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Reviewed by UK Guest, 25th Feb 2007. |
| Review Summary: Buy yourself a good map instead |
Overall Score: 3/5
 
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Review: Having travelled around the UK for the last 25 years I have always been rather sceptical about GPS navigation devices. But, I felt I needed better help than the old map books I had floating around the car from 1998. So, I bought a N20.
First for the good side - Set up is easy and install is also simple. Even thought the manual that came in the box is for the N40i version ( which has a camera - doh!) and the in car installation sheet tells you nothing about the rubber suction pad and how you release it..
Now lets see how it works - So I got in the car and tried it out. I live in South west Wales. The first thing the thing tried to do was send me up the wrong way up a one way street in our town!!. I wondered if this was a recent change to the road but, no, it has always been 1 way. Decided to then see how it faired on a couple of longer runs. First trip to Carlisle. It worked out that it would be quicker to go up the middle of Wales. The machine assumes that as a road is marked to allow 60MPH then it would be quicker to use it. Have you tried to do 60MPH to Newtown from Carmarthen. We were both nearly sick. Short story is the ETA was a whole hour out by the time we had gone 3 hours into our journey. Should have gone up the M4 and M5. Once we hit the M6 it kept telling us to keep right, correctly, on a number of major junctions on the M6 but on way to Huddersfield on the return had no knowledge of the M60/M61 and M62 changes around Manchester. Luckily we know the road and were able to keep left as we needed to. Thanks Navman.
My house which was built 5 years ago is knowhere to be seen! The Dual carriageway around Merthyr is not present (finished 2 years ago!) and I found my icon wondering across a green area of land with the Navman telling me to find the nearest road... Brilliant
I have the device set to find us the quickest route but while making a detour over the weekend to do a bit of shopping on the way back it then decided that the route we had taken on our own decision was actually quicker than the one it had initially suggested. Again - Brilliant.
Anyway... look at the base of the N20... A label indicates it was designed in New Zealand and built in China. Obviously the maps installed (and supposedly updated in 2006) have probably made by the same poeple who have never visited the UK.
There is also another problem with the delay on start up as it locates itself. Try not to depend upon it if you jump in the car in a busy town and drive away quickly. It will attempt to send you in a direction which it calculates from the last time it was running. It you have moved before it has had time to re-aquaint itself then it will be wrong in its directions.
What is it good for? As a GPS tracking device - The ETA function is useful and pretty accurate as long as the route it has suggested is the one you finally take.
In essence, I feel that then issues with the device are not with the device itself but with the Maps that are being used. I checked the CD which came with it only to find that the most recent maps are already loaded.
I would not have minded if the mistakes were rare and were over a long period of time. I have had this thing for a week and only made 1 major journey. The number of times this Navman N20 UK car sat nav has got things wrong are just far too frequent.
In conclusion - Buy a decent road map for a fiver at the Motorway services each year, use one of the multitude of Map sites if you need to go into an new town and plan your route and make sure you aquaint yourself with where you are going before you leave. |
Ratings
| Value For Money: |
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3 |
| Review Score: |
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3 |
| Recommended? | |
No |
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