Navigon 8100T

Navigon 8100T is a bit of a departure from the company's other portable navigation systems as far as its design. It sports a silver brushed metal finish rather than the typical black plastic casing, giving the GPS a more sophisticated look and quality build to match its high end feature list. Navigon 8100T is slightly on the larger and heavier side, at 5.3 inches wide by 3.3. inches tall by 0.9 inch deep and 9.4 ounces, but there's a good reason for the bigger size. The reason is that Navigon 8100T features an extra wide, 4.8 inch touch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Most of today's GPS devices sport 4.3 inch displays, but Navigon added the extra screen real estate to complement Navigon 8100T's Panorama View 3D, which we'll talk about in the Features section. In general, maps and text look clear and bright. You can choose between day and night map colors or set it to automatic so the system will switch it for you based on the time of day. Navigon 8100T's user interface is like other Navigon products : fairly easy to use, but not as intuitive or simple as a TomTom or Garmin.

The on screen keyboard is large enough that you should be able to input addresses without too many mispresses. That said, we're disappointed that there's still no QWERTY format option, but even more frustrating is the system's sluggishness, which affected the address entry process. We'd input letters, but they wouldn't appear for a couple of seconds, or we'd try to delete a letter, but since the system wasn't quick to respond, we thought our touch didn't register and ended up tapping the back button multiple times and inadvertently erasing everything.

Aside from the touch screen, the GPS does have some tactile controls. On the left side, there's a back key, a mute button, and an external antenna jack; there is a 3.5mm headphone jack and external volume controls on the right side, which we always appreciate since then you don't have to dig through menus to adjust the volume. The top of the unit holds the SD expansion slot and the power button. A mini USB port and reset hole are on the bottom, but be aware that when you're using the car charger, you need to plug it into the mini USB port on the vehicle mount and not the one on the unit.

Navigon 8100T comes packaged with a car charger, a vehicle mount, an SD card preloaded with maps and points of interest, a soft protective pouch, and reference material. Navigon's Web site states that Navigon 8100T comes with an adhesive disc for the dashboard, but our sales package didn't include one. The company reassured us that this was just a mistake and all others will ship with the accessory. The vehicle mount itself is similar to the one that ships with Navigon 7100. It consists of one long arm and a suction cup. It's quite modern looking and works well, but we still prefer the more traditional vehicle mounts, since they allow for more adjustments as far as placement and angles.

Features
Aside from the 3D panorama views, Navigon 8100T offers a feature list very similar to that of Navigon 7200T. The GPS is equipped with a SiRFStarIII GPS chip and comes with an SD card preloaded with maps of the United States and Canada and 5 million points of interest. To plan a trip, you can enter a location by specific address, point of interest, recent destination, user defined home, and so forth. You can also enter addresses via the voice command system. As with 7200T, you will have to read a short paragraph so the system can learn your voice.

It's also recommended you do this exercise in the car so the GPS can get the optimal settings for the environment. Unlike the Garmin Nuvi 880, the voice command system is limited to just address entry and can't be used for other tasks. Navigon 8100T can calculate routes in one of three ways fast, optimum, and short and gives you the option to allow or avoid highways and toll roads. There are also pedestrian and bicycle modes.

In addition, like most other Navigon products, Navigon 8100T offers free real time traffic updates for life, so you can know the traffic condition before hitting the road or you can find alternative routes if you happen to get caught in traffic. If there are any incidents along your route, you'll see a little exclamation point on your map screen (and hear an audible cue) and by tapping it, the 8100T will bring up a list of congested areas. You can select a specific incident and get more details on the problem or choose to ignore it.

The PND supports multi destination routing so you can add multiple stops to your trip or add waypoints on the fly. The points of interest (POI) database includes all the major categories, including gas stations, lodging, and ATMs. You can search for restaurants by cuisine type, and there are also specialized categories like golf courses, marinas, and museums. In addition, you can search for POI by Zagat Survey ratings and reviews it's available for hotels, night life, attractions, golf courses, and restaurants, and once you've selected your category, you can refine your search even more by top service, best buy, and so forth. Tapping the information icon on a business listing will then bring up specific ratings and reviews. You can then have it shown on a map or navigate to the POI from your current location.

Navigon 2000S

Navigon 2000S has a very simple design. The unit measures a petite 3.8 inches wide by 2.9 inches high by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 4.3 ounces. It's compact enough that you could fit it into a pants pocket or use it as a handheld navigator, and there is a pedestrian mode as well as a bicycle routing option. Be careful when transporting the system or using it outside of the car, as the portable navigation device has a plastic casing that feels like it could easily crack if it took a tumble.

On front, there is a 3.5 inch touch screen with a 320x240 pixel resolution. It's vibrant and sharp, and Navigon products have always had some of the better looking maps we've seen on other PNDs. You can adjust the brightness of the screen and choose between day or night map colors, though we recommend you just set it to automatic mode so you don't have to think about it. The touch screen is responsive, but we found the onscreen keyboard to be a bit cramped. Navigon 2000S has a feature called SmartSpeller that will bring up possible search results after you input a couple of letters, but even so, the smaller keyboard can lead to some mistakes.

There's also no option to switch it to QWERTY format, only ABC. The user interface of Navigon 2000S is similar to the company's other products. The Main Menu page presents four clear choices : New Destination, My Destinations, Take Me Home, and Show Map. There's also an Options menu at the bottom of the screen where you can adjust various settings, such as routing preferences and map displays. While the user experience is not as smooth or streamlined as Garmin or TomTom, it's still intuitive and general performance is snappy.

There's a microSD expansion slot on the left side, a reset hole on the right, and a mini USB port on the bottom. On top, you'll find a power button, but it's slightly wobbly and set deep beneath the device's surface, so it's a bit hard to press. Navigon 2000S comes packaged with a car charger, a vehicle mount (dashboard and windshield), and reference material. The car mount requires some assembly, but it's simple and the accessory securely held the unit in place during our road tests.

Features
Navigon 2000S is a good value, offering a lot of navigation features for the price. The system is equipped with a SiRF GRF3i+ GPS chip with InstantFix II and comes preloaded with Navteq maps of the lower 48 United States. Planning a trip can start in several ways. You can enter a specific address, select a favorite location or recent destination, or search for a certain point of interest. Navigon 2000S supports multidestination planning, so you can have more than one stop along your journey. The points of interest database includes all the major categories, including gas stations, lodging, and ATMs.

For certain POIs, there are also subcategories. For example, with restaurants, you can drill down further and find food by cuisine type, or you can search for shopping by type (book store, sporting goods, and so forth) or if it's a major corporation, by brand (for example, Best Buy, 7-Eleven, Safeway, or Walgreens). Navigon 2000S also has something called Direct Access, which gives you one touch access to four predefined categories (gas stations, parking and rest areas, restaurants, and lodging). Unlike Navigon 7100, however, the Zagat reviews and ratings aren't preloaded on the device, but you can purchase this as an additional service for $19.99.

Navigon 7200T

Like Navigon 2000S, Navigon 7200T features a slightly new design with a black matte casing rather than the lacquered finish of the company's previous models. It still keeps the compact size, measuring 4.6 inches wide by 3.2 inches tall by 0.7 inch deep and weighing 6.5 ounces, so you can use it in multiple cars or take it with you on vacations for use with rental cars. Navigon 7200T's display is slightly different from the company's other models. The screen is completely flat and doesn't have a beveled edge, so it gives the GPS a more sophisticated and streamlined look.

The display measures 4.3 inches diagonally and is sharp and bright, making it easy to view maps. The touch screen is also more responsive than other Navigon units we've tested in the past. The on screen keyboard is slightly larger than Navigon 7100, so address entry was easier and more accurate. Also, the GPS features predictive text, so as you enter letters, it will automatically bring up possible result matches. Unfortunately, you only have the option of an ABC formatted keyboard and not a QWERTY one. The user interface is pretty intuitive.

From the start menu , you have four main options : New Destination, My Destinations, Take Me Home, and Voice Entry. As we've noted in our other reviews, the Navigon interface isn't quite as clean or easy as a TomTom or Garmin GPS. For example, if you simply want to go to the map screen, you have to tap Options first and then Show Map, whereas the other systems have direct shortcuts. The extra steps required on Navigon 7200T, but it definitely made us appreciate the simplified interface of the other units.

There's a power button on top of the unit, while there's a microSD expansion slot, a reset hole, a mini USB port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom. Finally, there's an external antenna jack on the back. Navigon 7200T comes packaged with a car charger, a vehicle mount (windshield and dashboard), a software CD, and reference material. The car mount is slightly different than the ones that shipped with previous Navigon units. It consists of a disc that attaches to the back of the GPS, and that piece connects to the arm of the mount. There's a bit of assembly required, but it's quite easy. What's difficult is removing the unit from the disc; there's a little release lever at the bottom, but we still had problems. The good news is the mount securely held Navigon 7200T in place during our road tests.

Features
Navigon 7200T includes maps of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. To plan a trip, you can enter a location by specific address, point of interest, recent destination, user defined home, and so forth. Of course, the big news is that you can enter addresses by voice. When you first use the voice command system, you do a little test read in your car so the GPS can learn your voice and the environment in which you'll be using Navigon 7200T.

The first couple of times we used the voice entry system, the results weren't very accurate, but the more we used it, the better it got (check out the Performance section for more details). Unfortunately, unlike the Garmin Nuvi 880, the voice command system is limited to just address entry and can't be used for other tasks. Navigon 7200T can calculate routes in one of three ways fast, optimum, and short and gives you the option to allow or avoid highways and toll roads.

There are also pedestrian and bicycle modes. In addition, Navigon 7200T offers free real time traffic updates for life, so you can know the road condition before hitting the road or finding alternative routes if you happen to get caught in traffic. If there are any incidents along your route, you'll see a little exclamation point on your map screen (as well as get an audible cue) and by tapping it, it will bring up a list of congested areas. You can select a specific incident and get more details on the problem or choose to ignore it.

Pharos Traveler GPS 137

The GPS enabled smartphone offered the advantage of coming with its own navigation software and maps, which eliminated the need for fee based location services and a cellular connection. Unfortunately, the benefit of this was lost on the clunky software and the device's sluggish performance. We had higher hopes for Pharos Traveler 137. After all, the smartphone features a sleeker design with a full touch screen (perfect for viewing maps) as well as a faster processor and more memory.

In addition, it offers 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 5 megapixel camera. Sadly, Pharos Traveler GPS 137 also let us down with its inconsistent performance and navigation capabilities. The device could be extremely slow at times, and directions weren't always accurate, so it's really hard to justify paying $600 for the phone. If Pharos can make the performance improvements, the company could certainly give the competition a run for its money.

Pharos Traveler 137 is a sleek and attractive device, with a nice clean and streamlined design similar to other candybar style, touchscreen smartphones like the Samsung Omnia. The device measures 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide and 0.5 thick and weighs 4.9 ounces, so it's a pocketful but has a nice, solid construction and soft touch finish on back. The real attention grabber is Pharos Traveler GPS 137's display. It measures 3.5 inches diagonally and displays 65.000 colors at a sharp 480x800 pixel resolution.

Images and text looked extra clear and vibrant on the screen, and the larger display definitely made it easier to see and read maps compared to the Traveler 127. Adding to goodness, Pharos ships the smartphone with the Spb Mobile Shell 3.0, which provides a lot more information in a more user friendly and attractive interface than the standard Windows UI. The Spb Mobile Shell features three sliding panels the center panel and default home screen, features the mainstays, such as your calendar, messages, time, weather, and so forth, while swiping the touch screen to the left will bring up an Apps panel, and the right panel offers your multimedia features.

Along the bottom of every panel, you also get one touch access to a Favorites page of all your, you guessed it, favorite programs, a Contacts (also customizable by favorite contacts), a handful of Settings, and a button that lets you scroll through more panels in a 3D carousel view. To enter text into Pharos Traveler 137, there is an onscreen portrait and landscape QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is a bit cramped in portrait mode, but you can use the included stylus for more precision, and the keyboard provides haptic feedback. As a Windows Mobile device, you also get the older, more traditional input methods, such as Block Recognizer, Letter Recognizer, and Transcriber.