Review: Navman ICN520 sat nav device

Navman is another well-established name in GPS and the ICN520 is a compact unit that runs Navman’s own SmartST software; the system is supplied with maps on an SD card and a companion PC application allows you to add or remove maps from the card – if you have a larger card, you can pick and choose which maps you want.

There’s a volume control on the right-hand side of the case and the front panel includes six buttons and a navigation pad. There’s a power button, a Home key that takes you to the main screen and a key to cycle through the different map display options.

Esc takes you back to your last screen, and then there are + and – buttons, which control zoom and brightness. These, presumably, were added by someone who reads from right to left, since the plus button is on the left which just feels odd.

Even more so when you hold down the buttons to change brightness, and you have to hold down the left-hand button to move the brightness bar to the right.

The navigation pad was horribly imprecise, leading us to keep selecting the wrong thing on screen. If you want to enter addresses, you’ll be best off using the stylus.

Another couple of niggles – and we’d expected better from Navman – is that the speech isn’t really loud enough, and you have to unplug the power cord to remove the unit from the cradle.

On the whole, navigation was pretty reliable, as we expected, however we did have one odd moment where the instruction was to go straight ahead, but the map display clearly showed a left turn onto a different road.

Admittedly, this is one of the cheaper units on test, but not by much, and we expected a lot more from a company with Navman’s pedigree.

This article is part of a group test of satellite navigation systems. Others are:
Intro and Editor's choice
Blue Media BM6380GPS
Evesham Nav-Cam 7000
Garmin Street Pilot i3
Magellan Roadmate 300
Medion Go Pal PNA350
Mio 268+
Navman ICN520
Novogo A30
Tom Tom One
Viamichelin X930
Top-of-the-range options
The choice between all-in-ones or PDA add-ons
Europe's GPS constellation