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Reviewed by UK Guest, 28th Nov 2006. |
| Review Summary: Good but not i-pod sexy |
Overall Score: 4/5
 
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Review: Bought this Garmin I2 car sat nav because I was fed up with getting lost on the way to meetings because my kids had torn up the vital page on the road atlas...
If you are looking for a no frills unit at a great price, this is for you. Personally I think the sub-£100 is the price point to hit, and this product sets the marker. Lets see who responds and with what.
It has some real plus points: small unit- not too distracting & easy to stow away out of sight when parked, screen sucker is v good and allows close positioning to driver, screen is 'only' b&w but seems easy to read in all lights, v clear sound. The "home" destination being top of the list seems comfortably reassuring as well.
Would I buy it for my wife? Not sure..its my first satnav, so I have nothing to compare, but the interface seems a bit 'clunky' and tedious to programme destinations.
Also, some of its route decision making seems a bit suspect at times. It does give eta's, but they seems to assume no delays for traffic lights, slowing down for junctions etc. I think therefore that its fastest route calculation does not take real world dynamics into account (ignoring of course actual traffic conditions) and therefore favours slower more direct routes over faster longer routes. So even if you choose "fastest" route on navigation options it will try and haul you off motorways through town centres. For example I was driving from Crewe to Leeds via M6/M62/M60/M62 and it was convinced that I needed to head in central manchester at 4pm...!
Also, it has no facility for live traffic updating; but I guess this is higher end functionality.
Webupdater seems to work fine, but the hard copy manual is useless, so i still need to download the real manual and understand how to update POI info. If Garmin is to be believed, the only deli/bakery in existence is Subway....
But it seems to recalculate routes quickly enough to allow driver overide of routes, so all in all the Garmin I2 car sat nav is a useful tool to help the journeys be a little less stressful, but use it judiciously rather than slavishly. |
Ratings
| Value For Money: |
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4 |
| Review Score: |
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4 |
| Recommended? | |
Yes |
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