Navigon 5100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by Navigon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Navigon 5100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: I purchased it for the mount! Nice unit!
Summary: 5 Stars
Just kidding I got it for the navigation capabilities; however, the windshield mount looks like it was modeled after the alien spacecraft from the blockbuster War of the Worlds movie- so cool!
I've been a GPS user since 2000 when I first rented a car with a GPS system. Since then I've used various GPS software and hardware on Window CE devices and most recently on an AT&T 8525 PDA phone. I switched to a dedicated GPS since trying to run GPS navigation software on a phone gets complicated when calls start coming in.
Quality- Built well, thin, probably couldn't hold up to drops or abuse but overall it's a nice unit. Did I mention the mount? Absolutely beautiful design/concept. It securely holds the 5100 very well
GPS Reception- Folks have complained that this unit takes a long time to acquire satellites. I haven't experienced this. Typically time to acquire 5 to 7 satellites is approx 30 seconds to 1:30. Please in mind that acquiring satellites can be hampered by building (sky scrapers), cloudy days, positioning of the unit on the window (i.e. GPS units need clear visibility of the sky to receive good reception), heavy rain/snow and time of day/rotation of the earth. Overall no complaints; it performs very well.
Interface- For me the interface was very close to one version of software I had a while back on a Windows CE PDA. It does take time to learn the interface so don't think of this as an ATM or self-checkout lane at the store. Read the manual. Overall it works and I can find POIs or enter in addresses with ease. Doesn't seem sluggish to me. Only downfall is that I cannot sync my outlook contacts to it. Several settings are available in this unit for customization.
Screen- A tad bit washed out but not bad. You can still see the POIs, streets, etc. when driving. For the cost it's reasonable. You can adjust the screen brightness. There is a night time mode.
Navigation- The "Optimal" routing setting works best for me. It calculates routes driver would typically take. I've tested this and it works very well. Re-calculating routes works very quickly for me. Calculating a long drive, such as from Portland, OR to Dallas, TX does take some time to calculate but given the distance covered, I'm happy it can do it!
Text to Speech/Volume- The voice quality is good. A female's voice is used. She prompts me well in advance of the street name and direction. The volume when maxxed out is adequate but it's not going to over power your car radio or beat the howling wind @ 55 mph. Typically when I'm going some place I don't know I roll the windows up and turn down the radio. I pay attention.
Versatility- being able to swap between cars is ideal.
Traffic Reception- Stellar! This unit prompts me with traffic condition warnings. There is no subscription for this service as it taps into the local radio stations that broadcast this service.
I was really concerned about the negative reviews on this unit, but overall I'm satisfied and my friends consider me the "return king." Looking forward to many drives and not getting lost.
Cheers,
Brian
Customer Review: Poor LA Freeway Traffic Info, OK otherwise
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this gps primarily for the live traffic coverage for driving in the Los Angeles area. Before buying it, I tried to ascertain whether or not it covered non-freeways, but was unable to. Well, I needed to upgrade, and the year-end price was decent, so I gave it a try.
The good: in areas where there are no traffic or mapping issues, it was a nice navigation info source while driving. One especially nice feature when routing is that when there is a turn, after it announces the upcoming turn, it prompts you to turn right before you should do so ("Turn right .... now"). That is handy when driving in unfamiliar territory and there are multiple choices. And after reading the manual, I found it mostly easy to use, once I got used to its idiosyncracies.
The bad:
- LA Traffic Coverage is freeway only, so when you are driving one of the essential routes that is not freeway (like the pacific coast highway), generally there is no traffic data. Where there have been trafffic incidents that hit the news, I have turned this on to see what it says. Generally nothing is reported unless it is very major, and then it has trouble getting the location right because it only seems to be able to give freeway locations. For example, when there was the Chatsworth train crash, it reported the nearby freeway closed, even though it was the affected surface streets which were closed. When there was a crash that closed part of Topanga Canyon Blvd, it reported that the PCH was closed nearby, which is very different (and it actually showed a traffic alert on the PCH, which it doesn't seem to normally do). NOTE: this is a fault of the traffic service, not the navigon itself.
- It seems to preferably route on highways, even if they are clogged, and initially had trouble rerouting when I took better routes. It kept wanting me to go farther and farther out of my way to get back to where I had originally diverged from its planned route, even when I rejoined the planned route farther along. However, subsequent times taking my preferred route, this problem did not happen.
- When you zoom and pan and get the screen just how you like it, and then resume routing, it goes back to close zoom when you leave the pan and zoom mode. This is hard when you are looking at the whole freeway system to decide how you are going to get from A to B and you want to keep observing it. That should be fixable in firmware.
- Restaurant coverage is not good in remote locations. This is not surprising, but driving around northern California in the small coastal towns, it would have only about 1/3 or 1/4 of the major restaurants listed,
Except for the poor live traffic coverage (which is what I got it for), it is useful and I am comfortable using it. But because of that, and other improvements are happening so fast in the gps world, I can only rate it 3 stars.
Customer Review: I Know What I'm Talking About
Summary: 2 Stars
I read some other reviews on this unit I wasn't sure if the people who knew what they were talking about liked it or disliked it.
I know what I'm talking about, and I don't like it.
I'll start with my "qualifications." I have had experience with 5 brands in the last 6 years (Navman, Delphi, Garmin, Magellan and Mio). So I think I know what I'm talking about and I do know what I am looking for/like and dislike.
I bought the 5100 at Staples for $300. I purchased it for the traffic and text to speech.
I used it for 5 days in both the suburbs and city (NYC).
Physical Design: C
To start things off the power cord plugs in the bottom of the unit, I feel they should plug in the side. The mount is rather awkward. Every bump in the road made the whole unit bounce and shake.
The display is cluttered. Most things like speed and altitude can be turned off. However everything on the screen is difficult to read. I'm 31 and have good eyesight (I don't wear glasses). I found the display hard to read, especially the speed and distance to destination.
Navigation: C
I read someone's review saying it likes to use "U-turns." That's a big YES. It wanted me to turn around on 11th street in Manhattan.
The routing makes no sense most of the time. However the rerouting is quick when you miss a turn.
Programming the unit was ok. I had no issues there.
Notes:
-The unit crashed the first time I used it. I was on the highway and when it restarted my destination needed to be reset. I found that if you turn it off it does not hold the destination.
-The speaker SUCKS. It is not loud or clear enough with the windows up and the radio off. So it was awful with the windows cracked.
-For me the GPS connected in about 1-2 minutes. On other units it seems to take longer if you are moving, that was not an issue with this unit. I found the accuracy of this GPS to be close, maybe 30-40 feet, but I have experienced much, much better with other units.
-The POI's seem to be up to date and are displayed nicely on the map.
-The Reality View is a nice touch for the more confusing exits in Manhattan and New Jersey. Its one of the few things I liked.
-The free traffic works. I found the external antenna is unnecessary for my area. I never actually needed to be rerouted due to traffic. You can set what FM channel you pick the traffic up from. You can also see what song the station is playing at the time. I am not keeping it and do not recommend it unless you have a bionic ear and never play on driving with your windows down.
Break Down:
Display: C
Speaker: F
Mount: D
Navigation: C
Rerouting: B
POI: B
Ease of Use: B
Features: A
Recommend: No
Customer Review: Great Model....READ MANUAL BEFORE YOU OPERATE
Summary: 4 Stars
I map for a living so this unit makes sense.
I was worried about buying this model when I first read many reviews on this site as well as other sites carrying the Navigon 5100. The price however was too luring at 178$. I am pleased to find that the 5100 works great if you follow the recommendations in the manual.
I am a GIS analyst so i do have experience with maps and creating products similar to google earth. I will say that the Navigon is a great model for a intermediate user. I bought my mom a garmin unit because she will not take the time to read the manual nor does she care about extra funtions like optimum route, excluding tolls or 3d view.
First issue I read about was battery failing.
If you charge your unit for 6 hours (as recommended) when you initially buy your unit you will not have issues with your battery or recharge.
As stated in the manual, powering on takes a while. This is kind of a drag and i'd say one of my "cons" for the model. Powering on and off takes 7-10 seconds.
Many people complained about the unit rerouting with U-turns. This is something that you can turn off so they obviously didn't read the manual.
Rerouting is fast and includes traffic in calculation. Something Garmin does not do. You can also select what kind of vehichle you are in (bicycle, truck, motercycle, car) to add another factor to avg speed and rate calculations.
One of the best features for me and others i work with is the log funtion. If you need to log milage for tax purposes this is a great function. Or if you need to track workers to see if they go home during lunch or leave their car idle for hours this is great as well. With rising gas prices our company saved over 10,000$ due to this tracking.
The GUI is easy to understand if you go through the manual although not as "smooth" and fast as the Garmin unit.
Poi's are outstanding tons of symbology and even better if you get the freshmaps update.It's on sale through amazon for 56$ for 3 years. Totally worth it.
One thing you won't find in the garmin unit is an info button that tells info about the POI as well as a phone #.
All roads come from Navteq or Tele-atlas which is where Garmin gets their roads from. So complaints about roads being different on a Garmin doesn't make sense.
I do like garmin's POI loader. Very nice if you have work data that you need to add to your unit.
I haven't played with the navigon's POI's I suspect if you follow format and add through notepad then your only restriction would be the size of your card.
I must warn it's probably more advanced and not as user friendly as Garmin's POI loader.
Customer Review: very poor product overall
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this product after returning a Magellan to costco. I live in los angeles and I thought it is a great bargain to have traffic feature since half of the freeways in southern california are jammed most of the time. I used to think that all GPS are more or less same and I am educated enough to get used to any GPS, but this navigon 5100 broke my myth. This product has such terrible software that it is almost unusable. Only people who can rate it high are the ones who have never used a Garmin or Magellan. My unit is on the way back to amazon. I am giving it 1 star but my wife would acually give zero. The following problems.
Audio volume is not just very low but also much poor in quality. I don't expect this from any $[...]+ product in 2008. This is the most fundamental feature of a turn by turn GPS. Hats off to its designers who hurried up in launching this product.
GPS claims 6 million+ POIs but search is so poor that very popular restaurants such as Panera bread are not there. This is on top of the fact that search software is already very poorly designed. My previous magellan was so impressive that just type in a few letters and list will show up like a dictionary.
To start GPS, hold the start button for 30 seconds. Anything less and it will not start. I knew this problem before buying and I did not rate this as a big problem but only after using, I realized how terrible this experience is.
3D lane view, which is supposed to be the selling feature of this GPS, is barely more useful than arrows shown by Garmin or Magellan. This feature looks decent but I rate this as very low value since I don't remember missing a lane or exit on magellan. Just replacing an arrow with 3D picture is not a great technology skill in my opinion.
Worst of all is the useful ness of traffic feature, which was the main reason, I bought this. Traffic alerts are updated but never announced by GPS. I should know early enough that there is an accident on my route. Only way I learned was to look at the screen and guess, which of the accident events are on my route. Just imagine doing this while driving a car. It will make sure that you also cause one of those accident events. Worst part is that There is no difference in alert between a freeway running 5 miles an hour Vs 50 Miles an hour. That is the most important info I need to choose my route. Only if it is running really slow, I would choose to change the route. Traffic alert is just a nice toy feature but zero usefulness in real world.
I cannot comment on routing since just one usage told me that this is worth returning.