Review: Packard Bell Compasseo 500 sat nav

Packard Bell and sat nav aren't words you'd usually find in the same sentence, but add a £130 price tag to the mix and things start to look interesting.

The Packard Bell Compasseo 500 comes with maps of the UK and Ireland on an MMC memory card and has additional software for speed camera locations.

Setting up the Compasseo 500 consists of loading the supplied computer software and updating the maps through the supplied USB cable. There's also the option to buy additional maps for different countries from Packard Bell, which start at £40 per country.

This sat nav has a 3.5in screen, which is encased in black and silver plastic and has the option of displaying 3D or 2D maps. There's also a night mode for driving in the dark.

The touchscreen buttons are large enough to be used by the porkiest finger, but we found it worked better when used with a pen or handheld computer stylus.

After an initial GPS search, which took five minutes, the signal remained strong when finding and planning routes. Destinations can be entered by postcode, address and points of interest extremely quickly.

Both onscreen navigation and voice commands are clear, concise and, amazingly, non irritating. This sat nav can also play mp3 files, although we're not sure what the point is other than to put another tick box on the feature list.

Although it accurately predicted journey distance, the Compasseo 500 was optimistic when calculating the time it would take to reach the chosen destinations. Three minutes for a six mile journey may be achievable on a motorway, but you'll need a motorbike to get close to that in cities.

Also, if we were to rely on the speed-camera function (not that we endorse breaking the speed limit), we would have racked up a third-world sized debt. Despite updating the Compasseo 500, it just didn’t pick up on any cameras. It also lapsed into standby mode for half an hour when driving on the motorway, and failed to wake up to give further directions.

In all, the Compasseo 500 has many good qualities for a £130 sat nav, including a good screen and fast signal detection. However, be aware of the previously mentioned niggles and the fact it doesn't come with traffic alerts.

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