LG LN730 GPS Receiver (04/28/2007)

Review: The voice messages and the pictures it provides.

Review: After calling LG, and emailing their customer support, I am done with them. I even tried to contact their CEO but I guess he was too busy to answer emails from their customers. I have contacted their customer support only to find out that after spending close to $400 for their gps unit, their maps are not up to date and they will update your gps unit if you send it to them at your cost plus pay another hundred bucks for the upgrade. I find this hard to take considering when I started the process of trying to upgrade the maps the LN730 was not even a year old
I would never recommend the purchase of any LG products if their customer service is that bad. They were very unfriendly. Having been in the customer service industry for close to 20 years, I find their actions very unprofessional.

Review: It works almost like any other but the maps are obsolete and LG have not release any up date and have no intention in doing so.

Review: A trip from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland has the Ferry crossing at 2575km and in reality it is 175km. when LG was contacted their technician stated it was because it was over water and their units are calibrated for road only, As a former naval electronic technician I find this unbelievable statement. No satifaction with technical support, technician hung up on me when I asked to speak to a supervisor. Product has potential but LG needs to get this problem solved.

Review: this unit just flat out stinks. i have never had another gps unit, but i thought it was pretty cool when i received this one for christmas...that was until i tried to use it and it got me lost. i have tried to use it 4 different times and it has gotten me lost ALL 4 TIMES. i dont get it. whats the point of a gps unit if its just gonna get me lost EVERY TIME I USE IT? i used it the other day and for part of my trip it thought i was driving in the middle of a field. then, when i was in the middle of a highway with nothing on either side, the voice told me that i had reached my destination...??? this thing is even worse than mapquest, which will give you directions that send you a bit out of your way to get someplace, but at least you eventually get there. i really dont understand why the lg gps unit is so horrible...anyone else have the same problem with it???

Review: The LG LN730 is my first foray into an auto GPS route planner. An alternative model is the Lowrance iWay 250c.

The Lowrance has been around much longer, and so, has a longer track record as evidenced by the number of reviews that can be found on the web. The common complaints about the Lowrance concerned long satellite acquisition and route generation times.

There are very few reviews available about the LN730. However, I have bought many LG products in the past and have been happy with them. Since the LN730 uses the newer SiRF III chipset that promises higher sensitivity and lower dropout rates, I decided to go with the LG unit and hope that the LG software engineers developed decent route planning algorithms.

The GPS unit has worked well so far. I am able to pick the required number of satellites within 20s or less even in the house which is in the suburbs. The route planner more or less chooses the roads that I would normally take to go to various stores or venues. I purposely made some wrong turns turning my tests to see how long it would take to regenerate the route and to see what routes it would choose. The route re-generation was quite fast and the route correction was reasonable. So I consider the algorithms to be very acceptable.

Someone made the comment that there was not enough volume for the audio. I did not notice that problem as long as the radio volume was kept below ear shattering levels.

The display was quite readable day or night. The brightness can be adjusted to suit that amount of ambient lighting.

I cannot make any comments about the menu system because I have nothing to compare it to. Entering addresses took a certain amount of patience only because I was unsure of how the street names were stored in the unit as opposed to how we usually refer to the street names locally.

The number of POIs seems to be a selling point. I don't know if 1.7 million is a lot or not. I suppose if a person wants to depend on the GPS unit to supply all travel info, 1.7 million POIs may not be a lot considering that we are talking about North America. If number of POIs is important, the LG LN735 contains 5 million items.

It remains to be seen what kind of map support the LG LN series will receive. The units comes pre-loaded with the NAVTEQ 2006 database for North America. No information is available for someone who would like to purchase and load maps from other regions of the world.

I am happy with the LG LN730. It is able to acquire satellites and generate routes fast. It comes complete with mounting hardware, and 12VDC and 120VAC chargers.

Review: Menu options are not as easy to work through as on the TomTom One. It’s much easier to add favourites with the TomTom.
POIs on the LG exhibit odd behaviour: the unit will display selected (check boxes checked) POIs, such as Parking Lots and Parking Garage, AND whatever other POI the cursor happens to be on (check box NOT checked) when I hit OK. So, I end up with a list of "Performing Arts" centers to choose from when all I want is parking.
The device comes with a backup CD for the maps, and a CD that has a “Portal” to install on a computer, but the portal doesn’t really do anything. For instance, the TomTom Home software allows you to access all of the device’s functionality via a pc, which is much easier than using the tiny touch screen buttons on the device. When I connected the LG device to my pc via the USB, the pc detected it but wouldn’t install it. I checked the LG site for drivers, but they don’t even list the GPS as a category because it is such a new product. I called LG’s 1-800 number and was told that they don’t recommend using the software and they don’t recommend connecting the device to a pc!!! I called back the next day and got a different operator and was told that I had to download Microsoft ActiveSync. I did that and the pc now detects the device.
You can’t browse the maps like you can with TomTom. For instance, if you are in Canada near the US border you can’t scroll the map into the US. The map features go blank as soon as you scroll across the border. In fact, when I first started it up and asked for nearby “Border Crossings” (they ARE a menu option), it would not show me any, other than the nearest international airport. If you want the map features to appear you have to select a location in a US city that’s near the border, say an address or POI in Watertown, NY, and then it will show details, but if you scroll down I-81 all the details will disappear as soon as you hit the Pennsylvania state line. It won’t just show you the city – you need to set a specific destination within the city.
The TomTom One is great for advance planning from specific start point to a specific destination – something the LG won’t even do. The LG will only navigate from the current GPS position. With TomTom one I can plan my itinerary from an airport to a hotel or to a customer’s offices in advance and on my pc, and then save it to the device. This way I can see if there are any POIs along the way that I might want to stop at. When I land at my destination and pick up the rental car, I just turn on the device and follow the instructions.
The LG charges form an AC adaptor or a 12v car adaptor. The TomTom One charges from a USB cable or 12v adaptor. I prefer a USB charger as I always have my laptop with me and the USB cable is less bulky than an AC adaptor.
Telephone help is sketchy at best. The telephone menu doesn’t even include a GPS option, so you just push any button so you can get an operator. If you call the Canadian 1-800 # during the day you will get a Canadian operator, but if you call after hours it will roll to the US call centre. The US operators will try to tell you that the devices are different in Canada and they will tell you to call back during the day. The Canadian operator told me that the devices are the same and that the US operators are supposed to provide help to Canadian customers after hours. I had one US operator tell me that since I bought the unit in Canada I would have to pay extra for the US maps. Not true – the box even says that the device comes “Ready to navigate across North America right out of the box”.
The maps are more accurate than TomTom maps and they show more details, like street names of any nearby streets, not just cross streets along your route.