Sony NV-U52

...replacement.

SONY History etc. You have of course heard of the maker before, and may well have visited their website - http://www.sony.co.uk/
There is no truth in the story thast it stood for "Somewhere Outside New York" The name Sony actually derives from the Latin word sonus meaning sound and the English word sonny-boy - a term used by the Americans in the 1950's to denote a bright youngster. Originally it was called ...
...to wax lyrical about their Sony NV-U52 GPS receiver, when TOMTOM is easier?

The only other thing I can pick fault with, is the fact that it is not Bluetooth compatable, you can not answer the phone through it, although this is no problem. It is purely a sat nav, and a very good one.

The Lithium Ion battery life seems pretty good, (supposed to be up to three & a half hours) considering you would never use these devices ... more

The reason I am writing this review, is that I recently had a problem with my good old TomTom, and thought that perhaps it may have to go to the electronic graveyard in the sky (but how would it find it's way there?) Anyway, I had been checking out a few options, these were never needed, but if they were, then this little beauty would have been a fitting replacement.

SONY History etc. You have of course heard of the maker before, and may well have visited their website - http://www.sony.co.uk/
There is no truth in the story thast it stood for "Somewhere Outside New York" The name Sony actually derives from the Latin word sonus meaning sound and the English word sonny-boy - a term used by the Americans in the 1950's to denote a bright youngster. Originally it was called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Company), Sony's roots go back over half a century to just after the War in 1946, when it was founded by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita (Notice how all Japanese names end with either N or a vowel).

Another sad fact is that SONY's UK Headquarters are located at Brooklands, near Weybridge, Surrey, right on the site of the old Brooklands Racing Circuit! I am suprised nobody seems to know this.

Dimensions are :-
Width: is 10.8 cm
Depth: is 4.9 cm
Height: is 8.2 cm
Weight: is just 294 g

The screen is a 3.5 inches (diagonally) TFT (thin film transistor) touch screen display. Even I was impressed with the screen. this is supposed to be "finger print repellent" I am not sure about that but it seems to be always clean.
The map Coverage is of the UK and also Ireland. The European version is available on DVD as an optional extra.
Also the battery can be charged via a USB cable, this means you can keep the battery topped up while using it next to the PC (downloads, updates etc)
And for those technically minded the CPU is an Intel PXA270.
The built-In Flash Memory is 512 Mega Bytes.
Plus you can use a Memory Stick.

I must say it is easy to use, you have the option of entering addresses, points of interest, or postcodes.It comes supplied with a carrying pouch, installation CD, quick start guide, cigar lighter lead, one year warranty etc.

Cost is:- Very reasonable. As always, shop around, you can buy online, and even second hand but in this case I would not advise it.

Limitations :-
As with all sat nav kit, this does have limitations, one example is in cities, there are lots of very tall buildings around, giving you a narrow slot type field of vision to the satelites. This means you only need to pass a single tree for the device to momentarily lose the signal, by the time it has found it again, you have passed under another tree. If there are tall trees on either side of the road, then forget it. This model is not alone here, my old TomTom was the same. Another snag is when roads are re-aligned, the software is not kept up to date, the M62/A1 junction is a good example, the sat navs just get lost here, not a major problem if you know where you are, but it does defeat the object surely?

The name is also one possible backward step, names like Walkman are legendary, but who is going to wax lyrical about their Sony NV-U52 GPS receiver, when TOMTOM is easier?

The only other thing I can pick fault with, is the fact that it is not Bluetooth compatable, you can not answer the phone through it, although this is no problem. It is purely a sat nav, and a very good one.

The Lithium Ion battery life seems pretty good, (supposed to be up to three & a half hours) considering you would never use these devices without a power supply. Also the cradle is a very good design, and I suspect it will be copied in the future.

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