Navman PiN 570

...get me to purchase the Navman PiN 570 to aid us in our more frequent escapades.

I was browsing the net and searching for the best deal on a Sat Nav system and my head was lost in the jargon and the many possibilities. Then by chance I happened upon a link for the PiN 570 and gave it a little butchers. Now there was a big bonus it was also a Pocket PC, had Sat Nav and after a little more searching I got it for £68 cheaper than my first ...
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1. The Navman PiN 570
2. A car charger
3. A USB/mains charger
3. An SD card containing the navigation software
4. A case to protect the Pocket PC
5. A car mounting kit
6. A smartst 2005 instruction manual
7. A PiN 570 instruction manual
8. A box containing 4 CD's which hold additional mapping which can be installed to the PiN 570
9. A windows CD containing Active sync a program ... more

I am as my other half would confirm I'm prone to getting lost when we go our for a run. Well getting lost might be putting it a bit strong, but I certainly have the oddest tendency to take a random turning and see where it takes me. This has had the undesired effect of putting us well behind schedule and having to search through the maps to find the quickest way home. There was a remedy and I was well aware of it's existence long before I actually parted with the readies and sorted the problem. You see one part of the problem was that on many of the times when we have been misplaced somewhere in these wondrous Isles we have had a fantastic day out and found those secretive little places that one normally would have avoided. So solving the problem also means that these little gems will perhaps be lost forever. Lets hope not.

I had a compensation claim in for an accident at work 2 years ago and recently the claim was settled and I found myself with a little bit of extra cash. I've pretty much got everything I want and what I haven't got is either simple a material possession or something that although nice to have serves no real purpose. So it therefore took my wife some persuasion to get me to purchase the Navman PiN 570 to aid us in our more frequent escapades.

I was browsing the net and searching for the best deal on a Sat Nav system and my head was lost in the jargon and the many possibilities. Then by chance I happened upon a link for the PiN 570 and gave it a little butchers. Now there was a big bonus it was also a Pocket PC, had Sat Nav and after a little more searching I got it for £68 cheaper than my first link quoted. RESULT or what.

The link that got me this great deal was one to Amazon.co.uk where after reading all the jargon I finally got to the serious business of the price. £138.99 delivered or £129.99 with standard UK postage, I opted for the quicker method and my equipment arrived 2 days later in a very well protected box inside a box inside a box, so there was little chance that the postie was going to damage it.

On opening the quite large parcel I was astounded at what was actually in the package,

1. The Navman PiN 570
2. A car charger
3. A USB/mains charger
3. An SD card containing the navigation software
4. A case to protect the Pocket PC
5. A car mounting kit
6. A smartst 2005 instruction manual
7. A PiN 570 instruction manual
8. A box containing 4 CD's which hold additional mapping which can be installed to the PiN 570
9. A windows CD containing Active sync a program used to synchronise with your desktop PC

Now I'm not an instructions kind of guy so I got tore in straight away and immediately thought it was a return job since no matter what I tried I could not get the bloody thing to power up. It was a this point that my wife passed the little bubble bag which contained the PiN 570. and there in various languages was a little instruction referring to the hard reset switch which is secretively hidden at the bottom of the unit. A quick switch of this and we were up and running. I later checked the manuals but found no reference to this so I would not mind wagering a few people have been caught out by this.

I'm not going to go into all the tech spec suffice to say it is powerful enough to do the kind of task you are likely to want to do and it is certainly powerful enough to get you from A to B no matter how hard you try to confuse it as I can verify.

The unit has a basic four buttons which can be programmed to open any of the applications installed on the PC. There is also a main navigational button in the centre of the bottom of the unit splitting the four main buttons into two sets of two. This button has an up down left right function and has proved very useful.

At the top left hand side of the unit is the main power button which need only be pressed briefly to switch off/on. below this is another button which imitates the wheel button on an average mouse. On the top of the unit is a headphone socket and an SD slot this is where you place the Navman software SD.
The bottom of the unit houses the USB port and both a software and hardware reset button which I have not as yet had the necessity to use.

The unit is operated through a stylus which is a little fiddly but after a while it becomes no bother at all. The screen which is roughly the size of a normal cigarette packet is crystal clear and it's brightness and contrast can be changed in much the same way as your own PC at home. The unit is very light and only about half an inch thick.

On initial start-up there is the most familiar scene very similar to that of my desktop PC which is running windows XP. The same familiar blue windows colour scheme and start menu. This screen is called the today screen has contains a few menus letting you access your calendar and appointments, it also allows you to check up on any tasks you may have outstanding, and any email you might have. Although the e-mail requires the addition of a modem which is not supplied. Here the date and time are also displayed.

As with your PC the navigation is through the start menu and all this becomes second nature once you have got used to using the stylus which is required for the touch screen. The stylus in not an essential but it does help especially if you have chubby fingers like mine.

All the software is preloaded onto the PiN 570 and is very easily started. The software supplied includes

1. Pocket Excel
2. Pocket Word
3. Pocket Internet Explorer
4. Smart ST ( Navmans navigational software. )
5. Microsoft E-Reader for reading E-Books
6. Pocket MSN Messenger
7. Jawbreaker a puzzle game which is quite fun
8. Calculator
9. Calendar
10. File Explorer
11. Pocket Outlook
12 Contacts Manager
13. Windows Media Player 9

I will not go into detail about this section of software since most of you will be at least a little knowledgeable about most of it.

The Smart St software CD once installed on your home PC keeps all the maps updated and is easily syncronised with the PiN 570 via the Activesync prgram also supplied with the unit. These programs MUST be installed onto your home PC before you can start to sync you Outlook and Excel files, but it takes no more than 15 mins to complete this task and even less to update. You DO NOT NEED to instal these applications if you only intened to use the unit on its own and totally independant of your home PC

So we finally get to the MAIN reason for my purchase the Sat Nav bit. This unit is already set up to perform its duty but even I who consider myself quite adept in computer skills did find it a little confusing to enter the info needed to get the unit to direct me. Then I discovered an amazing thing……………..read the manual and familiarise yourself with the unit and the whole thing is a piece of cake.

When entering a destination I have found the unit to be far quicker should I happen to include the postcode of my destination. The Navman works on a 5 digit post code so the last 2 of our postcodes are not required. By simply filling in the boxes which pop up when you press the destination button I was one my way. The unit has 3 main screens

1. The destination screen

Selecting this takes you to a sub screen in which you enter your info

2. The set-up screen

This is where you set the unit up to your particular preferences. If you prefer to use "A" roads you can select to use motorways only when completely necessary. You can also select whether the units are in KM of Miles. There are other various tweaks you can make all of which enhance the users impression of the unit.

3 The Map Screen

This'll be the important bit. The maps are selected via the directional button at the button of the unit . The choices being 3D map which can be zoomed, 2D map which can be scrolled to find a location, which once found can be selected as the destination. The final map is not really a map but a list view of the turns to get you from A to B.

Whilst in operation and searching for your route the unit displays the 3D map and it is quite impressive, I am not quite sure how accurate it is but whilst viewing I was consciously aware of how close it looked to the actual view I had of the road ahead. The unit has voice assisted turns which can be turned off and indeed you can select whether you would like sir or miss you instruct you on your journey. On a couple of journeys I have purposely gone in the opposite direction the try and confuse the unit, but it very accurately gets me back on course, this can however sometimes take a few seconds by which time you might well have passed it's chosen new route. No matter the unit will continue it's task until it GETS YOU THERE.

There is far more to this unit than I initially expected and I have found it to be an exceptionally well spent £138.99. It is a fun unit to use once you have familiarised yourself with it, this doesn't take long it's just that us guys kinda just want everything to be ready and going straight away. If you intend to purchase such a device in the near future this is a must have on your list. it is definitely worth investigating and having read several reviews on the internet on various sites I am not alone in my praise of this technological wizardry.

 

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