Navman N20

...comparison, he went for the Navman N20 and found the best deal on the internet at www.handtech.co.uk purchasing it for £212.68 which included next day free delivery.

The basic Navman N20 pack, comes with an in-car charger, a USB charger, a carry case, window holder and several discs which can be uploaded onto your Navman.

It is very slim, easy to carry and has a 3.5" LCD screen which is very clear rto read.
...green when completed. The Navman has approximately 4 hours of battery life once charged, but obviously you can continue charging it while using it when in your car/van.

Once it is completely charged, you switch it on and select which lnguage you are using, there are 10 to choose from, but obviously English is on there.

It comes with documentation:-

Quick Reference Manual
In-Car Installation Guide
more

My husband has been after one of these for ages, after alot of research, in-store displays and price comparison, he went for the Navman N20 and found the best deal on the internet at www.handtech.co.uk purchasing it for £212.68 which included next day free delivery.

The basic Navman N20 pack, comes with an in-car charger, a USB charger, a carry case, window holder and several discs which can be uploaded onto your Navman.

It is very slim, easy to carry and has a 3.5" LCD screen which is very clear rto read.

The Navman comes with UK and Ireland pre-loaded, but the discs which come with it cover the whole of europe and can be downloaded easily onto it.

Discs included are:-

SmartST 2006 SE Software
SmartST Desktop
NavAlbum
Map Date for European Countries
Adobe Reader

To get started it is necessary to charge the Navman, which I did by simply connecting it to the USB port on my computer. A red light indicates its charging and this turns green when completed. The Navman has approximately 4 hours of battery life once charged, but obviously you can continue charging it while using it when in your car/van.

Once it is completely charged, you switch it on and select which lnguage you are using, there are 10 to choose from, but obviously English is on there.

It comes with documentation:-

Quick Reference Manual
In-Car Installation Guide
GPS Navigation - FAQ Guide

all this documentation is very simple to follow for anyone.

A warning message is then displayed that you must read and accept the conditions, it will then take you to the Tutorial which shows a demo of how the Navman worrks, well worth the time to watch.
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How do you search for an address?

You open the destination screen which is an arrow followed by what looks like an envelope.

You have four options of how to search,

1) Your can just search for a city or an area

2) You can enter a postcode

3) You can choose a point of interest ie. BIg Ben

4) You can type in the street name

If there are multiple matches for the item it will show them all, for example if you put in just essex road, london, it would show you all the essex roads in london and you then have to refine your search to the one you require, postcodes are very useful in the search facility as it avoids all this.

Once you have found your detsination, you just press GO, your route is then calculated in how many miles, estimated time to get there from the position you are in at the time.

As soon as your vehicle begins to move the voice activation begins and you are guided to your point of destination. You can choose between a man's voice or a woman's voice. On route you will receive warnings if you are approaching a speed camera, and it will count down how many yards it is until you reach it.

If at anytime you go off course, the Navman will re-calculate if possible and re-direct you from where you went wrong, if it is unable to, it will advise you to do a U-turn when available.

The voice is very calming and not at all irritating whether male or female.

Throughout the voice control it will inidcate the distance to the next turn, and state the instructions in plenty of time.

Your current position on the screen is indicated with a large arrow.

You can view your route in several ways, 2D Map Screen, this shows your current position and surrounding street names. If you have calculated your route, these will be highlighted.

Next Turn Screen - This shows you information that you need for the next turn and the distance to that turn.

Turn-by-Turn Screen - This displays the next four turns on your route, the turn, the name of the streets and the distance to each turn.

3D Screen - This covers everything for your journey, next instruction, distance to next turn, next turn arrow, current position and status bar.

The 3D Screen in my view is the best option.
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Points of Interest

Using one of the discs provided you can download onto your computer a NavPix Album. This allows you to make an album of special points of interest.

ie. You can take a photo of say Buckingham Palace, download it into your NavPix Album form your mobile or digital camera, then transfer it onto your Navman. Instead of typing in addresses, you just touch the photograph on your Navman and your journey is then worked out. You could do this with a picture of somebodies house, a forest literally anything.

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The Navman also comes with a list of train stations, airports, pubs, restaurants etc preinstalled for your use along with the parking and petrol stations, there is also a cash machine facility to find your nearest one to where you are.

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Vision

This Navman comes with different visions day time and night time, it calculates the light and dark to enhance the colours on your screen to make your viewing of the screen easier.

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You can customise settings on your Navman to your own liking and again this is very easy.

The voice control can be adjusted to a suitable volume .

My husband works all over London and Essex and so far has used the Navman for every journey, each time it has got him to his destination accurately, spot on.

He has tried other Navigation Systems in trial and has found that the Navman has navigated correctly where some of the others he tried went off the map and were incorrect.

On the whole, this Navigation System is state of the art, accurate, easy to use. There is also available to add to this system a Traffic Pack at a one off fee of around £80, this keeps you up-to-date on all roadworks, incidents happening on the route of his journey. This is up-to-date information and makes traffic delays a thing of the past. It has no subscription fees, so once you have purchased it, that's it. It is something he would like to purchase in the future, but money prevents this at the mo.

On top of this, you can buy additional memory cards for your Navman to hold much more information if need be, these are priced from around £7 to £15 depending on the MB storage of the memory card you require.

More useful information is that if you connect your Navman to your PC and enter the Navman Website, it will automatically download any new information, ie, new speed camera, roads etc, so your Navman is always up-to-date.

I was very sceptical about this gadget, to me it's a boys-toy, but I must confess I take it all back, I have used it to get to some places I was'nt sure of the directions of and it was easy as 1-2-3. I'm really glad we purchased this Navman and can say up to this point I am 100% happy with it.

Another point to add, which I have only just noticed is that the Navman indicates when you are entering a Toll area, ie. if you are going into the congestion zone, pretty handy tool really, no fear of ever getting a fine for it now, it warns you pre-journey if you enter an address and you need to go through it. It also indictaes this again on the journey as you are approaching it, so another great tool on the Navman.

 

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