Customer Reviews

LG LN735 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just bought the LN735 navigator and am happy with it.

Pros:

1. Finds your location within seconds of turning it on.
2. The only time it loses its location is inside a tunnel.
3. Very nice display. Maps and fonts are very clear.
4. Calculates your route in a couple of seconds.
5. Does a nice and logical job of calculating the best route, most of the time.
6. Entering addresses is very easy.

Cons:

1. Battery life in the spec is 4 hours. I can only really get 2-3 hours out of it.
2. After it calculates your route, you can tell it to avoid a road, and it will recalculate a different way. BUT, you cannot detour a road that you are on. So if you are sitting in traffic on the highway, you cannot tell it to recalculate and completely avoid the road you are on.
3. For some reason, it like to calculate routes by getting you off of the highway as fast as possible and have you take more city streets. So, if it is a little farther to take the highway to your destination, but is quicker due to highway speeds, it will still route you through city streets, because it is shorter even though you would be moving at city speeds.
4. It does not remember the contrast setting. Every time you power it on, it is at full contrast, which doesn't help the already short battery life.
5. The volume of the voice is too low, even at full volume.

This is a very good unit, and you get a lot of useful features for the price.

I recently purchased the LN735 after comparing features with other brands (Garmin, TomTom, etc), and this was the only one I could find that had both U.S. AND Canada maps loaded (at this price) AND spoken street names AND SiRFstar III satellite navigation AND a touchscreen. Admittedly, this is my first GPS, but I am no stranger to computers and consumer electronics. I didn't buy the LN740 only because I really didn't need the larger display, nor the traffic calculation option/service. To be honest, I didn't need the MP3 player or picture viewer either, though I guess they are nice options for people who want them...

Just to address some of the other comments made about this unit, I have not experienced any of the software bugs mentioned in regard to navigation, though I did sync the unit up to my computer when I first got it and I reloaded the maps myself (but I have no idea if that made any kind of a difference). I took this unit from Connecticut to Canada (and back again), and had no problems with it. I lent it to my parents while we were in Canada so they could find a tavern in Toronto they were meeting friends at, and it got them there and back with absolutely no problems. I haven't experienced problems with volume or road noise either. I actually ended up turning the volume down all the way for most of my long trip because I didn't need the spoken directions, but when I did have it on, I could hear the voice commands no problem. I suppose some folks just happen to drive very noisy vehicles.

If there was anything I could change, it might be to add the ability to program in a specific route from origin to destination (which I assume that higher-end GPS's might allow) but the unit does allow you to exclude selected roads from your route, and it also quickly recalculates on-the-fly as you take different roads than those recommended, so its not like such an addition would be necessary, and just to address another comment someone made about how the unit chooses which roads to take, you cna switch between "fastest" route calculation and "shortest" route calculation, so it may have been a matter of simply choosing the other option in that case.
When I do go to Canada, I happen to take the same route every time, but there are a few exits that are easy to miss. Having the GPS made it much easier to determine where I was at any time and what the roads around me were. Knowing that if I take a wrong turn I won't get lost makes the driving much easier. What also helps is the strong SiRFstar III satellite connection. The instructions that come with the GPS recommend having the unit on the windshield or dash, and possibly to get an external antenna if one's heat-blocking windows interfere with the signal. Well, my Acura's heat-blocking windows didn't seem to affect the signal at all, and I also had the unit down in my front cup-holder (not recommended for safety reasons, by the way), and the signal was as strong as I could want it to be. Depending on satellite alignment at any given time, you *might* have to re-acquire a good signal when you first turn the unit on, but that's to be expected, and is no fault of the GPS itself.
I also found the "night mode" for the display extremely helpful, since in regular mode the display can mess with your night vision a bit.
If I had to suggest any "improvements" LG might make, it would be to remember one's display and volume settings, etc, and to skip the disclaimer that comes up whenever the unit is powered on. But these are minor annoyances, and given how much I paid for the unit, it's hard to complain.
Anyway, the touchscreen is easy to use, as are the buttons, the menus are simple enough to figure out and navigate, and its nice to be able to change the size of street names. The information on-screen while driving was complete (complete enough for me, anyway), and the compass heading was handy (but expected). Battery life only really matters when you don't have the unit attached via car lighter adapter to your vehicle's DC power, and most people don't purchase this kind of GPS for extended walking around anyway, so 3 hours' battery life seems adequate to me.

In all, I feel that I got a great deal for the money I paid, and I haven't experienced any of the problems others have complained about--if I had, I would have followed up with the warranty service, or at least tried exchanging the unit for another; ANY product is susceptible to a lemon here or there. So far, I haven't had any problems with any of the LG products I've puchased. So, take that for what it's worth.

I purchased this recently mainly because of the price and features. I was very happily surprised. It is a solid performer. I have no complaints. It locates me in seconds and routes and re-routes me quickly. It does repeat directions sometimes right before I have to exit, but more than once, it was necessary because I almost missed those exits (how did it know???). I would gladly recommend this to anyone interested in it. I've have a $2000 pioneer navigation system (loved it), i've used hertz never lost many times (never lost really sucks), I've used a usb gps antenna attached to my computer (cheap, but awkward). This LG unit is great. the battery lasts a long time so, often, i just don't plug it in. when i want to take the unit with me I just stick it my pocket. It's slim and easy to carry.
One thing I wouldn't mind is a more intelligent POI system. If I'm going towards a certain direction, I'd like to know the POI's in that direction, not just the closest ones near me. but i hardly use the POI function.

I was excited when I first saw the new LG LN735. If it works it would be the lowest price unit on the market that does street name announcements along with some other ammenities that you usually only see in much more expensive units.

Sadly, we took the unit out of the box and gave it a try in my Lexus on the way home. The lexus is a very quiet car, but even with the AC and Radio off, the volumne on the ln735 was so weak that with any road noise at all you couldnt hear the instructions from the unit. I am buying this unit as a gift for my son who owns a Toyota 4x4, which is a much noisier vehicle, so this is a real show stopper.

I decided to give it a few more days trial, but on the second day it started repeating the same announcements over and over - "left turn ahead left turn ahead left turn ahead" you get the picture. So I had to push the little reboot button. After that, it calculated really strange routes - like asking you to turn left when you knew the place you wanted to go was right. The following morning it stopped announciating the street names and missed announcing all of the road splits. Pushing the reboot button didnt fix it so I called tech support. They stepped me through checking the obvious system settings and tried a reboot. Nothing seemed to fix it so I finally put it in the box and sent it back. I will order the Magellan Maestro 3140 in the morning.

I have read numerous other reviews complaining about bugs in the microcode so I have to conclude that this problem is more prevalent than my just getting a faulty unit.

This is a nice little unit that does the job, but has some odd quirks. The text-to-speech engine is generally good but will sometimes hilariously mangle street names. Not just long complicated ones like you'd expect, but relatively mundane names as well. The list of Points of Interest is incomplete - some major chains of restaurants simply don't exist to it, yet tiny hole-in-the-wall establishments are constantly found. The British voice sounds much nicer to my ears than the default American one, but for some reason will not read street names at all. And so on - nothing deal breaking, just odd and mystifying.

Yet for all that its pathfinding seems excellent, it's very accurate and I have no major complaints. It's good at the essentials, but once you get past that the extras are almost bafflingly quirky. I would only recommend this unit to those who find an unbeatable deal and are fully aware of its oddities.

I purchased this product last August (8/6/07) and it has not operated properly since. It frequently freezes and many times does not even begin working. I continuously have to press the reset button to get it to unfreeze and then it doesn't start up again. This has been the most unreliable item I've ever owned.

(Also, what's up with Amazon asking for your credit card info to write a product review? Shady.)

Update: After contacting the manufacturer and convincing them to fix it with out me having to pay them (they wanted me to pay for the repair), it has worked great ever since. The only negative is that it has to be constantly plugged in cause the battery dies so fast.

As of today our family has 4 of these. We've been all over the country with it and as with any GPS there is a Map mistake from time to time, but we have never been lost with it. It's all in what you get used to. Our friends had a Garmen on a trip south and we had the LG, neither of us knew how to use the other as easily as our own. Overall it is a great unit. Of course there is some brand loyalty involved here too. All TV's, DVD's, and Cell Phones in our house are LG. I own what I sell and believe in.

I tried LG LN 735 from Southern California to San Francisco driving this summer with my wife.
The voice was so clear and nice in good timing.
Since I had tried Garmin on the same route before, I and my wife were so pleased with this LG product.
She drove around Los Angeles, where she was not familier at all because we are from Tampa, Florida. She told me this machine is the smartest she ever had.
We loved LG appliances at home and LG pleased us with this smart GPS with half price and much more functions than Garmin.
LG, keep bring on good products and save us money in the United States!

I have purchased LN735. It is what I really wanted to have.
The speech and the graphic are so clear to make me drive without any confusing. Most of all, the machine is very thin for easy-carrying. I can use it while I am taking a walk where I am not familiar with while I travel for fun or business. (but, the battery last max. 3 hours without recharging. It may be one defect that I found.)
However, I don't regret. I can highly recommend.

I returned this item because it could not be programed. It was preset for Hawaii and would not accept any destination in any other state.