Navigon 7110

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Look & Feel	Excellent
Battery life	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Feature rich, easy to use, bluetooth to your phone for handsfree
Disadvantages:	Doesn't have the community features that TomTom has .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I've had the Navigon 7110 for well over a year, and as my 1st Sat-Nav I have to say I've been extremely impressed.

I researched the market before buying, delving into forums, countless reviews and reached the conclusion that a TOMTOM = p*ss-poor. I found the Navigon and it was a breath of fresh air, it was the only sat nav that looked really really stylish (then).

The 7110 has europe maps, and the 7100 has UK and Ireland maps, there is a £30 price difference between them.

Not only did it look stylish, but it had features to match:

~~~~ Lane-Assist ~~~~

When your driving on a motorway it shows a 3d view of what lane you should be in (shown on the main image above..) - A bit gimmicky but remarkably handy when you decide to drive on english motorways (I'm from scotland and we only have 2 and a half motorways).

~~~~ Traffic TMC Premium with free lifetime updates ~~~~

You have to plug in a stupid aerial to get this, with 2 suckers to stick to your dash or whatever. It's really good, but not reliable enough. Traffic jams show up on the map and it can reroute you.

~~~~ Style ~~~~

I know this isn't a feature - but god...this thing is sexy! Piano-black on the outside, a high quality screen, and just the perfect size makes this thing as lustfull as it is a joy to use - I can't get over how great this thing looks!

~~~~ Points of Interest ~~~~

It will find petrol stations, restaurants and visitor attractions that are near-by, you can filter by what kind of restaurant (eg fast food), and by brand or petrol station etc.

~~~~ Speed Cameras ~~~~

Needless to say, it shows where speed cameras are - this has saved my licence, and justified the cost entirely.

~~~~ Bluetooth ~~~~

The bluetooth handsfree is very impressive, it works a charm, automatically pairing with your phone when you step in the car and allowing you to dial and answer from the sat-nav.

WORD OF WARNING. I thought sat-navs would come with free map updates. This doesn't - You can either buy new maps for 69euros, or 2 years of new map updates for 99euros using Navigon FreshMaps. These are proper maps from the people that make sat-nav maps. TomTom have a user-based update map feature, where users can add speed cameras, new roads etc - which can be unreliable - but it is free!

Not only that, but the new maps are 2.1GB, and it only has a 2GB SD disk - This may be 4GB now in new ones but I now have to pay £10 for a 4GB SD disk.

The software that comes with it is called Navigon Fresh, this can update, back-up, restore, and add your own POI's - using POI Warner which is hellish - although Navigon Fresh is easy to use and works with Vista.

Overall I am very chuffed with this piece of kit. It fits in with the car, and comes with all the extras that you'd ever need. The cost of this at amazon at time of writing is £213, I bought it for £270 a year ago. Personally, I'd still pay £270 for it now - very well worth it!