Navigon 2000S GPS Navigator

Summary: For an entry-level GPS ... less than $200 ... this is definitely one of the best in its price-range as it provides some high-end features that add to its "cool" factor in addition to great functionality and performance and being a very cool product overall. Navigon, while lesser-known, is set to become one of the leaders. This is a very cool unit i think.

I personally love it. For me, I like the gray/darker map colors instead of the usual tan/cream background -- especially for night driving. Plus, it has automatic brightness for day/night modes. Its very easy to see and read without being distracting. The design of the screen layout is easy to get used-to and understand -- its easy to find the information you want such as POI's within just a few touches, including by category and subcategory. It has logo's of many common places displayed on the screen when driving by them (e.g., McDonald's, Subway, DQ, Taco Bell, Shell, Speedway, BP, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Walgreen's, CVS, etc.) and icons for other places (without logo's preloaded) displayed on the screen. The voice only mispronounced a few street names... otherwise very great pronunciation. The voice is clear, loud (adjustable), easy to understand, and pleasant (not annoying). The system works very fast to calculate routes (nearly instant, usually taking only a second or two), and is very responsive to touches. Overall, the unit is very customizable with its settings and features -- for example: automatic standby settings; brightness level settings; three customizable quick-access button categories (e.g., gas stations); voice settings and volume; categories of places that are shown on the map; route options (e.g., Fast, Optimum, Short); travel type (e.g., Standard Car, Bicycle, Pedestrian); option to display an icon to show speed limits (on major roads) and whether to alert when exceeding by 5, 10, or 15 mph; and many

The only negatives to this product for me are: (1) the time it can take to acquire a GPS signal. If the unit was completely turned off this can take several minutes! However, if you set the unit to go into standby mode when it loses direct power from the car (or you manually put it into standby mode if you're walking) instead of turning it off completely this much improves the situation. The power button displayed on the unit's home screen = standby whereas the power button in the outside of the actual unit = completely power on/off. Returning from standby mode, GPS signal acquisition is usually really fast, almost always less than a minute. (2) Sometimes the route it chooses is maybe not the best / fastest or most common route to get from point A to point B. You will still get there, though; it just may not be the smartest or fastest way. However, this only occurred for me on a few occasions. Most of the time, the unit does an excellent job of routing you from A to B in the most common / typical / fastest way possible. It is something they could improve however. In fact, if they were to improve this issue along with the GPS signal acquisition wait time, I would give the unit a 100% A. In its current state though I still give the unit an A, but probably a 95% A. Nevertheless,

This is a very cool product! And for the price you really do get your money's worth. I would highly recommend this product to others that want a very nice GPS navigator but dont want to spend too much money. If you're unsure about which unit to buy as I was, i'd suggest reading several reviews (professional and amateur) and going to each company's website to see what all they offer, such as features, other product comparisons, accessories, features, map updates, and so forth... do your research and spend time on each one... and/or if possible go to a local store that carries the product and try it out there.