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A reasonable performer, but needs better software
Evesham’s own Nav-Cam 7000 is another Windows-based system, in a smart, compact case with a flip-up GPS receiver on the back. The front panel has a four-way navigation button with centre OK, zoom buttons, plus home screen and destination buttons.
All have a good, positive feel and are large enough to press easily, even with your driving gloves on. One omission, though, is a volume control wheel – you have to use the on-screen menus.
Thankfully, though, once you do set the volume, it’s loud enough to hear when you’re on the road. One other annoying niggle is that the slot for the stylus – which can be useful for setting up destinations – can’t be accessed when it’s in the cradle.
The system includes mp3 and photo programs, though they’re of dubious utility we feel. The routing software is Smart2go, which we’d not come across before.
It includes information on safety cameras, which you can update from the Evesham website free of charge for six months.
The on-screen buttons for setting up routes are pretty large and easy to use, and the four-way hardware navigation buttons work in the on-screen keyboards, so you don’t have to touch the screen if you don’t want to.
But postcode support doesn’t go down to street level – just five digits, so you need to enter at least a partial street name too. An additional niggle is that some options on screen are represented by small tabs right at the bottom – a little too fiddly for arm’s-length use.
Routing performance was adequate, but a little eccentric – at one stage we were directed off the North Circular onto a roundabout, then back on at the same roundabout, even though the map clearly showed we could have just driven over the flyover.
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
Read more reviews
Pros: Easy-to-use buttons
Cons: Fiddly-to-use software
Overall: A reasonable performance, but loses out because the
included software isn’t as simple to use as some of the competition
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Nav Cam 7000 Review
I used this in the US. I found the unit very up to date in the data that it carried. Nice form and good accessories. Wasn't hard to operate. But, every now and then it locked up where I had to hard reset. When this happened while driving, it was very upsetting, as you can't use the unit right away(needs time to find satellites.) Unit is a little slow, but the only thing I am comparing to is an in dash nav from Alpine. The only other problem the unit had was in looking up a POI. It listed plenty, that wasn't the problem. But it doesn't sort for distance. For instance I was wanting to go to IHOP. I knew there was one nearby, but just couldn't remember how to get there. So I punched up the nav and it found ten IHOP's. But the first 3 on the list were over 20 miles from me. The one I was looking for was only about 3 miles away. And because the unit is a little slow, you can't look up each one to see which one is the closest(at least not if you are already in the car driving). I found where I was going before the Nav unit could tell me. Voice nav could be programmed to alert you just a tad earlier. I missed the exit a time or two. Sometimes while driving, the unit had issues with finding a destination, because the start location was not valid. It never did this while stopped. So to conclude, If they succeed in making the software/hardware(I have no idead which one was causing the lockups) a little more stable and make searching for POI results sorted by distance from current position, this might be a decent buy.
Posted by a94cobra, 22 Jun 2007
Evesham Nav-Cam 7000
I use this device in Canada and very upset with its performance. It looks nice, that's the only positive thing. Can take about 30 min. to get a fix. Software is real crap - often hangs when I leave highway, never able to calculate route - seems that Canada's database doesn't work. Waist of money for me.
Posted by Max, 22 Dec 2007
Nice unit..wirks well in Canada
I got this unit NavCam 7000 from EBAy 2 months ago and live in Quebec. Nice unit. Works great here too...The only thing is that there is no french voice and only one female voice. Does anyone know of some more software for this??
Posted by Frank, 23 Sep 2008