NAVMAN GPS 3450 12 channel GPS kit for Compaq iPAQ H3700 series, Compaq iPAQ H3600 series, Compaq iPAQ H5400 series, Compaq iPAQ H3900 series, Compaq iPAQ H3800 series > Reviews (3)

Sat Nav in your car is a bit like Air Con; if you've haven't got it you probably won't miss it, but once you've had it - you can never do without it.

And so it was when I changed jobs, handed back the company car and got my own set of wheels. I didn't want to pay the extortionate amount requested by the dealer for it to be fitted as standard and so opted to make fullest use of my iPaq 3850 and purchased this product from the gps warehouse - £290 inc VAT.

The software loaded easily via the activesync connection, which you must have to complete the task and comes with your iPaq anyway, and I loaded the maps onto a 128Mb smart disk I had previously used for storing some music files. I selected the UK maps plus France for the occassional booze crooze and took it for its first test run.

The kit slots easily into the windscreen mounted bracket which to date has never fallen off despite numerous uses.

You set the preferences once, quickest route or shortest route, male or female voice, miles or kilometres and which points of interest you want to show and you're ready.

A handy screen advises you how many satellites you have connected to and one annoying feature is that occassionally I need to do a soft re-boot to kick start the process. Once you are made aware that you have connected you can select your destination. This is done at either street level by location or point of interest by location. For example select Worcester and then Bridge Street, or any place and then point of interest being town hall, or railway station etc. The points of interest feature is very useful if you know the place or building you are trying to get to but not the name of the street and it covers a multitude of possibilities.

Other destination options are those saved as favourites or those visited recently, again easily selected via the menu screens.
Once you've hit "go" for your chosen destination the software works out the optimal route and the directions begin. The verbal instructions are clear and given sufficiently far in advance to allow for those tricky lane changes when you end up in the wrong one in an unfamiliar location. The image on the screen also helps to guide you. You can choose either a map view or an instruction view. The former allows you to see via the map what is going on and your next instruction, the latter a more detailed instruction set. Both options allow you to see combinations of time to go, distance to destination, distance to next instruction, current time, current speed, next direction change and so on. You can alter these to suit and although not advisable, the touch screen allows you to vary whilst on the move.

I have found that occassionally local knowledge can often select a "quicker" route but on all the journeys I've used it on, and I use it several times a week, it always gets me to the right destination. As it also includes an indicator for estimated time of arrival, if I find I'm running late for a meeting I can phone ahead (using hands free of course) and advise the other person the scale of my lateness.

If you make a mistake, such as take a wrong turning or get caught in a lane and get blocked from taking the exit you need, the software quickly re-calculates your way out of this predicament and begins to re-direct you back on the right track. When you visit many unfamiliar places like I do, trying to find your way round a town with a printed copy of "autoroute" is a nightmare.

With the Navman 3450 voice sat nav option you need never get lost again - a thouroughly useful and highly recommended product - if you ever needed an excuse to buy an iPaq then this product is it.