I brought the Binatone X350 from Asda for £50 on the 5th April 2009. I opened the box in the car park and thought I'd test it out. Anyway, first impressions we're it looked good for £50, after all you get what you pay for and obviously I hadn't purchased a £350+ Sat Nav. I plugged the charger in, set my postcode (after much fiddling) and off I went. As you'll know everybody gets familiar with the area they live and what roads run quicker, what short cuts work best and so on, but, I wasn't prepared to be sent miles out my way (not the quickest or the shortest route home). I even stopped half way to make sure I had typed my postcode in correctly (I had). When I got back home I checked the same route on Google maps which sent me the same way as I normally go (for the exception of two roads, which I use to cut out a set of traffic lights). Multimap also showed the same route. It was at that point when I thought maybe it would have probably been better to have spent an extra £50, to get a Sat Nav that actually works. That was just the start of things to come! Over the next couple of days I experienced a low battery screen constantly, even though the unit had been charged to the manual guidelines, but, I found myself driving around with it on charge permanently. I also found myself driving down many streets which the Sat Nav did not recognise, which appear to be fields on the screen and many postcodes it doesn't recognise either! In fact, It recognises my postcode but not the number. I turned on the speed camera detection (bad move), which counts you down from 1000 ft constantly beeping, which drives you mad after the initial laugh. Not only that but its 50/50 whether it picks up the cameras anyway so the way I see it is you might as well turn it off completely. You'll find a pointless built-in removable stylus which slides out of the screen which is about 2 inch long and can't be removed from the screen while the Sat Nav is in the mount. Also, be prepared to wait whilst the unit is "calculating route", I'm sorry but its not like the unit has all the maps it needs to operate correctly or sufficiently so I find It extremely frustrating when the unit freezes for over 2 minutes every time you try to locate an address or postcode. The fact that my unit thinks its in London every time I turn it on is also very frustrating. The manual refers you to the Binatone website to download maps, don't bother you can't download maps at all! The icing on the cake comes when the unit says turn left and displays right, no this is not a joke! After using this Sat Nav for 3 days I think £24.99 is a more fair price, who knows it could even be sponsored by the police/dvla and petrol stations sending you 90mph through numerous speed cameras in the wrong direction. Avoid this Sat Nav at all costs, in fact after this Sat Nav avoid anything Binatone. Asda, get ready with my £50, because this one is coming back to you.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines