There are plenty of big cities with traffic problems, but few can rival california's Los Angeles and Orange Counties for breadth of congestion. We might as well link all the vehicles together, make a train and save ourselves the stop-n-go hassle. But until circumstances make it absolutely necessary to invest in massive public transportation, making navigation obsolete, you'll need something to keep you from getting lost or stuck in traffic. The portable navs here offer different features at different price points. Some have Bluetooth, traffic info and are even small enough to fit in your pants pocket. What they do have in common is something we like to call new technology fallibility (or NTF). Mobile phones are famous for NTF. Likewise, GPS units. For instance, one of the navs had us leave one freeway where it split with another freeway only to direct us back to the original freeway after passing one exit. What?! Another directed us to make a u-turn when we knew that a right would take us to our destination. Given that practically all navs will make mapping mistakes now and again, your criteria for buying a nav unit should depend more on features and price. Pioneer, Garmin, Cobra and Navman have tried to make your buying decision as difficult as possible with their latest offerings.
Garmin Streetpilot C550Grade: A-There's a reason why Garmin is the market leader in portable navigation. The company makes great products. The StreetPilot c550 is not the coolest looking device of the bunch, but it does just about everything you would want in a nav unit, including Bluetooth and traffic information.
It's no S1 aesthetically or in terms of size. Comparatively, it's a bit bulky, and though you get a carrying bag for the c550, I can't imagine actually using it - it's like packing a lightweight rock in a pouch. Perhaps this is the price you pay for the features and the market-leading brand name. Speaking of price, the c550 is on the expensive side at $799. But Garmin does justify its cost.
The c550 has a 3.5-inch touchscreen that works exceedingly well. Shaky hands and all, we were able to punch in addresses and get menu commands without too many errors (that is, with the car moving). Sensitive yet forgiving, just what we're looking for in a touchscreen. In terms of navigation, it functioned well enough 90 percent of the time. You'll probably tire of us harping on the fallibility of nav units, but until someone actually verifies all of the map data from Navteq or TeleAtlas before storing it onto these units, we're all going to continue to have this problem. Can you expect any company to check every street? Probably not, unless users can get product discounts for updating erroneous map info on a company website (hint, hint).
The c550 does make up for its NTF with a "bonus" feature - we're starting to see this more on portables. That is, traffic updates. The c550 comes with an FM Traffic Message Channel receiver. It's better than tuning into AM radio and waiting for traffic announcements, but don't expect it to be absolutely up to the minute. NTF giveth and taketh away. Whether on factory navs (e.g., Acura, Cadillac, etc.) or aftermarket (Cobra, Pioneer, among others), we've yet to see a traffic update system that works as well as it should, so take that into consideration when counting the c550's traffic receiver as a buying point. Also note that the traffic info, provided by Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network, is a subscription service that costs $60 annually.
You can debate whether or not traffic is worth it on the c550; but you won't have any doubt in your mind about the Bluetooth functionality. The c550 has substantial built-in dual speakers that allow you to hear your talking partner whether the car's idle or in motion. Pair up your phone, transfer your phone book and you have a little road secretary to help you handle on-road communications. Our only knock is that the manual volume control on the c550 is overly sensitive. Trying to make on-the-fly adjustments to volume for conversations was a test of our patience.
Overall, the c550 is a fine portable nav solution. Like a lot of other portables it also offers users the option of storing MP3 files internally or on a SD card. It's Bluetooth worked like a charm and navigation (including recalculation and speed of satellite connection ) were above average. Even at its retail price it's a good deal. -Ben Oh
Pioneer S1Grade: B+Pioneer already makes one of the best in-dash navigation units with its AVIC-Z1. It learns your routes and takes voice commands. Next year it'll probably dispense a cup of coffee, too. The Z1 is for serious nav users. The S1, in contrast, is meant to appeal to newbies. It's simple to use and yet has some upmarket features.
At first sight it looks like a toy TV for mounting to your car visor. The S1 is 4.1" x 3.5" x 0.7", weighs next to nothing and has a decent 3.5-inch touchpanel display. Equipped with SiRF's Star III GPS receiver, Bluetooth support and a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery, it packs a lot into tiny space. The mounting device for the S1 has a long flexible arm for easy adjustments in different types of vehicles. The suction cup didn't have great staying power, but with a little moisture, functioned much better.
Passengers were able to use it while the vehicle was in motion with zero frustration. There are just four manual buttons on the unit: Menu, Volume jog dial, Map and Power. That's simplicity for you. The rest of the controls are through the touchscreen, which was very responsive and allowed us to go from menu to menu with no lag.
As is pretty much standard these days, the S1 has a preloaded map from NAVTEQ covering the U.S. and Canada. The 1.5 million POIs isn't high but sufficient - frankly, unless you do a lot of traveling out of state, POIs can be an overrated feature. Given how fast the navigation market is changing, one might wonder about the necessity of an SD card slot located on the side of the unit that allows for future map updates. By the time you're ready for an update, you'll probably be ready for the next generation of nav products.
Not that anyone has a right to expect this much in a "novice nav" with a relatively low retail price of $599, the S1 provides 2D and 3D view modes. It does give you estimated arrival times and of course has voice prompts to guide you. Route recalculation also worked very well. We had new directions when we deliberately took the path less taken almost instantaneously. As we addressed at in the preface, we didn't always get the right directions, but the S1 knows when it's made a mistake and had us on the right road before too long.
The above is all well and good, but the highlight feature of the S1 is that it has Bluetooth v1.2 technology so you pair your Bluetooth-capable phone to the nav and use it for hands-free calls while driving. The S1 has a built-in mic and speaker, and phone numbers on your phone can be transferred to the memory and dialed through the touchpanel display. This is a great feature to have, but the problem we encountered was that the small internal speaker was not quite sufficient to carry the other party's voice over the general road noise. In an ultra quiet vehicle you won't have this problem. In an average car with mediocre sound damping you'll have some trouble keeping up with the conversation. Still we'd rather have this option than not. And we'd rather have that than, say, MP3 capability (something not offered on the S1). Sitting in traffic, having exhausted our CD travel case and all the satellite radio stations, we were able to utilize the S1 for hands-free calls during stop and go. -Ben Oh
Navman ICN 530Grade: C+There are plenty of things humans still do better than machines. Navigation isn't one of them - unless you're a co-pilot on a WRC rally racing team, maybe. Let's just say I don't miss the old days when I would have to rely on my buddy in the passenger seat with a paper map in his hands to guide me on road trips. I'd rather have, warts and all, something like Navman's ICN 530.
The Navman unit is roughly the size of a PDA with a 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD monitor and a few manual buttons to the right of the screen. Maps of the U.S. and Canada are preloaded into memory and through the SD card slot you have the ability to expand, update maps and add personal points of interest.
Nearly all of the operation requires the use of an included stylus similar to a PDA. While it is possible to use your fingers, the icons on the screen are too small to hit accurately and it does not react reliably without a stylus. This can be a little frustrating. Fortunately not all functions are solely accessed from the touchscreen. Conveniently tapping the volume button located on the side repeats the unit's last voice-guidance prompt through a surprisingly loud speaker; and the ICN 530 also has the ability to search for the nearest gas station or parking lot with buttons next to the screen. Sadly when potential POIs are listed, the stylus must be pulled out to select one and again to enter it as the new destination.
Route calculation on the 530 was quite fast - only a few seconds to figure out my commute home from work with a stop in between. When I decided to take an unplanned detour, my route was quickly recalculated to get me back on track. All the while, the ICN 530 was doing a good job of keeping my position accurate on the map without the benefits of speed sensors or gyroscopes found on larger vehicle-installed navigation systems. Some of the guidance, however, was not so smooth. Nearing my home, the Navman got a little confused with the narrow windy streets packed closely together and I found myself positioned on the wrong street occasionally, but it was usually quickly corrected without my input or re-plotting my route.
The map screen itself was also a source of some confusion. With many GPS devices the map view will scroll along to keep your location centered on the screen. The Navman in the overhead view could not display a justified north. When you are using the zoom feature the map will not move and you will drive off the screen; in addition, if you pan the screen, the Navman does not display right away so there will be a blue screen before refreshing the map display. In the 3D-map view your position is centered automatically, but on narrow winding roads, the screen is constantly whirling around to keep your perspective in view.
Overall the Navman ICN 530 proved to be useful enough as a GPS navigator. At $699 it's not the most cost-effective option out there, but it did get me where I wanted to go. That's a good thing since my buddy isn't always riding shotgun, and he can't read maps as well as the Navman can anyway. -Ed Ng
Cobra Electronics Nav One 2500Cobra's NAV ONE 2500 wasn't available yet during the time we did these evaluations, so we present it here as a preview of new product. Like Cobra's last iteration, the 2500 also features automatic "compare routes" that allow drivers to view and select one of two different re-routing options. It also offers traffic updates (as with Garmin, it is a subscription service), so automatic voice prompts will announce traffic problems along the driver's route through the routing personalization feature. Cobra has something they call My Favorite Brands, a feature that stores over 600 brands in categories such as restaurants, large retail chains and famous coffee shops, providing drivers easy access to their favorite destinations.
The 3.5-inch screen provides 2D and 3D views and extensive map zooming. An SD expansion slot allows for wireless connectivity and you have the option of using what the company calls premium travel content cards that bring up brand icons on the map, detailed exit services, extra voice options and spoken street names.
Cobra continues to use iASAP technology for faster satellite acquisition and uninterrupted navigation even in obstructed areas such as dense foliage and urban canyons. Having had the opportunity to test their previous nav units we can say that that's been a strong suit of Cobra nav products. Another worthwhile feature is the consumer-controlled speed warning alert. Drivers can set a speed limit and receive verbal notification if the speed is exceeded. For an MSRP of $499.99 plus $99.95 for the optional traffic receiver, this is a well-priced product.