Sony NV-U50

...digits in her postcode. The Sony NV-U 50 only allows you to input four digits into the display (via a rather nifty touch screen i might add) which was incredibly annoying and whilst we could use the device for some of the way by inputting area names and then street names, we had to resort to the traditional map reading and as i was in the passenger seat, my boyfriend found this to be the most annoying of all! (I am terrible at reading maps). The ...
...than relying completely on the Sony NV-U 50, and it helps if there is more than one person in the car as someone who is driving needs to concentrate on the road rather than the monitor/ reprogramming etc.

If you're used to driving in northern France and in Ireland then this is a good product for you as it extends it's range to these areas. The aesthetic appearance of the product is pleasing to the eye and looks modern and smart with ... more

Gadgets are not something i'm particularly au-fait with but this was bought for my partner recently and was fairly easy to install in the car that we both use (you attach it via suckers). First and foremost, the price of this product seems to differ quite a bit wherever you look for it and as it was a gift i'm not sure where it came from but it was around the £200 mark which i was slightly gobsmacked at.

Satellite navigation systems seem to be popular at the moment so i'm quite sure there are cheaper ones on the market that do the same job. What do i base this opinion on? Well the first hitch we hit was when visiting my relative who lives in a totally new area to us and has five digits in her postcode. The Sony NV-U 50 only allows you to input four digits into the display (via a rather nifty touch screen i might add) which was incredibly annoying and whilst we could use the device for some of the way by inputting area names and then street names, we had to resort to the traditional map reading and as i was in the passenger seat, my boyfriend found this to be the most annoying of all! (I am terrible at reading maps). The maximum number of postcode digits you can input is 4.

Another downside to the product is that despite it being quite new on the market, some of the maps on the screen are not up to date- this doesn't cause any really problem but at £200 you'd expect more research to be done. For example a field was shown on the map where a housing estate was built, and a couple of roundabouts were not indicated. Yet whilst improvising may seem annoying in a new area, the sat-nav has a very fast recalculation time in order to locate where you are and how to get to where you want to be- we found this impressive.

Less impressive however was that whilst the voice commands (projected by a female voice) would indicate the new command such as "now turn left at...", the screen would remain the same so you are effectively driving 'blind' as you have no map. But isn't this what we all do without a sat-nav anyway? Like a computer that's crashed, you have to turn the gadget off and then on again. My advice is to take a hard-copy map rather than relying completely on the Sony NV-U 50, and it helps if there is more than one person in the car as someone who is driving needs to concentrate on the road rather than the monitor/ reprogramming etc.

If you're used to driving in northern France and in Ireland then this is a good product for you as it extends it's range to these areas. The aesthetic appearance of the product is pleasing to the eye and looks modern and smart with a bright screen; it comes with a storage pouch and an instruction manual which is not very detailed but you can learn to use it by trial and error- i've never met a person yet that has read an instruction manual from start to finish before having a dabble.

It is possible to buy updates to the software and in our experience more information is included on the CD than in the manual. If you purchase this and expect to use it straight away, think again. You cannot programme the device until it has been left in your car for twenty minutes to locate the 3 GPS points needed to calculate your journeys.

I'm torn on how to rate this product because it is the first of its kind that i've used therefore i cannot compare it to others on the market. However, i do believe that it is very expensive for what it is and i'm sure a more user-friendly device could be bought for a cheaper price. Something tells me this has been designed with 'label junkies' in mind so be warned, just because it's Sony doesn't mean it's flaw-free. On the other hand, it makes an excellent tool when teamed with a map, but should not be thought of as a substitute for such, especially if you're embarking on a long journey.

I will include the spec which is rather impressive but for many journeys i personally will stick to online routeplanners and print them off before i go, which may horrify gadget lovers.

• Over 75,000 Points of Interest including Restaurants, Accommodation, Entertainment, Petrol Stations, Parking and Sports
• 512MB Built-In Flash Memory
• Plug and Play
• Built-In Lithium-Ion Battery with 4 hours operating time
• Optional TMC (Traffic Message Channel) with dynamic re-routing (via RDS-TMC receiver Cradle)
  * 2-Way Separate Speaker System
  * 3.5" Touch Screen Graphic User Interface
  * Speaks: English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Greek, Flemish
  * 2D and 3D Map Display Mode
  * Navteq Map Data installed
  * Voice Guidance
  * Personal GPS Navigation System
  * UK & Republic of Ireland + partial France map coverage
   

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