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Whether or not route-planning devices for cars are coming of age, they are certainly becoming more commonplace and a good deal cheaper. Navman is a significant player in this market and its latest gizmo looks to add GPS to your journey for £299.
To use the GPS 4410, you need a Pocket PC-equipped handheld computer with Bluetooth capability. That realistically adds a further £200 to the price at the very minimum but at £500, it's still one of the cheaper GPS route planners on the market. If you have a Pocket PC already, it's pretty cheap. What your £299 gets you is a GPS transceiver and some software.
The transceiver sends GPS data to your handheld computer via Bluetooth and the software tells you where you are and how to get to where you want to be.
One of the most significant improvements with this Navman device over others we have seen is regarding the software. The newest version of the application, which is installed onto your handheld computer, includes SmartST V2. The V1 version wasn't too awful, although features such as searching for a destination using a postcode were sadly beyond it. The whole software package seems to operate a bit more snappily now, but that will depend to a large extent on how capable your Bluetooth-equipped handheld computer is. You'll also need plenty of memory cards for your handheld if you want to keep more than a couple of maps handy.
Using the Navman is pretty simple but if you are used to managing a bespoke GPS device rather than one that connects to a handheld computer, you may find it a bit cumbersome. As handheld-based solutions go, however, we quite liked it - although we couldn't make the installation in either of the cars we tried look very handsome. The use of Bluetooth and battery power keeps wiring to a minimum, but you still have both handheld and GPS devices poking out of your dashboard.
Contact: Navman 01293 449882
www.navman.com
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