Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)In general, I am pretty good with navigation by myself, using only printed directions from Mapquest. I bought this unit mostly for my wife that has a lot of traveling this summer. It is our first GPS.
Of note - my unit had in the box a small cardboard with a sticker on it, that said it has Win CE 6.0 installed.
I previously had a chance to "lay my hands" on Nuvi 750. Pretty decent and very simple device. It was actually too simple for me. I then started looking for something that has more navigation options. All I cared about was navigation - I didn't take into account things like mp3, photo viewer, FM transmitter, bluetooth, nor even the speech recognition.
So we selected the Navigon 7200T, and for about $160 it was a very good deal, a lot cheaper than Garmins. Once it arrived, I disabled bluetooth and started testing it by letting it direct me to locations that I know well.
I live near Springfield, PA. First trip was to the PHL airport - I quickly figured, that the best route is calculated using "fast" profile. It took me the correct way out of the parking lot at the airport - unlike Nuvi. Then IKEA in Conshohocken, Port Richmond district in Phila, etc - the device was showing me routes that I would normally take. Best surprise was our recent trip to Staten Island, NY. Instead of my normal route: I95 to I76, through the Franklin bridge to NJ turnpike, it took us the other way to I476 and then I276 to NJ turnpike. It was truly the fastest route. Along the way it was *correctly* and *right on time* displaying traffic information about the jams on NJ turnpike. We got a little confused at the I476 to I276 intersection and took I276W instead of I276E - the unit immediately took us back on the right way.
On the "not so good" part - when we were approaching exits on the turnpike, the unit was displaying the lane guidance (very nice feature), but it was constantly telling us to "keep left", when we were supposed to pass the exit. It should be saying "keep straight" instead - gets a little used to. Another instance: we decided to take a break and have a coffee at Starbucks. Navigon nicely directed us to Starbucks at Exit 7 from NJ turnpike, but... there was Dunkin Donuts instead. Unfortunately we hate coffee from DD. And finally - a stressful moment was when we were going back home from SI, NY and we were to enter the I278. The main road we were on was turning left, and the ramp to I278 was straight ahead of us. The unit was silent - it didn't tell us to keep straight, nor to take the ramp. I had to look at the screen to find out where to go.
What I like about Navigon 7200T:
- Features (navigation) for the price - unbeatable for me
- Routing using "fast" profile is excellent
- Live traffic info - very helpful
- Nice screen showing POIs with brand icons
- Multitude of options and satisfactory level of complication - I hate overly simple stuff
- You can select which roads NOT to take when creating your route
- Making detour allows you to select what distance of your route is to be avoided.
- You can look up POIs in the upcoming exits on Interstates, or near your current location, and make a "stopover".
- Spoken directions (gets a little used to)
- Big buttons - easier to hit in a riding car, and a responsive touchscreen.
- Estimated arrival time is razor sharp.
What I like less:
- The unit sometimes doesn't tell you what it should (recalculating, keep straight, etc)
- It tells you to keep left on a highway instead of "keep straight"
- Navigon is gone from USA (not a big deal for me)
- Maps are from 2008. "Please Touch Museum" in Phila is in the wrong (old) location. Some stores in my neighborhood are shown with incorrect address (Oak Ave N instead of Oak Ave S).
- Battery life (even with bluetooth off) is less than 2h.
- Limited language and voice selection. There is only one English TTS voice (+ one French and one Spanish). Garmin had menu in Polish and a voice in Polish (not TTS though).
- No calculator nor unit converter (not a big deal also)
What I really don't like:
- You can't download POIs from internet, unless you buy "POI Warner" for 20 euro. On the other hand, that is an excellent application, but others have some of this features for free.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Navigon 7200T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigation (Factory Refurbished)
The ideal combination of style and substance, the Navigon 7200T delivers next generation features, such as Landmark View 3D, Free Traffic Updates for Life, Voice Destination Entry, and Reality View Pro, plus a plethora of useful and exclusive features found nowhere else.
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