No frills but good bang for the buck

I wanted a GPS for the car but I think they are a bit overpriced. This one popped up and the ONLY reason that I even looked at it was the price.

I have to say that I didn't think I'd find this unit very usable. I was worried about the screen size. I was worried about the sound quality. I was worried about the scroll wheel and the difficulty in entering data.

What I found after about a week of use is there is nothing to worry about.

Regarding the screen size, yes it's small but easily readable. It is easy to see the big arrows when you have to turn plus, when you're driving, your eyes are on the road (they better be!) and you have the voice instructions to guide you.

Surprisingly, the size of the unit is a good thing. I have used it in all of my cars and I love how portable it is. In my truck I stick it to the windshield above the rear view mirror. It fits quite nicely. It's easy to hide it away when you get to your destination. You don't want to advertise.

The sound quality is quite good and very easy to hear.

The scroll wheel worked very well and it is easy to enter data.

To get the price low, they left off several features of the more expensive units. What is nice is that the things they left off of it I think you can live without.

-Elevation is not displayed. I'm not sure if this comes on the more expensive units but it is standard on the GPS I use in my airplane and although it's handy when you're flying, it's just not needed on the ground. Look at a sign if you want elevation.

-It doesn't play mp3s. Well my iPod does and it does a very good job of it.

-There is not touch screen. I've never used a GPS with a touch screen. I guess that would be cool but the scroll wheel works just fine.

-You can't scroll the map manually. That is to say, if you want to look at a part of the city that is say 2 miles to your right you can't scroll over and take a look. OK, initially I thought that this was a bigger negative but I really don't need this feature.

-It displays the time of arrival in the navigate mode but it's often very optimistic.

Here are some cons that are more serious but overall bearable:

-It can take a while to find the satellites even if you haven't moved from your last location since the last shut down. I think the pricier units find themselves quicker. I know my airplane GPS can. If you turn the unit on, it can sometimes take 1-2 minutes to find itself. You are well on your way before it's ready to navigate. Of course you can't have it find any POIs (Points of Interest) if it doesn't know where it's at.

-Finding local POIs is pretty quick. Finding POIs out of the area is a drag. It really has a slow moving brain. So, if you're going to a place over say 100 miles away, it will take some time for it to weed through the data base. All you're left to look at is an hour glass.

-If you turn the unit on inside the house and you don't tell it that you're inside the house when it asks you, its brain really scrambles. I live in Northern California and did this very thing. It quickly thought I was off the Oregon coast, in a raft perhaps.

-The database is outdated...or not. What I mean is the database can show a restaurant that has been gone for years as currently open while it will also show one that has been opened for a year or less. Very strange. The good news is if you are in an unfamiliar place and you're hungry, even though that particular restaurant is no longer there, you're likely to find another in the same area.

-It doesn't show points of interest symbols on the maps. For instance, if you're not navigating somewhere, you won't know that there is a gas station on the next street over because there are no symbols to look at. The only way to find anything is to search. This actually is a feature that I wish it had.

OK, what's good about this thing? Here you go:

-It is amazingly accurate. It knows every little turn in the road and tells you about it. It has yet to route me incorrectly.

-Turn commands are given in ample time for you to actually make the turns. It first tells you how many miles before the next turn. Then at .2 miles it warns you, then tells you again just before the turn.

-When you decide to disregard its route it VERY quickly comes up with another one.

-High portability.

-When you're not navigating and in map mode, each cross street you come to is shown in a banner at the top of the screen.

-The direction of travel is shown in map mode and is very quickly updated in turns.

-The price! I found mine for $239 + shipping.

It has some features that I don't think are even mentioned in the manual such as:

-It shows main thoroughfares in yellow and highways in red. This is handy if you want a quick way to get through town.

-It has some sort of auto zoom that is linked to the vehicle's speed. I assume that this has more to do with keeping the map compatible with the unit's refresh rate but it is a cool feature none the less. When you're speeding along at 70 mph you're not interested in all the street details anyway. Now when a turn comes up at that speed I THINK the turn arrow gets bigger so that you can see it but I have yet to double check that feature.

Anyway, the bottom line is, this unit I think is adequate for the kind of navigating that most people do and although it has shortcomings, for the price, you can't beat it. I highly recommend it!