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Navman iCN 510 32MB GPS NavigatorUser Review: - Adequate product for the priceI have a Garmin GPS V and the iCN 510. As comparing to the Garmin GPS V that I have, I found the followings on the iCN510: Pros: 1. Sleek, light weight design. 2. Touch creen with color is awesome. 3. Great price ( I got it for $300 from Outpost). Cons: Despite the above statements, the search function of this high-tech design equipment is very very BAD as comparing to that of the traditional-looking GPS V. Please read the following scenarios: 1. Failed to find a specific address. For examples, enter 80 Saratoga Avenue, Santa Clara, CA (this is the existing valid address of the AAA office in Santa Clara). However, the gps will show you that the house number is out of range (no match). It only allows you to enter the number 153 and above. The rate of failure to find a valid address number is 40%. 2. Failed to find a cross street (look up by intersection). For example, try to find Market street and 7th street. Enter Market street as the first street then the gps will show that Market only have 3 cross street whereas Market actually cut across at least a dozen other streets. This shortcoming happen at 65% of the time. 3. Failed to find a highway exit. For example, if someone gives you a direction by saying that he is at the intersection of I-280 and Saratoga street, then you'd better ask for more information because this unit is absolutely not capable of finding an address that way, unlike the GPS V. The failure rate in this category is 99%. In conclusions, I give the unit 3 stars until Navman fix this problem that I've already submitted to them. They admitted the bug and said they will be working on it. User Review:  - Software issues make this GPS a unit to avoidI initially reviewed this item after purchasing it and was very impressed with it. However, after a month of use I am giving this 2 stars, mainly for the great display. Software issues make this GPS useless, please read my updated post below: I bought this several months ago after using the Hertz navigation in a rental. I know the Magellan is based on that unit, but I decided to give the Navman a try for the price. At first I was very happy with the unit. It was small and compact, came with good accessories (like a window mount), and the maps were fairly easy to download to the unit. Navigation was pretty good, and the screen was and still is the best feature of this GPS. However, I experienced multiple problems with the Navman icN 510, and some were not forgiveable. To start, you can't locate Points of Interest (POI) in regard to the location you are currently in. Even when you do locate a POI by typing the name of it in (you have to know the name, it doesn't show you what's available), the HUGE capital letters almost always run off the right side of the screen so that you can't tell which one you're looking at, and there is no way to see the entire word without selecting it. If it's the wrong one, you have to go through the entire process again. For example, if you looked up "Wal-Mart" in Jackson, MS you would see about 10 listings, but all you would see is "WAL-MART JACKSO..." and never the rest of the address. This alone drove me nuts, but I had the most trouble with the software for the navigation. Periodically the unit would freeze, requiring a cold-start reboot. This generally wasn't too big an issue until once after a reboot the GPS came back up and it had lost the map info I placed on the SD card. So I was 3 hours from home, heading to a destination I was relying on the GPS to get me to when suddenly I had no map info. Because the maps are stored on an SD card I could not use the unit until I returned home and reloaded the maps. After this incident I returned the unit. Navman makes some very nice GPS units, and maybe the newer, nicer units are the way to go. Unfortunately, this GPS unit is not worth the money at any price. User Review:  - Never Buy From Navman AgainRemeber this.... THis company is run by baboons (check previous reviews of their products). Their customer support service is insaine. Once the customer support voicemailbox was full for a week. So no customer could get through. They lie about things they promise in emails. Maps always outadated. GPS position can't hold even on clear days. STAY AWAY FROM NAVMAN!!! User Review:  - Adequate for the moneyI did a lot of research before buying a GPS system for my car. I also considered the Garmin 2610/2620, the Garmin Quest and the Magellan Roadmate 700 and 300. I quickly eliminated the Magellan after almost every review I read pointed to Garmin as the superior GPS maker. However I ended up buying the iCN 510 for several reasons: - The Garmin 2620 is too expensive and it will be very expensive to replace the built-in hard drive should something wrong happen. - The Garmin Quest has two limitations: Memory cannot be expanded and the screen is too small. - The Garmin 2610 seems like a perfect choice, except it is fairly bulky and does not have an internal battery (making out-of-car usage impossible). In the end, I bought an iCN 510 from Fry's after the recommendation from a co-worker. I've been using it for 2 weeks now in the SF Bay Area, and have been generally pleased with it. Pros: - Small and portable, yet its screen is very easy to see. - Internal battery, so for short trips I don't even connect it to the car charger. My experience seems to indicate a battery usage of about 3 hours. - Touch screen. - SD memory expansion. I downloaded the California and Nevada maps to my 256 MB SD card. The three maps (2 for California) took about 30 minutes to download and took up ~90 MB. - Windshield mount seems pretty secure and can be easily moved from car to car. I tested the unit in 2 cars. Thanks to its internal battery, I was able to position the unit anywhere on the windshield instead of being constrained by the car cord. - In general pretty fast to acquire satellite signals even on a cloudy rainy night (<30 sec). However if you turn the unit on while driving on the highway, it may take several minutes for the satellites to find you. - If you miss a turn, Navman quickly recalculates a new route (within 30 sec). Cons: - The map has some errors. Last night I was driving to a restaurant. Navman wanted me to make a left turn into a shopping center while the restaurant was on the right side of the street. - The voice directions are clear, but are sometimes inaccurate. On highway 680 south bound, Navman tells me to "keep left" just before the Mission Blvd exit when the exit is actually on the right. However, it correctly tells me to "exit right" at the exit. If I do not know that section of the highway, there will be no way to merge across 3 lanes of traffic in time to make the exit. - The user interface can be improved. You have to toggle through the menus one at a time instead of being able to bring up a list of choices. - The satellite accuracy is a bit off. As a previous reviewer noted, sometimes Navman cannot pinpoint the exact address. When I park my car on my driveway, Navman lists my neighbor's street number about 50 feet down the road. Unless some major bug comes up, I will not return the unit. For the price I paid ($350 inc. tax), it does its job adequately. After all, it will get you to where you want to go. User Review: - Worth every pennyHave it for more than a week. Bought it from Outp--t.com for less than $380 with a 512MB SD card. For that price, no other in-car GPS can beat the value of iCN 510. The unit works great and it's very useful for my wife who travels a lot to clients. The only problem I noticed so far is that the unit will freeze when signal lost after you passed through tunnel or covered roadway. It has a hard time to lock in the GPS again and it needed to be reboot. Also, since this unit is based on a PDA, it can't be left in the car during extreme heat or cold. Unlike my radar detector, I have to remove the unit everytime I leave my car overnight in this cold weather. That's why I give this product 4 stars instead of 5. |
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