Performance
Text-to-speech capabilities mean that the navigation's voice guidance is able to read aloud street and highway names, but also means that you can program the device to speak custom messages upon start-up and shutdown. We found it quite amusing to be greeted with "Hello there, handsome" when the car is started and "Peace out, dude" when we stopped. It's a novel feature, but still an amusing one. We'd have liked to be able to customize the device further, for example loading custom backgrounds, but we saw no option for such a thing.
Once we were done playing with silly custom messages, we programmed a destination and took a ride. The system announced each turn and did a great job of pronouncing the varied street names we encountered. Upon approaching a turn, the map display switches to a split screen to display detailed information about the intersection, and adds a distance meter to let you know how close you are to the turn.
The GPS system includes a 90-day free trial of Navteq Traffic RDS, which downloads real-time traffic data, including accidents, construction, and plain old congestion. Users can view traffic data with a combination of color coding of roads and icons overlaid onto the map. Browsing the map, we noticed an icon indicating surface street construction in Oakland, Calif., so we decided to check and see how accurate the data was.
Crossing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, we were surprised when the system chimed in and advised us to be aware of the speed limit. Along with basic map data, the system is also aware of speed limits of major streets and highways and will warn you if you exceed that limit by a preset amount. Speed demons can elect to disable the warnings or adjust the warning limit with a simple menu option.
Arriving at construction icon on the map, we didn't see any orange cones or gentlemen in hard hats. We were about to declare the test a failure, when we noticed that there was, in fact, street construction occurring a block over. Apparently, the system was correct, but slightly inaccurate in this case.
Points of interest selection are loaded quickly, thanks to the flash-memory-based database, but the touch keypad for entering text to search the POI database is a bit sluggish. Fortunately, the system offers a great autocomplete feature that usually guessed what we were getting at within two or three letters. For those who find themselves regularly searching for a particular bank or favorite restaurant, the KW-NX7000's destination entry allows three quick search buttons to be programmed that can quickly find the nearest points of interest by of a certain category or name.
Audio is played back through a 50-watt max by four channel internal amplifier with high and low power output modes, the latter being good for preventing stock paper cone speakers from vaporizing. Pulling up to a drive-through restaurant, we were grateful for an attenuate button. However, we aren't fans of the volume control rocker buttons. Interestingly, we found that volume could also be controlled by circling your finger around the screen, like one would with the iPod's clickwheel. However, this little Easter egg doesn't work while in navigation mode. An actual volume knob would still be best for quick and accurate volume control.
In sum
The KW-NX7000 is a charming device. The proximity-based controls keep the interface uncluttered and pleasant to view. The huge touch screen is very easy to read at a glance when navigating and--thanks to text-to-speech--you won't really need to take your eyes off of the road, which is paramount to safety when driving. To the exception of fast iPod music browsing, everything the KW-NX7000 does, it does well.
The JVC KW-NX7000 costs about $1,299.95, but we've found it online for as low as $899.99. Adding the Bluetooth module tacks an additional $129.99 onto the bottom line. For slightly more money, you could have the Pioneer AVIC-F90BT, which includes Bluetooth, albeit with a slightly smaller screen and a nondetachable faceplate. Still, the KW-NX7000 is a good value for the money, if Bluetooth hands-free isn't at the top of your feature wish list.
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Where to buy
JVC KW-NX7000 navigation/DVD receiver:
$709.99 - $895.00
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$779.00 | Yes |
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$895.00 | Yes |
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$709.99 | Yes |
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