV-U73 I decided to try it out for myself. Now I am a Sony fanboy so I was hoping that this product would do very well for me, especially since it was on sale at the local Radio Shack. Let me start with the good: 1. Beautiful display, bright with lots of contrast. 2. POI's come up on the GPS as their logo...ie If I was driving past a Citgo, the Citgo logo was displayed on the GPS...very cool. 3. The unit will tell you which lane to be in for complicated exits/turns on the highway. When you approach an exit, it goes split screen and shows you which lane you should be in to take the exit. 4. Fairly accurate to tell you when turns are approaching. 5. Displays your speed. 6. Mount is very stick and can move in 360 degrees. Now the cons: 1. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW...slow to pick up a signal, super slow to re-calculate a route, and tooth-numbing slow to calculate an initial route. 2. It can't handle hypens, ie if a house number is 28-44, your out of luck cause it can't find that. 3. Minor gripe, but the RDS antenna is not built in. 4. Takes forever to search POI's by name. 5. Mapping alogrithem is good, but not the best out there. So, if this unit wasn't so slow it would be great. But it was taking about 3-4 minutes to acquire the GPS satellites, and another 2-3 minutes to calculate routes. Not helpful if you're in an unfamiliar location. There are better units out there for the same price. Get one of those.

Looks can be deceiving

I had been leaning towards a Garmin nuvi when I first read about this unit, and after doing some research decided to give it a try. I must say that I really liked it for the first few days when I was playing with all the gimmicks that I haven't used before (my friend has a nuvi 350) like the split screen and touch-gestures. However, once that wore off, the 73T really boils down to a pretty aggravating piece of equipment. The frequent errors I experienced finding Points of Interest around town aside, it did an absolutely horrendous job on a 2 hour trip that I take almost every weekend. There are basically 2 ways to get there: One that follows the same route 7 through a ton of little towns (the slow way), and a faster path which takes two different roads (22A and 4 for those of you keeping track) to do the same thing. I will start by saying that the nuvi 350 opts for the faster way to begin with. The Sony on the other hand, spent the entire 20 miles of route 4 telling me to take every exit and turn around so that I could take route 7. Then, when I had finally made it to 22A, it started recalculating ways to merge with 7 again instead of simply following the direct shot to my destination. I had to enter about 5 different "interim destinations" along the way before it would finally let me take 22A in peace (with an ETA 20 minutes sooner than the route it wanted to take). Short story: I made a wide variety of trips with this GPS while I had it (I returned it today and will be purchasing a nuvi 260W) and more often than not, I found myself ignoring the directions because there is a decidedly faster route that it simply refused to calculate. It has some nice features, but nothing extraordinary. The bottom line is that when I end up driving somewhere that I am not familiar with, I know there are other units out there that will do a much better job picking the best route to take which is what I look for in a navigation device.

Keyword : gps