Lover of fast cars, technology, martial arts and photography. Used to work as a magazine writer and ...
Lover of fast cars, technology, martial arts and photography. Used to work as a magazine writer and professional photographer and am quite outspoken so this is an ideal venue for me! If you like my reviews guestbook me or adopt me into your ring of trust!
Member since:11.07.2007
Reviews:56
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I looked around at anywhere likely to sell GPS systems and decided that I liked the features and look of the Navman best. Also, several sales people advised me against buying th Navman because the previous models were not the most reliable. But, I knew best, and so I bought it. Or rather, my wife bought it for me as it was a birthday present.
It was a problem from day 1. The display (the hi-def display was the main reason I bought it) is incredibly clear and seems the largest of current GPS systems. It has a great set of buttons which at a single press will show you nearest car parks or nearest petrol stations which many other manufacturers should copy! The camera feature where by you take a photograph with the built in camera and it will automatically save the location is incredibly useful. You see a nice pub as your are passing and want to remember it for a special occasion, well this will do it for you. It could also be useful if you are unfortunate to be involved in an accident recording time and location in its memory.
However, the actual performance is to say the least, unreliable and the customer service is diabolical.
The 720 would freeze up without warning and need a full reset on just about every journey. It was usually when you got to your destination and then pressed the 'Home' option. It wasn't a major problem but one which shouldn't have been there and was eventually very annoying.
I contacted Navman about this and was told it was a common problem and was software related. I needed to download a fix which I did but it didn't make any difference.
Another downside to this unit was that it didn't have the kind of support that other makes have in terms of being able to download Points of Interest. I ended up looking for software that converted one format to the other.
The battery life on the Navman was another downside. It would last for no more than an hour or so without being linked to power. To a great extent this meant that the unit was useless outside the car.
After weeks of problems I contacted Navman again who promised me a replacement in addition, they offered me free of charge the Road Traffic Manager which picks up warnings of traffic jams or accidents and reroutes you automatically. So I was quite happy at that point.
The photographs aren't up to camera standards and are like the camera in a mobile phone. My 720 would take about 3 or 4 minutes to get a full signal and frequently lost it enroute. It also had a limited postcode entry for locating places which is not as good as the TomTom or Garmin.
When the replacement eventually arrived it was just as problematic. I telephoned Navman and spoke to the person in charge of Technical Support. He admitted there were problems and said I would get replacement. When I asked. 'When the boat comes in from New Zealand' he replied. At that point he became rude. The next day the Road traffic module arrived except it wasn't. It was a power unit. Two weeks and three phone calls later the proper one arrived and didn't work. In the end, I telephoned the place where I purchased it and demanded a refund. In its place I got a TomTom Go910 which is absolutely brilliant.
Overall, I can't recommend this unit. It was unreliable and the customer service was abysmal.
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