All Electronics Feeds

Navman S90i

Rob Mead — 1209741860

When we asked Navman to put up a satnav for our three-way test against the TomTom Go 920 T and Garmin nuvi 770, the Navman S90i was its obvious answer - all three products are the flagship models of their respective brands. And the home-grown Navman has some neat aces up its sleeve.

The most obvious of these, of course, is the Navman S90i’s built-in 2-megapixel digital still camera, a feature both of its rivals lack. That’s because Navman is keen to tout NavPix - a unique photo sharing site that enables Navman satnav users to see real pictures of potential destinations that have been uploaded by other members.

While we’re sceptical about the real value of some add-ons for satnavs (MP3 playback, for example), sharing pictures of places you’ve visited does make some sense. Imagine being able to match the building, street or landmark you can see through the windscreen in front of you, with photos of that location downloaded from NavPix to your Navman - it should reassure you that you’ve arrived in the right place.

Geotagging

It has other obvious benefits too - relatives can send you pictures of their new homes so you can go to visit them, and you’ll be able snap pictures of hazards like low bridges, fords, etc that you can share with other drivers.

You can, of course, view pictures on many other satnav systems - including those from TomTom and Garmin - but Navman has really made this feature its own.

Another benefit is geo-tagging. Every picture you take automatically has GPS reference information added to its metadata - enabling you and others to drive directly to that destination. Navman gives the example of tourist destinations like the Eiffel Tower or the Tower Of London - everyone knows what they look like, but geo-tagged photos will actually help you drive there. Navman is ahead of the curve in this respect.

The rest of the Navman S90i’s features are more prosaic. Like its rivals, the S90i features UK and European maps supplied by TeleAtlas, built-in Traffic Message Channel data (with a free subscription for the lifetime of the product), Points Of Interest (POI) data and Bluetooth for use with mobile phones and so on.

Navman bulks up

We’re not sure whether the built-in camera is to blame, but the Navman S90i is considerably chunkier than either the TomTom Go 920 T or the Garmin Nuvi 770. It has a much wider bezel around its 4.3-inch widescreen display than either of its rivals and is also considerably thicker than both.

On the top sit the power and camera buttons, the left side has sockets for an external aerial, microphone and headphones, while the bottom houses the USB / power socket and an SD card slot.

The camera lens can be found on the back - along with S90i’s built-in speaker - where it's protected by a sliding cover that you can easily flick open and close with a thumb. The problem is it’s almost too effortless, making it easy to fire the camera when you don’t want it to - like when you’re trying to get the Navman S90i on to its widescreen mount, for example.

Using the S90i

This in turn reveals another problem. The widescreen mount is fiddly to use - you have to slide the mount into a groove on the back of the Navman S90i, but not without first securely slotting the USB power cord into its own grooves on the windscreen mount. It took us a couple of goes to get this right - we only realised first time when the power on the unit suddenly gave out on our test route, the S90i gave us no indication that it was running only on batteries until it was too late.

Even when you do make sure everything is hooked up properly, getting the Navman on to its windscreen mount is still a faff to do. Both Garmin and TomTom have much more elegant solutions, but at least the Navman stays glued to the screen once it’s setup - the widescreen mount is better than the one used by TomTom in this respect.

Fire it up for the first time and the Navman S90i immediately kicks you into street map view where it plots your current location. To set up your preferences you simply hit the slightly cryptic icon on the left of the menu bar. From then on you’re presented with three sub-menus / pages of icon buttons, enabling you to setup and access your favourite destinations, search for location by address or postcode, access your NavPix etc.

Emergency, emergency

The way the menus have been structured is a little strange though - the first page makes sense, the second page is headed up by NavPix with virtual buttons for finding your nearest petrol station or parking, and the third has buttons for SOS (local hospitals, police stations, etc), cash points and food.

Now we know NavPix is a crucial part of Navman’s worldview but you don’t really want to have to sail past that before you get to sub-menu three and the SOS button, surely? ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t stop you from bleeding to death, but I have taken some nice pictures of the gaping wound in your chest.’ OK, we’ve exaggerated a bit, but you get the point.

Although the main menu system is simple enough, a couple of other things grate - it’s all very grey and bland with some fairly hideous icons. Other bits are cumbersome to navigate: having to select a country every time you want to find a POI gets old pretty quickly, as does the resulting long and very grey list which you scroll through using icky up/down menu buttons.

The Points Of Interest test

The Navman S90i also failed our Points Of Interest test. We wanted to find a very popular tourist landmark (a city zoo) deep in the heart of Bristol, but it didn't exist on Navman’s maps. It’s not even listed as having a car park. Compare that to its rivals: the Garmin nuvi 770 found the zoo at the first attempt; the TomTom Go at least managed the car park. It could be an anomaly, but you expect it to be there. You almost start to wonder how good Navman's maps are likely to be.

On the road though it looks like we needn’t have worried. The Navman got us around our test route with nary a glitch, even if some of the slightly barking voice commands did get a bit wearing after a while. At least like the Garmin nuvi 770, the Navman S90i has the decency to tell us which roads to turn into - eg ‘turn left into Smith Street’ rather than the more generic commands served up by TomTom.

It also appears to present a more detailed view of the road ahead a la Garmin - or it could be that its largely grey presentation seems just a tad more ovewhelming than either the Garmin nuvi 770 or TomTom Go 920 T.

The Navman S90i is also the only one of the three systems we looked at that is resolutely Windows only when it comes fetching updates from a Mac or PC. The software is easy to use. However we think Navman could do with expanding its horizons a bit here.

We think you can see what conclusion we’re coming to. There are certainly some things we like about the Navman S90i - it's easy to use and it does a decent job of getting you from A to B, and it's cheap compared to its rivals, but it is competent, rather than awe-inspiring. What it lacks - aside from NavPix - is any real flair or leap of imagination over its rivals. For many the benefit of a built-in camera or even NavPix functionality per se - won't be enough to convince them otherwise.

Garmin nuvi 770

Rob Mead — 1209722992

Garmin plays second (or even third) fiddle to TomTom when it comes to satnav in the UK and it’s hard to see why. The nuvi 770 competes head-to-head against TomTom’s flagship 920 T and it’s just as worthy of pole position.

The immediate thing you notice about the Garmin nuvi 770 is how slim it is, despite the fact that it has the same size screen as its TomTom Go 920 T rival. Its skinniness can’t readily be explained by a lack of features either - it also has a built-in speaker, Bluetooth, SD memory card slot and a USB mini-jack connector so you can hook the device up to a PC or Mac.

The user interface is a blast. You’re presented with just two options when you switch it on for the first time - on the left is a magnifying glass with a simple ‘where to’ caption. On the right are map and system setup options. Garmin carries on with this simple approach throughout its UI - you never feel bemused and confused like you can be with TomTom’s ever lengthening feature list - and you’re really only a couple of virtual button presses away from where you want to be.

You’ll also notice that the Garmin’s screen is much, much brighter than that of the TomTom Go 920 T: a genuine advantage when it comes to using - and seeing - the screen on bright, sunny days.

Proper Points Of Interest

As you’d expect from the price tag, European and North American country maps from Navteq are included, as are a very long list of Points Of Interest, many of which are genuinely useful. Want to find a decent country pub where you can take your mum / wife / mistress to lunch, your nearest hospital, petrol station or cashpoint? You’ll find it all here. Naturally you can also buy additional maps for other countries, which are supplied on micro SD / SD memory card from £50 to £250 a pop.

One of the big differences between this Garmin satnav and its rivals is that the nuvi 770 also includes off-road route mapping, handy if you like to, erm, off-road. The idea is to get you from point on road A to point on road B across country, suiting both casual Chelsea tractor drivers and serious off-road adventurers. We also like the fact that Garmin has teamed up with MAD Maps to direct you to your destination along scenic routes too. The nuvi 770 even includes a currency converter and a phrase book for trips abroad, again with the option to add others.

Out on the road, the nuvi 770 does a sterling job, getting us around our test route with zero fuss. The high level of detail on Navteq’s maps is also very useful, although it can be daunting at you’re used to the less detailed 2D or 3D drawings served up by TomTom personal navigation devices.

The voice of reason?

Our only real criticism is that the Garmin’s default voices aren’t quite so comforting as those served up by TomTom. The nuvi 770 has a slight tendency to bark orders at you, rather than gently suggest them. The default voice is rendered in a digitised slightly mechanical way at times a "you... are... approaching... your... destination" type way. Luckily there are plenty of other voices to choose from as standard, although there’s nothing any of them can do with the disappointing speech synthesiser.

Garmin scores over TomTom in another respect however - it actually gives you the name of the road you are turning into - eg ‘turn right on to the high street’ rather than the more generic ‘turn right’ or, worse still, ‘turn right on to the A-one-hundred-and-twenty-seven’ - one of TomTom’s bigger sins.

The nuvi 770’s Points Of Interest (POI) data is also better than that of the TomTom Go 920 T, which we also tested. The nüvi 770 had no problem finding the popular tourist destination of Bristol Zoo Gardens in a suburb of that city. The closest the TomTom Go 920 T got was its car park - and it only gave us that after a speculative name search - this is due no doubt to the fact that the Garmin nuvi 770 comes with highly-detailed City Navigator NT maps built-in.

Like the TomTo Go 920 T, the nuvi 770 also includes Traffic Message Channel (TMC) data to help you avoid jams, plus fixed and mobile speed camera alerts from Cyclops. Both are offered on a 30-day trial basis initially - you’ll have to stump up for a sub if you decide to keep using them.

And that’s about it really. Having not played with nuvis for a little while we were surprised how well the nuvi 770 fared against our previous favourites from TomTom. The Garmin nuvi 770 looks classy, has a bright clear screen, is phenomenally easy to use and works really, really well. And although it boasts many of the same features at the TomTom Go 920 T, its user interface doesn’t feel over-burdened by them.

TomTom GO 920 T

Rob Mead — 1209642183

It’s hard to get away from the TomTom Go. It’s by far the most popular satnav device in the UK and is in hi-tech shouting distance of Apple’s ubiquitous iPod. Everyone seems to have one. But therein lies the rub.

For part of the reason TomTom posted an 83 per cent drop in profits this week is that most people who want a satnav probably have gone and bought one, and around half of them have plumped for a TomTom Go.

All TomTom can do now is defend itself against a growing number of rivals by dropping prices (it looks pretty secure on that score) and then keep adding features to persuade people who own older satnav devices to upgrade to the new one - features like music and photo playback that nearly every PND maker seems to have, but can’t adequately explain why.

Of the new ‘must-haves’ in the TomTom Go 920 T, MapShare sounds more interesting that most. It enables you to log any road layout of other changes on your device and then share them with other drivers via the TomTom Home 2.0 software you install your a PC or Mac.

Of course MapShare enables you to download changes logged by other drivers too, helping you ensure your maps are up-to-date while you wait for a major update from TomTom’s map supplier TeleAtlas.

Voice recognition

The other ‘big’ new features are more of a mixed bag. Like the TomTo Go 720 T, the 920 T also includes voice recognition software that enables you to bark commands at your TomTom, rather than enter them by hand.

It would be great if it worked as well as advertised but, like every other voice recognition system ever invented, the reality is it's a lot less certain to recognise your well-rounded vowels, forcing you to eventually abandon the idea. Like the 720 T, the 920 T also includes text-to-speech so you can hear text messages sent to your mobile phone, without having to pull over and read them.

Luckily TomTom’s strengths continue to shine through - it's beautifully made with a large wide, touchscreen display and a body that’s finished in rubberised plastic. Navigating (ahem) your way around the interface is generally a breeze - something’s that always marked TomTom's Go series out when compared to its rivals. All you have to do to set off on your way is hit the Navigate To soft-button, pick your Home address, recent destination, postcode or a point of interest and you’re off.

On the road, the TomTom Go 920 T gives beautifully clear instructions (bestowed on your ears by the silky-voiced default Kate) with a real-time map showing where you’re at, how fast you're travelling, and how far you need to go.

The display proved just about bright enough for us to make out the maps in the spring sun (with the brightest setting turned to the max), although we hope next-gen TomTom’s will include LED backlighting to make the experience an even better one in future. Maps for the whole of Europe, the USA, Canada and many other countries are included for the price.

Points of Interest?

Delve into the TomTom Go 920 T’s menus and things can get a lot more involved than that, of course. You can set your own itineraries, plot alternative routes - handy if the one you originally picked is closed or blocked by traffic - and find your way to designated Points of Interest (POI).

Now we have to say that POIs have never been TomTom’s strong suit. It’s far too reliant on fast food chains when it comes to finding restaurants in your vicinity for example, and isn’t great at finding tourist destinations. For instance a search for zoos in the Bristol area says the nearest one is 22.5 miles away when a) there’s one in the city centre suburb of Clifton, and b) there's another just a couple of miles away from that. Searching for the POI by name reveals that our non-existent city centre zoo has a car park.

Going someway to make amends is a new Help Me! function in the TomTom which automatically directs you to your nearest police station, fire station, doctors, hospital, etc - handy in the event of an emergency. You can also use the TomTom Home software to download POIs submitted by other drivers. Want to take your date out for dinner in Derby? Someone will probably have recommended a place you can go see. It would be nice if this functionality was included by default however.

The cost of ownership

The other downer, of course, is that forking out over £290 for a TomTom Go 920 T isn’t the last time you’ll be called on to fetch your wallet from your pocket for the device. You’ll also have to take out annual subscriptions for speed camera updates, traffic, weather... the list goes on. TomTom isn't alone in this, of course - rivals like Garmin also charge for extra services and updated maps too.

We’re also less than enamoured by another Apple-esque trait - making you pay for accessories that used to be included by default in the box. You’d expect that for £350 the 920 T would also come with some kind of case to protect your investment when it’s away from the car. Not so. You do get a USB docking station, for synchronising with your PC however - something older models never had.

Another thing we’d definitely change is the TomTom Go 920 T’s windscreen mount. Users on the web complain that the mount often falls off - something we experienced at least three times during our test. Thankfully the 920 T escaped unscathed - but it didn't do much for our concentration.

One solution is to clean the inside of your windscreen thoroughly every time you attach the mount, but that’s not very practical; we prefer the mounts TomTom used to ship for devices, like the TomTom Go 700. These were more substantial affairs that locked solidly onto the screen - although even these were prone to leaving the plastic sucker on your car window when trying to prise it off at the end of your journey.

So should you buy the TomTom Go 920 T? Well that depends on a) how often you plan to drive to California, and b) whether you’ve lost, broken or got bored of your existing satnav already. For most of us the answer is likely to be a) never and b) no. For the rest, the TomTom Go 920 T builds incrementally on what has gone before - and that is a good thing if getting from A to B is your top priority - all of TomTom’s Go products deliver very good results.

We feel that features like MapShare and text-to-speech are genuine must-haves, and fill neat gaps in the TomTom’s largely flawless delivery.

If the company can solve the other minor issues we’ve raised here, then its next-gen products (available this summer) could prove unassailable. From what we’ve seen from the 920 T, TomTom is very nearly there.

iTrip Auto SmartScan

1208859627

We're not going to beat around the bush: this update to Griffin's iTrip is the best in-car FM transmitter for iPods and iPhones that we know of. It blew us away with some excellent qualities.

The best feature is SmartScan, a one-button scanning feature that scans the airwaves and saves the three clearest results as preset channels.

This is a great time-saver; just press the preset option and take your pick from the three open signals.

Strong signal

A bright and friendly white-on-black LED display is on hand to help, and a very simple menu system controlled by three buttons is headache-free to operate.

Equally impressive is the signal strength, which was enough to strongly overlay Radio 1's 99.5FM signal. This means you won't have to flick channels to get a better reception.

The price is high, but the quality is undeniable. If you're in the market for kit to broadcast your iPod to your in-car radio, then look no further.

Solar Technology Free Loader

1208621133

Enough sunlight falls onto Britain in less than 45 minutes to supply the nation's energy needs for an entire year.

We're generations away from being able to tap into a significant part of that, so a little bit of free electricity always appeals.

The bad news sets in almost immediately. You can't charge devices directly - the solar panels can't deliver a charge fast enough, apparently - and so you first have to charge the Free Loader's internal battery, then dump that power to your device.

A struggle to charge

Next, charging times. You can charge it over USB - fast enough to be usable - but charging using the power of the sun takes much longer.

The manual says that a day in full sun is enough to charge the battery, but this triples when you keep it behind glass, whose UV filters cut down the potential energy, and you have to contend with cloudy days, too.

Unlike charging over USB, there's no way to know when the battery is charged. Three different LEDs light and change colour to inform you of charging status, but the system is rather clunky.

Use with your iPhone

A fully charged battery is able to supply a fair bit of power; it charged an iPhone halfway, giving 2 hours, 20 mins of talk time.

It includes charging adaptors for the iPod (up to 60GB), Nintendo DS Lite, LG Chocolate series, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson mobiles, the PSP, Tom Tom and digital cameras, and anything that charges over USB; extra connection tips are available.

After a full week of charging on a windowsill in early spring, it was only juiced up enough to provide 50 minutes of iPhone talk time. Remember, though, that the iPhone is a complex beast; a little entry-level Nokia would probably get more.

The Free Loader, then, is cheap enough for it to be a handy source of emergency power on your car's dashboard, but don't expect to sever your connection to the national grid.

Tsunami e-DATA 2500

1208602521

The hard disk in a MacBook is easy to replace, but what do you do with the old drive?

Rather than sell it on eBay or throw it away, you can buy a cheap enclosure and suddenly you've gained an extra portable drive.

This model from Tsunami looks sharp, and while the industrial design may not be to all tastes, the screws are easy to access.

They can get snagged and the controller board adds bulk, but it's handy if you need to swap disks around with any frequency. This makes installation a breeze, while two blue LEDs shine through the transparent case to display power and activity.

A versatile drive

Annoyingly, however, the e-DATA 2500 was a bit choosy about what USB cables it used.

Supplied with a double-headed cable, it was happy to bus-power with just one plug connected, but refused to mount with other cables.

It's cheap, easy to use and looks the part, though, so it gets our thumbs up.

Gear4 IceBox

1208342050

To protect iPhones, Apple decided to use glass screens instead of the usual iPod plastic, so scratch-resistant cases and sleeves such as this IceBox from Gear4 are a hard sell.

The IceBox wraps an iPhone in hard plastic but provides easy access to the controls and ports. There is nothing about the design that interferes with the iPhone controls; you can easily command the touchscreen through the plastic sheath.

A tight squeeze

One problem with the IceBox is the quality of the fit. It took a good few attempts and a bit of chin-scratching to make the case close properly around the iPhone. The lack of a gap between the sliding shoe and the iPhone body means a tight fit.

Even when properly aligned the case still doesn't sit quite flush, with one half of the design protruding a lip over the other. It's only one millimetre or so of raised plastic, but you can feel the edge.

The price is low, as with all Gear4 releases, but the quality isn't top-notch, which makes this a budget offering, at best.

HP iPAQ 314 Travel Companion

1208172039

With a slim design and rounded edges, the iPAQ 314 Travel Companion (£246 inc. VAT) slips easily into the pocket.

The 4.3-inch display has a resolution of 800 x 400 pixels, and offers a sharper picture than most of its rivals. It's bright enough to use even in direct sunlight, and colours are vibrant and accurate.

Functions are carried out using on-screen menus and buttons, with only a couple of hardware keys for power and volume settings.

Clear screen

Unlike many satellite navigation devices, the screen is mostly clear from buttons when on the move. However, a host of secondary buttons appear when you tap the screen.

This is ideal, as it allows a good level of control without compromising map space. The on-screen keypad is large enough for comfortable use, but the numbers are on a separate screen.

The iPAQ accepts full postcodes, but it requires a space to be entered in the middle. The mapping is clear and concise with a variety of 2D and 3D viewpoints available. A night mode switches the maps to darker colours, reducing reflections.

As well as highlighting over ten million POIs (Points of Interest), the Travel Companion includes 3D images of the most famous landmarks.

Weak speaker

The GPS chip is a SiRF Star III - the fastest and most accurate adapter currently available. We found satellites were located rapidly, and the iPAQ was quick to re-route us if we took a wrong turning.

The speaker on the rear of the device is small though, and on our review unit was not loud enough to be heard in faster driving conditions.

Bluetooth is built-in, letting you use the Travel Companion as a hands free kit for your mobile phone. However, the poor quality speaker made this function next to useless.

The excellent screen, clear mapping and neat styling help the iPAQ Travel to impress, but those wanting audible directions to accompany the visual ones should avoid this device until the sound quality is improved.

Gear4 Airzone FM dock

1207475326

This FM transmitter is an update to Gear4's previous Airzone transmitter.

It's kept its low price and has done away with the need for an AAA battery, running instead on the iPod's power. Unfortunately a charging cable doesn't come in the box, but one is available as an optional extra.

Radio for your iPod

The signal strength and ease of tuning were both acceptable. You get four preset channels, down from six on its predecessor, but a better LED display.

Critically, the dial moves in increments of 0.1MHz so you can get a precise frequency. It will also broadcast a signal on any frequency from 87.6 to 107.9, which means you can avoid radio station chatter by tuning the signal below the UK's 88.1 FM radio spectrum starting point, if you car or home stereo allows.

You can also beam the iPod signal to your hi-fi, thereby turning the iPod into a remote.

Build quality could be improved but generally we liked it.

Carl Zeiss Cinemizer

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The Carl Zeiss Cinemizer displays a 640x480 resolution and works with an iPod dock and a range of sliding trays to cradle your iPod or iPhone and lock it into a Universal Dock Connector.

The power button is small, fiddly and off to one side, and the earpieces slide out under the bars that go over your ears to rest on, but not in, your ears. A wired remote on the connecting cable gives you basic volume and browsing controls.

Pair with your iPod

Next to the twin viewfinders are focusing wheels that adjust for near- and far-sighted wearers. Image quality is acceptable, but contrast levels need some sharpening. Sound is a weaker point.

Without the preferable in-ear cup, you’ll need to crank the volume to hide engine rumble on aeroplanes. The Cinemizer is not built to work with the iPhone, but it will.

When you dock an iPhone, Apple’s über-gadget tells you the two aren’t compatible. Ignore and proceed. Go into your iPhone’s Settings and select Airplane mode to turn off network interference, then you’re off!

Watch videos in 3D

The Cinemizer will display any video the iPod can display, so on an iPhone or iPod touch that means any web content they would normally recognise, and iTunes content, too.

We watched YouTube content and shows we had recorded from TV and exported to our iPod. David Attenborough’s Life in the Freezer played back well. The goggles have a 3D mode that cleverly splices and rejoins specially produced 3D content.

We observed this working well, but this type of content is rare and, we suspect, offers niche appeal. The image covers your central, but not peripheral vision. You can still see daylight above and below the goggles, so a visor would be helpful.

Borg fears aside, we like these. They will appeal to people who like watching video alone, and they offer great build quality. UK pricing and distribution will be announced soon.