The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
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"don't believe the review" on by feedbag14
Pros: text-to-speech for $149, awesome graphics
Cons: route recalculation sluggish at times, keypad very small
Summary: Stood in line at 4:30 AM on Black Friday (in freezing weather) to purchase a comparable competitor for $99 (Mio C220), it announced turns but not street names which got confusing ... eventually I returned it and got the Navigon 2100 for $149. The graphics are better than anything else out there on the market, and it announces turns AND street names. Don't believe the hype about the "Big 3" - Garmin, Tom Tom, Magellan ... whatever. They might have more control over the market and more slection but so far this product is doing excellent for me and I would recommend.
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"Great GPS for $149 @Office Depot" on by drewhat
Pros: Bargain, Reality View, Free Lifetime Traffic, Branded icons
Cons: no ac plug included, volume could be louder, but its ok
Summary: I purchased the Navigaon 2100 at Office Depot a couple days ago for an amazing $149.00. Regular price is $249 but this week Office Deport is offering a $100 instant rebate. I also own the Garmin Nuvi 680 with blue tooth, photos, mp3s and after using the 2100 for three days, it gives me better route calculation then the 680. Signal strength is better and rerouting is faster and the unit does not tell you that it is recalculating. It just does it. I love this feature. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Read the online manual on the navigon web site. Also reality view is cool and during travel of a planned route you can press the directional arrow to hear the instructions repeated. I love it. I live in northern virginia and it works great. No real problems. Call Navigon support and they will email you a form to complete and return to get free lifetime traffic.
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"Gtreat unit but Routing is bad" on by dahauss
Pros: Free Traffic
Cons: Routing stinks
Summary: I tested the 2100 along with a Magellan 2000 and the magellan stayed on the proper course while the navigon 2100 made me get off main roads, take little side streets and then get back on the main road about 10 minutes out of the way. Also, on a trip starting from my house, there is a very quick and direct way to the expressway. My Megellan gets me there almost exactly the way I would drive. The navigon didnt and I had to go into the turn-by-turn directions and put a RED X in some of the directions I didnt want... Only then did it figure out the way I wanted to go.. Well.... it started to but then wanted to take me another way. the Magellan was dead on with the directions...
I really wanted to like this unit but I think the Magellan wins for the routing it takes you on which is dead on correct...Updated
I did some more testing today of the 2100.. I, again had it side by side with my magellan 2000 and the navigon provided BETTER routes about 95% of the time. Sometimes the megellan had me going in places I wouldnt go and the navigon had a straight route. about 5% of the time the magellan was better. Even though I have though about returning it, I am beginning to like it. I see most GPS units have quirky ways of routing and none are perfect... especially in this price range... and the POI display while not having everything is greay to see as far as actually seeing the name if the place and not just a symbol.. -
"Good, if within $200.00 (with traffic)" on by baivab
Pros: Price, Log-book, Features, Reality-views, TTS
Cons: Bland GUI, bad POI nav. & choices, bad routing
Summary: I own a 2100T (not BF sale@Staples). First off, 2100 vs. 2100T is *T* includes the traffic subscription.
Here are my thoughts -- first off, the unit is small, good-looking with a very effective car mount. Upon startup, it acquires GPS signal quickly. It can be protected with PIN # against theft. The touch-screen can be calibrated. Reverting to factory-settings are possible.
Coming to more important stuff, one can search for an address using street name first, or city/ZIP code combination. The map included covers the 48 contig. states only. Also, it's feasible to store 500 addresses in Favorites for quick retrieval. 1 good feature is defining a route having multiple points and being able to save the whole route combination itself. Without GPS signal, it's possible to review the route in a map, giving TTS and turn-by-turn using *simulation*.
After putting in the address, and assuming GPS signal is active, a turn-by-turn listing can be displayed, where even specific roads can be blocked. Post blocking, the system can be made to re-route and then use that route for navigation. In terms of routing, there's considerable options available. Fastest route, optimal route, shortest route, scenic route, avoid/allow/forbid tolls, avoid/allow/forbid highways, avoid/allow/forbid ferries, avoid/allow/forbid U-turns, mode for bicycle, car, truck or walking. While driving, taping the map it displays a *block* option, which is like .5,1,1.5,3,5 mile sketches, if activated, system auto blocks that sketch in front and tries to re-route alternative route (traffic congesion, etc.) - a very handy feature. Option to switch from 2d/3d at tap of the map. However, what the unit does NOT do (some GPS units do it) is detect your speed and if less than normal auto suggest detour options. The system display on the map the next turn and the turn-after (if almost immediate). In fact, also if it's situation like *bear immediately left, after right turn*, etc. shows both of them, thus it's possible to detect earlier what's coming up. Good feature. In case you missed what was said, tapping the turn icon again causes TTS to kick in and repeat.
In case traffic is activated, which is for life and the charging cable MUST be plugged in, system shows a small icon on map, if clicked shows all active traffic information. Again, can be configured to show ONLY traffic relevant to route. Furthermore, immediate traffic details are displayed on the map itself (radius approx. 2 miles). System can automatically route you thru alternative routes or can be made manual. A VERY +VE point being the subscription is lifetime, once bought - it's forever ACTIVE!! Very powerful feature.
Re-routing, in case of missed turns are quick but read issues below.
TTS functionality has a single voice only (lady) and is of good pronounciation. Nevertheless, there's some peculiarities, which one can get used to. Generally, states to bear left, or keep to the left/right much earlier, gives clear road-names, very accurate in saying *NOW, turn right/left* etc. If there's multiple turns (city) avoids saying each & every road name to avoid confusion. The speaker, however is on the low side. Might have slight difficulty in hearing at high speeds. However, the system uniquely provides an important feature called auto volume increase with speed increase. Very effective. In case you're going over speed-limit and you've configured to warn you if over 10 mph, TTS does do a *caution* statement. The volume is configurable, directly from the map and can be muted too.
The map itself is highly customizable. It's possible to display speed limits, set warning if exceeing limit at city/highway levels and that too at 5 mph, 10 mph, 15 mph above limit settings. Can show/hide altitude, speed, distance to destination, duration of travel, ETA, compass, street-names. The display itself is bright (brightness can be configured, both at day/night levels separately) and has separate day/night views. Note - the unit does NOT switch to night view automatically. The associate time settings are done automatically. The 2D zoom provides another important feature - auto-zoom. At higher speeds, etc. ; system auto-zoom to cover more area, etc. The amount of zooming itself is configurable. There's a button providing further options like browing the map itself (pulling/pushing it up/down, left/right), tapping a point on the map which showing details about that point and if there's any recorded POI at that point, etc. Very good and nice. Manual zooming of the maps is possible. However, locking the map-view preventing changes if accidentally tapped, etc. is not possible. The orientation of the map can be direction of travel (default) or always North.
The Reality-View is very effective. It *kicks* in at critical junctures of travel, where there are complex turns involved showing clearly which lane to stick to, etc. However, keep in mind it's static and automatically appears. Once turn is over, switches to map view. Again the view can be turned completely off.
Coming to POIs, it offers a set of POIs which can be searched and navigated to, from the main screen. There are multiple categories of POIs and each almost always have sub-categories. The search can be based on *Nearby* (if GPS signal is active), *City* or *Nationwide*. Once either of these options are selected, a search can be done based on category or sub-categories. If *Nearby*, it displays a set of choices which can be expanded to include more radius. Similarly at city (by city name or ZIP code) or nation-wide hunt of main corp. brands. Further, there's a quick selection of critical categories at immediate availability for searching is possible - max 3. For example, parking, restaurants, WCs. The search is displayed as a list with up/down buttons and the keypad vertically oriented in the split screen. The keybad is ABCD format which can not be changed to QWERTY. Auto completion is possible and active. The up/down arrows displaying the list are very sluggish and hang quite a lot. The actual icon for the brand-name is displayed alongwith the POI name. Re-tying POIs, changing categories/sub-categories, etc. are cumbersome and inefficient. The database is also very, very limited and does not include almost all major brands but are more inclined to include mom/pop shops. The POIs can be made to display in the map itself and the types of POIs to be shown on the map are configurable, the good part being they appear as icons on the map. My observation is it makes the map very cluttered. Tapping the map provides an option to display immediate POIs in vicinity or route and then adding such a POI as an intermittent route point. Effective but the type of POIs available by default (being low) makes this ineffective. A critical -ve point being users are NOT allowed to add their custom POIs, or share other users' compilation, etc. You can only save the address as a favorite, for your personal use. Separately ($40) a Zagat survey lifetime subscription can be bought - which provides for Zagat surveyed POIs - an option to review the ZAGAT ratings given for the POI in the system itself. I don't have it, thus can not comment.
Pushing the top button causes immediately the product to go into standby mode, thus switching it on is very quick and good (activates the PIN # option, for theft deterance). It does NOT auto detect vehicle switch-off and thus has to be manually switched off.
The cons lies mostly with the POI database, sluggish search/display/modification options available. The next -ve point lies in the routing display. Many a times, it'll display a rather zig-zag route with weird roads, etc. and need to be carefully reviewed (turn-by-turn listing) prior to embarking on the travel. On a personal note, users should ALWAYS use the "short route" option by route-points are within city limits or short distances and "optimal route" if interstate travels. If route is missed, although re-routing is quick - again can be weird and can really take you on a trip down the highway! This is true also for automatic traffic re-calculations. There's supposed to be a firmwire update in January 2008 addressing this problem. On a lighter note, there's numerous others who have NOT reported any routing issues; thus I think it's case-by-case basis and mostly to do with the NavTeq maps being used. A proof in the pudding lies in the fact that many-a-times the system will ask you to take an exit, go couple of miles and then re-join the highway again! This normally happens if system detects a portion of the highway to be *missing* in it's database - normally caused due to extreme compression of the maps itself (to fit into the SD card). This is not pronouced much for 2100, since it has ONLY 48 states of US. But for higher models, i.e. 5100, 7100 - which has the whole of NA - it's more pronounced behaviour. Also reported, in quite a few cases, the traffic, even if activated - does not work. You'll need to talk to support for resolving this. There are NO media-players, headphone jack, AC adapter, PC update options for software/firmwire, CD/DVD containing help manual, etc.
Navigon support - for me has been quick and good, while others have reported problems. Again a case-by-case. They have quickly responded email queries too (24 hrs. turn-around time). -
"Better than NUVI 350" on by JaimeCayo
Pros: 3D reality View, Lifetime Traffic, Speed Warning
Cons: Brand, new in the market, POI (fire departments, Post Offices)
Summary: I took me 3 months to buy this, I first started looking at it on September, when it was advertised on Time Magazine, was going to buy on Black Friday, but wife did not want one. I bought mine on X'ams.
I read all reviews, I like doing research before buying something, and my feeling after reading them all (I went through 4 web sites) was that this had a lot of potential and that a lot of users did not really use it before jotting down their thoughts.
I have used NUVI 350, and 670 before and I thought they were the best, I was wrong.
NUVI takes to long to link onto satellites,over 2:10 (twice it took over 20 minutes, I am not kidding) with NAVIGON it has not taken me more than 2:10 (the shortest 1:50) even on a rainy day.
Comparing the 350 against the 2100 (had them both in the car) the 350 showed the same route, same distance. The NUVI showed a shorter ETA than the NAVIGON, but while driviing the NUVI will go up.
As far as being user friendly goes, I preffer the NAVIGON, its more like windows, and although the NAVIGON is pretty much standard like the other manufacturers, the NAVIGON is really easy to get used to and faster.
The reviews that I read daid that the NAVIGOn took sometime to show the addresses while typing, that is because it shows the options, narrowing them. Something that can be construed as a nuisance, but its not.
The 3D really view is awesome, my wife likes it, now she can drive herself on the instersate without having to call me, and ask me what exit to take. I wish I had the 7100, for bigger view, but its too pricy. The speed warning feature is good, I like it.
The cons: POIs, no Post offices and no fire departments.
Car mount is good but does not have the "ball" behind the mount, therefore you can only move side wise and not tilt it.
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