you get what you pay for with the Navman 3450 on an IPAQ 3955
Written: Jul 19 '04 (Updated Jul 21 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Uses existing hardware.
Easy to read graphics.
Easy Installation.
Cons: Unreliable.
Unstable.
The Bottom Line: I suppose any application can have problems. However when they impact navigation and happen so often I must say I cannot recommend this product and have returned it.
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| pandrews1's Full Review: Navman 3450 Handheld GPS Receiver |
This is a review of the Navman 3450 installed and updated on the IPAQ 3955 after local testing plus an 800 mile road trip.
The unit got us lost roughly 25% of the time by suggestion turns that were the wrong direction or at streets that did not exist. On numerous occasions I would be following the Navman route I would prepare for an upcoming left turn. At the intersection, waiting for the left turn signal, the Navman would suddenly change the route to a right turn. Obviously this is not the best place for this change to happen. Although I don’t have proof of this I believe the Navman can have some trouble determining your direction of travel once you come to a stop. It should use your last known heading but since the satellites triangulate your position and if the Navman has a hiccup the software may lose its reference. Like I said, I really don’t know what the issue was but it did happen on quite a few occasions.
On a possible related issue the software frequently lost its satellite fix and as luck would have it, at very inopportune times then would take 30 to 60 seconds to re-acquire. In the case where you are at a critical navigation point you may not be able to sit still until the unit catches up to your position.
The reliability of the directions was much lower than I expected. I did about 10 tests around my home to see how the unit would route me to destinations then back to my house. In one case the software had me turn right at an intersection then 50 feet later turn left into a gas station followed by losing its heading. Once it recalculated the software suggested I return to the original route. Had I not been familiar with the area at best I would have been inconvenienced since the software took me on very indirect routes. At worst I found myself angry when the unit routed me in circles or to roads that did not exist or off the main route only to have me do a “legal U turn” to get back on the same original route.
I then took it on an 800 mile trip to and from Minnesota where the unit could not calculate estimated time of arrival properly even though it has ground speed and distance correctly. It also suggested a route that left the interstate highway that would take us 15 miles out of the way and through heavy urban congestion rather than staying on the interstate. We ignored the Navman suggestion and used our traditional paper maps
Each state map is about 35 to 40 mb in size which uses up CF memory quickly. I used a 256mb cartridge and it held 6 maps. The detail of the maps is pretty good and the Navman allows you to pan and zoom them easily. While zoomed in you can press on the screen and set that location as a favorite location or a destination and let the Navman calculate the route, a handy feature.
Now back to some of the snags. Support was not helpful solving problems with the software which would lock up the whole IPAQ even though I updated the IPAQ operating system and updated the Navman software with their recommended patches. One of the answers was that the problem was being worked on for the next release. However one thing I have learned about software is that the next release may or may not contain fixes based on engineering resources required to address the issue so I can't take the answer as truly fixed.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
pandrews1
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Reviews written: 1
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