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: NAVIGON 5100: Crap
Summary: 1 Stars
I recently received the Navigon 5100 as a gift (that I requested) and have been putting it through it's paces around Los Angeles. I am now returning it due to the fact that the routing is inaccurate and convoluted.
For example:
(1) to go to work the Navigon 5100 takes me three blocks out of my way only to have me circle back and go the correct direction.
(2) When I stray off course the unit often has me turn around and follow the street it first suggested. It should not do this. The 5100 should recalculate and take me to the next available street.
(3) When I first received the 5100 I searched for the nearest Bank and up popped the bank I go to every week. I looked at the turn by turn directions and low and behold it had me make 5 turns down 4 different streets. The funny part is the bank is only two streets away. WTF?
(4) the POIs are out of date or just plain incorrect. I was looking for a place to eat, saw that there was a McDonalds near by, followed the directions and guess what? There was no trace of a McDonalds! I asked a friend who has lived in the area for over 30 years and she said there has never been a McDonalds at that location.
I can live without finding the nearest Mc Donalds, but I can't live with a FIVE-HUNDRED DOLLAR navigation unit that tells me to go completely out of the way.
Thankfully I have been close to familiar territory and I haven't had to use this thing while traveling.
The 5100 is a cool looking unit and I like it's features, but if it can't give efficient driving directions than what is the purpose of having it?
I wonder if a firmware and software update will fix these problems? I guess it doesn't matter to me at this point, I'm returning this thing and buying a Garmin.
Additional Cons regarding the Navigon 5100:
-no auto day/night mode
-one voice option
-text to speech is poor
-convoluted and inaccurate routing
-tiny screen means you need tiny fingers to operate it
-the mount is poor and becomes loose after a while
-it's way overpriced
Pros:
-sleek design
-neat interface
-zagat POIs
-free TMC (traffic info)
-lane assistant & reality view is pretty cool
I REALLY-REALLY wanted to like this thing, considering it's innovative features like lane assistant and reality view ... but if it can't get me from point A to point B with out taking me out of the way towards Z than what is the point of having a navigation unit?
Customer Review: Looks Much Better Than It Performs
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll admit, I saw the ad and thought it looked nicer than my TomTom GO 910. And when it arrived, it did look nicer.
I really love the windshield mount. It's difficult to tell in pictures, but you can rotate the GPS unit and change the angle, and the "arm" design puts it nice and close, so you don't have to reach too far to operate it. And it's also nice that it will tell you what side of the road your destination is on (something woefully absent from many GPS models).
And that just about sums up everything I like about this unit. I was expecting MUCH more for the price, and the Navigon simply doesn't deliver.
Major Annoyances:
1) The speaker is impossible to hear, even at max volume with the windows up.
2) The interface is seriously convoluted. Tapping the screen in the map mode lets you change between day/night (which essentially means "bright or dim") and 2D/3D. If you want to change anything on your route, you have to hit a tiny back arrow, then go through a series of menus.
3) The maps are difficult to read, and you can't change the color scheme. Unlike the image in the description, you get grey roads on an off-white background in the daytime, and dark grey roads on a light grey background at night. If that's not bad enough, the view arbitrarily zooms in and out, though I can't determine why this is. It doesn't seem to be speed or distance related.
4) The interface is S-L-O-W. Once you overcome the miniscule letters you get to type with, you'll find that the OS can't keep up with anything faster than hunting and pecking. Maps are similarly slow to update while you're driving.
5) The POI system is very random. It knows about obscure drug stores and car dealerships, but not national big box retailers or auto part stores -- while at the same time, McDonald's logos pop up all over the place. The interface itself is fairly bad, too. It would be faster to pop your head out the window and ask someone where the nearest post office is, than navigating through the Navigon's labyrinth of menus.
That said, the Navigon 5100 isn't a terrible GPS. The routes tend to make sense, and the included maps appear to be very current. But for the price you'll pay, there are many better options out there. I think I'm going to stick with my 910.
EDIT: 12/10/2007 -- It is probably worth mentioning that when I originally bought this, it cost nearly twice as much as the current price (after rebate). At $250, I'd be far more accepting of the Navigon's shortcomings.
Customer Review: Totally not worth it.
Summary: 1 Stars
I have found other, far less expensive, superior units than this one.
The good:
1) Sensitive, accurate positioning.
2) Attractive design (if a bit bulky...)
3) Zagat ratings (when you can get to them) are fun and occasionally usesul.
4) Easy switch between 2d and 3d maps and easy switch from day to night modes.
The Bad.
1) Long acquisition time from cold start (~5 minutes). From a stand-by start, it's <2minutes.
2) If there is a way to upgrade the maps or download foreign maps, it's not obvious to me.
3) Car mount is REALLY long and just is rotten for short-windshield cars like a Jeep.
The Ugly.
The software on this thing is ATROCIOUS. The on-screen buttons are too small. Too much information is crammed onto the screen. It can't pronounce any of the streets (it gets "2 Ave." wrong, for crying out loud!). It's too quiet to be heard. The zoom factor is based on speed, rather than on whether there is an upcoming turn. The coloring in the map is grey-on-grey. And that's just to start. Want those famed Zagat ratings? To get them you have to select a region and then do a POI search around it. You can't just tap a POI's icon on the map and get the Zagat rating. You can get its address and phone number that way, sure, but you can't get the Zagat rating. And the "real view" is a ridiculous distraction from driving. It doesn't help you navigate complex intersections at all. I go through complicated junctions all the time and the thing gets ahead of and behind itself. I've learned to ignore it.
The Infuriating.
I bought this thing to help me avoid traffic jams. Navigon advertises free lifetime traffic management service. Well let's discuss getting what you paid for: The unit has displayed precisely 0% of the traffic jams that I've been caught in. In fact, because I frequently see traffic jams in the opposite direction on the freeway, it turns out I've never seen the unit display one of those, either. And then there's the fact that exactly 0% of the displayed/predicted traffic jams I see listed actually exist when I get there. So it's completely useless. And I live in New York City and drive into the Bronx most days. I need traffic management service.
In summary, I simply cannot recommend this unit to anyone. The features are available on a Magellan unit for a lot less money and with a FAR superior interface. Navigon really needs to work on its software before it will be a serious contender in the GPS market.
Customer Review: Navigon 5100, not perfect, but free life time traffic make it worth its weight in gold
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first GPS unit, but I did a lot of research prior to purchasing. I live in the LA area, so traffic is uttermost importance to me, and the free lifetime traffic sealed the deal to me (unique to navigon, seems like no one else had a free lifetime no-subscription needed traffic update). So far, I have used the unit for a week and here is what I found:
1. Traffic updates that's related to your route will pop up on your screen and you'll have voice prompt that says "new traffic update, please check your screen", and you can choose to either "avoid traffic" or "ignore", if you choose to "avoid traffic", then your route is re-calculated. But, it doesn't show you how slow some of the "stop and go" traffic is, so you have to use your best judgement on whether or not to avoid traffic all the time. In the greater LA area, in rush hour, the traffic map looks scary on this unit. I generally avoid any lane closures, as those will often result in sigalerts and longer delays.
2. This unit sometime will take you for a Left-Left-Left loop. In an unfamiliar area, this is really annoying. I have learned to look at the screen to see if the highlighted route is a square, if so, I will just keep on going on the same road and it quickly recalculates the correct route for me.
3. The map doesn't have some of the newer freeways that's opened in the LA area, not the biggest problem, it will just keep recalculating and try to figure out where you're at.
4. The power button for hard restart is like 16-18 sec for on and 8-10 secs for off. Very scary when you first get the unit and wonder why the power button doesn't work.
5. I found that some of the privately gated housing communities, this unit does not know where the entrance to those communities well, and you might be frustrated at that.
6. The POIs are interesting, lacks wal-mart, costco, target, department stores, but has LOTS of food and gas places. I guess those are the most important thing when you're traveling on the road
7. This unit sometimes will re-calculate route when you're traveling very slowly - ?GPS repositioning?, and sometimes this will cause the unit to give you a different direction (turn left here, right there), but I found that the original direction if often the correct way, just stick to the original direction, the unit will recalculate again once you start moving. Maybe it was just getting bored at waiting for the car to move.
Just my 2 cents, hope it helps!
Customer Review: Great GPS for the money
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the Navigon 5100 on Black Friday and have used it a number of times. My previous GPS was a Mio 310x and I've used a Garmin C330 a number of times when renting vehicles. For the money, the Navigon has hands down been the best unit that I've used. It's always difficult for long time users of another GPS unit to get used to a new device; however, the Navigon was very easy to get up and going.
The Navigon 5100 has a lot of great features that make it a great value. The real-time traffic alerts (no subscription required) are helpful in metropolitan areas and provide options of routing around the issue or ignoring it. The unit lets users customize how to receive alerts (e.g. all, on-route only, etc). The reality view feature is also really nice when traveling on major interstates. It momentarily shows a realistic view of interchanges and clearly designates which lanes you should stay in and which to avoid.
The styling of the unit is very clean and European. I like the windshield mount as it allows mounting it in such a way that it can be completely hidden by the GPS unit itself. I have noticed some vibrations, however, once the GPS is mounted on when you drive over bumps, etc. It would be nice if the whole mount assembly allowed less tolerance/movement and mounted 'tighter' to the GPS unit. Also, I've read other reviews suggesting that the GPS won't charge when being used - I've not had any problems that way.
The fonts do seem a bit small on the device; however, the resolution is very good and I like the smaller size to fit more information on the screen at a time. The menu system and user interface are very good and intuitive. The device excels at setting up and navigating trips easily. POIs are clearly marked along the route and provide actual logos in many cases. Searching for POIs leave a bit to be desired relative to other devices. The default is to first select a POI category and then to filter within that category. I've found it easier to just begin typing within all categories and let the system filter results for you as you type.
I haven't had issues with weird routing that other users have identified in reviews as of yet. I did go ahead and update several of the XML files (it was really easy) on the system with the suggestions found on: [...]
All in all, I give this unit high marks for its design, functionality, speed, and feature set. For $[...], I'm not sure how you could do any better.