Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 19 of 19

Thread: Looking for a portable sat nav, advices welcomed.

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Modena
    Posts
    9,826
    Seems like a good map, really.
    And the itinerary sound great.

    Stelvio's better side is east by the way. I'd fine a good excuse to drive back in case you accidentally forget something, so that you can skip the other side...
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

    *cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Modena
    Posts
    9,826
    Quote Originally Posted by culver View Post
    If at all possible try to get a chance to play with them in the store. There are two "features" I hate about the Tomtoms. The first is you can't quickly pan around on the map. With the Garmin if you want to manually pan the map you touch the screen then drag the map around. If you were in "route up" vs North up the unit will revert to north up. This can be a bit distracting if you aren't heading mostly north at the time. The Magellan was great. If you were heading south the screen kept "south up" as you panned around. It also, via the cross hairs on the screen, showed how far you had panned from your location. Both models zoomed in and out via buttons. The Garmin lost detail in panning mode which I hated but since the magellan lost detail rather quickly (secondary roads would vanish as you zoomed out... not great in the countryside) the Garmin still had more detail.

    The Tomtom was lousy in this regard. To pan you touched the screen. You then had to click next menu screen then the view map icon. In the view map mode the map was cropped on two sides. The zoom control was a slider that was clearly designed by someone who either hated Tomtom customers or perhaps Tomtom management. It sucks. It's VERY easy to either over or under shoot. Mine has no option for to zoom in just one step. I think they rectified this STUPID design flaw in later models. It's still an overly complex way to get to the map browser.

    The other big software dislike is that the Tomtom thinks it knows best when it comes to the level of zoom while driving. All the models zoom in when you are nearing a freeway interchange and zoom out afterwards. However, the Tomtom refuses to keep a manually set level of zoom (say 100km across the screen vs 20km). When I'm driving between towns I prefer the more zoomed out view. The TT not only won't let me stick with say 100km/screen but I can't zoom out any more than a rather limited level. I don't know the exact amount but the TT simply can't zoom out that much. For instance if I drive between two towns 400miles appear I want to zoom out to see the whole route. Too bad.

    The TT may have funny voices but it seems the design team didn't spend any time thinking about the user interface beyond having funny voices.
    LOL

    Thanks for the reviews, will keep them in mind at the store. I've indeed appreciated the pan option on the Garmin, simple and intuitive.
    And I do like to decide the level of zoom and, guess what, stick to it.
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

    *cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    nr Edinburgh, Whisky-soaked Scotland
    Posts
    27,775
    Quote Originally Posted by LeonOfTheDead View Post
    Seems like a good map, really.
    And the itinerary sound great.

    Stelvio's better side is east by the way. I'd fine a good excuse to drive back in case you accidentally forget something, so that you can skip the other side...
    Was intending to leave time to drive the pass couple of times each way

    CLoser to the time will be picking your brains for the more "out of the way" less well known motor places to visit
    "A woman without curves is like a road without bends, you might get to your destination quicker but the ride is boring as hell'

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Modena
    Posts
    9,826
    I'm probably going for the Garmin Nuvi 1350, found it at 120 € and gave it a try this afternoon.

    Garmin nuvi 1350 review | GPS Tracklog

    The device is pretty fast both while navigating through the menus and creating an itinerary. It was the faster unit to process the addresses I was typing in, seemingly displaying what I was typing while other units seemed to suffer some sort of an annoying lag.

    Lane Assist seems a feature I could really use, even more the gf. Too bad the enhanced version, called Junction View isn't available. To my understanding both features fail to help as they are not always available, though I guess that may have something to do with th accuracy of the map.

    Speaking of which, this offer a full enlarged European amp with some 40 or more countries, contrary to some other units with just Italy and Greece (vacation GPS I guess).

    I also found the Garmin's interface easier to use, even if I have to admit I already tried it in the past so I was quite accustomed with it.

    TT devices were priced over the proposed budget, or were simply providing features I wasn't interested into for a premium I wasn't willing to pay.
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

    *cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •