- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 32 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"What's with the hate-fest?"
Pros: screen size, design/form factor, mounting options, blue tooth, dual-view, position plus, gesture command
Cons: unrecognized addresses, slower calculations, inferior address book dialing
Summary: ATTENTION!!! If you've experienced slow or non-responsive in-put from the touch screen, go back and exchange the unit! I had the same exact experience within 20 minutes of installing my brand new NV-U83T. Lucky for me I was still sitting in the parking lot outside the Sony store, so I just went back in and swapped it. This appears to be issues with some units so if you experience it, don?t assume that they're all like that.
Anyway, back to the review...
So I just purchased said unit and installed it alongside a friends TomTom ONE just to see how both would function on the way home from the Sony store in Paramus, NJ to my digs in Queens, NY. For some excitement, I also activated my BlackBerry Curve's TeleNav GPS on the AT&T network.
Now, I know these are not all in the same class but hopefully this review will give TomTom ONE or BlackBerry/TeleNav users an idea of how the Nav-U performs based on what their expectations might be. I won?t talk about the obvious differences such as price, screen size, portability, placement, data in put methods, firmware/map updates, etc since you can pretty much figure all that out on your own.
For me, here are the things that made the difference:
Address recognition, calculation & recalculation after missing a turn:
Sony - 4.5 points (did not recognize my address, had to use ?map? function to show it where I wanted to go and even then, it took about 20 seconds to calculate & 9 to recalculate)
TomTom - 8.5 points (11 seconds to calculate, 5 to recalculate)
TeleNav - 7.0 points (25 seconds to calculate, 10 to recalculate)
Voice choices & clarity (subjective opinion):
Sony ? 7.0 points (2 English options, a gal and a dude! Kinda computerized.)
TomTom ? 8.0 points (lots more options, both male and female. Also, more realistic voices!)
TeleNav ? 6.0 points (no choices)
Number of street names shown on map while navigating:
Sony ? 8.5 points (quite a number)
TomTom ? 8.5 points (almost all)
TeleNav ? 6.0 points (only a few)
Map color options:
Sony ? 7.0 points (very limited. Besides, blue highways look like water ways to me!)
TomTom ? 8.0 points (also limited, but choices a little more ?eye friendly? to me)
TeleNav ? 6.0 points (no choices, although default setting is ?eye friendly?.)
Overall, I think I'll keep the Sony Nav-U NV-U83T as it seems to work just fine. I think I can live with the cons especially since I purchased it with a gift card and didn't really spend any money on it. I guess I'll discontinue my $10/month TeleNav subscription and return the borrowed TomTom!Updated
ATTENTION!!! If you've experienced slow or non-responsive in-put from the touch screen, go back and exchange the unit! I had the same exact experience within 20 minutes of installing my brand new NV-U83T. Lucky for me I was still sitting in the parking lot outside the Sony store, so I just went back in and swapped it. This appears to be issues with some units so if you experience it, don?t assume that they're all like that.
Anyway, back to the review...
So I just purchased said unit and installed it alongside a friends TomTom ONE just to see how both would function on the way home from the Sony store in Paramus, NJ to my digs in Queens, NY. For some excitement, I also activated my BlackBerry Curve's TeleNav GPS on the AT&T network.
Now, I know these are not all in the same class but hopefully this review will give TomTom ONE or BlackBerry/TeleNav users an idea of how the Nav-U performs based on what their expectations might be. I won?t talk about the obvious differences such as price, screen size, portability, placement, data in put methods, firmware/map updates, etc since you can pretty much figure all that out on your own.
For me, here are the things that made the difference:
Address recognition, calculation & recalculation after missing a turn:
Sony - 4.5 points (did not recognize my address, had to use ?map? function to show it where I wanted to go and even then, it took about 20 seconds to calculate & 9 to recalculate)
TomTom - 8.5 points (11 seconds to calculate, 5 to recalculate)
TeleNav - 7.0 points (25 seconds to calculate, 10 to recalculate)
Voice choices & clarity (subjective opinion):
Sony ? 7.0 points (2 English options, a gal and a dude! Kinda computerized.)
TomTom ? 8.0 points (lots more options, both male and female. Also, more realistic voices!)
TeleNav ? 6.0 points (no choices)
Number of street names shown on map while navigating:
Sony ? 8.5 points (quite a number)
TomTom ? 8.5 points (almost all)
TeleNav ? 6.0 points (only a few)
Map color options:
Sony ? 7.0 points (very limited. Besides, blue highways look like water ways to me!)
TomTom ? 8.0 points (also limited, but choices a little more ?eye friendly? to me)
TeleNav ? 6.0 points (no choices, although default setting is ?eye friendly?.)
Overall, I think I'll keep the Sony Nav-U NV-U83T as it seems to work just fine. I think I can live with the cons especially since I purchased it with a gift card and didn't really spend any money on it. I guess I'll discontinue my $10/month TeleNav subscription and return the borrowed TomTom!
Where to buy
Sony NV-U83T:
$144.95 - $195.95
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Amazon.com Marketplace
|
$195.95 | Yes |
|
|
$195.00 | Yes |
|
|
$144.95 | Yes |
|
